New details emerge in UK terror plot- The Times of India

New details emerge in UK terror plot- The Times of India: "LONDON: On August 9, in a small second-floor apartment in East London, two young Muslim men recorded a video justifying what the police say was their suicide plot to blow up trans-Atlantic planes: revenge against the United States and its 'accomplices,' Britain and the Jews.

'As you bomb, you will be bombed; as you kill, you will be killed,' said one of the men on a 'martyrdom' videotape, whose contents were described by a senior British official and a person briefed about the case. The young man added that he hoped God would be 'pleased with us and accepts our deed.' "

Interesting thing is that if you try and get this information from the UK, it is blocked. Something to do with legal obfustication I suppose. The Indian media does not seem to have the same problem. I think it is a little weird that I cannot read something about my own country's problems but can get it 'through the back-door'. Another example of an Indian call-centre I suppose.

Goin' To School

Grouchy Old Cripple: Goin' To School:
Class available for adults.
"Class 1. How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays --- Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM."
Some suggestions for those of us who never really figured out this living alone business.

Shot at Dawn - further thoughts

Pardons for 'cowards' condemned - Newspaper Edition - Times Online: "The decision by the Government to pardon Private Harry Farr and the other 304 soldiers executed for cowardice and desertion in the First World War has been attacked by a leading psychiatrist."
Somewhat gratifying to see that my opinion has the support of someone far better qualified; just wish I could get paid for my drivel.

Can't park there love

Rio man saws woman in half over parking dispute - Yahoo! News UK: "RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - A street parking attendant in Brazil's crime-ridden city of Rio de Janeiro was charged with sawing a woman in two over a parking space dispute, police said on Wednesday."

She should have driven off before he wrote the ticket!

Public Service Announcement

The right to determine one's life has attracted a good deal of attention over the past couple of months. I have a fear that I shall end my days plugged into a 13 amp electrical socket like some condom vending machine. From that background I have devised a form of living will. Short but, I think, all encompassing.

I have made this declaration at a time when I am of sound mind and after careful consideration. I understand that my life may be shortened by the refusals of treatment in this form. I accept the risk that I may not be able to change my mind in the future when I am no longer able to speak for myself, and I accept the risk that improving medical technology may offer increased hope, but I personally consider the risk of unwanted treatment to be a greater risk. I want it to be known that I fear degradation and indignity far more than death. I ask my medical attendants to bear this in mind when considering what my intentions would be in any uncertain situation.

If the time comes when I can no longer communicate, this declaration shall be taken as a testament to my wishes regarding medical care.

If it is the opinion of medical care team that there is no reasonable prospect of my recovery from severe physical illness, or from impairment expected to cause me severe distress or render me incapable of rational existence, then I direct that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means such as life support systems, tube feeding, antibiotics, resuscitation or blood transfusions: any treatment which has no benefit other than a mere prolongation of my existence should be withheld or withdrawn, even if it means my life is shortened. I already have a Do Not Resuscitate directive in my medical documents and on a MediAlert-type tag that I wear. I accept basic care however and I do request aggressive palliative care, drugs or any other measures to keep me free of pain or distress, even if they shorten my life.

I wish the following person to be consulted in the event of uncertainty about my wishes. My wife, Catherine Norma Wood (nee Robinson)

Written by me, John Samuel WOOD, born 15 August 1933. http://snipurl.com/kyyi

There may be some who think they would find comfort in this sort of thing but have shrunk from the sort of soul search that goes with it. Feel free to copy. There may also be readers who can find a potential problem with the wording - comment away please.

Win Win Warfare

How Israel won on the battlefield against Hezballah and lost in the media and why it's important to America: "This was perhaps both the most cynical and barbaric disregard for innocent civilian lives of all of Hezballah's and Iran's strategic choices. It was also the most successful. It was predicated not on its knowledge of its enemy (Israel) but its true genius lay in its knowledge of the press. The calculus was simple: launch a rocket from within a civilian population; if you kill Jews that's a victory. If the Jews hit back and in so doing kill Lebanese civilians, that's a victory. If they don't hit back because they're afraid to hit civilians, that's a victory. Now repeat the process until you kill so many Jews they have to hit back and in so doing kill more Lebanese civilians. That's the ultimate victory, because they know that in striking just those chords exactly what music the press will play. The awful truth, which the Western Press was manipulated to ignore or downplay, was that Iran, through its terrorist operational arm Hezballah, had invaded Lebanon from within. Hezballah did not protect Lebanon, they occupied it and they used those Hezballah occupied territories to launch Iran's offensive in response to the West's ultimatum to cease development of nuclear weapons."

That comes from an assessment by a IDF officer. Israel is now facing a much more sophisticated enemy. HB is not a rag tag terrorist organisation. It is a trained - and skilfull - Army that uses terrorist methods.

This you have to see!

The stud is 24 years old. She is, allegedly, 84 years of age. The music is dire - turn volume way down before going to see what I am writing about

My real interest is just what they get up to in private - and how?

Catch 22

I was thinking of something today as a "Catch 22" situation and realised that I had lost the full definition. When the novel was new, it was a rite of passage to have read it and be able to engage in the circular reasoning that is typifies.

This is a public service. "Catch 22" is repeated here for those who may never have explored it or whose memory is getting a bit fuzzy at the edges. Let us hope that that tosser B Liar never discovers it or we will be off down more of his avenues of fractured reasoning.

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

Centers on Air Force procedure during WW2 that one was rotated after a certain number of combat missions. After having flown the stated number of flights, one could claim the rotation. If one did not claim, active service flights continued.

NiceNice from TalkTalk

I spoke about my frustrations with the ISP people TakTalk and the ongoing problems.

Writing to the Head Honcho seems to have worked. Received today a letter apologising for all the annoyance. Best bit was that they have waived the £70 'disconnection'

Tell me please!

Where was this poster maker when I needed him?

Bogey-man exposed

English Russia » Photos made in Moscow subway

Are these inhabitants of a country of whom we were so scared that we went to extraordinary lengths to keep them, at least, quiet.

The London Underground - when last I had to enter the bowels of that hell on earth - may lack the grandiose architecture but the worst we seem to endure is Boy George or Adam Ant clones.

The heat goes on..

A TANGLED WEB: IGNORE THE AID DONORS...: "Millions of dollars are apparently 'urgently needed to help Lebanon back to its feet after its bombardment by Israel, aid agencies have urged international donors.'

Governments and international organisations are gathering in Sweden to pledge money to rebuild the country, with $500m (£260m) the target. Oxfam said the bombing campaign had ruined Lebanon's agricultural sector.

I just love the bias in that first sentence, taken from the BBC news site.

First of all, the inference that Lebanon was bombarded by Israel. Wrong. Those parts of Lebanon that were being used by the terrorist group Hezbollah were bombarded by Israel, and rightly so. The fact that Hezbollah cowards dug in around civilian structures is a problem of Hezbollah's making."

Just one of the bits floating around now which ignore the current situation and retreat back to long-held prejudices. The most recent events have been overeshadowed by this sort of diatribe more suited to the playground of a primary school.

The problem I see is that whilst this dinosaur attitude pertains, there will be no progress on the Israel/Palestine problem. I still cannot think that there will be any great advance - one is never going to see eye to eye with, for example, someone who denies them their very right to live in peace to the extent of calling for them to be wiped off the face of the earth. There has to be some solution short of total resolution that brings peace and stability there.

No - I don't know what. If I had that sort of intellect, I'd be sitting where you are at the time you read this. Sure as hell, rhetoric like my quoted site will do nothing positive.

1st edit - read this to see how corrosive this attitude can be

2 Egyptians Use Shoehorn to Dig Tunnel Under Russian Border - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM

2 Egyptians Use Shoehorn to Dig Tunnel Under Russian Border - NEWS - MOSNEWS.COM: "Two Egyptian citizens have managed to violate the Russian state border by digging a tunnel under the barbed wire fence with a simple shoehorn. After getting lost on the territory of Poland the Egyptians performed the trick for the second time and got back to Russia to face arrest. "

What comment is needed!

A TANGLED WEB: First past the Post

A TANGLED WEB: First past the Post: Looks as if I have a doppelganger out there?
"We all know that we could do a better job than the bunch in power; that’s human nature! But please, please, someone tell me that there are trustworthy politicians somewhere, who will put themselves forward so we can elect a crew who at least can keep their bloody promises to a waiting electorate?"
More stregth to his elbow say I.

The First Post : Return of the failed statesman

The First Post : Return of the failed statesman.
This about sums it up for me. Sad and disgraceful but there should really be enough who were able to see just what a untruthful fraud anything-for-a-result charlatan he really is.
Sad thing is that I do not see anyone - Socialist or Conservative - that stands any chance of returning things where my country has the status it deserves.

What is going on there?

The Neworlens saga rolls on. At the time, I considered it to be such an overwhelming natural event that no sort of planning or real-time rescue operation would have achieved much. Then came stories of clear incompetence and naff protection from levees. I soon realised that I was so far out of the loop on information that it was not possible to have any hard and fast opinion on during- and post-Katrina events. It was also about this time that I came across the vast 9/11 Conspiracy empire and that grabbed most of my spare time (and a lot more since). Here, my interest lies in the way that facts are interpreted and seemingly unconnected events are used to support what seems to be a genuine belief amongst a lot of people that not all is known. Not all written in BLOCK CAPITALS, underlined a couple of times and written in green ink. One of the things I concluded about the flood was that all would be set to rights.

I see America as a nation with vast resources of material, money and sheer human drive towards the achievement of goals. I had always considered that what USA wanted, USA got. Not always by the neatest and most polite way but still, at the end, the aim was met. This came from being lucky enough to have been let loose from the Corporate waistcoat on my American visits but also from working with a US oil company at a time when the British North Sea exploration and recovery was at its height. My favourite line from my VP was “Throw money at it John” when a really tough problem arose. My own government has this money-tossing syndrome (NHS computer service anyone?) but they seem to take the moola directly to the drain without ever pouring it over the problem.

So, I am baffled when I see the TV reports reflecting the state of Katrina-land today. We saw pictures of circumstances that Saddam Hussein might have engineered in Iraq pre-2003. Here, surely, was something big enough for Dubya to make a major impact on his (apparently – I’m not going to get into that discussion) dwindling support. All it needed was money thrown at it with some good supervision. Yes – I have heard of corruption but we knew of the venal nature of the locals just a few days after the water came up so should have been ready to stop recovery money being siphoned off.  I don’t see it as a ‘poor deprived blacks again’ scenario as the failure to do much/anything seems to cut across racial divides. Doubtless, there have been victories somewhere but I saw Neworlens as exactly the situation that America, to my mind, dealt with. Sheer brute force deployed to a clear end game.

I’d like to be able to tie down an opinion and cause for the situation as it is reported today. I reckon other things will get in the way. I’ve just started planning for our 50th Wedding Anniversary in July next year and that should keep me amused. Seems a shame that inhabitants of a great country don’t have a better life though……………..

UN Forces?

Just as the political correctness crowd have changed our Police Force into Police Service, my guest blog indicates to me that we should change UN Forces into UN Services. Don't want any of that nasty old suggestion of force being used do we?

Wonder if the Coffee Onan will visit during his Lebanese jolly?

TODAY'S GUEST BLOG
Just to show what the blind eye does not see

I think he's got it!

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended Aug. 14. Five other Israeli soldiers were killed as they pursued the militants back into Lebanon."We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude.

So, it seems that even Islamic terrorists/leaders of freedom fighters (dual description so as to not offend the bleeding heart-ists), can learn.  Al  I hope is that the forces of law and order can also see the light and react to any threat with the highest possible level of aggression. None of this ‘minimal force’ or ‘negotiation’ rubbish. Hit them hard and hit them often seems to work.

In lieu of blogging

During my enforced absence from the blogging action I sustained myself with trying some creative writing. There are many resources that will assist in this – mainly classes at night school or directed learning by post. I did not think I wanted to go down these routes. After all, I’d written police reports for years, drawn up business proposals and handled complicated business correspondence. My vocabulary seemed adequate.

I chose to write about a group of women Quilters. This is a sub-class of posh ladies who gather together and make quilts. They contain the sort of female that one might find at a Womens’ Institute. For American readers, think Junior League members.
I had an insight into their world as my wife is a Quilter and assiduous attendant at the gatherings of a local coven as well as travelling on visits to other Ladies Who Quilt.
My unique selling point however, was to write about a Quilt group as a gathering of lesbians. The meetings were a cover for their conduct. I saw their association and friendships as the sisterly representation of the lesbian ethos. No nasty physical stuff really. I quite enjoyed drawing up the plot list and characters I thought would be involved. We showed the early work to a selected few whom we thought might see the joke and it went down well. I’m going to continue and might even get into publishing it. It has struck me that the gay boys Brotherhood has penetrated (if I may use that word) the TV soap world but so far no one has chanced their arm with lesbian themes so there might be some interest there.

Where the heck have YOU been?

My period off-air was my own fault for taking up a TalkTalk offer to combine much cheaper telephone calls with free Broadband services. I suppose you can when it works but the response was so great that the TT people could not handle it. They completely fouled up on the transfer, which meant that I was off-air for about a month. I’m still not live but I’m blogging so as to keep up to date with my blether and so that I would not have too much to write when things/if things sorted themselves out.

I suppose the major thing has been Lebanon. What this has demonstrated is just how powerless the world community is to have much of an effect upon regional events. I think the reasons for this are interesting. The great and the good have much to say but fail to recognise just how desperate things are. The entrenched Muslim position is that Israel has no right to be where they are. The extremists even deny the right of the Jews to exist anywhere. Israel claims that the land is rightly theirs, wishes to live in peace and will never again find themselves in a 1935-1945 position. Talking will not change things. My main thought is that Israel, in confronting this basic aim of Palestine and the Arab world in general, has lost the propaganda war where the onlookers think their reaction is non-proportional in respect of the kidnapping of two soldiers.

Just as much try and reason with a homicidal maniac high on drugs. Let us assume that the leaders of the Islamic terrorists do come to some agreement with Israel. They do not have sufficient control over their members to ensure that just a few do not go rogue and continue to fire rockets into Israeli territory. This would provoke a reaction from IDF and the whole thing would be off again.
The attitude of the media is also interesting. They make the maximum use of press briefings from the Israeli side and ask aggressive questions before seemingly rejecting the answers they receive. We do not see any interviews with the terrorist leaders. No questions like “So, Mr Mohammed. What did you expect the Israeli to do when you kidnapped their soldiers?” or “How did you think they would respond to the firing of rockets into their land?” The way in which Muslims demonstrate grief and anger is very demonstrative and provides good images. The damage to Arab villages is very graphic when high explosives strike. We were shown a devastated village that, the Press stated, had been a terrorist stronghold and where there had been some 9 or more IDF deaths. Who can say what damage came from the defenders resisting and which from the attackers advancing? Why do we not see what damage there is in, say, Haifa when over 200 rockets are fired in a day?  Israeli people are far more stoic – can one say dignified? – in the face of death so do not attract the lenses like Arabs.

Still, it cannot be too serious. Our Prime Minister is having a farewell tour of USA. He saw big Arnold and signed a deal with California on global warning. That reminded me of when the small London borough of Ealing declared itself a nuclear-free zone. I suppose they thought the radiation would see the signs and go round them. The wide-mouthed frog was not with him. This relieved her minders of a drunken Scouse rendering of Hasta la vista Baby.

Another Police Complaints report out today. This one was regarding the shooting of an innocent man during an early morning police raid on his home involving 200 officers. Seems it was an accident. The number of police deployed can illustrate the presumed threat and it would be reasonable for high adrenaline levels in the attacking group. The usual background to the discharge of a firearm described as accidental is where the weapon has some fault that allowed or caused a round to be fired without intervention of the weapon handler. All other discharges are negligent. A highly trained officer should be able to avoid negligence. Suggestion seems to be that it was an accident as there was some physical contact between shooter and shot person. That is negligence. So, one more in a series of highly publicised shootings by police expert marksmen and it was all OK, just one of those things. Just how Independent is the Independent complaint system? Another thing that was revealed was that the police intruders were shouting “Armed Police” but could not be heard as the sound was muffled behind their gas masks. Why did the police not know from their training that they were silenced in this manner? Where is the legal responsibility if their required warnings cannot be heard?

Another 3 soldiers killed in ambush in Afghanistan. You remember – the place where the Defence Secretary said he hoped that not a shot would be fired in anger? It is also the place where there is a long tradition of rebel tribesmen inflicting heavy losses on the British army. In Iraq, the terrorists resort to roadside bombs that remove them from real danger, in the latest attack the Afghans were confident enough to confront a convoy of 12 armoured vehicles. The convoy was itself a symptom of how marginal things are. We have forts in Indian country where some 50 or so soldiers live in a village and use it as a base for patrols.

The normal re-supply by road has been deemed too dangerous and helicopters should be used. Except that we do not have enough helicopters. I’m sure that to Afghan eyes a helicopter is just a fatter and more valued target than an armoured vehicle. We do have some Apache attack choppers and one was called in at the latest attack. It killed one tribesman so either we need some better pilots or the simple peasant has camouflage talent sufficient to beat the very expensive and sophisticated weapons systems one would expect in a machine designed to find and kill the enemy. I listen to the morning news with some dread lest I hear a report that the assassins have got into one of the forts and wiped it off the map.

I have a resolution to the TalkTalk broadband saga. I got hold of a Customer Services telephone number and, after the obligatory 30-minute wait on hold, spoke to someone who spoke English I could understand. Reviewing my notes on her screen, she admitted that I was not likely to be connected until late August and all the talk of routers and software in the post was a ruse. We agreed this telling of falsehoods was reprehensible. I had no interest in a relationship where the service centre agents lied – not just one but three different people had told me the ‘in the post’ lie. I got the number of the department that could take my cancellation of the agreement.

This hides behind another (surely designed to annoy) set of options. Make a wrong choice and, bingo, you are cut off. I got the selection right at the second go. Then followed 51 minutes of “Sorry for the delay. Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold” If they are sorry for the delay, they should do something about it by getting more lines and extra staff. Ditto if they truly feel the call is important. I can understand why there might be a shortage of staff in this department as the agents are in the heavyweight fighter class. That is heavy as in sumo wrestlers and not boxing.

The lady I won in the raffle was very correct but quite keen to gain the initiative. An early exchange came when I mentioned a ‘router’ as an item I expected. I was briskly told it was not a ‘router’ but was a ‘modem’. I responded that to serve her pedantic demands and to save confusion I would refer to it as a small box made of what appeared to be black plastic with connecters and wires that one joined to one’s computer to get a internet connection. I found pleasure in making frequent reference to the router/modem in these terms. My dragon then went on to tell me that my connection was live. I asked how a connection could be said to exist if something were only attached at one end. I understood live in this context to be like a electric current. I received no shock. The conversation then descended into the realms of a Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch. This is a dead connection loomed. I finally tired of her waspish responses and said I wanted to abandon the whole TalkTalk saga. “That will need a £70 cancellation fee” said she. I queried exactly what it was that cost £70 that had to be done to cancel something that had never existed. She offered me a contact to whom I could write for an explanation. I told her TalkTalk would get their money. I would get the benefit of telling anyone who would listen, just what a load of rubbish was TalkTalk and their backer Carphone Warehouse. So – dear reader; be aware. Be very aware. They cannot deliver what they promise (TV programme 2 August), their telephone administration system is rubbish and agents are allowed to lie to cover their deficiencies.

I think it would be a good piece of legislation for call centres to be run by a rival company. I am sure that Apple could run the service centre for Microsoft with a great deal more honesty and confidence. Sky or Orange should take over the TalkTalk operation. They would then respond much better to complaints.

The very hot weather seems to have moved away. Expert local opinion is that the rain we had was not really sufficient and the crops are sure to be below par. Planting for winter wheat and barley cannot start as the ground is too dry for the seeds to germinate. The local farmers try so very hard that it is sad to see the problems they have. Not many latest registration Range Rovers around here. The dog enjoyed the heat as we changed the beach/country regime to beach every day. She still got the exercise swimming and did not overheat so dangerously as she had done up on the hill. My personal thermostat has failed; the tropical heat that fazed me not at all would surely kill me now.

The main p.c. over-cooked itself. The power pack melted. This is being written on one of the laptops and the iMac has come back into play for correspondence. Delivery time for a new pack is in the TalkTalk league – five or six days. I just hope that the cleft in the messenger’s stick does not penetrate the packaging. I am told that it used to be possible during the afternoon to write a postcard invitation to take tea that day and it would get there in time. So much for progress!

Slowly, gradually, painfully, things seem to be coming back towards normal. The ‘proper’ p.c. is back with a double-size fan assembly and it is certainly much cooler. After some very heated discussions with TalkTalk, I have the Migration Code I need for BT to take me on. I still think it is strange that I have a line I paid for, for which I pay a rental, where I may choose my Internet supplier but where I have to obtain authority from another to decide what is connected to that line.

So – we have what is described as a Cease Fire. Israel will remain in Lebanon until the multi-nation force gets set up and deploys. Not much chance of anything going wrong there then! The cheese eating surrender monkeys of La Belle France were well to the fore with the offer of 200 engineers. This in a force destined to be 15,000 strong. You can bet your apples that the engineers would not go anywhere or try anything military unless guarded by a strong infantry presence.

I was amazed at the so-called ‘friendly’ Muslim community warning us that the terrorist violence in UK was likely to continue until we changed our attitudes and policies to Arab nations. If this is not supporting the terrorists, what is? They have the same relationship to the murderers as Sinn Fein had to the Provisional IRA. Shagger Prescott has met with them so we will have sold the pass there then. They are all about restitution of the Muslim empire as it was in it’s heyday so a whole swathe of the Middle East from Turkey to mid-Spain will have to adopt Sharia. They do not care how they get it but that is their aim – they claim with Holy backing.