Hacked Downing Street: "Deep Throat" fingers Blairite

The arrest of one of Tony Blair's top aides in the cash for honours row [db: Let's not call it a "row" - it's the biggest Brit political corruption story in recent memory - potentially as significant in the UK as the Watergate Scandal became in the US**] was made after fresh information was uncovered during a search of the Number 10 computer system, according to reports.

The investigation put police at loggerheads with politicians after Ruth Turner was arrested in a dawn swoop on her home.

The News Of The World said it was informed by sources within the Crown Prosecution Service that a "mole" within Downing Street told the police about potentially incriminating emails.

An independent IT expert was then sent in by detectives, with the permission of Downing Street, to look through communications records, it claimed. But the Sunday Telegraph suggested that detectives had obtained high-level permission to "hack" into the IT system remotely. Link

db: You may want to read that again once you have finished rubbing your eyes. That's right, the cops remotely hacked a computer in the offices of 10 Downing Street and retrieved information that led to the dawn arrest of Neo-Labour's director of government relations. - a salaried Blairite.

The failure of the Tories to capitalise on this rising Neo-Labour tide of filth is sadly indicative of the institutionally corrupt nature of British politics - they are keeping their heads down for good reason.

**The term Watergate Scandal related to a break-in carried out by members of Richard Nixon's administration and the subsequent cover-up. Coincidently, Ms Turner, Downing Street director of Government relations, was questioned on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Perverting the course of justice: Neo-Labour

Her [Ruth Turner, the director of government relations inside Downing Street] arrest also raised fears in Labour circles that the police have found a "smoking gun" in the trail of e-mails and memos they have been pursuing in Downing Street. The Scotland Yard team, headed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, questioned Mr Blair at Downing Street before Christmas over the offer of peerages to multi-millionaire businessmen in return for secret loans for the party before the 2005 general election.

The police closely questioned Mr Blair over apparent contradictions in the statements by some of his senior aides. Police have also recently questioned Jonathan Powell, his chief of staff, for a second time and John McTernan, the director of political relations, in Downing Street.

Those arrested by Scotland Yard so far are Lord Levy, a close friends of Mr Blair and high-value fundraiser for the party; Des Smith, a teacher and fundraiser for city academies who boasted to an undercover newspaper reporter that big backers for the schools could get honours; and Sir Christopher Evans, the head of a biotech company, who loaned Labour 1m pounds before the last general election. Mr Blair was closely questioned about an alleged diary entry by Sir Christopher suggesting he had been offered a "K" (knighthood) or a big "P" peerage)'.

Scotland Yard said the arrest of Ms Turner was "in connection with alleged offenses under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 and also on suspicion of perverting the course of justice". Link

Terror and starvation in Gaza


A genocide is engulfing the people of Gaza while a silence engulfs its bystanders. "Some 1.4 million people, mostly children, are piled up in one of the most densely populated regions of the world, with no freedom of movement, no place to run and no space to hide," wrote the former senior UN relief official Jan Egeland and Jan Eliasson, then foreign minister of Sweden, in Le Figaro. They described a people "living in a cage", cut off by land, sea and air, with no reliable power and little water, and tortured by hunger and disease and incessant attacks by Israeli troops and planes. Read more John Pilger

Warsaw ghetto

US clash with Sadr movement

Informed Comment

US and Iraqi troops arrested Sadr aide Abdul Hadi Darraji in East Baghdad at midnight Iraqi time last night. The Sadr movement maintains he is just a spokesman and is not involved in militia operations. The US accuses him of running private religious courts in which people are punished for being lax with regard to implementation of Islamic law. Young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is enormously popular in the Shiite south and a US confrontation with him could throw that region into turmoil.

Mahdi Army figures in Sadr City say they are under siege and that five commanders have been killed or captured in the past week.

A direct US conflict with Muqtada al-Sadr could throw the Shiite south into turmoil. Link

Neo-Labour Sleaze: Top Blair aide arrested

The "cash-for-honours" inquiry took a dramatic new twist today as a key Downing Street aide was arrested by police.

Ruth Turner, director of government relations, was arrested at her home in London under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 and also on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. Link

Britain to tackle international corruption

"It is very important to make it clear that dropping the investigation into alleged bribes paid by BAE Systems - and it was not an entirely comfortable decision - doesn't mean we are backing off in any way from our commitment to tackling international corruption," the attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, said in the House of Lords. Link

db: This is British comedy at its best

Iraqi people owe American people

UN says 34,000 Iraqis killed in 2006

Baghdad bombs kill 100

"The Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." - George Bush

Absolutely clearly maybe

"It's absolutely clearly my view, and I may be wrong ... I think that had we proceeded with this investigation it would have significantly materially damaged our relationship with Saudi Arabia," Blair told a news conference. Link

Blair's values worth dying for

[Blair said ] "On the part of the public, they need to be prepared for the long as well as the short campaign, to see our participation alongside allies in such conflict not as an atavistic, misguided attempt to recapture past glories, but as a necessary engagement in order for us to protect our security and advance our interests and values in the modern world," link.

db: Blair's 'values' ... what grieving mother would not console herself with the knowledge that it was for such a notion that her son[s] were sacrificed? I know I would.

Pay up, Iraqi people

"(The) Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." - George Bush

It's a disappointment that 600,000 Iraqis won't be around to show thanks, this is due to their violent death since the US invasion, and not necessarily ingratitude.

Blair: The war's a stage

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday that Britain's influence on the world stage and ability to right global wrongs depends on active engagement, and the country cannot defend itself from terrorism by retreating into isolationism***. Link

Isolation: 2002

*** No but it might help, and can be no worse for our security than exporting mayhem - such as that in Iraq.

Blair: war is good

Prime Minister Tony Blair, defending his interventionist policies in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Britain should carry on influencing world affairs through fighting wars as well as peacekeeping. Link

db: Even with a competent leader and intelligent planning, war is essentially unpredictable, and can lead to outcomes that even the brightest of people, let alone Blair, are unable to predict. That's why most countries generally avoid it. Besides, Blair's power projection fantasies are underwritten with US muscle, and consequently serve US interests first.

US gunships swoop on militants

US helicopter gunships circled low over the heart of Baghdad yesterday, firing in support of American and Iraqi troops who claimed to have killed 50 suspected militants in a lengthy battle. Link

'Many dead' in US air strikes on Somalia

An AC130 warplane strafed the village of Hayo near the Kenyan border late yesterday afternoon, leaving "many dead", according to the Somali government. Ras Kamboni, on the country's southernmost tip, was also said to have been hit. Another air strike killed up to 31 people this morning near the town of Afmadow, 220 miles southwest of the capital, Mogadishu, according to local witnesses and officials. Link

Ayatollah Khamenei: US/UK fomenting sectarian strife

George Bush and Tony Blair gave Iraq to Iran, rather than keep a tin-pot dictator locked away harmlessly in his cage, and this is the thanks they get, 3000 dead Americans and 127 dead Brits later.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei: "The irrational and malicious behavior of the West has helped awaken Muslim nations. Whether they like it or not, today a deep-rooted movement has begun in the Islamic world which will lead to the independence, dignity, and rejuvenation of the Islamic ummah," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

"This is a decisive moment in history. Scholars, intellectuals, and politicians have a heavy responsibility on their shoulders. Any weakness, spiteful actions, or negligence on their part will lead to disaster.

"The ulema should not remain silent in the face of efforts to foment sectarian strife. The intellectuals should not shirk from imparting the spirit of hope to our youth. The politicians and officials should not distance themselves from the people and must rely on them," Ayatollah Khamenei added.

He also urged Islamic governments to strengthen their solidarity and use the power of the people to overcome the threats of the hegemonic powers. Today the U.S. and British intelligence services in Iraq, Lebanon, North Africa, and wherever else they can, are spreading the virus of sectarian strife, the Leader said, adding, "The congregation of Hajj keeps us immune from this deadly virus."

Underlining the need for the emergence of a united Islamic identity, the Leader said the U.S. government, Western capitalism, and the corrupt Zionist lobby have begun to sense the living truth of the Islamic awakening, and by admitting that their military might is useless in the face of this truth, they are using all their might to carry out political tricks.

Muslims all over the world should realize that the time of humiliation and backwardness in the Islamic world is over and a new era has begun, he noted. Link

Israel approves Abbas gun shipment

Forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have received an arms shipment from Egypt with Israeli approval.

A senior Israeli military official, Amos Gilad, said the shipment aimed to reinforce the "forces of peace" against the "forces of darkness".

Neither Egyptian nor Palestinian officials have confirmed the shipment.

Israeli officials said they approved the shipment of 2,000 rifles, 20,000 ammunition clips and 2 million bullets. Link

db: Israel and the dictator Mubarak unite with Abbas, for freedom

Saddam hanging for freedom

"An important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy" - Bush

Saddam Hussein went to his death in a scornful exchange with the masked hangmen who taunted him with sectarian jibes even as the noose was tightened around his neck.

Grainy and jerky video circulating on the internet, apparently filmed on a mobile phone, contrasted with the officially-sanctioned pictures broadcast by Iraqi television on Saturday which bestowed a silent dignity on the Iraqi dictator's last moments.

But in the 2 minute, 37 second version broadcast by Al Jazeera television yesterday, he can be seen and heard exchanging insults with his Shia executioners and other witnesses.

Saddam's final words were in keeping with his court appearances, during which he railed against his tormentors and the invaders of his country. National security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told The New York Times that one of the guards shouted at Saddam: "You have destroyed us. You have killed us. You have made us live in destitution."

"I have saved you from destitution and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians and Americans," Saddam responded."God damn you," the guard said. "God damn you," came the reply. The assembled witnesses to the execution, gathered below the gallows, can be heard ignoring appeals for propriety as a man shouts out "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada." That is a reference to the powerful young Shia militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, whose father, a revered Shia cleric, was executed by Saddam in 1999. Saddam hits back: "Do you consider this bravery?" Link

Iraq: 3000 dead Americans as a plan comes together

The U.S. military announced Sunday the deaths of two soldiers, pushing the number of Americans who have died in the Iraq war to the grim milestone of at least 3,000. On the final day of an exceedingly bloody year, Saddam Hussein was also buried in the town where he was born. Link

db: Apart from 600,000 or so dead Iraqis, 3000 American lives have been exchanged for the neck of one Saddam Hussein - a tin-pot dictator lording it over a nation devastated by UN sanctions and US/UK air power - commander of a broken army long since disarmed of WMD. 3000 US lives lost as sacrificial pawns in a strange and opaque US strategy to hand Iraq over to Iran and ferment terrorism across the globe.

Happy New Year from def brain.