The Shadowland Journal

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:28:00 +0000

The cover of L'Express on November 26 is "Sarkozy: The Obama Obsession"

The cover of Newseek International two months before was "Sarkozy's Obama Complex"

THE IRAQ INQUIRY: BRITISH HEADLINES

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:06:00 +0000

THE INDEPENDENT:

Officials knew WMD evidence was tainted

Intelligence against Iraq used by Blair on eve of invasion had only arrived days before, civil servant tells inquiry

By Michael Savage, Political Correspondent

Intelligence revealing that Saddam Hussein's WMD had been dismantled was received by the Government just days before Tony Blair sent troops into the country, senior officials have admitted.
Ministers were also given repeated warnings that intelligence gathered on Iraq's weapons programmes was unreliable. However, Mr Blair told the Commons that Saddam Hussein did have chemical and biological weapons as he prepared the way for the invasion in March 2003. ... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/officials-knew-wmd-evidence-was-tainted-1827616.html

THE DAILY MAIL:

What an insult to the dead: Brown accused of new Iraq cover-up as he 'blocks' release of incriminating evidence

By TIM SHIPMAN
 Last updated at 12:21 AM on 26th November 2009

Gordon Brown was accused of engineering a new Iraq cover-up yesterday by handing Whitehall departments the right to block the release of secret documents about the war.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg ambushed the Prime Minister in the Commons, angrily accusing him of trying to 'suffocate' the Chilcot Inquiry.
Relatives of the 179 servicemen who died in Iraq are desperate for the inquiry to finally uncover the truth and apportion blame.....http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230993/Brown-accused-suffocating-Iraq-inquiry-blocking-incriminating-evidence.html

THE DAILY EXPRESS:

FORMER PM TONY BLAIR ‘TOLD BEFORE WAR THAT IRAQ HAD NO NUCLEAR ARMS’

Former PM Tony Blair ‘told before war that Iraq had no nuclear arms’
Thursday November 26,2009

By Cyril Dixon

BRITAIN invaded Iraq just 10 days after ministers were told that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), an inquiry heard yesterday.

Foreign Office staff warned that the Iraqi dictator’s nuclear programme had been dismantled and there was no evidence he had chemical or biological weapons.
But despite the briefings, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered the troops to join the American-led offensive six years ago.
Sir William Ehrman, Foreign Office director of international security at the time, said ministers were repeatedly warned intelligence on Iraq’s weapons was “patchy”.
He gave Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the conflict a list of briefings.
In April 2000, the picture was described as “limited to chemical weapons”, in May 2001 the knowledge of WMDs and missiles was “patchy” and in March 2002 the intelligence was “sporadic and patchy”. In August 2002 a briefing noted that “we know very little” about Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons since late 1998, and in September 2002 the intelligence “remained limited”.
Sir William said: “We did, I think on March 10, get a report that chemical weapons might have remained disassembled and Saddam hadn’t yet ordered their assembly.
“There was also a suggestion that Iraq might lack warheads capable of effective dispersal of agents.”...http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/142508/Former-PM-Tony-Blair-told-before-war-that-Iraq-had-no-nuclear-arms-

Is Comedy The Future of News?

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:50:00 +0000

Newsweek: The Decade in 7 Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:42:00 +0000

Congratulations to Sarah Frank and Andrew Bast for a great job on this.

The Onion's "Modern Warfare 3"

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:07:00 +0000

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

(BN) Sarkozy's `Grand Loan' Pits EADS Against Peugeot, Safran in Fight for Cash

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:36:00 +0000

Bloomberg News, sent from my iPhone.

Sarkozy 'Grand Loan' of Up to EU50 Billion to Boost Industry

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to spend between 25 billion euros ($37.3 billion) and 50 billion euros to reverse France's declining industrial competitiveness has triggered a race for a piece of the pie.

European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. wants a share of what Sarkozy calls his "grand loan" to develop helicopters. Safran SA is promoting more efficient jet-engines. PSA Peugeot Citroen is pushing a plug-in car. STMicroelectronics NV proposed fourth-generation cellular networks and telemedicine services.

"Everybody wants a share, so there needs to be a simple selection criteria to avoid a scrum which would end with political decisions going in all directions," said Michel Didier, a member of Prime Minister Francois Fillon's Council of Economic Advisers and chairman of the Paris-based COE-Rexecode research institute. "Without a business plan for each project, we'll have a bit of everything, and deficits all around."

Sarkozy's aim echoes former President Charles de Gaulle's development of nuclear energy, computer technology and the aerospace industry by financing research and development. From 2000 to 2007, France's share of global exports fell by an annual average of 3.5 percent, ranking it 25th among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The government's 2010 budget estimates public spending will account for about 56 percent of gross domestic product.

The "grand loan" will range between 25 billion euros and 50 billion euros, a Sarkozy aide, who declined to be named, told Bloomberg today, confirming reports in several newspapers including Le Monde and Le Figaro. It's not yet clear how much of the money will go to the private sector and how much will have to be paid back.

That will add to a 1.43 trillion-euro debt load, which the government expects to reach 90 percent of GDP in 2012. France is planning to sell a record 175 billion euros of notes and bonds, net of buybacks, next year.

Credibility at Risk

France may "lose all its credibility on international markets" unless the constitution is amended to require deficit reduction in the next decade, said Jacques Delpla, a member of the committee studying how the fund should be raised and spent. Its recommendations to Sarkozy are due this month.

France's benchmark 10-year bond yielded 3.63 percent at 3:30 p.m. in Paris today, 2 basis points higher than the Dutch and Finnish government bonds, while it was 3 basis points lower three months ago. That suggests investors have favored other euro-denominated debt with the same AAA credit rating assigned by Standard & Poor's.

Biofuels

Former Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard, who co-heads the committee working on the proposal, said in an Oct. 29 interview that possible uses for the money include developing new aircraft and electric cars, and research on nanotechnologies and biofuels. France can't afford much more than 35 billion euros without putting its creditworthiness at risk, he said.

In a Nov. 2 editorial in Le Monde newspaper, 63 lawmakers allied with Sarkozy called for a loan of up to 100 billion euros over five to 10 years.

French business lobbies, the CGPME and the Groupe des Federations Industrielles, have appealed for government help exceeding 100 billion euros, according to proposals posted on their Web sites. Their plans include covering the country with "very high" speed communication networks, developing renewable energies and upgrading the electricity network.

Sarkozy said in an Oct. 15 interview with Le Figaro that aerospace, medical research, universities and small businesses may benefit from the financing. He is following the plan's development through a team led by former Treasury head Xavier Musca, his chief economic adviser.

Electric Cars

The loan "should be used to reduce energy consumption in buildings to save energy that will be used for future electric cars," Gilles Vermot Desroches, sustainable development senior vice president at Schneider Electric SA, said in an interview. He called for investment in solar energies, small wind-power generators, and infrastructure to recharge electric vehicles. "We can't afford to miss the train in new renewable energies."

Paris-based Peugeot, Europe's second-largest carmaker, wants to develop "plug-in" gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, spokesman Jean-Marc Sarret said.

"Among the many economic sectors that could benefit from the support of this loan, the aeronautics, space, and defense industry mustn't be forgotten," Louis Gallois, chief executive officer of EADS, which is based in Paris and Munich, told the economic affairs committee of the National Assembly on Sept. 29.

France's grand loan should help it develop next generation helicopters, Gallois said. EADS's Eurocopter unit said Oct. 22 that unit sales slumped 70 percent in the first nine months from a year earlier as demand for civil aircraft declined.

Planes, Rockets

Jean-Paul Herteman, the chief executive of Paris-based Safran SA, which makes airplane engines and electronic equipment, told Les Echos newspaper that 2 billion euros would help the industry develop more efficient planes, rockets and helicopters.

At least 3 billion euros would be needed to develop the biotechnology industry, improve cooperation between public and private research, promote telemedicine and help medical- equipment makers, Christian Lajoux, who is chairman of French drug company association LEEM and president of Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA's French unit, said in an interview.

The government financing will help accelerate projects "because it decreases their risk profile," Loic Lietar, head of technology alliances, acquisitions and strategic planning at STMicroelectronics, said in an interview. "The whole industry will get aligned much faster than in a normal market economy."

To contact the reporters on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fbeaupuy@bloomberg.net

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Shadowland: Big Oil's (and Dick Cheney's) Heart of Darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:19:00 +0000

The convictions handed down by a French court this week against arms dealers, influence peddlers, and former government officials, including a son of the late president François Mitterrand, expose a vivid picture of the world in which Dick Cheney used to do business when he was the head of Halliburton in the 1990s. The case did not touch on the former vice president's activities directly, and he is not implicated in any alleged wrongdoing. But now that a verdict has been reached in this nine-year-old French case, I expect the door will be open to investigations touching many corners of this fetid world of corruption....(more)

"Hezbollah's Madoff"

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:15:00 +0000

Monday, November 2, 2009

Hezbollah in the Larger Scheming of Things

In the early days of last September, Ibrahim Amin delivered a scorcher. The editor-in-chief of al Akhbar, a leading left-leaning broadsheet whose sympathies for Hezbollah are as visceral as they are principled, wagged his caress-worn finger at the Party of God. It was the surest sign yet that the ululating faux pas involving Mr. Salah Ezziddine had indeed the makings of a full-blown scandal.

On the surface of this man’s sin squirmed a group of embarrassing revelations: the mysterious two days and nights Salah spent with Hezbollah before he was sent on his way to declare his bankruptcy to the Lebanese state; the inconvenient detail that this glaringly pious businessman was not the Madoff of the Shiites, but the Madoff of Hezbollah’s Shiites, a community whose blind faith in him stemmed directly from its blind faith in the Party; the absurdly high 40, 50, even 80% returns on dodgy speculative projects that spoke of sloth and greed and gluttony afflicting a sect which still liked to think of itself as deprived; and, of course, Hezbollah’s indulgence in business practices that mocked not a few teachings by Islam....(more)

"The Turkish-Israeli strategic partnership is no longer in crisis, but has essentially ended"

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:06:00 +0000

Turkey’s foreign policy flip

Oct 14th, 2009 by MESH

From Michael Reynolds

The past several days have witnessed not one but two momentous, even stunning, developments in Turkish foreign policy that are reverberating through the region. Both are the work of Ahmet Davutoğlu, a former university professor who became Turkish foreign minister last year. Before that, Davutoğlu (shown on far right with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem) served for several years as the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy advisor. In a manner perhaps befitting a university professor, Davutoğlu has aspired to give Turkish foreign policy a comprehensive and consistent conceptual basis. He laid out his vision in his book Strategic Depth: Turkey’s International Position (Stratejik Derinlik: Türkiye’nin Uluslararası Konumu). According to this vision, whereas in the past the Turkish Republic followed a policy of quasi-isolation and self-imposed quarantine from its neighbors, today it should instead seek to take advantage of the cultural and historical links it shares with other countries in its region. As foreign minister, Davutoğlu has been working tirelessly to put his stamp on Turkish foreign policy....(more)

Turkey-Iran ties grow, as do question marks » Kuwait Times Website

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:39:00 +0000

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NzkxNDQ5ODg0

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Banana Republics Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:10:00 +0000

Nicaragua protesters chase off US ambassador http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15884/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=MRBOhJck

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BBC News | Angola arms traffickers convicted

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:59:00 +0000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/europe/8328314.stm?

A fascinating saga with some interesting links to the States. Watch
this space..

Reuters - Obama, Sarkozy discussed Iran situation: Elysee

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:11:00 +0000

A Post-Script to "Sarkozy's Obama Complex":

Obama, Sarkozy discussed Iran situation: Elysee

Saturday, Oct 24, 2009 4:33PM UTC

PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy discussed Iran's nuclear program over the phone on Saturday, Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

"The two heads of state noted that they share exactly the same views..." the statement said.

Western powers are scrutinizing Iran's atomic work amid concerns that Iran might be trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says all its atomic work is peaceful.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:04:00 +0000

Parliament speaker: West trying to cheat Iran

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15884/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=2zXRVS8q

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(BN) Pakistani Jihadists Adopt Commando Tactics to Gain Psychological Advantage

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Bloomberg News, sent from my iPhone.

Pakistani Jihadists' Tactics Seek Psychological Edge

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's Taliban and its allies are turning to commando raids on police and soldiers, on top of suicide bombings, as a tactic to convince Pakistanis the government can't contain them.

Guerrillas firing assault rifles and throwing hand grenades stormed three police complexes yesterday in Lahore, the country's second-largest city, and militants exploded two bombs in northwestern Pakistan. Six major operations in a week have killed more than 130 troops, police officers and civilians.

"There seems to be a new strategy by terrorists in recent attacks," said Rana Sanaullah, law minister of Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital. Attacking and taking hostages is meant "to get maximum TV coverage and make their demands."

At least 26 people were killed in yesterday's attacks on a federal police headquarters and two police training centers in Lahore, plus in bombings of a police station in the town of Kohat and a government building in Peshawar.

While suicide bombings have killed three-quarters of those who died in the past week, most of the Pakistani media's focus has been on the commando assaults yesterday and the 22-hour siege involving Taliban-affiliated attackers this past weekend at Pakistan's army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

After years of relying on bomb attacks within Pakistan, jihadist groups have made at least four commando-style assaults this year, two in the past week.

Mumbai Raid

The raids echo last November's three-day attack on Mumbai, India's business capital, when 10 gunmen killed 166 people at a railway station, restaurant and two luxury hotels. India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group and halted peace talks with its nuclear-armed neighbor.

The more complex attacks in Pakistan show the groups "are trying to demonstrate their prowess and appear larger than life," said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence-consulting firm.

Jihadists did use commando assaults in Lahore in March, against a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team and at a police academy that was attacked again yesterday. The tactic has been revived in an effort to fight back after the army drove the Taliban out of the Swat Valley in July and a missile strike killed their top commander, Baitullah Mehsud, in August, Bokhari said by telephone from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

The week-long spate of attacks is in part an effort to demoralize Pakistan's security forces as the army has deployed what it says are 28,000 troops around the stronghold of Mehsud's Taliban faction, in the mountainous region of Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

Attacking the Army

The government said this week it has given the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, authority to begin an offensive against Mehsud's fighters, and warplanes have been pounding their positions in the area.

The jihadists boosted the perception of their power through public shock over their Oct. 10 assault on the seat of the army, Pakistan's most powerful institution, said Mehdi Hassan, the dean of the School of Media and Communications at Lahore's Beaconhouse National University.

The commando attacks are "part of a well-planned psychological war campaign" and have helped create "a national atmosphere of crisis," said Hassan. The groups are creating uncertainty in the country of 180 million, partly because of more than two dozen TV news channels that sprang up under the army-led regime of former President Pervez Musharraf, he said in a telephone interview.

The channels "compete intensely for any breaking news" and "any sense of crisis," said Owais Ali, secretary general of the Pakistan Press Foundation, which trains journalists. "It's like the first three days of coverage of 9/11 in America, only imagine it going on for seven years," he said in a telephone interview from Karachi.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:51:00 +0000

Italy denies paying off Taliban in Afghanistan http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_15860/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=DVigwbMs

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The French Discover Sarkozy's Obama Complex

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:28:00 +0000

Newsweek titre sur le "complexe d'Obama" de Sarkozy

lesindiscrets.com - ‎Il y a 1 heure ‎

L'hebdo américain Newsweek consacre son édition internationale de cette semaine à Nicolas Sarkozy. Ou plutôt au "complexe d'Obama de Sarkozy". ...

Sarkozy nourrit un complexe envers Obama, selon Newsweek

Le Parisien - ‎Il y a 1 heure ‎

Comme son homologue américain, Nicolas Sarkozy éprouve un besoin viscéral «d'être à l'avant de la scène», estime l'auteur de l'article, le journaliste ...

Nicolas Sarkozy souffre-t-il d'un «complexe d'Obama»?

20minutes.fr - ‎Il y a 11 heures ‎

DIPLOMATIE - C'est qu'affirme l'hebdomadaire américain «Newsweek», qui consacre sa prochaine couverture à la question... Quand Newsweek joue les Freud, ...

Nicolas Sarkozy et Barack Obama au sommet de Pittsburgh, le 25 ...

TV 5 - ‎Il y a 16 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

Sarkozy souffrirait d'un "complexe Obama"

SFR Info - ‎Il y a 17 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire Newsweek estime qu'il ya un "manque de complicité" entre les deux présidents. L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une ...

Le "complexe d'Obama" de Sarkozy

Europe1 - ‎Il y a 17 heures ‎

Newsweek va faire cette semaine sa Une sur le présupposé "manque de complicité" entre les deux présidents. L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre ...

Newsweek trouve à Sarkozy un «complexe d'Obama»

Le Figaro - ‎Il y a 18 heures ‎

Les deux chefs d'Etat «veulent être aux avant-postes de chaque initiative», note le magazine américain qui dresse parallèlement un portrait plutôt élogieux ...

Sarkozy souffre-t-il du "complexe d'Obama"?

7sur7 - ‎Il y a 19 heures ‎

L'équipe Obama-Sarkozy pourrait faire des étincelles internationales si elle était plus soudée, d'après Newsweek. Pourtant il ne semble pas manquer grand ...

Newsweek titre sur le "complexe d'Obama" de N. Sarkozy

RTBF - ‎Il y a 19 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

"Newsweek" titre sur "le complexe Obama" de Nicolas Sarkozy

Le Blog de Jean-Marc Morandini - ‎Il y a 19 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

Newsweek fait sa Une sur le "complexe d'Obama" de Sarkozy

RTL Info - ‎Il y a 20 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

Newsweek fait sa Une sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

TV 5 - ‎Il y a 20 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

Newsweek fait sa Une sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

AFP - ‎Il y a 20 heures ‎

WASHINGTON — L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

Newsweek fait sa Une sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

Le Matin Online - ‎Il y a 20 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

Newsweek fait sa Une sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

24 heures - ‎Il y a 20 heures ‎

WASHINGTON | L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

Newsweek fait sa Une sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait ...

Le Monde - ‎Il y a 20 heures ‎

L'hebdomadaire américain Newsweek du 5 octobre fait sa Une européenne sur Nicolas Sarkozy, titrant sur le "complexe d'Obama" dont souffrirait le président ...

Jalousie d'Obama

L'Express - ‎30 sept. 2009‎

Bon, puisque les réactions aux blogs sur l'affaire Polanski deviennent un peu trop hargneuses, je vous propose un sujet qui appelle sérénité et consensus ...

Shadowland on the "Butt Bomber"

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:10:00 +0000

The New TNT

New studies of suicide bombers say that most have three important qualities in common: testosterone, a narrative fantasy, and a desire to make theater.

September 29, 2009

Al Qaeda has made a horrifying—if bizarre—advance in terrorist tradecraft. As recently reported by my friend Frank Gardner, security correspondent for the BBC, the suicide bomber who tried unsuccessfully to blow up Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism chief in August actually had the explosives inside his body. It's possible the bomb—which was made from materials that wouldn't set off metal detectors—was swallowed or stitched into him in some fashion, but according to one usually authoritative Saudi official, the explosives had been inserted in the terrorist's rectum.

WARNING: Very Graphic Video of Bombing Aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I am posting this because the sequence that begins 8:45 minutes into the report shows the results of the attempt to kill a Saudi official with an "internal bomb," and may be of interest to people seriously interested in the effects of such explosives. But it shows the body of the would-be assassin in graphic detail, so be warned.

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:46:00 +0000

FBI chief sees no imminent threat from Zazi case

Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:31pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday said there was no imminent threat related to the case of an Afghan-born man charged with plotting a bombing attack in the United States.

Najibullah Zazi, indicted by a grand jury on a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and was ordered held in prison without bail.

"We do not believe there is an imminent threat," Mueller said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. The investigation was continuing, he said.

Prosecutors allege Zazi took a bomb-making course at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, had bomb-making notes on his laptop computer, and acquired bomb-making materials similar to those used in the 2005 London attacks, buying acetone and hydrogen peroxide at beauty supply stores....(more)

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:53:00 +0000

The Nemazee Nemesis Grows...

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:44:00 +0000

Not good news for a major Democratic Party fund raiser..,

http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/nyfo092509.htm

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Colorado Man as Accomplice of Hassan Nemazee in Bank Fraud Ponzi Scheme

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced the arrest today of SHAHIN KASHANCHI in connection with a scheme to defraud Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank") and HSBC Bank USA, N.A. ("HSBC"). According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court and other documents:

KASHANCHI is the brother-in-law of HASSAN NEMAZEE, who was arrested on August 25, 2009, and subsequently indicted for defrauding Citibank, HSBC, and Bank of America, N.A., of more than $290 million in loan proceeds. NEMAZEE's scheme depended on his use of fraudulent documents, including phony account statements and phony correspondence bearing forged signatures. These fraudulent documents were designed, in substance and in part, to convince the various banks to whom he submitted the documents that NEMAZEE had assets totaling hundreds of millions of dollars and that he had placed many millions of dollars of United States Treasury securities in certain specified accounts as collateral for the loans from the various banks.

In fact, neither those collateral accounts nor the hundreds of millions of dollars in claimed assets existed. As alleged in the Nemazee Indictment, NEMAZEE made partial repayments on his borrowings from Bank of America with proceeds of his fraud on Citibank, made partial repayment on his borrowing from Citibank with proceeds of his fraud on Bank of America, and repaid Citibank $74.9 million with proceeds of his fraud on HSBC.

Many of the fraudulent documents submitted by NEMAZEE to Citibank and HSBC were created by SHAHIN KASHANCHI, in consultation with NEMAZEE. Indeed, based on e-mail traffic between KASHANCHI and NEMAZEE summarized in the Complaint, KASHANCHI was regularly producing what KASHANCHI referred to as the "normal quarterly statements" for one of the non-existent collateral accounts, among other things. KASHANCHI would simply create phony account statements designed to look like real account statements, but bearing account numbers for accounts that did not exist and reflecting balances that purported to establish NEMAZEE's great wealth.

For example, on April 15, 2009, KASHANCHI sent by email to NEMAZEE a fake account statement for a non-existent account, reflecting that the account held $621,914,043 worth of United States Treasury securities and cash in the amount of $3,976,543. NEMAZEE in turn submitted this account statement to Citibank.

Similarly, in connection with NEMAZEE's efforts to obtain money from HSBC, on July 21, 2009, KASHANCHI sent NEMAZEE an e-mail in which KASHANCHI stated that he was sending "the new HN [Hassan Nemazee] Collateral + HSBC account." Attached to that e-mail was a fake account statement for an account which NEMAZEE had represented to HSBC held over $125 million in United States Treasury securities that had been pledged as collateral for the line of credit from HSBC. The phony account statement bore the indication "Hassan Nemazee Collateral + HSBC," and KASHANCHI's file-name for the phony account statement was "Hassan's Statement Collateral + HSBC 200908."

KASCHANCHI also assisted NEMAZEE in NEMAZEE's submission of fraudulent correspondence to banks. For example, on August 11, 2009, representatives of Citibank told NEMAZEE that he needed to produce written verification of his collateral for the Citibank loans, which collateral was purportedly being held in an account at Pershing LLC. The Citibank represntatives specified that the verification would have to be "an original letter on Pershing stationary [sic] signed by an authorized representative of Pershing." On August 13, NEMAZEE and KASCHANCHI exchanged e-mails arranging to talk the next day. On August 14, KASCHANCHI sent NEMAZEE an e-mail in which KASHANCHI stated in part: "Here is a try. Looks good from my end. . . . Compare it to an original if you have it." Attached to that email was a piece of fake Pershing letterhead stationery, listing as Pershing's address and telephone number an address and telephone number associated with a Manhattan-based "virtual office" that NEMAZEE himself had established and bearing the name of an actual Pershing LLC employee. As a result, in the event anyone made an effort to contact that Pershing representative, they would in fact be contacting a telephone number assigned to NEMAZEE himself, and not any financial institution. Later that same day, KASCHANCHI sent NEMAZEE two different versions of the same phony stationery.

On August 19, 2009, a representative of Citibank received a letter, on the phony letterhead stationery, purportedly signed by the Pershing LLC employee and verifying that NEMAZEE's collateral account had "U.S. Treasury Securities totaling $85,853,751.00 as of 8/17/09 that are held in custody by Pershing LLC as collateral for the benefit of Citibank." In reality, there was no such account, there was no such collateral, and the signature was a forgery.

KASAHANCHI, 46, currently resides in Telluride, Colorado. He is charged with two counts of bank fraud, each of which carries a maximum prison term of 30 years and a maximum fine of $1,000,000 or twice the gain or loss resulting from the crime.

KASHANCHI is expected to be presented later today in federal court in Grand Junction, Colorado, before United States Magistrate Judge GUDRUN RICE.

Mr. BHARARA praised the investigative work of the FBI. Mr. BHARARA said that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant United States Attorneys JOHN M. HILLEBRECHT and DANIEL W. LEVY are in charge of the prosecution.

The charge and allegations contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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Gut Bombs? A Terrifying Prospect

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:08:00 +0000

A very disturbing report from my friend Frank Gardner at the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/middle_east/8276016.stm

BBC News | Fears over 'internal' terror bomb

By Frank Gardner
BBC security correspondent

Security and intelligence experts are deeply worried by a new development in suicide bombing, the BBC has learned.

It has emerged that an al-Qaeda bomber who died last month while trying to blow up a Saudi prince in Jeddah had hidden the explosives inside his body.

Only the attacker died, but it is feared that the new development could be copied by others.

Experts say it could have implications for airport security, rendering traditional metal detectors "useless".

Last month's bombing left people wondering how one of the most wanted al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia could get so close to the prince in charge of counter-terrorism that he was able to blow himself up in the same room.

Western forensic investigators think they have the answer, and it is worrying them profoundly.

Peter Neuman of Kings College London says the case will be studied intensively, and that there are "tremendous implications for airport security with the potential of making it even more complicated to get on to your plane".

"If it really is true that the metal detectors couldn't detect this person's hidden explosive device, that would mean that the metal detectors as they currently exist in airports are pretty much useless," he said.

The bomber was a Saudi al-Qaeda fugitive who said he wanted to give himself up to the prince in person.

The prince took him at his word and gave him safe passage to his palace.

But there, once he got next to his target, the bomb inside him was detonated.

Miraculously the prince survived with minor injuries, but footage emerging this week shows a sizeable crater in the concrete floor and the bomber's body blown in half.

It is believed the force of the blast went downwards which is why only the bomber died.

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Zazi: Looking more like a Snafu...

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:37:00 +0000

September 24, 2009

New York Police Official in Terror Unit Is Removed

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and AL BAKER

The New York Police Department has removed a senior official from one of its two sometimes competing antiterrorism units, after it played a role in disrupting a sensitive federal terrorism investigation, current and former police officials said on Wednesday. He was replaced by a top official from the other unit.

The investigation was disrupted two weeks ago when detectives from one of the units, the Intelligence Division, sought assistance from a Queens imam who then alerted the central suspect in the case to the inquiry.

The transfers, which removed one official from the Intelligence Division and replaced him with another from the Counterterrorism Bureau, came in recent days amid intense activity in the case. Federal agents and police detectives have been hunting through New York City and other places for operatives in a suspected Qaeda bomb plot...

The effort to enlist the imam and its impact have come after a long history of tensions and rivalry between the police and the F.B.I. And while relations between the two agencies have improved, the creation of the Counterterrorism Bureau and the expansion of the Intelligence Division after the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, brought new tensions, with a rivalry between the two antiterrorism units.

While the investigation’s disruption upset some officials in Washington, as the inquiry progressed they said they had come to view the issue as an unfortunate, if unintentional, misstep.

The official transferred out of the Intelligence Division, Deputy Inspector Paul Ciorra, was the intelligence collection coordinator. He has been moved to the Trial Division, which oversees administrative hearings for police officers accused of misconduct. His union leader, Roy T. Richter, noted that the shift would not have been made if he had been transferred for disciplinary reasons.

One former government official with knowledge of the matter said there was no indication that the deputy inspector had done anything wrong and that the decision to approach the imam had been made at the highest levels of the Intelligence Division. The unit is led by David Cohen, a former top C.I.A. official. The former official said the deputy inspector was moved to absorb the blame.

Inspector Ciorra, who declined to comment about the transfer, was praised by police colleagues, and by officers in the New York Army National Guard, in which he serves as a major....(more)

The Zazi Case: Disruption or Snafu? Or Both?

noreply@blogger.com (Christopher Dickey) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:21:00 +0000

New York-Denver Terror Investigation Widens
Wed, 23 Sep 2009

The investigation into a possible bomb plot involving three men in New York and Denver is reportedly widening to include at least a half-dozen individuals in the U.S., Pakistan and elsewhere. Meanwhile, federal counterterrorism authorities have alerted local police around the country about terrorists’ efforts to attack entertainment centers, hotels and stadiums. To discuss how best to secure a large American city like New York, and whether local and federal authorities are working together effectively, is Chris Dickey , Middle East regional editor for Newsweek and author of " Securing the City: Inside America’s Best Counterterror Force — The NYPD ." We also speak to Lydia Khalil , a former counterterrorism analyst at the NYPD. She’s currently a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://mediasearch.wnyc.org/m/26547364/new-york-denver-terror-investigation-widens.htm