US State Department: Talking about the torture that never happened would damage US-UK relations

The US State Department is saying that talking about torture they insist did not happen could damage international relations. Come again?

The US state department yesterday warned that disclosure of secret information in the case of a British resident said to have been tortured before he was sent to Guantánamo Bay would cause “serious and lasting damage” to security relations between the countries.

Stephen Mathias, a legal adviser to the department, also claimed that the “national security of the UK” would be affected by disclosure of the details of the detention and interrogation of Binyam Mohamed, 30, who is accused of conspiring with al-Qaida. Guardian

Here is an idea: don’t torture people. That way you don’t look bad when it comes out.

The UK non-apology for rendition flights

This is widely heralded as a British MP apologizing for extraordinary rendition:

The Foreign Secretary apologised to MPs today after it emerged that two American “rendition flights” of CIA detainees had landed on British soil, contradicting previous statements from the Government.

David Miliband told the House of Commons that he had now been informed by the US Government that the controversial flights – one en route to Guantanamo Bay and one to Morocco – stopped over at Diego Garcia, the British overseas territory in the Indian Ocean.

He said the US had just alerted the Government to the incidents, explaining the oversight due to “record errors” and was “very sorry indeed” that previous information given by ministers to the Commons had been incorrect. Times

It’s not. He is apologizing for getting information wrong. He is not apologizing for the flights.

That is a huge difference.

Blair for President

I’d be fine with it, if in return the UK adopts the euro. Otherwise this would just be silly:

I’m told Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have discussed the possibility of Mr Blair becoming President.

That’s President of the Council, the new top European job created by the Lisbon Treaty.
Some want to find a high profile president to represent the European Union on the world stage at events such as the G8, the Bali summit and for meeting heads of state.

Gordon Brown is willing to give his backing but is waiting for a nod from Mr Blair. BBC blog

Gore: No equal time for nutcases

Where was THIS Gore in 2000? Watch him slam CNN’s and the mainstream media’s practice to always show two sides to every story, no matter how ridiculous the “opposing view” is. (For example showing a Holocaust survivor splitscreen next to a Holocaust denier.) The good part starts at minute 2:13.

Get off that couch and get on her Majesty’s Secret Services payroll

Talk about some odd form of cross promotion:

One of Britain’s intelligence agencies will embed advertisements into popular video games this month in a bid to attract new recruits, The Times reported on Thursday.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s intelligence listening post, will embed the adverts as billboards in video games including “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent” in a bid to attract “computer-savvy, technologically-able, quick-thinking” recruits.

“We find increasingly we have to use less conventional means of attracting people … to go beyond glossy brochures and milk-round stalls,” a GCHQ spokeswoman told the newspaper.

“We will monitor the results from this campaign and are ready to change our recruitment methods … We know we can’t stand still,” the spokeswoman said, adding that GCHQ hoped to “plant the idea in the heads of younger players”. AFP

Saudis buy Eurofighters from UK

And there we thought rhw UK had wasted £19 billion on the Eurofighter. Some people seem to like them:

Saudi Arabia is to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from UK firm BAE Systems, the Ministry of Defence confirms.
BBC

What could possibly go wrong?

SP Times: Some overseas visitors are over Florida

The St. Petersburg Times is the latest with accounts on how international tourism to the US, and particularly to Florida, is falling because international travelers are treated like criminals. Courtesy of that story comes this absolutely priceless quote from a British national waxing on about how not going to America is really not all that bad:

“We found we were missing a hell of a lot not going to Europe,” says Strachan. “The history, the architecture blows you away, especially compared to downtown Tampa.”

Full story here.

M&S or 007&E?

Priceless Guardian quote:

Still, perhaps we should acknowledge the drug reference and salute a perfect portrait of the mixed-up, shaken-and-stirred mores of Britain circa late 2006: a 69-year-old grandmother - dressed, say M&S, in a £150 “Magicwear” hold-it-all-in dress - doing a Bond-themed gig in Superman’s house and singing about being on E. Fingerfood and sensibly priced partywear all round!

To get a clue of what this hilarious passage is about, read the short story here.

Head of UK’s MI5: Agency is troubling to keep up with mounting terror threats

“I wish life were like Spooks [the TV series] where everything is, a, knowable, and, b, soluble by six people.”

Britain’s MI5 head, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, said so speakinjg about the agencies problems keeping up with tracking all threats to UK interests. Manningham-Buller further said MI5 currently employed 2,800 individuals after growing about 50% since 9/11. The agency, so Manningham-Buller, is tracking 30 imminent UK terror plots. BBC

Guardian spells out what Cheney said

I’ve often said you can learn more about what’s going on in the US by means of foreign media rather than local media. For example the way UK-paper The Guardian reported on Vice President Dick Cheney telling reporters he was cool with at least some forms of torture:

The use of a form of torture known as waterboarding to gain information is a “no-brainer”, the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, told a radio interviewer, it was reported today. Guardian

You’d never read it worded like that in an American mainstream paper. Let alone under the headline The Guardian published the article under on their front page: Cheney endorses simulated drowning

It’s only the truth. So why not say it?

Paging The Doctor

This is a Doctor Who episode waiting to happen.

Pigeon v. Pelican

About ten years ago I sat in a park in London and wondered out loud if the pelicans ever eat any of the pidgeons that kept pestering them. Today I read this on the BBC Web site:

Pelican swallows pigeon in park (article includes picture)

One more mystery solved.

Bush: Capturing Bin Laden Is Not A Top Priority Use of American Resources

Thinkprogress taped something interesting on FOX “News”:

Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes appeared on Fox this morning to discuss his recent meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office. The key takeaway for Barnes was that “bin Laden doesn’t fit with the administration’s strategy for combating terrorism.” Barnes said that Bush told him capturing bin Laden is “not a top priority use of American resources.” Watch it. Think Progress

Spain admits possible CIA flights

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has admitted Spain may have been a stopover for secret CIA flights. BBC

God Bless the BBC

A seasoned reporter after 40 years at the BBC:

Over 40 years I myself have made many mistakes, every single one of which I feel badly about.

But, like my colleagues, I can honestly say I have never broadcast anything I did not believe to be correct. The culture of telling the truth for its own sake is as deeply embedded in the BBC in 2006 as it was in 1966.

It’s a funny old outfit: slow, cumbersome, and sometimes intensely irritating. But it still does its level best to be honest and unbiased.

For that I remain profoundly grateful. BBC

Flights

Just in case the last few posts give the idea that I am being blasé about the possible loss of life that could have easily occurred:

They said the airlines to be targeted were United, American and Continental, bound for New York, Washington and California. BBC

I am booked on a Continental flight on August 27 to Newark, New Jersey (What the BBC would call New York). The wife and I had also planned to go to London this summer. Wed didn’t go, but if we had it would have been this week and we could have ended up on a flight out of Hearthrow just like we did last summer.

This hit home hard.

But the point is that terrorists want to terrorize. If you’re scared they win.

Guardian: Blair warned Bush of terror threat to US airlines

Downing Street admitted Tony Blair would not have left the country on Monday for his Caribbean holiday if he had known the police would need to swoop so quickly to disrupt a terrorist plot. He has known about it in general terms for months, and has spoken to President George Bush about it on a number of occasions. The two leaders discussed it in more detail on Sunday, during a conversation on a secure line in which the prime minister outlined what he knew of the British cell being monitored by the security services. Guardian

So why the need for a PR effective bust that scared the shit out of thousands of Heathrow customer and millions worldwide? Afraid of another Forrest Gate?

Blitz post (Londoner’s know how this one’s meant)