July 2006
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I am always on the lookout for radio related stories in the popular press and two such items caught my attention recently. In early May there was a feature article in the Daily Mail on the subject of what they referred to as "Electronic smog", i.e the electro magnetic fields given off by electrical equipment of all kinds and supposed by some self appointed "experts" as being injurious to human health although there doesn't seem to be any firm scientific data on this. Nevertheless it is always brought up by the "NIMBY" - Not In My Back Yard - brigade when they want to stop the construction of a cellphone mast, power line, electricity substation transformer, or whatever. However, a letter in the Mail of 15-May from a reader in Miton Keynes brought up a more practical, measurable aspect of the problem. He writes "Radio hams have been aware for years of the gradual increase in man-generated "electronic smog" throughout the radio spectrum. The main culprits are switch mode power supplies......used in satellite boxes and TV sets....... In the 1960s the radio spectrum was quiet but now the electronic smog has increased out of all proportion". Now I don't suppose that more than about one in ten thousand Mail readers had the faintest idea of what he was going on about but the writer gets my agreement. I suppose it is the almost universal use of the "Class 2 constuction" of domestic electricals that is at the root of the problem, i.e. the outer case is made of a plastic insulating material, no metal to form a screen over the circuitry and the use of a two-core mains supply cord without an earth means there is no way of grounding any screening even if it were to be fitted and the lack of an earth connection also rules out an effective L - C line filter which would go a long way in preventing interference being fed into the mains. He might also have mentioned those "low energy" lamb bulbs which are always being promoted as being better for the enviroment than Mr Edision's traditional filament lamp. These low energy lamps are compact fluorescents and are claimed to produce several times the amount of light than the older variety for a given input power. They also produce a great deal of radio interference, not too bad at domestic broadcast frequencies but quite fierce over the shortwave bands. I think the problem arises from the circuit needed to limit the current through any lamp working on this principle. When they first appeared a couple of decades ago compact fluorescents used a scaled down version of the iron-cored ballast choke used in conventional linear fluorescent lamps for many years which was both heavy and relatively expensive and produced little interference other than that which always results from passing an electric current through a gas but the modern ones use an electronic ballast, presumably a triac or other switching device which is turned on and off rapidly and it is this which produces the wide-band RF noise. I heard some Member of Parliament say recently that the use of compact fluorescents should be positively encouraged because of their high efficiency and that indeed, filament lamps should have a massive tax imposed upon them so they are no cheaper and that this would mean savings in energy, lower running costs, less greenhouse gas emissions and so on, yadda yadda yadda! To which I say, "No it wouldn't"!. If everyone converted to compact fluorescents not only would there be so much interference that use of shortwave radio would be well nigh impossible after sunset but the power companies would increase the cost of electricity to the consumer to offset the lower consumption because their primary function is to make money for their shareholders.
The other piece concerning radio which caught my eye was a letter in the Daily Telegraph of 7-June which was a comment on the report published a few days earlier on the events of 7/7 last year when the long expected Islamic Terror attack took place on the public transport system in Londonistan, sorry, London. The report made mention of the communication problems which were encountered in the aftermath of the bomb explosions. The letter, from a Mr. Richard Biddulph of Surrey, says, "It strikes me that radio amateurs could have helped in the July 7 emergency by providing point-to-point communications. There are thousands of them with portable, battery-operated transceivers who provide such a service on a voluntary basis regularly. They have a dedicated organisation" - and there then follows what I am sure must be a typographical error - "the Radio Animator's Emergency Network......." Well, that's what it said in my copy of the Telegraph. I assume that for "animator's" we should read "amateurs". As an aside it is an indication of how much a dumbed-down society we have become that a typo like this should have made it into a quality broadsheet like the Telegraph without being picked up at some point in the editing process.......... "which is used by local town or city emergency officers. It is especially useful where all other methods have failed, e.g. after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans".
I am sure all of that is true, but I think one of the problems in the events of 7/7 was that of communicating underground following the explosion on the tube train and I doubt if amateur band equipment, say 2 metres or 70cms, would have been any more effective in this situation than the radio systems which were already in place.
On to items concerning espionage and related subjects;- the fairly useless, extremely wealthy old Etonian who now rejoices in the title of Leader of the Opposition informed the nation a few weeks ago that when he visited the Soviet Union in his student days the KGB had tried to sign him up as one of their operatives. This drew some comment from Peter McKay in his column in the Daily Mail of 29-May who wrote, "Tory leader David Cameron says the KGB tried to recruit him. He must now tell us if he has been approached by the CIA. Considering his slavish support for George W. Bush's Iraqi policies, perhaps the question is redundant". There was a short piece in one of the papers - I forget which one because it went into the re-cycling box before I had the chance to clip it for my press cuttings book - on Cameron's stance on half a dozen pieces of legislation currently going through Parliament. It read something like "Support Blair, support Blair, support Blair, undecided, support Blair, support Blair. Multi-party democracy eh, don't you just love it!".
And from the other side of the Floor of the House;- In the recent cabinet re-shuffle Mr Jack Straw was booted out of his job as foreign secretary. No more hob-nobbing with Condaleeza Rice for him, then. Quite why Tony gave Hapless Jack the heave-ho was not too clear - except that Straw had said publicly beforehand that it was "unthinkable" that Britain could be involved in any future military action against Iran. The speculation was that Tony BLiar has already promised George Dubya that British troops will be doing their bit in the forthcoming United States and Israeli campaign against Iran. Hapless Jack's replacement in the Foreign Office is Mrs. Margaret Beckett, not heretofore known for any particular knowledge in the matters of overseas diplomacy. Her previous roost was at the Department for Farming and Rural affairs, a highfalutin' name for what was once called the Ministry of Agriculture so a distinct change of expertise required here.
The same Daily Mail column by Peter McKay which contained the sharply observed comment on Cameron also had an observation on another intelligence related story that had been doing the rounds at that time, namely that Northern Ireland Republican politician Martin McGuinness had been a mole for the security services inside the Republican movement. Mr. McKay said "Reports that Martin McGuinness was an M16 spy can be filed under :- Stories you'd love to be true but probably aren't. Then again, you never know in the murky, clandestine world of espionage. Nothing is ever what it appears...........With the peace process going so well, it would be a tragedy if an IRA diehard believed that McGuinness was a tout and put a bullet through his head"
Everybody's doing it;- the "War on terror" has given governments all over the world the oppurtunity to do what they have always wanted to do, namely spy on their own citizens and generally curtail freedom in the cause of "security", not least in the UK where the government takes great delight in bringing in measures to control everday life with CCTV cameras, identity cards, phone tapping, restrictions on public protest, dealing with dissenters by means of the catch-all "anti terror" laws - even parents mounting a street protest against a school closure or the lack of some local facility can expect to be given a hard time under some law supposedly brought in to deal with terrorism. The following two stories show that there is a lot of it about;- from the Daily Mail of 12-May, headlined "Every phone call since 9/11 has been monitored" - "Spy agencies in the U.S. have records of nearly every phone call made in the country since September 11, 2001, it was revealed yesterday. Republicans and Democrats are demanding to know why the White House has allowed such a massive surveillance opertion...........The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone records of at least 200 millions of Americans since shortly after 9/11. Their aim is to create a database of every call ever made within the nation's borders and three of the nation's four big telephone companies have co-operated.......Brenda Mayer, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union said "We have slipped into the world of George Orwell. The goverment is spying on all of its citizens".
And in Germany too - but they've promised to cease and desist. From the Daily Telegraph of 16-May;- headlined "Germany admits to spying on its investigative journalists", a short article says
"Chancellor Angela Merkel's government addmitted yesterday that its foreign intelligence agency had spied on German journalists but said it had ordered it to stop. Ulrich Wilhelm, a government spokesman, said the surveillance by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - Germany's equivalent of MI6 - appeared to be "isolated past cases" and in future such operative measures against journalists are not to be repeated. Media reports said some of the country's best known ivestigative journalists were targeted as the BND tried to find out what they were working on and who their sources were. The BND is already under investigation over the role of two German agents in Baghdad who shared intelligence with Washington at the start of the Iraq war."
A most unlikely news story;- I put the TV on to watch the final fifteen minutes or so of BBC2 's Newsnight one evening in early June and saw the last few seconds of a report of Donald Rumsfeld's official visit to, of all places, Vietnam. There he was, inspecting the guard as he stepped off his plane at Hanoi airport, all smiles and bonhomie with his Vietnamese hosts. The voice-over made reference to rumours that the United States is negotiating with Hanoi for the use of millitary bases in Vietnam, although Washington has denied this. Well, they say that what goes around comes around. Whoever would have thought that Uncle Sam would be on such friendly terms with a nation against which he fought for so many years and cost him so dear in dead and wounded? Makes you wonder why the Yanks ever bother to fight wars since their enemies always seem to come out ahead in the long run. They fought wars with Mexico in the 19th century which gained them territory from which several south western states were formed yet today massive Mexican immigration into this part of the U.S. and the de facto acceptance of Mexican Spanish as an official language means that large parts of the south west are becoming Mexican again. They fought Japan to a crushing defeat beween 1941 and 1945 but these days many important parts of the U.S. economy are owned by Japanese interests, some of the automobile industry for example, certainly large parts of the Hollywood movie industry and the recorded music business - all the music by American artists which I used to buy on labels such as CBS back in the days of vinyl are now available on CD under the Sony brand name. Perhaps in a few decades from now much of America will be owned by Iraqis.
And a story not entirely unconnected with the above;- from the Daily Mail of 23-June, headlined "Return of the draft ?" it is a piece by David Williams and William Lowther on the possible return of Vietnam style conscription in the U.S........
"Young Americans are terrified that their country is about to reintroduce the draft for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. Yesterday the U.S. military raised its maximum age for recruitment to 42, a clear sign of its increasing manpower shortages. It is the second increase in the age of recruitment this year - the first rise in January was from 35 to 40."
"Fears about the return of conscription have grown because of rising casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq and no sign that the U.S. military's huge commitment to the two countries is about to be reduced........Philip Carter, a retired officer and widely published military analyst said there might be little choice but to reinstate conscription. "The all volunteer model can't produce the numbers that might be needed", he added. Lawrence Korb, assistant defence secretary under President Reagan said the Bush administration is severely straining the military and faces a deadline. "You've got about another year" he said, "If you don't cut back in Iraq your all - volunteer army and Marine Corps are going to be in big trouble". If the U.S. becomes involved in another military conflict - such as Iran - it is feared that the draft will be a certainty even though it is opposed by the Pentagon."
[Excellent coverage there PoSW – wonder if we’ll go towards conscription here – draft to Americans – as our troops seem to end up in Courts Martial when they do their job. The rub is they then leave when found ‘Not Guilty’ and who can blame them?].
Thanks PoSW – and now onto our continuing NEWS & ITEMS of INTEREST penned by KW and a variety of others:
As regular readers are aware Mr Michael John Smith was the subject of an ENIGMA 2000 Article, ‘Michael John Smith. Codename Borg’ penned by the late Major F Dalby.
This article can be read in the E2k Newsletter Issue 13 or via Jmm’s site
http://www.cvni.net/radio/e2k/e2k013/e2k13article.html
Sometime ago Mr Smith commented to ENIGMA 2000 that the article has accuracy but is at variance of the use of the codename Borg. At the time, Mr Smith’s trial and subsequent guilty finding portrayed him as a major KGB spy and as Mr Smith states ‘featuring on the front pages of several national newspapers.’
Mr Smith has made a number of documents available via the Internet and we show the links, sent to us by Mr Smith, to these docs:
For those of you who are not aware Mr Tomlinson penned a book entitled, “"The Big Breach, from Top Secret to Maximum Security" [Still available via Amazon, also seen in WH Smith].
PLondon has a copy of the First Edition printed in Russia [along with a First edition of Peter Wright’s ‘Spycatcher’ which he won in a competition run by the Sunday Times].
The docs on these sites make interesting reading and give insight to occurrences around the case of Mr Smith.
As ever Mr Smith’s blog can be found at: www.parellic.blogspot.com
[Tnx for these links Mike].
Commander (Special Branch) L K P Crabb RNVR GM OBE HMS Vernon appeared in the Navy Lists of 1955 and 1956
Crabb was approached in 1955 for a ‘little job’ in Portsmouth harbour which turned out to be the examination of the hulls of the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikadze, and her destroyer escorts Smotriaschi, and Sovershenn. They were on an official visit with the joint Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khruschev. Crabb and a colleague booked into the Sally Port Hotel in Old Portsmouth on 17th April 1956. The Russian ships arriving on 18th April 1956. The following day, Crabb failed to turn up for breakfast, his colleague paid both bills and cleared the two rooms. Ten days later Crabb’s disappearance appeared in national newspapers stating he was missing after a dive in Portsmouth, but at the height of the Cold War the coincidence of the visit of the Russian ships and Crabb’s expertise, caused great embarrassment to the government.
The papers surrounding this matter have just been published [according to a cutting from ‘The Independent on Sunday’ 11/06/2006 p41 sent in by E]. The papers apparently detail how MI6 desperately sought to keep the failed mission secret. Apaprently when Cdr Crabbe’s full time employer started asking after his whereabouts the local police removed his pars from the Hotel he had stayed in.
[Tnx E]
The matter of the raid in Forest Gate [East London], the amount of Police involved, the discharge of a firearm – negligent or not – and defective intelligence have led the media in general to make claims of a Police bungle. Many experts have appeared and categorically stated that there is no way a nerve or biological agent could be mixed in the bath. Given Mr Moon’s sect success in Tokyo when Sarin [GB] was liberated on the underground perhaps tames the stated views a little from can’t to ‘it’s possible’. The formulae for many war type gases were made available in a book entitled ‘We all fall down’, now happily out of print.
One local London Radio Station brought the matter to the fore and many phone calls damning Police action and/or the views from the local Muslim community. One such listener’s view was sent in by email and read, “I always understood that any crime scene had controlled entry to preserve the scene.
In Forest Gate the IPCC were allowed immediate access to apparently gather evidence about the discharge of a Police firearm. It seems the entire opeartion was set back because of the IPCC; the police are not dealing with a badly issued Fixed Penalty Notice for a broken rear light - they are dealing with the possibilty that the elements of chemical warfare exist within the target venue. There is no comparison and the police should be supported, not hindered.
There is no doubt the Human Rights and Compensation lawyers will soon be handing the compensatory bill to the Metropolitan Police Receiver which will eventually be paid by you and I, and many others.”
At the time no apparent end was suggested and the presenter moved onto another subject.
Then this was read on another local radio station, “"I have just listened to a caller talk absolute twaddle. The salient points of his discussion revolved around the fact that a chemical weapon cannot be made at home and that the police shoud have arrested the two men at work.
First a crude chemical weapon can be made at home with no more that three components: the container and two chemicals.All you need for an understanding is A level Chemistry and copies of ************** Chemisty and J********* Handbook.
Secondly arrest away from the suspects’ venue is not an option as containment would be a requirement, hence the use of Police wearing NBCR kit.
Such raids under the terrorism act are done with immediacy, there have been glitches in their execution but the police learn as they work. I suggest they continue their good work without the interference of the do-gooders who stimy just about everything of use in this country.
These operations are aimed at extremists who happen to claim to be of the Muslim faith, not at the Muslim society in general."
Now read this from http://www.phoenix-magazine.com/phoenix/welcome.do
Affairs of the Nation.
Spare a thought for Tommy 'the Spy' Doheny, the London born and bred former Galway-based con man presently being harrassed by the British media following the Forest Gate debacle in which the Metropolitan Police controversially raided a Muslim home.
Tommy made his name in Ireland in 1992 as a con man who specialised in supplying bags of NET ammonium nitrate fertiliser to the British Army, claiming they were the makings of bombs his IRA ''brothers-in-law'' had obtained. (He later told the Sunday Business Post he pinched the fertliser from a Monaghan farmyard. He has no brothers-in-law).
When the Brits copped on to Tommy, he fell out with them and has since conducted a media campaign with his close associate Kevin Fulton (Peter Keeley). They claim they are each due a large gratuity and a pension as ex-spies. Tommy's campaign has included letters to Her Majesty the Queen and litigation against Tony Blair and senior British military officers. He returns to Ireland regularly, his last public appearance being in front of TV cameras in Andersonstown when he visited the home of Freddie Scappaticci, the aleged IRA spy. Tommy rang the media and invited them to view him serving a writ on Scappaticci.
Facing civil court proceedings by the British government which resulted in a lifetime injunction, he changed his name by deed poll to Samuel Jay Rosenfeld and moved to Waltham Forest, London, from where he now runs a chemicals firm.
London journalists probing the background to the Forest Gate raid were told by security sources (ie The Met Police) that the intelligence had come from a single British based informant to an individual MI5 case officer. The information was so strong that reservations by Scotland Yard about acting on a single source alone (who was at that time not identified to them by MI5) were over-ruled by Downing Street who gave the go-ahead for a raid.
MI5 believed the Forest Gate house was being used to prepare a cyanide bomb to release deadly hydrogen cyanide gas or equally deadly sodium or potassium cyanide powder. No great expertise is needed to prepare such a home-made bomb and chemicals needed can be obtained through even a small commercial firm.
Last year, Rosenfeld and Fulton made contact with Muslims in London. The result was a hilariously unlikely front page story in The Independent on Sunday (December 21 2005) which quoted Fulton-Keeley as saying that IRA technology was being used by Iraqi insurgents and that this had been supplied by the FBI through him at a meeting in New York, to the IRA. Tommy Doheny-Rosenfeld's chemicals firm is a few streets away in East London from Lansdowne Road in Forest Gate, where last week's spectacular raid involving 250 armed police and MI5 officers took place.
It's easy to see how the Met Police, with such egg on their face, might leak information to the media about the source of that MI5 intelligence which made them look like fools. This could explain why Tommy has been door-stepped and is being harassed by the media. His record as the author of bogus espionage conspiracies is well documented in newspaper cuttings on the internet, as is his claim to have worked for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.” Perhaps he could please contact us and give info on E10. A1 or B1 quality intel indeed! J
Original available from: http://www.phoenix-magazine.com/phoenix/welcome.do
And here’s something else to mull over …………………….
As if to offset any release of the above pasted in article a leak suggested that a friend of the family – some waiter or something – with an IQ of 69 blew the whistle on the brothers. The Daily Mail 19/06 states ‘It is reported that the tip off leading to the botched Forest Gate raid came from an ‘utter incompetent’ ex waiter whi is serving 6 years for terror offences. He is said to have an IQ of 69 (one wonders, in which case, how he was convicted these days).
The Mail also states this incompetent is a childhood pal [I’m glad to be Billy-no mates on the strength of this] of the two brothers who apparently visited him in HMP Belmarsh and said to have joked about being followed by security agents afterwards.
Following the East London swoop on a *suspected* chemical weapon factory and the well known shooting of a suspect under unclear circumstances, this cartoon [Nick Ferrari column, News of the World 4th June 2006 page 6] appeared. The original search was held up whilst the Independent Police Complaints Commission did their business because of a negligent, or otherwise, discharge.
On this matter DoK saved this cartoon by ‘Blower’ for E2k and gave to PLondon during his visit to the Kent ENIGMA 2000 Composite Signals Outstation J
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How on earth can Britain’s police do its job with this nonsense going on – the police raid suspects thought to be dealing with a chemical/biological device and they let the IPCC sort out their case first [mitigation and compensation]? Is this because of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the never ending slating of our Police by his relatives? What if that had happened to a Brit in Brazil – what sort of treatment would his relatives get – probably be deported immediately without any explanation. And it would appear Doreen Lawrence has written a book about her fight to make the Met catch his killers. It was abridged in the Daily Mail – which I stopped buying until the piece was finished. Sympathy is one thing but the ruination of a police force to the point that stop and search is troublesome to constables as they police by consent of the rest of society is something else. If we get more PC in this country we might as well give up everything it stands for because it is being totally ruined by some obscene social experiment run from a premium address in SW1. |
Well if you do then hooray. For those who don’t its covered in an ENIGMA NL but a cutting sent in by E reminded us of it. See the blue bits.
Death squad spy ring is captured - From Nicholas Blanford in Beirut [Times June 16, 2006]
LEBANESE authorities have broken up an apparent Israeli spy ring whose members have claimed responsibility for a string of killings of Hezbollah and Palestinian militants since 1999.
The spies’ confessions, reported extensively in the Lebanese media, provide a rare glimpse into the clandestine battle between the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency and the Hezbollah organisation and its militant Palestinian allies.
In a bizarre twist Hussein Khattab, an alleged Palestinian member of the ring, who is still at large, is the brother of Sheikh Jamal Khattab, an Islamic cleric, who is accused of recruiting Arab fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The Israeli network was discovered after the killing last month of two Islamic Jihad officials, the brothers Nidal and Mahmoud Majzoub, in a car bomb blast in Sidon, Lebanon. Lebanese intelligence officers last week arrested Mahmoud Rafeh, 59, a retired policeman from the Lebanese town of Hasbaya, his wife and two children, and discovered bomb-making materials, code machines and other espionage equipment in his home.
Mr Rafeh confessed to the killings of the Majzoubs and to working for Mossad since 1994. He also admitted that his cell was responsible for killing three leading Hezbollah commanders since 1999, as well as for the death of Jihad Jibril, the son of Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, who died in a car bomb in 2002.
The discovery of the ring is being hailed as Lebanon’s most successful counter-espionage operation in years and a is seen as a boost for its security apparatus after a year of political crisis, bomb attacks and murders of prominent Lebanese.
It is also opportune for Hezbollah, whose Lebanese opponents are pressuring it to dismantle its military wing. Hezbollah which says that its military wing must keep its weapons to counter the threat of Israeli aggression. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2228315.html
[Thanks E]
The Independent Police Complaints Commission whistleblower who leaked Jean Charles de Menezes shooting documents to ITV has escaped prosecution. The inquiry was carried out by Leicestershire Constabulary after it was announced that Bill Taylor, formerly Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, who is independent of the IPCC, was to lead the Inquiry into the leak of unauthorised material from the IPCC that was reported in the media on 16 August and on the following days.
Well, there was PLondon, sitting at his dining table, munching his way through his low cholesterol meal when he heard a reference to the whistleblower on the TV. He wasn’t really paying attention as the sound was down and the screen cannot be viewed from the table in any case.
Having risen to view the programme PLondon was surprised to see the blonde, well covered, female whistleblower being interviewed and named.; Lana Van der Berg or something similar. Not only that, the bloody woman was American. [PL had to say that there must be plenty of Brits capable of doing her job without motor mouthing about what crosses her desk-so why some American filling a British job slot]?
On one breath this potential criminal states she was proud of what she did and then laments being arrested. She was not satisfied with the cell she was placed in as it was a bit grim with CCTV watching her every move [paranoia – it allows evidence to be provided against any officer who might abuse a prisoner, or, more likely and to the point allows any officer accused of abusing a prisoner in the luxury of their cell to prove that was not the case, Custody areas are likewise monitored].
What did the stupid bint expect? Laura Ashley Furnishings, TV, Private Bar and room service? In good form the errant female then states how her flat door was broken down and her flat forcibly entered and then bemoanes the fact that because of her actions others experienced the same. Then she turns the taps on.
Well, this woman interfered with a high level inquiry and blows confidential docs to the media. The worse she has experienced is a forcible entry and legal detention prior to being bailed to return to a Police Station. She hasn’t been prosecuted either. Wonder what would happen if she was in her native US? Maybe we should deport her as we obviously know where this one is.
Perhaps Mrs Cherie Blair or a few of the other well known Human Rights lawyers can get her a few million quid in compensation before HMG issue her with a British passport and and the right to indefinite residence because she has suffered a smelly cell.
One word of advice to this Lana ‘whatever her name is’ woman. In this country when you are arrested your rights are taken from you. [That is why Met Police – I think the only service to maintain the practice – symbolically touch the arrested person on the shoulder as they state the ‘I am arresting you for…….. Then give the caution ‘You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something you later wish to lie* about in court…...etc’ [S66 PACE 1984, Code of Practice etc,] *word changed for humour
So the cell was smelly and a little unpleasant – tough tit love! If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime..
The day after this came on TV a number of Police Personnel received honours at the Metropolitan Training College at Hendon, in front of Mr Ken Livingstone [Mayor of London] and RtHon John Reid MP [Home Secretary and mate of Respect MP George Galloway who routed the US Senate over some Iraq thing]. The awards are for Bravery. Well done indeed!
I can’t get over Ken Livingstone’s description of a certain Diplomat as a ‘Chislelling little crook’ – absolutely ace and probably went to the same college of enhanced vocabulary as George Galloway MP.
Here we have Gary McKinnon and very skilled computer user known as ‘The World’s biggest hacker.’
Why this unemployed Brit has come to view is because he is accused of causing £370k of damage – over a year’s duration - when he illegally accessed Pentagon defence systems. McKinnon claims he accessed computer files because he was looking for information on UFOs. [What a sad git – nearly as bad as Numbers J]
Apart from the financial side of things he is accused of deleting system files at US Naval Station Erle in the immediate aftermath of the 11 Sept terror attack and rendered the base’s ENTIRE network of more than 300 computers inoperable. Whilst McKinnon stated he regretted his actions it was also reported that access was open and without password.
In discussion Dave the Meter Man said he thought the £370k damage and shutting an entire system down was much like the American service man who found himself scared when he saw a 60yo grandmother [Lindis Percy] trample on a US Flag outside RAF Menwith Hill sometime back; a total nonsense designed to ensure a conviction!
Unfortunately for McKinnon the District Judge at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court [where Babar Ahmed previously stood for the same decision] found in favour of the US and recommended extradition.
McKinnon’s supporters made it clear that he will not face a fair trial there and could ultimately face 70 years in a US gaol if convicted.
Wonder how many Yanks get extradited to the UK to face trial - probably none as it’s a chiselling one sided agreement.
Gary McKinnon did state there was no necessity of passwords for entry, so the computer system must have some real secret stuff on it.
On 12/05 award winning radio presenter Nick Ferrari [LBC 97.3] had the chance to put questions to Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.
A variety of phone in questions were answered by Mr Blair. The questions were the usual sort of nonsense and were placed by listeners over the telephone and it was obvious the questions were being screened prior to being answered. Then questions arrived via text and email. Now remember the date – 12/05. The mode of transfer of the messages meant that Mr Blair was picking his questions to be read out by Nick Ferrari.
One message, sent by an E2k member, read, “Aside from the usual questions about Police activities I would like to know how the Commissioner sees Police Personnel morale since he took over from Sir John Stevens?”
Was it answered? – not at all.
Page 17 Daily Express 17/05 ‘Frontline officers urge police chief Blair to quit force’. This article by Tom Whitehead, Home affairs Correspondent related how Blair was ‘told his own rank and file officers have lost all confidence in him and he no longer has “any choice” but to go’.
According to the article the Met’s Special Branch Constable’s representative [name known but omitted] said ‘morale in the force was at rock bottom.’
Says it all that.. On 18/5 a follow up was seen on page 6 of the Daily Express, apparently culled from the Met’s intranet, to the effect that the criticism had been “emotive and disgraceful,” adding [to the officer] “You and I will be meeting soon when we will discuss these issues further.” [Cor blimey mate – is it a 163 looming over the ‘orizon then]? Wonder if the SB officer will be taking a spair set of shreddies with him?
Then we learn of a secret plan to rid society of 25000 police officers and possibly replace them with PCSOs, a well cheap option. So what do these ‘walking ornaments’ actually do – they have few powers and how long before one of them dies?
Whilst we rattle on, DC Stephen Oake has been denied the George Cross. This is policing at its best, redundancies and personnel with few powers in support. I’d bet none of the considered redundancies include traffic police though.
And consider this; Does the British Government think CCTV stops crime because it does not. What it does is provide a visual record of any particular crime being commited.
We are fully aware of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s ‘Tough on Crime Tough on the causes of Crime’ promise.’ Well Dover Council have carried that through and have gaoled a muddled 74 year old retired docker who fell behind with his tax and failed to make a first payment of £120.
This disgusting case is the most recent in a run of like cases where a 73 year old lady from Exeter was gaoled for a week for owing Council Tax whilst a retired Northants vicar was banged up for 28 days for refusing to pay.
Whilst this farcical clamp down on Coucil Tax defaulters carries on our ‘government’ lets criminals from other countries walk free after they served their time when they should be deported. One exception is the scrote who murdered a police officer and then flew back to his native Somalia to escape arrest. The sick bit here is that he originally refused to return to his country because it was dangerouse when he pleaded for asylum here. Well that’;s his Human Rights, the very act that has ruined Britain as a country. Human Rights are extended to everyone on the country save the Brits and Victims. How come every decent person in GB knows we are being taken to the cleaners by swathes of unwanted immigrants yet HM Govt cannot see this. Then we have the recent solving of the Croydon Teenager, Sally Ann Bowman, murder. Police have arrested a 35yo chef due to a match with his DNA thanks to him being involved in a brawl and being arrested. Cost of Detectives: Unknown but likely to be very high; Cost of Two cheek cell scrapes or 10 freshly harvested hairs from a site [sensibly] suggested by the donor, and the DNA run and computer comparison? Not likely to be as high. MalcF once said to me there is no real police crime detection nowadays – not the sort of thing that Sexton Blake would get mixed up with. I wasn’t sure at the time but there’s some sense there!
Hundreds of retired Gurkhas are preparing to emigrate from Nepal to Britain following a change in rules for issuing visas to the old soldiers.
Twenty-nine applications were lodged with the British embassy in Kathmandu yesterday, after the change became apparent. Major Tikendra Dewan, of the British Gurkha Welfare Society, will file a similar number of applications every day for a week.
Purna Gurung, 53, who hopes to work as a security guard or a driver, said: "Because of the crisis in Nepal everyone would like to go to the UK -it's civilised. Here it's dangerous to go out."
The visa change addresses an anomaly that had infuriated veterans' groups. Official policy said only Gurkhas who retired after 1997 were allowed to settle in Britain while older veterans were excluded. But the Home Office routinely granted older Gurkhas leave to remain while the Kathmandu embassy refused to let them even travel to the UK in case they stayed [From Daily Telegraph].
A good job too – this is well overdue and I hope they’ll all come and live down my road. No local yobs messing around in the streets and some damn good curries to boot!
By Sal ibn Hari
| We first visited the Iraqi Embassy on Qyeens Gate London SW7 in May 2005. This can be read in Issue 28 on page 46 and is continued in Issue 29 page 42. At the time of writing that piece PLondon was challenged by a diplomat and the two spoke briefly about the plans for the building. PLondon was told the entire embassy building was to be refurbished and once again be used for the administration of the matters affecting Iraqis in Great Britain or Visas for those of us who wish to visit Iraq. Queues of varying lengths have been seen by yours truly at the temporary Iraqi Embassy Consular Section, situated at 169 Knightsbridge. Since the long article was written a lot has happened in and around the building and regular visits to the site by workmen are constant. The old Consular section was in 5 and 6 Queensgate Mews. The Mews is home to a Public House, ‘The Queen’s Arms’ apparently where the name for the excellent group ‘Queen’ was derived and Coy’s, a vintage car dealer. In the past the British actor Terry Thomas who excelled in playing cads, also lived there. Sadly Coy’s has moved and the showroom now for let. No more splendid historic vehicles to be seen when passing and it would appear the Mews will return to a serene existence. Looking into the mews SiH saw this notice taped to the window of the now vacant Coy’s showroom: The Embassy has been virtually unused since Gulf War 1 with its interests looked after by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan until the reopening of a facility at 169 Knightsbridge. The Mews itself is very quiet so one can imagine the concerns there. |
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| This image shows nos 6, 5 and the now empty Coy’s showroom. The notice can be seen taped to the showroom windows. | |
A quick peek through the Embassy window to see if it was in the same poor condition as before revealed a totally clean room. Gone had the old regime’s flag, rotting files and photographic chemicals. However, on the window sill was a very interesting piece of kit:
Explosive Detector PD-3. It was in a well naff state and will doubtless end up in the bin. [No detail available for the unit which could well be pre 1995].
It will be interesting to see if the local residents manage to stop the Embassy from having its entrance in the Mews, but with a pub already down there the result will be noteworthy indeed. Another Mews where an Embassy has an entrance is in Blegrave Mews SW1. It is the Austrian Embassy, next door to the rear entrance of the Embassy for Brunei Darasallam. The Mews cuts through to the German Embassy in Chesham Place SW1. An interesting discone can be seen on the roof of the Brunei building. Wonder who they listen too!
[Tnx SiH].
In continuation to this action SiH contacted us to say that in passing he saw another poster on Coy’s windon 27/06 that suggested that the appeal was considered at Kensington Town Hall and thanked all those involved. The writer did state that the other side could appeal too…….
A very interesting piece appeared in the Wednesday issue of the Metro newspaper which attempted to describe a device to ‘spell the end of camera phone pests, film pirates and snap happy tourists.’
The piece attempted to explain how the device would do this and suggested that the only way around this device would be to use a wet film camera [because the blocking device searches out the image producing sensors in digital cameras].
We were so impressed with this device we list the URL to the developers site and, for the PC-less members, reproduce the page in its entirety:
From: http://www.gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=1017
System Blocks Unwanted Video & Still Photography
Camera neutralizing technology could halt movie piracy and clandestine photography
Atlanta ( June 17, 2006) — Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have completed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area. Commercial versions of the technology could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras.
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A Georgia Tech camera-neutralizing prototype could stop movie piracy and other unwanted digital-camera photography. Shown (l-r) are Jay W. Summet, PhD student, and James R. Clawson, research technician. 300 dpi JPG = 753.02 KB |
The prototype device, produced by a team in the Interactive and Intelligent Computing division of the Georgia Tech College of Computing (COC), uses off-the-shelf equipment – camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer—to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras.
Gregory Abowd, an associate professor leading the project, says the new camera-neutralizing technology shows commercial promise in two principal fields – protecting limited areas against clandestine photography or stopping video copying in larger areas such as theaters.
“We’re at a point right now where the prototype we have developed could lead to products for markets that have a small, critical area to protect,” Abowd said. “Then we’re also looking to do additional research that could increase the protected area for one of our more interesting clients, the motion picture industry.”
Abowd said the small-area product could prevent espionage photography in government buildings, industrial settings or trade shows. It could also be used in business settings—for instance, to stop amateur photography where shopping-mall-Santa pictures are being taken.
James Clawson, a research technician on Abowd’s prototype team, said preventing movie copying could be a major application for camera-blocking technology.
“Movie piracy is a $3 billion-a-year problem,” Clawson maintains— a problem said to be especially acute in Asia. “If someone videotapes a movie in a theater and then puts it up on the web that night or burns half a million copies to sell on the street – then the movie industry has lost a lot of in-theater revenue.”
Moreover, movie theaters are likely to be a good setting for camera-blocking technology, said Jay Summet, a research assistant who is also working on the prototype. A camera’s image sensor – called a CCD—is retroreflective, which means it sends light back directly to its origin rather than scattering it.
Retroreflections would probably make it relatively easy to detect and identify video cameras in a darkened theater.
| A camera-neutralizing prototype could stop movie piracy and unwanted photography. Shown (l-r) are Jay W. Summet, PhD student; James R. Clawson, research technician; Gregory Abowd, associate professor, and Khai N. Truong of the University of Toronto. 300 dpi JPG = 874.39 KB |
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The current prototype uses visible light and two cameras to find CCDs, but a future commercial system might use invisible infrared lasers and photo-detecting transistors to scan for contraband cameras. Once such a system found a suspicious spot, it would feed information on the reflection’s properties to a computer for a determination.
“The biggest problem is making sure we don’t get false positives from, say, a large shiny earring,” said Summet. “We need to make our system work well enough so that it can find a dot, then test to see if it’s reflective, then see if it’s retroreflective, and then test to see if it’s the right shape.”
Once a scanning laser and photodetector located a video camera, the system would flash a thin beam of visible white light directly at the CCD. This beam – possibly a laser in a commercial version – would overwhelm the target camera with light, rendering recorded video unusable. Researchers say that energy levels used to neutralize cameras would be low enough to preclude any health risks to the operator.
Still camera neutralization in small areas also shows near-term commercial promise, Abowd said. Despite ambient light levels far higher than in a theater, still cameras at a trade show or a mall should be fairly easy to detect, he said. That’s because image sensors in most cell phones and digital cameras are placed close to the lens, making them easier to spot than the deeper-set sensors of video cameras.
Camera neutralization’s potential has helped bring it under the wing of VentureLab, a Georgia Tech group that assists fledgling companies through the critical feasibility and first-funding phases. Operating under the name DominINC, Abowd’s company has already received a Phase 1 grant from the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) with VentureLab assistance.
Abowd said that funding availability will likely decide which technology—small- or large-area—will be developed first. DominINC will apply soon for GRA Phase 2 money, Abowd said. Those funds would be used to aid anti-piracy product development, as would any funding coming from the film industry.
Other potential funding, from industry and elsewhere, would likely be used to develop anti-espionage small-area applications.
Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech’s chief commercialization officer, said motion-picture groups are actively looking for technology to foil piracy. Movie distributors might even promote camera-neutralizing systems by refusing to send films to theaters that don’t install anti-piracy systems.
There are some caveats, according to Summet. Current camera-neutralizing technology may never work against single-lens-reflex cameras, which use a folding-mirror viewing system that effectively masks its CCD except when a photo is actually being taken. Moreover, anti-digital techniques don’t work on conventional film cameras because they have no image sensor.
Good computer analysis will be the heart of effective camera blocking, Summet believes.
“Most of the major work that we have left involves algorithmic development,” he said. “False positives will eliminated by making a system with fast, efficient computing.”
Also involved in the camera-neutralizing project are Shwetak Patel, a College of Computing PhD student; Khai Truong, a former Georgia Tech PhD student who is now at the University of Toronto, and Kent Lyons, a College of Computing post-doctoral student. A paper on this technology was published and presented at the Ubicomp 2005 conference in Tokyo, Japan, last September.
Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Media Relations Contacts: Rick Robinson (404-694-2284); E-mail: (rick.robinson@innovate.gatech.edu) or John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (jtoon@gatech.edu).
Technical Contact: Gregory Abowd (404-894-7512); E-mail: (gregory.abowd@cc.gatech.edu).
Writer: Rick Robinson
PLondon remarked on this, “Anyone of my vintage will recall episodes of ‘Thunderbirds’ where journalists using cameras to photograph the Thunderbird rockets and paraphernalia will remember the warning lights of the ‘Camera Detector’ warning the string bound rescuers. With the passing of 40 years it would appear that sci-fi – filmed in supermarionation – is about to become sci fact.
On the 0553 this morning [21/06]PL and Peter spoke about the use of cling film to baffle the Gatsos and before the above piece was seen they had agreed the use of a simultaneous flash. We also spoke about tuned lengths of foil to baffle speed radar……………………………….
“This Newsletter is published for ENIGMA 2000 Monitors and their immediate family only”
J
Wonder if this paraphrase rings bells with anyone over the pond – or in Yorks – near Hunters Stones?
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