2008 January 13

Unauthorised demo in London, England, against SOCPA legislation which criminalises freedom of expression and freedom of assembly within a zone around Parliament. This legislation is under review and fears are that it might be extended.

After meeting up in Trafalgar Square it was decided to go for a walk in ‘Our streets’. The police were pretty laid back to begin with while several places of interest were visited such as the Home Office, New Sotland Yard, MI5, Parliament Square and Downing Street. They even allowed a sit down in the road for a short while in Parliament Square but then began forcing people back onto the pavement. The walk then proceeded to Downing Street where people sat down just outside the gates, and then lay down in the road. Several people were arrested, including Brian Haw and Steve Jago. The people lying down in the road were dragged back into the crowd outside Downing Street.

Bush maintains illusion of Iran threat

US President George W. Bush claims Iran is a threat to global security, calling on Arab allies to join the US to confront the nation.

“Iran is today the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” Bush alleged in his speech in the capital of the UAE, Abu Dhabi.

He said that Washington and Arab countries must join together to deal with the danger ‘before it’s too late’.

Bush alleged that Iran funded terrorist extremists, undermined peace in Lebanon, and provided arms for the Taliban.

Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere; it seeks ‘to intimidate its neighbors with missiles and bellicose rhetoric’, Bush continued.

US allies in the region have expressed concern that Bush’s war of words against Tehran may be aimed at drumming up support for military action against Iran.

The oil-rich Arab countries say any conflict could lead to insecurity in the whole region.

Senior Arab officials have repeatedly said that they will not allow the United States to use their countries as a launch pad for any strike against Iran.

“Mr. President, the region needs smart initiatives not smart bombs,” wrote Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai in a front-page editorial, following Bush’s trip to the country.

Civil liberties groups criticize Bush

Dispute centers on upgrading of driver’s licenses

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff unveiled details of the Real ID program yestereday in Washington. (Kevin Wolf/Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - A new Bush administration plan to create national standards for driver’s licenses drew heavy criticism yesterday from civil liberties groups, some Republican and Democratic lawmakers, governors, and the travel industry.

more stories like this

The critics said the new licenses expected under the plan, which is aimed at screening out potential terrorists and uncovering illegal immigrants, could still be forged.

They also complained that the program, known as Real ID, would be costly for states to implement, potentially restrict summer travel and access to federal buildings, and allow private companies access to the personal data of most US citizens.

But they also welcomed yesterday’s official announcement that states have until May 2011 before they need to begin issuing licenses that meet the department’s new guidelines, and until December 2014 to begin replacing current licenses. Drivers over age 50 will not have to obtain new licenses until the end of 2017.

The deadline extensions give both Congress and future presidents time to reconsider what opponents have depicted as a national identification system that will infringe on privacy rights and leave room for large-scale identity theft. The 2005 law required states to collect and store additional data on driver’s license applicants, such as birth certificates, Social Security numbers, and home addresses.

So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the Real ID Act’s provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington state.

Massachusetts has been granted an extension until 2010 to decide whether the state will comply with the new law, according to Juliette Kayyem, the state’s undersecretary for homeland security.

“There is nothing that happened today, or that will happen tomorrow, that will change Massachusetts’ citizens drivers licenses,” she said. “We have plenty of time to assess the impact of the new regulations and whether we will ultimately comply. Our hope is that after November the new leadership in Washington - whoever it is - will take another look at this.”

Under Real ID, all new licenses would be machine-readable and contain personal information that could be scanned by governments and potentially by corporations.

At a news conference yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the guidelines represent a balance between security and privacy in accordance with the Real ID Act.

He warned that residents in states such as Georgia and Washington, which have refused to comply with the program, may be subject to additional security checks or prevented from boarding flights once the program begins this spring.

He urged those states to seek waivers to allow their residents to continue flying as of May 11, when the regulations begin to take effect.

The ACLU called Chertoff’s warning an empty threat designed to pressure states to join the program.

“The airline industry is not going to allow the federal government to prevent citizens of noncompliant states from getting on airplanes,” said Timothy Sparapani, the group’s senior legislative counsel.

The Travel Industry Association of America welcomed “flexibility” from DHS on the program’s implementation schedule but said “no American should be denied the right to travel because of disagreements between federal and state lawmakers.”

State and local officials also expressed concerns. In a joint statement, the National Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators said they need time “to determine whether the act can be implemented in a cost-effective and feasible manner.”

DHS estimated that the program will cost states $3.9 billion to implement, a significant decrease from earlier estimates as high as $14 billion. But many state officials have said the financial burden is still too great.

Senator Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, whose state is among those resisting the program, said it is “unrealistic to expect our state to conform” when “the federal government has only provided a mere 3 percent of the funds needed for implementation.”

Fascist Police Assault Then Arrest Brian Haw

During the freedom to protest assembly this afternoon, brian haw (who was peacefully filming events in whitehall) was violently attacked by a territorial support group policeman who lashed out at him, smashing his camera into his face and causing a deep cut. police then arrested brian for an unspecified public order offence and further assaulted him in a police van.

a number of people were milling around the road outside downing street where a group of around a dozen had laid down with linked arms in the road.

without warnings the territorial support group moved in and began violently pushing and man-handling people to the pavement. one young woman was grabbed round the throat and dragged. others were pushed from behind. brian was miving backwards towards the pavement with a camera to his face when officer U1019 lunged at him deliberately and without provocation. the blow was aimed directly at brian’s face and pushed his camera into his cheek causing a deep wound.

shortly afterwards, brian was snatched from the crowd and taken to a police van, from which witnesses heard him screaming. after several minutes he was dragged out of the van looking very alarmed and frightened, and taken to another cell van where he was driven to belgravia police station.

supporters there are worried for his safety, but after an hour of no news, they were told that he was being taken to see the prison doctor. there are concerns about his treatment during that hour.

steve jago, on seeing the snatch, pushed forward to try to help brian, but was immediately pounced on by four heavy tsg thugs who violently dragged him to the ground, sat on him, and aggressively hand-cuffed him before apprently arresting him for an unknown offence.

in an afternoon of filming, at no time did i see a single act of violence towards the police from the peaceful protestors, and yet police used completely disproportionate and aggressive tactics to disperse and control peaceful sit-downs and blockades. i saw a 61 year old woman being dragged wihout any heed for ‘health and safety’ and dumped on the pavement. another elderly man was thrown over his bicycle (despite having recently had an accident leaving him in considerable pain)

there were several other arrests this afternoon, mainly for obstruction and public order offences. one person was arrested for ‘organising an unauthorised protest’

attached photo was taken by nuj journalist terence bunch and remains his copyright although he has kindly allowed publication here - for any commercial usgae please contact him via
www.terencebunch.co.uk

brian is back in parliament square, shaken and bloodied. apart from the time spent inside the police van at whitehall during which witnesses heard his screams and he alleges police held him in torture positions and beat his testicles, he was then subject to further abuse and humiliation at belgravia police station, during which other prisoners heard his screams.

in the end he was only charged with a simple section 4 public order offence and released around 1.30am after being further ‘interviewed’ by cid:

[(1) A person is guilty of an offence if, with intent to cause a person harassment, alarm or distress, he—

(a) uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or

(b) displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,

given that brian had just been viciously assaulted by an officer, and that the senior officer didn’t remove that officer from duty or treat brian seriously, i’d have thought paragraph 3 will be shown to be pertinent:

brian is in court tomorrow at southern crown court in a challenge to a ‘contempt of court’ ruling made by judge nicholas evans originally at westminster magistrates’ during another trial. the case sets legal precedent as brian had to go to the high court first to win the right to appeal a ‘contempt of court’ allegation - there was no clear route to do this and the high court had to give judgement first on the process for this to happen. judge evans is on a warning that he may be summonsed to the court to give evidence.

another detainee at belgravia was rob little. he recently walked into marylebone police station with a dossier of evidence of war crimes, and after further meetings with him, chris coverdale (war law expert), and others, there will be a press conference announcement on tuesday that the anti-terror and war crime unit is actually launching an investigation into possible breaches by tony blair and the then attorney-general goldsmith. police pounced on rob at the protest yesterday and arrested him under suspicion of being an organiser of an unauthorised protest. he was also interviewed by cid, held for over twelve hours and let out after 4am, and refused food during this time as they didn’t have anything vegan.

there were several others arrested, for minor public order offences and socpa breaches. it sounds as though police were at first reluctant to press any socpa charges, but then had a change of heart and threw them in before rebailing most of the defendants until dates in mid-february.

steve jago seems to have a hole in his elbow and his face is swollen with a black eye.

Prisoners ‘to be chipped like dogs’

Hi-tech ’satellite’ tagging planned in order to create more space in jails
Civil rights groups and probation officers furious at ‘degrading’ scheme

By Brian Brady

Ministers are planning to implant “machine-readable” microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.

Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.

But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.

The tags, labelled “spychips” by privacy campaigners, are already used around the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor offenders in the community. The chips are also being considered as a method of helping to keep order within prisons.

A senior Ministry of Justice official last night confirmed that the department hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range of the internal chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar to the system used to trace stolen vehicles. “All the options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue,” the source added.

The move is in line with a proposal from Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), that electronic chips should be surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and sex offenders in order to track them more easily. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is seen as the favoured method of monitoring such offenders to prevent them going near “forbidden” zones such as primary schools.

“We have wanted to take advantage of this technology for several years, because it seems a sensible solution to the problems we are facing in this area,” a senior minister said last night. “We have looked at it and gone back to it and worried about the practicalities and the ethics, but when you look at the challenges facing the criminal justice system, it’s time has come.”

The Government has been forced to review sentencing policy amid serious overcrowding in the nation’s jails, after the prison population soared from 60,000 in 1997 to 80,000 today. The crisis meant the number of prisoners held in police cells rose 13-fold last year, with police stations housing offenders more than 60,000 times in 2007, up from 4,617 the previous year. The UK has the highest prison population per capita in western Europe, and the Government is planning for an extra 20,000 places at a cost of £3.8bn – including three gigantic new “superjails” – in the next six years.

More than 17,000 individuals, including criminals and suspects released on bail, are subject to electronic monitoring at any one time, under curfews requiring them to stay at home up to 12 hours a day. But official figures reveal that almost 2,000 offenders a year escape monitoring by tampering with ankle tags or tearing them off. Curfew breaches rose from 11,435 in 2005 to 43,843 in 2006 – up 283 per cent. The monitoring system, which relies on mobile-phone technology, can fail if the network crashes.

A multimillion-pound pilot of satellite monitoring of offenders was shelved last year after a report revealed many criminals simply ditched the ankle tag and separate portable tracking unit issued to them. The “prison without bars” project also failed to track offenders when they were in the shadow of tall buildings.

The Independent on Sunday has now established that ministers have been assessing the merits of cutting-edge technology that would make it virtually impossible for individuals to remove their electronic tags.

The tags, injected into the back of the arm with a hypodermic needle, consist of a toughened glass capsule holding a computer chip, a copper antenna and a “capacitor” that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader.

But details of the dramatic option for tightening controls over Britain’s criminals provoked an angry response from probation officers and civil-rights groups. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “If the Home Office doesn’t understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don’t need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense bypass.

“Degrading offenders in this way will do nothing for their rehabilitation and nothing for our safety, as some will inevitably find a way round this new technology.”

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said the proposal would not make his members’ lives easier and would degrade their clients. He added: “I have heard about this suggestion, but we feel the system works well enough as it is. Knowing where offenders like paedophiles are does not mean you know what they are doing.

“This is the sort of daft idea that comes up from the department every now and then, but tagging people in the same way we tag our pets cannot be the way ahead. Treating people like pieces of meat does not seem to represent an improvement in the system to me.”

The US market leader VeriChip Corp, whose parent company has been selling radio tags for animals for more than a decade, has sold 7,000 RFID microchips worldwide, of which about 2,000 have been implanted in humans. The company claims its VeriChips are used in more than 5,000 installations, crossing healthcare, security, government and industrial markets, but they have also been used to verify VIP membership in nightclubs, automatically gaining the carrier entry – and deducting the price of their drinks from a pre-paid account.

The possible value of the technology to the UK’s justice system was first highlighted 18 months ago, when Acpo’s Mr Jones suggested the chips could be implanted into sex offenders. The implants would be tracked by satellite, enabling authorities to set up “zones”, including schools, playgrounds and former victims’ homes, from which individuals would be barred.

“If we are prepared to track cars, why don’t we track people?” Mr Jones said. “You could put surgical chips into those of the most dangerous sex offenders who are willing to be controlled.”

The Government is struggling to keep track of thousands of offenders in the community and is troubled by an overcrowded prison system close to bursting. Internal tagging offers a solution that could impose curfews more effectively than at present, and extend the system by keeping sex offenders out of “forbidden areas”. “If we are prepared to track cars, why don’t we track people?” said Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Officials argue that the internal tags enable the authorities to enforce thousands of court orders by ensuring offenders remain within their own walls during curfew hours – and allow the immediate verification of ID details when challenged.

The internal tags also have a use in maintaining order within prisons. In the United States, they are used to track the movement of gang members within jails.

Offenders themselves would prefer a tag they can forget about, instead of the bulky kit carried around on the ankle.

Professionals in the criminal justice system maintain that the present system is 95 per cent effective. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is unproven. The technology is actually more invasive, and carries more information about the host. The devices have been dubbed “spychips” by critics who warn that they would transmit data about the movements of other people without their knowledge.

Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved he could “clone” a chip. “He can bump into a chipped person and siphon the chip’s unique signal in a matter of seconds,” she said.

One company plans deeper implants that could vibrate, electroshock the implantee, broadcast a message, or serve as a microphone to transmit conversations. “Some folks might foolishly discount all of these downsides and futuristic nightmares since the tagging is proposed for criminals like rapists and murderers,” Ms McIntyre said. “The rest of us could be next.”

Energy rip-off exposed

BRITAIN’S biggest energy companies have stifled competition to raise prices and make record profits of more than £4.5 billion, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

The six companies that control Britain’s gas and electricity are now facing demands that they be referred to the Competition Commission.

Executives in charge of the six major companies were last week confirmed to be holding confidential meetings at least every two months to discuss market strategy. Smaller rivals are excluded.

The new disclosures come as a YouGov poll for The Sunday Times reveals that more than eight out of 10 customers believe they are being “ripped off” by the energy firms. Alistair Darling, the chancellor, is to meet Sir John Mogg, the head of regulator Ofgem, tomorrow for an explanation of the latest round of price rises.

Industry insiders said they are ready to give evidence about how the “big six” have driven up prices and boosted profits by:

- Keeping each other’s prices in step by raising and lowering tariffs within a few weeks of each other.

- Denying smaller rivals fair access to energy from their own power plants at affordable prices.

- Charging loyal customers significantly more than those who switch, so keeping up profits.

- Stifling competition by supporting laborious and expensive accreditation for new companies.

Allan Asher, chief executive of Energywatch, the consumer watchdog, said: “The problem with the energy market is that it’s lazy, complacent and uncompetitive. It has been able to drive out the possibility of any vigorous challenge to the prominence of the big six energy suppliers.”

The companies enjoyed a “bumper year” in 2007, profiting from a dramatic fall in the wholesale price of gas amid allegations they failed to pass on savings to householders. Analysts believe the companies are now poised to report record annual profits of more than £4.5 billion.

The companies last week confirmed that they were meeting regularly under the auspices of the Energy Retail Association. The association says market-sensitive issues are never talked about and pricing policies are discussed only in the context of a public debate about best practice. Rival energy companies say the association is a “closed shop” for the dominant companies and the minutes of meetings should be published.

The Sunday Times YouGov poll found that 85% of customers felt they were being ripped off by the energy firms. This compares to 76% of people who felt they were being ripped off by the railways; 74% by the petrol companies; and 59% by the banks and financial service industry.

Ron Paul Forcefully Responds To Racism Charges

VIDEO: Fuel From Water

FUEL is produced in large quantaties fr om just tap water using pulsed system with battery shielded by diode.

The Film About Vaccines You Simply Must See

This stunning censored interview (top) was cut from the TV program The Health Century due to its huge liability — the admission that the Merck drug company has been injecting cancer viruses into people worldwide.

If you find the content shocking, consider watching the second video, the entire movie, “In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism”.

This film is produced and freely distributed by consumer protector and public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, and features the world’s leading vaccine expert, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, explaining why Merck’s vaccines have spread AIDS, leukemia, and other horrific plagues worldwide.

It may seem inconceivable to some of you, but disease is Big Business. And, if you’re cynical – which seems to become easier with each passing day — it’s a way to achieve population control while making huge profits in the process.

Take this enlightening 2007 investors’ presentation for GlaxoSmithKline, for example. GSK’s overall sales performance rose 9 percent in 2006, with pharmaceutical sales totaling ₤20.1 Billion, or just under $40 Billion. Other statistics include:

Now, remember – that’s just GlaxoSmithKline’s numbers for ONE year, which does not include sales by any other pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck.

Folks, please take the issue of whether to vaccinate or not seriously. Do your homework. You can begin by watching the videos above – it will be worth your time, I guarantee it. Then, you can continue researching through the links provided below. Don’t blindly buy into the lies. Seek the truth. Protect your health, and the health of your loved ones by opting out of dangerous vaccines.

Dollar Mixed As Wall Street Tumbles

The dollar rose slightly against the euro and pound on Friday, benefiting from nervous currency investors withdrawing from risky “carry trades.”

A slumping Wall Street, which fell more than 300 points on Friday, drove traders away from those trades.

Carry trades involve borrowing currencies from countries with low interest rates, such as Japan and Switzerland, and investing the funds in higher-yielding assets elsewhere. Carry-trade beneficiaries are usually the euro and currencies of countries with high interest rates, such as the New Zealand kiwi.

The 15-nation euro was worth $1.4785 in late New York trading, a little below the $1.4793 it was worth Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank would act aggressively in confronting economic woes - signaling more interest rate cuts - and the European Central Bank sounded a hawkish note on interest rates. Those announcements drove the dollar lower.

Lower interest rates can jump-start a country’s economy, but may weigh on the currency as traders transfer funds to countries where they can earn higher returns.

The British pound dropped to $1.9573, down from $1.9609. On Thursday, the Bank of England kept its own rate unchanged, but signaled a cut was likely in February.

The dollar was down to 108.91 Japanese yen from 109.54 yen and 1.1010 Swiss francs from 1.1045 Swiss francs.

Also on Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the country’s trade deficit surged to the highest level in 14 months in November, reflecting record imports of foreign oil. The deficit with China declined slightly while the weak dollar boosted exports to another record high.

In other New York trading, the dollar rose to 1.0206 Canadian dollars, up from 1.0108 Canadian dollars.

Bush: US should have acted on Auschwitz

A teary-eyed President Bush stopped in front of an aerial photo of Auschwitz on Friday at Israel’s Holocaust memorial and said the U.S. should have sent bombers to prevent the extermination of Jews there.

Yad Vashem’s chairman, Avner Shalev, quoted Bush as saying the U.S. should have “bombed it.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush referred to the train tracks leading to Auschwitz, not the camp itself, where between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people were killed by Nazi Germany.

The issue of bombing the Nazi death camps or the rail lines leading to them has been debated for years - and the lack of action was interpreted by some as a sign of Allied indifference.

The Allies had detailed reports about Auschwitz toward the end of World War II from escaped prisoners. But they chose not to bomb the camp, the rail lines, or any of the other Nazi death camps, preferring instead to focus all resources on the broader military effort.

Some experts note only late in the war did the United States have the capability to bomb the infamous camp in occupied Poland, and also faced a moral dilemma since such an operation could kill thousands of prisoners. Even Jewish leaders at the time struggled with the issue and many concluded that loss of innocent lives under such circumstances was justifiable.

Bush twice had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of the museum, said Shalev, who guided Bush through the exhibits.

Upon viewing an aerial shot of Auschwitz, taken during the war by U.S. forces, he said Bush called the decision not to bomb it “complex.” He then called over Rice to discuss President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision, clearly pondering the options before rendering an opinion of his own, Shalev told The Associated Press.

Shalev quoted Bush as asking Rice, “Why didn’t Roosevelt bomb it?” He said Rice and Bush discussed the matter further and then the president delivered his verdict.

“We should have bombed it,” Shalev, speaking in Hebrew, quoted Bush as saying.

Briefing reporters later on Air Force One, Rice said Bush was talking about the rail lines to the camp.

“We were talking about the often-discussed ‘Could the United States have done more by bombing the train tracks?’” Rice said. “And so we were just talking about the various explanations that had been given about why that might not have been done.

“It was an exhibit about the train tracks. And so we were just talking about the various explanations because, you know, there are three or four different explanations about why the United States chose not to try to bomb the train tracks,” she said.

Later Friday night, asked about Rice’s remarks to reporters, Shalev told the AP the president was not specific about what the Allies should have bombed.

Tom Segev, a leading Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, said Bush’s reported comment, which appeared spontaneous, marked the first time a U.S. president had made this acknowledgment.

“It is clear now that the U.S. knew a lot about it,” Segev said. “It’s possible that bombing at least the railway to the camps may have saved the lives of the Jews of Hungary. They were the very last ones who were sent to Auschwitz at a time when everybody knew what was going on.”

At the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in 1993, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel famously asked, “Why weren’t the railways leading to Birkenau bombed by allied bombers? As long as I live I will not understand that.” Birkenau was the site of the main gas chambers and crematoriums at Auschwitz. UNESCO last year approved a name change from Auschwitz concentration camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Is Bush Losing Control Of The Military?

TEHRAN: The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet has released a statement saying it cannot say with any certainty that threats to blow up its vessels actually came from Iranian Navy speedboats in Sunday’s Straits of Hormuz incident.

The revelation tacitly supports the Iranian version of events, in that it was a normal challenge by Iranian naval officials for the American vessels to identify themselves, and at no time was there any serious danger of an escalation or any hostile action.

According to the commander of the Iranian naval forces, the patrol boats were on a regular patrol when they challenged the three American vessels to identify themselves and declare any helicopter activity in the area.

The U.S. quickly released a video showing Iranian speedboats in close proximity to the warships, with audio that the Iranians claimed was fake.

On Thursday the Iranian Navy released its own footage, taken on board one of the speedboats, showing a radio operator making clear requests in English for identification and activity reports.

One of the American vessels can be heard to reply; “This is coalition warship 73, I am operating in international waters.”

Shortly after the challenge and the response, the Iranian speedboats left the area.

The incident came as President George W. Bush began his first ever visit to Israel, where he frequently cited the Hormuz incident as further evidence of Iran’s belligerence.

The latest U.S. Navy report, however, appears to suggest quite the opposite, and undermines current efforts by Bush to isolate Iran and build an anti-Tehran alliance among its Arab neighbours.

But the question is; Did naval commanders opposed to escalating tension in the Persian Gulf deliberately rob their Commander-in-Chief of a timely stick to beat the Iranians with?

“There may have been tendency among the command levels to assume that those radio messages came from the Iranian boats, and their initial reports were based on their assumptions rather on what their equipment actually told them,” said Carl Osgood, a Washington-based writer and political analyst.

“I think one possible reason why the admission was made is because there is concern in the American military command about going to war by accident,” he said.

There is resistance among the highest levels of the United States military against a war with Iran, Osgood said, “and that could be the source, or a source, of that admission.”

He pointed out that Admiral William Fallon, head of the U.S. Central Command, had expressed his opposition to escalating tension with Iran.

Fallon told al-Jazeera television in September, “This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me, which is not helpful and not useful.

In February 2007, Fallon had expressed strong opposition to the deployment of a third carrier strike group in the Persian Gulf.

According to an article written by respected analyst Gareth Porter and published in May 2007, Fallon had once confided that “there would be no war with Iran while I am head of Central Command.”

The electronic warfare and signals intelligence teams on the American warships should, at the very least, have been able to instantly identify the direction and relative distance from source of each and every signal coming in.

Therefore, it is fair to assume that they knew the Iranians were not responsible for the threats even as the first U.S. Navy reports of the incident were being released.

The U.S. Navy’s subsequent admission would suggest that rather than being a correction to a report that was made in haste, in the heat of the moment; an order had come down the line to release the real facts of the incident, whether or not they damaged or contradicted statements being made by the President of the United States.

Perhaps, given the growing opposition in the armed forces to expanding the war, and the fact that Bush’s rhetoric against Iran is frequently at odds with reality.

“What we have to keep in mind is the intention of the Bush administration, particularly from Vice President Dick Cheney that for at least the past two years their intention has been to trigger another war in the region, this time targeting Iran,” said Osgood, “and that’s the background for this latest incident.”

Osgood noted the historical precedents, such as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident that broadened America’s involvement in South East Asia and the Vietnam War.

“In the United States there is definitely a political faction that is very concerned that this administration is looking for any pretext for war, and it is one of the elements of an impeachment resolution that was introduced into the House a couple of months ago in November, calling for the impeachment and removal from office of Vice President Dick Cheney,” Osgood said, “so there are political splits over the question of war with Iran.”

Article based on interviews conducted by author and first broadcast on PressTV, Friday, 11 January 2008