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The Times

November 18, 2006

'Robbers had tried to pray at mosque' before PC was shot

By Andrew Norfolk

PC Beshenivsky: murdered

ROBBERS went to say prayers at a mosque two hours before embarking on
an
armed raid that led to the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, a
court
was told yesterday.

Two members of the alleged murder gang went to a mosque in Leeds for
Friday
prayers but returned early to their safe house because they had missed
the
start of the service.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court has heard that the men were late
getting up
on the day of the robbery. Four had spent the previous night drinking
champagne and vodka before visiting a brothel.

Raza ul-Haq Aslam, who is accused of murder on the basis that he acted
as a
look-out during the raid at a Bradford travel agency, told the court
yesterday about the hours before PC Beshenivsky died and PC Teresa
Milburn
was injured.

The jury has heard that Mr Aslam was an employee of Caradon Estates, a
company paid by the Home Office to provide accommodation for
asylum-seekers.
One of its properties in Leeds became a temporary base for the men who
allegedly carried out the raid.

Mr Aslam, 25, said that he arrived at the house on the morning of
November
18 last year to find most of the occupants asleep. He said that he
later
washed himself in preparation for Friday prayers at about 1pm, but
Hassan
Razzaq and a man he knew as Uncle returned to the house and told him
that
the service at a nearby mosque had already started.

Mr Aslam said that he decided instead to pray in the house. He said
that he
had then planned to buy some food from a local shop but was persuaded
by
Faisal Razzaq, Hassan’s brother and another Caradon employee, to
drive with
him to Bradford to eat there.

Mr Aslam said that he and Faisal Razzaq travelled in one car and were
followed by another vehicle, carrying Muzzaker Shah and two Somali
brothers,
Yusuf and Mustaf Jama. The prosecution says that these were the three
robbers on their way to Universal Express. They are said to have tied
up its
employees before Shah shot the two officers as the trio escaped.

Mr Aslam said that when they arrived in Bradford, Faisal Razzaq
gestured to
indicate a road for the second car to turn into. He and Faisal Razzaq
parked
near by, and went for some lunch. Twenty minutes later they returned to
Faisal Razzaq’s car.

“There was a lot of police cars flying about the area. Faisal Razzaq
looked
a bit agitated,” Mr Aslam said. Five minutes after they returned to
the
house in Leeds, he said that Shah and the Jama brothers entered,
“shouting
and screaming. The loudest person was Muzzaker Shah. They were saying
thing
like ‘We effed up’.”

Mr Aslam said that Shah and the Jama brothers started shaving each
other’s
heads. They showered and he heard someone talking about burning their
clothes. He said he saw Shah produce “a wad of cash”, which he gave
to the
Jama brothers.

Questioned by Mukhtar Hussain, QC, for the defence, Mr Aslam said that
he
had discovered what had happened at the travel agency when he watched
the
news at home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, that evening.

He said that he telephoned Faisal Razzaq, who confirmed that the
robbery had
been committed by Shah and the Jamas brothers. Under cross-examination
by
Ben Nolan, QC, for Faisal Razzaq, Mr Aslam insisted that he had not
made any
mobile phone calls to assist with the robbery.

“I’m not part of Shah’s gang. Faisal Razzaq is. Please don’t
mix me up with
him,” he said. Three weeks after the robbery, Mr Aslam said that he
had told
a neighbour, a police officer, that he had information about the
shootings
and asked him what to do. The officer told him to telephone
Crimestoppers,
using a pseudonym. He made the call and contacted the incident room.
One
motive, Mr Aslam admitted, was the £100,000 reward that had been
offered.

Mr Aslam, Faisal Razzaq, 25, and Hassan Razzaq, 26, each deny charges
of
murder, robbery and four firearms offences. Yusuf Jama, 20, admits
robbery
and two firearms offences but denies murder and two further firearms
offences.

Shah has admitted murder, robbery and four firearms offences and will
be
sentenced at the end of the trial, which was adjourned until Monday.

Accessed 21 Dec 2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2458727,00.html

21 December 2006
The KGB's post-Soviet 'commercialization'

Russia today is honoring workers in the state security agencies - a professional holiday better known by its Soviet-era appellation, 'Chekists' Day' - as the legacy of the KGB grows increasingly commercial - and criminal.

By Victor Yasmann for RFE/RL (21/12/06)

The mysterious murder of former security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko is once again shedding light on how the Soviet-era KGB has evolved in contemporary Russia.

Before it was disbanded in 1991, the KGB was a massive organization, employing over half a million uniformed officers as well as a network of millions of informers.

A highly disciplined and militarized service, it controlled almost every aspect of life in the USSR and adhered with utmost loyalty to the Communist Party line, even across state borders. Its status and operation was strictly directed by 5,000 party documents.

The 1978 murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, for example - carried out with the use of a ricin pellet lodged in the tip of an umbrella - was conducted by Bulgaria's secret service with help from the KGB.

The Communist Party had ordered the KGB to contribute their expertise and assist their Bulgarian colleagues in the liquidation of a "personal enemy of the Bulgarian leadership."
Beginning of the end?

But the KGB monolith could not survive the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was ultimately divided into several new organizations, including the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Protection Service (FSO) and the body considered the true KGB successor, the Federal Security Service (FSB).

Many KGB officials evolved into new positions within those bodies. Tens of thousands of others reappeared in positions of political and entrepreneurial power.

The KGB was never officially condemned for its Soviet-era crimes, making it easy for many top security officials to make the transition to the world of politics - Russian President Vladimir Putin being the most obvious.

Those not in politics have also found numerous ways to make a living - most notably by opening the private security companies that mushroomed in privatization-era Russia or by entering the service of the oligarchs, who employed hundreds of former KGB officers to provide both security and intelligence.

Not surprisingly, the largest of these private security groups is the one at the disposal of Russia's aggressive Gazprom monopoly.
Marriage of convenience

Observers have dubbed this dubious partnership between business interests and security officers the "privatization of the KGB." At the same time, the official security bodies underwent their own period of "commercialization," launching veterans associations and other charity groups aimed at bolstering state funding for the secret services.

Another example of the growing commercial mind-set of the KGB heirs is their inevitable commingling with Russia's ascendant criminal element. In many areas, the lines between organized crime and the work of security groups has grown gray. In Putin's Russia, there is virtually no administrative or civilian control over security agencies.

This development is a marked change from the Soviet heyday of the KGB, when no less a figure than dissident and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov called the agency the only segment of the Soviet elite untouched by corruption.

Today's KGB descendants are, more often than not, divided along commercial or criminal lines. Litvinenko's murder is hardly the first instance of a former or present member of the security community translating their experience into business opportunities - and putting themselves in harm's way in the process. A few notable examples follow.
The case of Anatoly Trofimov

On 10 April 2005, a masked gunman shot dead retired FSB Colonel General Anatoly Trofimov, the former chief of the FSB's Moscow branch. Trofimov's young wife was also killed in the ambush outside their Moscow home; their 4-year-old daughter survived. Trofimov was the highest-ranking security official to be killed in Russia.

During his career in the KGB/FSB, he specialized in combating corruption, and led the investigation into a 1996 incident when two men were arrested carrying US$500,000 in cash out of the reelection campaign headquarters of President Boris Yeltsin. He was dismissed a year later, after two of his deputies were accused of selling cocaine.

After his murder, FSB investigators claimed the attack was the "likely result of his commercial activity." He was reportedly involved with several private security firms set up by retired KGB officer.

It is interesting to note, however, that Litvinenko described Trofimov as a behind-the-scenes critic of the Kremlin's policies in Chechnya who had opposed the 1998 appointment of Putin as FSB director. Litvinenko suggested Trofimov's murder was politically motivated, because no businessman in Russia would dare attack such a powerful figure from the security organs.
The case of Roman Tsepov

On 24 September 2004, 42-year-old Roman Tsepov, the director of an elite private security company based in St Petersburg, died of severe radiation sickness brought on by a mysterious substance he had ingested.

The substance has never been clearly identified, but some reports suggest he was fed an experimental poison containing heavy metals or large doses of a drug normally used to treat leukemia and other cancers.

Tsepov rose from the ranks of the Interior Ministry troops to become an extremely influential power broker in St Petersburg. In the early 1990s, his security firm, Baltik-Eskort, provided protection for the family of the city's mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, and his deputy, Vladimir Putin.

Tsepov maintained close ties with Putin after the latter's move first to the top of the FSB and then into the Kremlin. He also stayed close to Viktor Zolotov - who was first Sobchak's personal bodyguard and then chief of the presidential security service - and Rashid Nurgaliyev, an FSB general and Russia's interior minister since 2004.

Tsepov was also given license to act on behalf of the Kremlin in some of its most delicate deals, including talks with beleaguered oil giant Yukos. At some point, however, his work clearly aroused displeasure. The source of the poison and the poisoners themselves have not yet been identified; the investigation continues. However, many trails lead back to Tsepov's myriad business connections - which included influence in everything from casinos to ports to pharmaceutical companies.
The case of Igor Klimov

Igor Klimov, a colonel with the SVR, was shot dead on 6 June 2003 outside his apartment building in downtown Moscow.

Klimov, another close associate of Putin's, was picked by the president to serve as acting general director of the defense contractor Almaz-Antei, one of Russia's largest producers of air-defense systems.

Klimov was killed just weeks before he was due to become the CEO of Almaz-Antei. Many suspected at the time that his death was the result of his efforts to end the diversion or embezzlement of millions of dollars from the firm. Eventually, however, several arrests were made in the case that suggested his death may have been tied to a property battle between criminal organizations.

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036. Funded by the US Congress.

Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17078
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

20 December 2006
Colombian scandal shows all sides

As political allies come forward with evidence of cooperation with paramilitaries, the strengths of democratic institutions is revealed, but so is the president’s weakening position.

By Sam Logan for ISN Security Watch (20/12/2006)

As more Colombian politicians come forward with personal accounts of back room dealings with the country’s paramilitary forces, questions concerning the depth of corruption in politics commingle with concern that the Colombian military might somehow be involved in the scandal.

Close ties between the Colombian military and paramilitary leaders have long been suspected by human rights groups and other NGOs working in Colombia. Within Colombia, these links have been universally accepted yet categorically denied.

Meanwhile, the country's media and Supreme Court press forward in seeking the truth behind the connections between the political class and paramilitary leaders. As the Supreme Court calls witness after witness, it is building a critical mass of evidence against corrupt politicians. At the same time, others are leaking tips about certain individuals to the Colombian press, which could point out new leads for federal prosecutors. The result is a massive process of rooting-out corruption that may extend beyond the political class into the upper ranks of military commanders.

This so-called “political cleansing” has forced Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to walk a thin line between political destruction and survival.

Uribe had previously promised to deconstruct Colombia’s traditional political class, saying that more transparency was needed. He also wanted to democratize politics in Colombia, which was limited to individuals with land holdings or social clout. Until now, many were not sure how the president would achieve those goals. The political cleansing, however, may end the careers of many politicians and help Uribe to fulfill an important campaign promise.
The military question

Reports from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) decry direct ties between the Colombian military and Colombia’s paramilitary organizations.

In February of 2000, an HRW publication entitled “The Ties That Bind: Colombia and Military-Paramilitary Links” documented direct connections between the Third Brigade of the Colombian Army and a paramilitary group called the Calima Block, which had formed in the country’s southwest.

Many informants, who presumably would have good knowledge of such connections, were interviewed for the report. Six years later, other reports have corroborated this information, even after the Calima Block has disarmed with little to no recognition of close ties between this paramilitary group and the Colombian military.

This HRW publication and others have documented a history of close relationships between Colombia’s military commanders and the leaders of paramilitary units. From the mid-1990s until just a few years ago, paramilitary violence was clearly out of control, largely because there was very little resistance to the paramilitary commanders’ reign over their turf. Once the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had been pushed out of a region, the Colombian military did little to secure the area - an arrangement many believe was made between mid-level military commanders and paramilitary leaders.

Many of the mid-level commanders who allegedly colluded with paramilitary leaders in the mid-90s have since been promoted. As commanders of Colombia’s military forces, the possibility that they have colluded with an organization the US government considers a terrorist group casts a shadow over the future of US military aid to Colombia.

“These guys were in the field and were critical to what was going on as the paramilitaries became the only anti-guerrilla strategy that was working,” Adam Isacson, Director of Programs with the Center for International Policy, told ISN Security Watch in a recent phone call.

“A big question we should be asking now is: where were the current heads of the Colombian armed forces working in the second half of the 90s when the paramilitaries were [rapidly] taking over new territories with the help of drug traffickers?” he said.
The political fallout

The process of political cleansing currently being pushed forward by Colombia’s Supreme Court and media has created a nationwide sensation.

“This is probably the most serious crisis that President Uribe has faced,” Michael Shifter, Vice President of Policy with the Inter-American Dialogue, told ISN Security Watch.

“It is crucial to take control, take the initiative and clean out the political system,” he argued. Shifter pointed out that Uribe has to get in front of the scandal and move past a reactive stance.

“So far he’s been reactive and defensive, and ultimately, if it continues this way it will undermine his authority, which has been his greatest strength,” Shifter said.

Links between paramilitary figures and politicians are unacceptable for Colombians and the international community. As Colombia’s Supreme Court continues its investigation, it is likely the judicial body will continue to uncover evidence that if made public could severely undermine Uribe’s presidency.

Publicizing damning evidence separates the Colombian press from many other media in the rest of Latin America. Leaks to the press, published on the front page of Colombian daily El Tiempo, often create follow-ups in full view of the public.

The current scandal began to gather momentum after evidence found on the laptop and in the database of paramilitary leader Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, also known as Jorge 40, delivered proof of direct ties between the paramilitary leader and Colombian politicians who had met with him for political support.

Another laptop, one used by a paramilitary leader known as Adolfo Paz, or Don Berna, has also been seized. So far, evidence on this computer has not been made public. But many find it hard to believe there is not a long list of military leaders and politicians very close to Uribe yet to be brought to light for paramilitary collusion.
Time will tell

For over four decades, Colombians have lived the reality of an ongoing civil war between the FARC and the country’s armed forces. At times, the conflict has been one of low intensity, at other times it has been extremely violent. From the 1960s, when the FARC began operations, until the mid-1990s, there was little progress in subduing the violence short of the brutal effectiveness of paramilitary groups. However, their brutality led to international infamy, forcing anyone who had colluded with paramilitary leaders to deny any involvement.

The denial of politicians’ and military commanders’ involvement with paramilitary groups notorious for human rights atrocities and drug trafficking has lasted for many years. For this reason alone, many claim, Colombia’s current political scandal is good for the country, even if it is painful.

“If you are doing things that are illegal, incorrect morally or even inconvenient politically, you have to deny all that,” Jorge Restrepo, Director with Colombia’s Conflict Analysis Resource Center, told ISN Security Watch.

“What [we’re seeing] now is the extent of the participation of society in a conflict we didn’t want to label as a civil war,” he added.

“It is opening up in front of our eyes. From 1997 until 2002 it was truly a situation of serious war. It was not a low-intensity conflict, and we [Colombians] were the first ones trying to deny that it existed,” Restrepo said.

He also pointed out that the perseverance of Colombia’s institutions, particularly the judicial system, was fundamental to the current process as well as where it would take Colombians into the future.

Colombia’s paramilitary groups appeared in 1997 as bands of men formed together to defend themselves from what many perceived at the time as a growing problem with the FARC. Nearly a decade later, paramilitary groups have evolved beyond groups of armed individuals into astute political actors, mafia-like warlords and cunning drug traffickers.

Colombia’s political scandal has shown a high level of integration between paramilitaries and the country's political class. Time will tell if the same level of integration can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt between paramilitaries and the Colombian military.

Yet two points are already clear, experts agree. First, Colombia’s democratic institutions, despite years of civil war, still function. This fact should keep well with anyone worried about the future of Colombia’s democracy. Second, president Uribe has lost a significant amount of credibility and authority. His ability to deal with this situation, moving into 2007, will be a test.

Sam Logan is an investigative journalist who has reported on security, energy, politics, economics, organized crime, terrorism and black markets in Latin America since 1999. He is the Latin American correspondent for ISN Security Watch.
Printed from http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=17069
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

Time is the jihadists ally

http://www.religionglobe.com/

Time is the jihadists ally

Robert Fulford
National Post (Canada)
Saturday, December 09, 2006

As part of their culture of death, Islamic terrorists now use young
women
(and even occasionally a grandmother) as suicide murderers. The
appearance
of the first female killers, a few years ago, shocked people who
believed
they knew something about Islam. It was particularly appalling that
Hamas,
who claim to be pious, sent out girls wearing belts of explosives.
Surely
Islamic law forbids it.

When Ehud Yaari came to Toronto recently, I raised that issue with him.
He's
spent his whole working life, some 35 years, studying Arabs and their
ways
as a reporter on Israel's Channel 2 and a columnist in the Jerusalem
Report.

Muslims, Yaari says, were also puzzled by this problem. But Islam, like
most
religions, can be malleable. Hamas eventually received religious
permission
for the use of female bombers.

Of course they had to face the virgins question. A young man who blows
himself up in order to murder innocent people will be rewarded in
heaven, it
is said, by having 72 virgins at his disposal. What do girls and women
get?
Yaari says they are promised they can choose for their own one of the
young
male martyrs. Terrorist groups have distributed brochures on this point
in
the universities of the West Bank, describing suicide bombing as
romantic.

What the young male martyrs will have to say about this is not
altogether
clear. But theological questions are always complicated.

A sixth-generation Israeli, the descendant of Jewish farmers from
Ukraine,
Yaari was born in 1945 in Metulla, a village in northern Israel
surrounded
on three sides by Lebanon. He learned conversational Arabic as a child,
began taking lessons at 10, and was ready to study classical Arabic
poetry
by the time he reached the Hebrew University.

He understands the subtleties of Arabic oratory in ways that people
with
less learning, whether Arabs or not, can't grasp. He goes farther in
admiration of Osama Bin Laden's rhetoric than anyone I've read: "A
speech by
Bin Laden is a masterpiece," he says, in its allusions to previous
writing,
its hinted-at meanings, its elegance.

Yaari believes that jihadists decided long ago, perhaps as long ago as
the
failed Yom Kippur war with Israel in 1973, that they can't hope to
defeat
the military technology of the West. Instead they have adopted what
Yaari
calls "The doctrine of persistent conflict," the most promising version
of
warfare they've come up with since the West developed superior weaponry
centuries ago.

They can't have victory anytime in the near future, but they can deny
victory to the West -- in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and several other
places. "The Arabs feel they have the answer to the West in military
terms."
Working within that doctrine, of persistent conflict, Islamists may
pause
for a ceasefire now and then, perhaps even sign a peace treaty, but
they
won't give up. Eventually, they assume, the West will collapse under
terrorist pressure. Then a new caliphate will arise and govern Europe
(one
Arab theory holds that its first capital will be Copenhagen).

Later it will expand to put the whole world under Islamic law. This is
the
one thing on which the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hamas etc. all agree.

Their strategy rests on a powerful component, time. In the past, time
has
often been the friend of warriors, notably those who lay siege to a
town or
a castle and wait for starvation to defeat the inhabitants. But time
has
never been so central to strategy as it is with Islamists. Their
enemies,
above all the restless, impatient democracies, worry constantly about
the
length of a war. Witness the U.S. now desperately trying to devise a
timetable for leaving Iraq.

But the Islamists have no such worries. They believe they will win
someday,
not necessarily in 20 years, perhaps not in a century. Quite possibly,
not a
single fighter of today will see victory. No one worries about that, at
least in public. Persistence will produce victory. If you believe that
success is mandated and predicted by God, why would you care how long
it
takes?

This manner of thinking, so unlike anything most of us know, poses a
painful
question: How do you defeat a movement that does not expect to see
victory?
The West, as Yaari points out, has no strategy for this kind of war, no
doctrine its armies can learn and its politicians can preach. In fact,
it
appears that so far the West doesn't even know it needs a new strategy.

robert.fulford@utoronto.ca

C National Post 2006

UN troops in Lebanaon at risk of terror attack: Italain Foreign Minister

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/0/D11DBB6239087765C225724B003484DF?OpenDocument

U.N. Troops in Lebanon are at Risk of Attack, Italian Official Says
United Nations troops serving in Lebanon are at risk of attack and
should
remain alert, visiting Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said
ahead
of a trip to the Palestinian territories Thursday.

"It is right to warn the (U.N.) contingent about the risks, because the
risks are real," D'Alema said during a visit at the Italian command in
the
southern Lebanese town of Tibnin on Wednesday.

He was referring to comments by the head of the U.N. peacekeepers in
Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, that al-Qaida has penetrated
southern
Lebanon, the ANSA news agency said.

Israel TV reported earlier this month that the Jewish state had warned
the
U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, that al-Qaida was planning an
attack on thepeacekeepers in Lebanon.

The report said Israel had received intelligence that al-Qaida's deputy
chief, Ayman al-Zawahri, had issued the order to attack UNIFIL. It did
not
give details on the source of the information or when the attack might
take
place.

In a video released this year marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11,
2001
attacks in the U.S., al-Zawahri denounced the beefed-up UNIFIL force in
Lebanon.

UNIFIL was deployed under a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended a
month-long
war last summer between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

Just over 11,000 UNIFIL troops patrol a buffer zone in southern Lebanon
alongside an estimated 17,000 Lebanese soldiers. The force, in which
France
and Italy are the biggest contributors, is mandated to go up to a
maximum of
15,000.

"The threat does not come from the (troops') relations with the locals,
but
it could come from the outside, from a terror attack," D'Alema said.
"And I
think it is right to warn the Lebanese armed forces, UNIFIL, police."

Earlier Wednesday, D'Alema was in Beirut, where he met with Lebanese
Prime
Minister Fouad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of
Hizbullah that has been staging massive demonstrations against the
government.

On Thursday, D'Alema travels to the Palestinian territories to meet
with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for early elections
as a
way of ending the domestic political crisis.(AP-Naharnet)

President of Turkmenistan dies at 66

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/21/asia/AS_GEN_Turkmenistan_Obit_Niyazov.php

President of Turkmenistan dies at 66
The Associated Press
Published: December 21, 2006

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: President Saparmurat Niyazov, who created a
vast
cult of personality during two decades of iron-fisted rule over arid,
energy-rich Turkmenistan, has died, officials said Thursday. He was 66.

A terse report from state television said Niyazov died early Thursday
of
heart failure and showed a black-framed portrait of the man who had
ordered citizens to refer to him as "Turkmenbashi" --- the Father of
All
Turkmen. An announcer in a dark suit read a list of Niyazov's
accomplishments.

The funeral is to be held Sunday.

Under the Constitution, Parliament Speaker Overzgeldy Atayev is to take
over as acting president until elections that must be called within two
months. The Constitution, however, bans Atayev from running for
president in that vote.

Niyazov underwent major heart surgery in Germany in 1997 and last month
publicly acknowledged for the first time that he had heart disease. But
he did not seem seriously ill; two weeks ago he appeared in public to
formally open an amusement park named after him outside the capital.

Niyazov had led Turkmenistan since 1985, when it was still a Soviet
republic. After the 1991 Soviet collapse, he retained control and began
creating an elaborate personality cult and turning Turkmenistan into
one
of the most oppressive of the ex-Soviet states.

He ordered the months and days of the week named after himself and his
family, and statues of him were erected throughout the nation. He is
listed as author of the "Rukhnama" (Book of the Soul) that was required
reading in schools. Children pledged allegiance to him every morning.

He crushed all opposition and drew condemnation from human rights
groups
and Western governments.

His death, after two decades of wielding enormous power, raised
concerns
about whether political instability would follow.

"His death means a terrible shock for the republic, its residents and
the political class. It's comparable to a shock the Soviet Union felt
after Stalin's death," Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Moscow-based
Politika think tank, was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news
agency.

The agency also quoted Khudaiberdy Orazov, a leader of Turkmenistan's
hard-pressed opposition, as saying he and other opposition leaders will
meet soon to discuss how to proceed.

A 2002 alleged assassination attempt against Niyazov sparked a severe
crackdown, leading to dozens of arrests that were criticized by
international human rights groups and the U.S. government. A former
foreign minister, Boris Shikhmuradov, was named as the mastermind of
the
alleged plot and sentenced to life in prison after a Stalinist-style
show trial broadcast on TV that included a taped confession in which he
said he was a drug addict and hired mercenaries for the attack while
living in Russia.

Turkmenistan --- a majority Muslim country dominated by the vast Kara
Kum
desert --- has the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves, but
Niyazov
failed to convert that wealth into prosperity for his country's 5
million people.

Earlier this year, the eccentric leader announced he would provide
citizens with natural gas and power free of charge through 2030. But he
has also tapped the country's vast energy wealth for outlandish
projects
--- a huge, man-made lake in the Kara Kum desert, a vast cypress forest
to
change the desert climate, an ice palace outside the capital, a ski
resort and a 40-meter (130-foot) pyramid.

Niyazov was born Feb. 19, 1940. His father died in World War II and the
rest of his family was killed in an earthquake that leveled Ashgabat in
1948. He was raised in an orphanage and later in the home of distant
relatives.

Niyazov attended Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in Russia to study
power engineering and worked at the Bezmeinskaya Power Station near
Ashgabat after his graduation in 1966.

Named head of the Communist Party in Turkmenistan in 1985, Niyazov was
named president of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in October
1990
and led his nation through its Oct. 27, 1991, independence. He was
elected president of the new independent Turkmenistan in 1992 with a
reported 99.5 percent of the vote. In 1994, a reported 99.9 percent of
voters supported a referendum allowing him to remain in office for a
second five-year term without having to face new elections.

In 1999, he was effectively made president for life after Parliament
removed all term limits, but an August 2002 gathering of the country's
People's Council --- a hand-picked assembly of Niyazov loyalists ---
nonetheless went further and endorsed him as president for life.

Under Niyazov's rule, Turkmenistan adopted a strict policy of
neutrality
and spurned joining regional security or economic organizations that
sprung up in the wake of the Soviet collapse.

But Niyazov supported the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign in neighboring
Afghanistan, allowing coalition airplanes to use Turkmen airspace and
humanitarian agencies to pass through to deliver aid.

Niyazov also pursued strong nationalistic policies to encourage the use
of the Turkmen language over Russian and banned access to
Russian-language media, leading to an increased exodus of some of the
country's most educated citizens and decimating its school system.
Secondary education has been reduced in Turkmenistan to a required nine
years, causing human rights groups to complain of a deliberate attempt
to dumb down the population to prevent dissent.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1756652/posts?page=18

North Korea activities show preparations for second nuclear weapons test
AFP via translation | December 20, 2006

Posted on 12/20/2006 9:20:06 PM PST by HAL9000

The North Korea could prepare a new nuclear test
SEOUL - suspect activities were detected in North Korea, suggesting preparations for a new nuclear test after the explosion of the first atomic bomb North-Korean on October 9, indicated to Thursday a South Korean deputy.

“Since the beginning of this month, there were many activities in a tunnel close to the Mantap Mount, in Punggyeri”, 350 km in the North-East of Pyongyang, where the first test took place, indicated Chung Hyung-keun, deputy of the opposition member of a parliamentary commitee on the information.

“Of important building work are in hand over there. The services of Western information regard (this tunnel) as a possible site for a second nuclear test”, it added, quoted by the South Korean agency Yonhap.

The deputy did not quote his sources.

These declarations intervene while continue, in Beijing, of the multi-party talks aiming at convincing the North Korea to give up its atomic arsenal.

The Stalinist mode exploded on October 9 its first bomb atomic. Since then, information multiplied on the possibility of a new underground nuclear test.

Friday, the South Korean Minister for Defense, Kim Jang-soo, had evoked this possibility. “According to services' of information, the North Korea could carry out a second nuclear test on a large scale if the negotiations (in Beijing) do not advance”, it had indicated.

The minister had specified that Pyongyang had ensured its Chinese ally which it did not plan to carry out a second test after that of October 9 but threatened of “adapted” measurements, not specified, in the event of increased pressure on behalf of the international community.

The talks must continue until Friday in Beijing, in spite of the absence of progress. These negotiations join together both Corées, China, the United States, Japan and Russia. They in vain try since August 2003 to convince the communist dictatorship to give up the atomic weapon.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23379159-details/Virulent+form+of+e.coli+comes+from+British+farm+produce/article.do

Virulent form of e.coli comes from British farm produce
21.12.06

A deadly new superbug responsible for scores of deaths may be linked to British farms and food, it has emerged.

A virulent form of e.coli has killed at least 57 people in two separate outbreaks in the UK.

But the true scale of infection and death caused by the bug, which is linked to blood poisoning and urinary tract infections, is thought to be much higher.

The original source of the "super e.coli" has been a mystery.

However, the Daily Mail has learned that Government experts are investigating a possible link to bugs found in farm animals.

There are concerns the infection may be spread to humans through meat and milk which is either produced in this country or imported.

The super e.coli strain produces enzymes called extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) which stop many drugs working. Consequently, vulnerable people who become infected are very difficult to treat.

Some 28 people died and another 200 were infected with this ESBL e.coli in Shropshire between in the 12 months to March 2004.

Another 29 deaths were revealed in Southampton last year. Other cases have been found across the country.

The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has raised concerns about the bug amid fears it could become as serious as MRSA. The majority of the outbreaks and deaths have ocurred in hospitals, however it is believed the bug has been picked up in the community.

Humans can carry the bug in their gut. It is a particular risk to the elderly and others whose immune systems are not functioning properly because of illness.

Dr Georgina Duckworth, a superbug expert at the government's Health Protection Agency(HPA) has compiled a report on the emergence of the ESBL e.coli.

She concluded: "The findings in our report show evidence of people carrying these bacteria in their gut. If this is found to be commonplace in the general population this may point towards the food chain being a potential source."

Last year, British scientists found strains of the ESBL e.coli among sick and dying calves for the first time on a dairy farm in Wales. Twenty-seven of 48 calves examined - 56 per cent - carried the bug.

Since then, government vets have found similar strains of the bug on nine farms across the country, including Cheshire, Wiltshire and Somerset.

They do not know how long the bug has been present on farms in this country.

The problem is not restricted to UK farms. Similar strains of the ESBL e.coli have also been found in France, Spain, Denmark and Japan. Experts at the government's HPA and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency(VLA) are investigating whether the use of certain types of antibiotics on factory farms triggered the creation of the superbug.

Heavy use of drugs on farms is designed to kill e.coli and other bugs in animals such as dairy cattle and pigs. However, one side-effect is that resistant strains can develop.

It is these resistant strains which are believed to be getting into the human population.

A report from these experts warned: "Spread of this form of resistance in bacteria affecting the animal population could have serious implications for animal health, rendering many therapeutic options redundant.

"Spread is also undesirable from the public health perspective, in that the livestock population might provide a reservoir of resistant strains and genes that could be transferred to the human population."

The Soil Association, which promotes organic farming, believes the heavy use of certain antibiotics is responsible for the creation of ESBL e.coli.

It has written to farming minister, Ben Bradshaw, both highlighting an increase in antibiotic use and calling for new controls.

The Association is particularly worried about the increased use of antibiotics called cephalosporins. In 2005, some four tonnes of active ingredient was used on British farms, which was up by 23 per cent on 2004 and 58 per cent on 2002.

Association expert, Richard Young said: "Government scientists are unsure exactly how this type of super e.coli started and why it is spreading so quickly, but many of them accept that the infection is sometimes carried on food and that the farm use of antibiotics, in particular a group of antibiotics known as 3rd and 4th generation cephalosporins, may be a reason for the growing problem."

He said: "This is yet another problem associated with intensive livestock farming. It's time the Government showed leadership and got a grip of the situation.

"The Government has sat back and allowed the farm use of implicated drugs to rise during the precise period when this new superbug emerged and started spreading." The Association is calling for a ban on the advertising of the suspect drugs to farmers and the provision of advice to vets and all livestock farmers on how to reduce reliance on them. Even some organic farmers use these antibiotics, however use is more strictly controlled than on other farms.

The government's food and farming department DEFRA has refused to identify those farms where the ESBL e.coli has been found.

It has also decided not to stop meat and milk from the infected animals from going into the human food chain. It is claimed that the heat treatment of milk during pasteurisation would kill off any harmful bugs. However, this policy is under review.

To date, the evidence is that the strains of the disease found in the animals is not identical to that found in the majority of human cases.

However, the Soil Association says this may be because there has been a mutation.

DEFRA said there could be a different reason, other than the use of drugs in farm animals, for the development of the ESBL e.coli.

It said that farm animals may have caught the bugs from humans, by coming into contact with sewage, or from their food. The HPA said some 950 cases of standard e.coli infection were reported in 2005. The numbers have been around this level for a decade, however they were much lower in the 1980s, with less than 100 a year.

It was unable to give figures for ESBL e.coli. Earlier this week it emerged that a strain of the hospital superbug, MRSA, which attacks healthy young people, has caused deaths in British hospitals for the first time.

Seven people were infected in an outbreak at a West Midlands hospital. Two - a hospital worker and a patient - died.

Russia’s Putin Praises Spies’ Work at Secret Police Anniversary
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/12/21/spypraise.shtml
Vladimir Putin / Photo: AP

Vladimir Putin / Photo: AP
Russia’s Putin Praises Spies’ Work at Secret Police Anniversary

Created: 21.12.2006 09:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:39 MSK ,

MosNews

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has saluted Russia’s resurgent secret services for their role in guarding national interests.

“The personnel of the security services firmly stand guard for Russia’s national interests,” Putin said in a statement released as he threw a lavish party to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Soviet secret police.

Putin, who served as a KGB spy in East Germany, has promoted former security officers to high posts in the Kremlin, where they have formed one of the most powerful clans under the leadership of deputy chief-of-staff Igor Sechin, analysts say.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin split up the KGB to sap the power of the secret services. But Putin has brought spying back into fashion at the very highest levels in the Kremlin.

Spy chiefs, top politicians and former agents were shown on state television sitting in a packed hall in the Kremlin as Putin sang their praises.

State television showed a lavish party with an orchestra playing classical music and large buffet with champagne and vodka, said to be Russian spies’ favourite tipples.

Spy scares are back in vogue in Moscow with Kremlin controlled television showing romantic serials about the exploits of Russia’s domestic and foreign security agents.

“Their best workers have always shown patriotism, competency, a high degree of personal and professional decency, and an understanding of the importance of their work for the good of their fatherland,” Putin said.

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, both tipped as possible Putin successors, attended the Kremlin reception.

Putin, who has tried to restore prestige to the secret services, saluted the “glorious pages” in the history of Russia’s secret services, the successors of the Soviet-era KGB.

“There are many glorious pages, bright examples of true heroism and courage in the history of national state security organisations,” Putin said in the statement, which was posted on the Kremlin’s web page, www.kremlin.ru.

Historians still argue about how many tens of millions of people died at the hands of the Soviet secret service under the rule of Josef Stalin. Millions were executed or sent to perish in labour camps run by Stalin’s secret police.

Stalin’s death in 1953 ended massive purges, but left intact a system of blanket control over the population exercised by the KGB. Political dissidents were imprisoned on criminal charges or locked up in mental hospitals.

On December 20, Russian agents celebrate Chekist day, the date the Soviet secret police, the Cheka, was founded.

“It is a profession who love our motherland,” Putin told agents and senior politicians who attended the Kremlin bash.

Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Lebedev, Federal Security Service (FSB) head Nikolai Patrushev and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov attended the Kremlin banquet.

http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=2/a/ix/211220061

Israel Hasbara Committee

Today’s Overview of Leading News & Views – 21 December 2006

By Anthony David Marks

(IHC News, 21 December 2006)

# Something is going on at Ben Gurion Airport – the Israel Airports Authority is doing something right. First, there is a report that the airport ranked first in customer satisfaction compared to other airports in Europe. Now we learn from the Israel Airports Authority that a prayer room will be built for Muslims. It will be like a mini mosque. In addition, a special facility will be established to aid Muslim travelers. It will assist Arabic-speaking persons on a 24/7 basis. In November, the number of tourists coming to Israel was reported down 29% compared to the previous November, so Israel has to pull up its socks.

# With ten Qassam rockets being fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip during the last 24 hours in a so called cease-fire, Israel’s policy of restraint is wearing thin. It might be that Palestinian extremists are attempting to engineer a diversion from the internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah factions. Perhaps they think an Israeli response will unite the two Palestinian factions in common cause. Then again, Palestinian extremists have been continually firing Qassam rockets at Israeli civilian targets.

# Reports reveal that the US and Britain are sending additional warships and planes to the Persian Gulf to beef up forces already there. This appears connected to British PM Tony Blair’s recent visit to Dubai. It also means that the US and Britain have no intention of backing down under Iranian threats. The build-up parallels a similar building up of forces against Iraq before the Allies struck. Saudi Arabia is no doubt the most concerned about a heavily militarized Iran that could unleash an attack against its kingdom.

# As investigations proceed to determine shortcomings in the IDF’s marginal performance on the battlefield, proper education of officers appears lax and in some cases non-existent. There is too much bluffing and too many shortcuts are being taken. In other words, there is a widespread attitude problem. Israeli politicians as well as army leaders are to blame. Many are so preoccupied trying to outdo each other for personal advancement that they are neglecting their leadership duties and this state of affairs has been going on for a long time.

# Hizbullah has effectively been re-armed to pre-war levels with Syrian assistance. Hamas Head Office is located in Damascus, Syria. In other words, Assad is assisting in a very determined way the enemies of Israel, so what is all this talk about Syria wanting peace. The facts speak otherwise, unless Syria is being pulled into a situation of which, in truth, it does not really want but that is its problem.

20 December 2006
# Speaking from Dubai at the end of his tour of the Middle East, British Prime Minister Tony Blair crystallizes the facts with the statement that Iran is a strategic challenge. Blair foresees that the challenge of Iran will ultimately lead to a physical confrontation. He called for an "alliance of moderation in the region and outside of it to defeat the extremists."

# The outcome of the violence in Iraq will quite conceivably determine the future of the Middle East. It will also determine the efficiency of US troops there and whether the US army needs some better direction and higher caliber management. War on the ground is not like a war-simulated game on a computer screen. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is in Baghdad on a fact-finding mission as he takes over the position from Donald Rumsfeld. Violence in Iraq is at an all time high, probably because of published misgivings about the war, in the US. The US lack of inspiration for the war is giving violence a boost as the insurgents in Iraq smell US weakness and opportunity. The US presence in Iraq is hopelessly undermanned and it was from the beginning. More troops, better strategies and better day-to-day management are all required.

# British Holocaust denier David Irving has been released from an Austrian jail where he was serving a prison term of three years. He has been released on a two-year probation. Mr. Irving has stated he has revised his views on the Holocaust. Time will tell and we will all learn shortly about his revised thinking. Some speculated that Mr. Irving was released by a judge who is considered a supporter of Jorg Heider's rightist Austrian Freedom Party, according to the Austrian news agency APA. The basis for all facts on the Holocaust comes from an unimpeachable source – meticulous Nazi records. Therefore, all those who deny the Holocaust are criminals under any hate law. Irving is a highly sophisticated con man who can cause endless trouble and discord and be the instigator of both civil and international strife –a la mode Ahmadinjad

# As anticipated, one of the members of the Neturei Carta delegation to Teheran’s Holocaust Conference “Rabbi” Aharon Cohen is under siege from British Jews who have gathered outside his home and pelted it with eggs. He is under British police protection. Many have labeled him a traitor but he and his colleagues are much more than that as many survivors of the Holocaust who live in Britain well know. They are pained by the actions of Neturei Carta. These survivors are the sole survivors from large extended families that perished in Europe. Cohen might as well have called these survivors a bunch of liars, fakers or phonies. Members of Neturei Carta have sold their souls to the devil. They have caused the utmost disgrace to the Jewish people – the biggest chillul Hashem imaginable. Understandably, the lives of every member of this group is probably in danger.

# Opposition leader in the Knesset and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a meeting of foreign ambassadors and diplomats in Israel and stated that Iranian President Ahmadinejad is working on the establishment of a 1,000 year Islamic Reich. He charged that Ahmadinejad is planning to carry out his threatened genocide program against Israel using the nuclear weapon Iranian scientists are now developing.

Diplomats Call for Stability After Death of Turkmen Leader
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI1
Foreign leaders Thursday called on officials in Turkmenistan to
ensure stability in the gas-rich Central Asian country after the
death of its authoritarian President Saparmurat Niyazov.

Nazi-Era Airport Will Close a Year Later Than Planned
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI2
A German court has said Berlin's 'Nazi' airport, Tempelhof, which
was supposed to close on Oct 31, 2007, could stay open for
another year in a compromise deal.

Germany Pulls Away From Quaero Search-Engine Project
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI3
Germany has taken a new tack in its plans to develop an Internet
search engine with France. Instead, it will pursue a national
project aimed at tackling US dominance in the information sector.

Germany's Foreign Minister Urges Russia to Solve Murders
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI4
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for
Russian authorities to solve the recent killings of Russian
journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former KGB agent Alexander
Litvinenko as quickly as possible.

Aachen Send Bayern Packing in German Cup
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI5
Bayern Munich headed to Aachen looking for revenge for a 2004
German Cup elimination but promoted Alemannia repeated history
with a 4-2 win, handing the Bavarians their first Cup loss in
nearly two years.

Romania Beefs Up Security at EU's Eastern Frontier
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI6
Romania has prepared for its role as the European Union's new
eastern border by installing a new high-tech security system on
its frontier to keep non-EU citizens from entering the bloc it
joins in January.

Drug Firm Jenapharm Compensates Doped Athletes
http://newsletter.dw-world.de/re?l=evu4irIfwf2zzI7
Jenapharm pharmaceuticals has signed an agreement to pay
compensation to former East German athletes who were forced
to take steroids under the communist state's doping regime.