War-on-Freedom.com

Labour's own Home Affairs Select Committee criticises David "Big" Blunkett's draft bill for compulsory ID cards:
'They warn that ministers are already planning to use the ID card scheme as a cover to introduce a national fingerprint system within five years.

Identities may soon be checkable on the national register from CCTV pictures, they predict.'
'The report warns that once the cards become compulsory it is conceivable that private companies will be able to demand access to the full information held on an individual on the register as a condition of providing a service. The access is "well in excess of what is justified in the fight against serious crime or terrorism"'.
-- Front page Guardian 29/7/04

Posted by Dave at 09:02 PM | Permalink

In an excellent example of customer service, I recently bought 10 mini-DV tapes from Deal of the Month, whilst mentioning on the purchase form that I needed delivery by Friday. DotM wrote back to me and said they would deliver by First Class Recorded Delivery, even though their offer only included 2nd class delivery. They confirmed delivery the next day and I received the (well-packaged) tapes the day after that.

Posted by Dave at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the five members of the Committee that made the investigation which resulted in the Butler Report has spoken against the lack of criticism pointed at the government:

'Lord Inge made it clear that he believed the pressure from Downing Street on the JIC to harden the wording of the dossier on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction had turned the intelligence committee into a government propaganda organ for war.

"It was asked to do things which I personally don't think it should do in the sense that intelligence and public relations need to be kept separate," said Lord Inge.' -- The Independent

'The Hutton inquiry revealed that Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, had e-mailed Mr Scarlett [then head of JIC, since promoted to lead MI6] asking for the dossier to be redrafted because there was "nothing to demonstrate a threat, let alone an imminent threat from Saddam."'

'Ann Taylor, a former Labour cabinet minister and current chairman of the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee, is believed to have played a key role inside the Butler inquiry in limiting the criticism of the JIC'

'One inquiry source said: "There was clearly a debate inside the committee between Lord Inge and Michael Mates on one side, and Ann Taylor on the other. It looks as though Tony Blair was pleased by the outcome judging by his smile outside Downing Street."'

'Ms Taylor, a former Labour chief whip, was called to order by the Speaker of the Commons for shouting across the chamber at Michael Howard, the Tory leader, when he attacked Mr Blair over the Butler report in the Commons. A senior Tory figure said: "We thought it was pretty extraordinary that the Speaker should have to speak to a member of the Butler inquiry in that way."'

Posted by Dave at 07:49 PM | Permalink

Once again, a judge chosen by Tony Blair has avoided criticising the Prime Minister by avoiding the critical issues. This is not surprising. Tony Blair did not want this report. His sole purpose for announcing it was to divert blame away from him and his government.

To pretend that this was any objective or judicial report is a complete deception. If Michael Howard had an ounce of sense, he would announce a completely open enquiry into these enquiries should the Conservative Party win the election.

Butler failed to answer the main question which needed answering - how the 45-minute claim came to be present in the September dossier. Apparently this claim originally:
came from "an established and reliable source ... a senior Iraqi military officer". Yet intelligence officials now admit there was little new in the claim and that it was "not surprising". They say the 45-minute claim could have been deduced from what was known about Iraqi military capabilities in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. -- Guardian report during Hutton enquiry

The Labour government knew that without this claim, the Labour party & public could not have been persuaded of the case for war.  Butler said that the claim should never have appeared without caveats, but failed to mention who made that decision.

It's worth pointing out that John Scarlett (the Head of the JIC when it produced the report) has since been promoted to be the head of MI6. It is obvious that Blair himself knew that this deceptive claim was necessary to make his case for war. Blair himself wrote a foreword in the September dossier which highlighted the claim:
[the dossier] discloses that his military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them. -- Butler report.

It is a surprisingly good read, especially for those interested in what the intelligence services knew and believed about WMD around the world.

Posted by Dave at 08:04 PM | Permalink

The Butler Report is due tomorrow. Doesn't take a genius to predict that Blair will miraculously avoid any mud-slinging.

Posted by Dave at 03:30 AM | Permalink

Having sold Yellow Pages and bought Scoot, last year BT started a competing service with Yellow Pages called BT Classifieds. I have never encountered such a badly run business and that includes Telewest.

I booked an advert 9 months ahead of printing time, but having heard nothing in all that time, I cancelled it. Perhaps I was unconvincing in my termination letter because the advert (which I've still never seen) was printed anyway. My bank account was debited about £40 as a first installment. I asked for a refund & a copy of the advert. Neither happened.

I was issued with a demand around February. This was apparently resolved and I made the same requests, again ignored.

I received a further demand today for £121.26. I called the number which rang & rang and was finally answered after about 5 mins. The person I spoke to sounded helpful, but once bitten...

I was also told that BT were planning a multi-million pound TV advertising campaign. If anyone has seen such an advert for BT classifieds, let me know.

Posted by Dave at 09:51 AM | Permalink