How to make friends and influence people

Times of England:

AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.

A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.

The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America.

Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects.

Now, we can have ordinary renditions, too!

Interesting that this hasn't yet been muzzled

Guardian:

US corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington to testify about Saudi arms deals with the UK arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian can disclose. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to Washington financial records linked to the Saudi royal family.

The US is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and the Ministry of Defence during an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who says there was no impropriety about a £1bn payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime.

What's wrong with this picture?

New York Times:

In its final and most powerful report, a United Nations panel of scientists meeting here describes the mounting risks of climate change in language that is both more specific and forceful than its previous assessments, according to scientists here.

Synthesizing reams of data from its three previous reports, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time specifically points out important risks if governments fail to respond: melting ice sheets that could lead to a rapid rise in sea levels and the extinction of large numbers of species brought about by even moderate amounts of warming, on the order of 1 to 3 degrees.

The report carries heightened significance because it is the last word from the influential global climate panel before world leaders meet in Bali, Indonesia, next month to begin to discuss a global climate change treaty that will replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. It is also the first report from the panel since it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October — an honor that many scientists here said emboldened them to stand more forcefully behind their positions.

As a sign of the deepening urgency surrounding the climate change issue, the report, which was being printed Friday night, will be officially released by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday.

Guardian:

The government department spearheading the fight against climate change is planning an emergency package of at least £300m of cuts covering key environmental services, the Guardian has learned.

Frontline agencies tackling recycling, nature protection, energy saving, carbon emissions and safeguarding the environment are all being targeted in the package which is being drawn up by Helen Ghosh, the top civil servant at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Details of the cuts have emerged just as the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is due to publish its latest report. The study, to be made public today ahead of a UN climate meeting in Bali, will warn that all forms of carbon pollution from flights to inefficient light bulbs must become more expensive if the world is to avert catastrophic effects of warming.

The disclosure of the Defra cuts plan will embarrass Gordon Brown, who is expected next week to give a major speech on climate change, recommitting Britain to supplying a fifth of its energy requirements from renewables by 2020. Previously government officials had said Britain would struggle to meet the target and lobbied to be allowed to use different statistics.

Bush considers war, and Britain?

Guardian:

Gordon Brown is considering a Saudi plan to limit the supply of uranium to potential nuclear weapons states and will call for new EU sanctions against Iran in the next few weeks, most probably in the form of an end to export credit guarantees.

US-allied Gulf states said yesterday they were planning a consortium to provide enough enriched uranium for Iran's civil nuclear programme, which they believe could be a deterrent against the development of nuclear weapon.

Great

Guardian:

Ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change that "effectively abolishes" its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show that Gordon Brown will be advised today that the target Tony Blair signed up to this year for 20% of all European energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 is expensive and faces "severe practical difficulties".

According to the papers, John Hutton, the secretary of state for business, will tell Mr Brown that Britain should work with Poland and other governments sceptical about climate change to "help persuade" German chancellor Angela Merkel and others to set lower renewable targets, before binding commitments are framed in December.

It admits that allowing member states to fall short of their renewable targets will be "very hard to negotiate ... and will be very controversial". "The commission, some member states and the European parliament will not want the target to be diluted, though others may be allies for a change," says a draft copy of Mr Hutton's Energy Policy Presentation to the Prime Minister, marked "restricted - policy".

An encouraging dose of rationality

Guardian:

Diplomatic relations between Britain and the United States over Iran are under increasing strain after Gordon Brown's special security adviser warned that American claims about Tehran's military capability should be taken 'with a pinch of salt'.

As a new conservative campaign group with links to the White House prepares to make the case that Iran is a direct threat to the US, Patrick Mercer urged scepticism towards any US justification for strikes against the country.

Mercer, the former shadow homeland security spokesman, who visIted the Iranian capital recently, said: 'There is increasing concern about the apparent evidence that America is preparing about Iranian military involvement.'

Former Head Of Brit Army: US "intellectually bankrupt" on Iraq

Guardian:

The former head of the British Army has attacked US postwar policy, calling it "intellectually bankrupt".

General Sir Mike Jackson, who headed the army during the war in Iraq, described as "nonsensical" the claim by the former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that US forces "don't do nation-building". He has also hit back at suggestions that British forces had failed in Basra.

Mr Rumsfeld was "one of the most responsible for the current situation in Iraq," Gen Jackson says in his autobiography, Soldier. He describes Washington's approach to fighting global terrorism as "inadequate" for relying on military power over diplomacy and nation-building.

Great

Guardian:

Government officials have secretly briefed ministers that Britain has no hope of getting remotely near the new European Union renewable energy target that Tony Blair signed up to in the spring - and have suggested that they find ways of wriggling out of it.

In contrast to the government's claims to be leading the world on climate change, officials within the former Department of Trade and Industry have admitted that under current policies Britain would miss the EU's 2020 target of 20% energy from renewables by a long way. And their suggestion that "statistical interpretations of the target" be used rather than new ways to reach it has infuriated environmentalists.

An internal briefing paper for ministers, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, reveals that officials at the department, now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, think the best the UK could hope for is 9% of energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar or hydro by 2020.

The Weather

Guardian:

Southern Europe sizzled in record-breaking temperatures yesterday with the heatwave being blamed for deaths in Hungary and Romania, power cuts in Macedonia and forest fires from Serbia to Greece.

Up to 500 people have died in Hungary because of the heatwave with deaths attributed to heatstroke, cardiovascular problems and other illnesses aggravated by high temperatures which reached a record high of 41.9C (107F) in the southern city of Kiskunhalas.

Countries across the Balkan peninsula also laboured under temperatures that hit a historic 43C in Belgrade and 44C in Bulgaria. In an urgent announcement, Greece's weather service predicted temperatures of 45C (113F) and the government urged people to restrict their movements and stay indoors.

Associated Press:

Emergency workers rescued hundreds of trapped people Monday as water swallowed swaths of central England in the worst flooding to hit the country for 60 years. Officials said some rivers were still rising, with the western section of the rain-swollen River Thames on the verge of bursting its banks.

Roads and parking lots were submerged, trains suspended, buses canceled. Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity or drinking water, and farmers saw their summer crops destroyed.

Torrential rains have plagued Britain over the past month — nearly 5 inches fell in some areas on Friday alone — and more downpours were predicted this week.

Not that the climate is changing, or anything.

They're not the only ones...

Guardian:

The head of the army has warned that Britain is almost running out of troops to defend the country or fight in military operations abroad.

The warning by General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, to fellow defence chiefs comes at a time when the army is asking for a big increase in reservists to be deployed in Afghanistan, reflecting a crisis in Britain's armed forces.

In a secret memorandum he says: "We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected." Reinforcements for emergencies or for operations in Iraq or Afghanistan were "now almost non-existent".

A Chill Wind Blows

Guardian:

Four British diplomats will be expelled from Russia in the latest round of the ongoing diplomatic dispute over the murder of the dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

The move, announced today by the Russian foreign ministry, was swiftly condemned by the British foreign secretary, David Miliband.

"We obviously believe that the decision to expel four embassy staff is completely unjustified and we will be doing everything to ensure that they and their families are properly looked after," he said in a statement.

Of course, there was this:

On Monday, Mr Miliband announced that four Russian diplomats would be expelled from Britain to send a "clear and proportionate" message to Moscow about the Kremlin's refusal to extradite the ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi to stand trial for the murder of Mr Litvinenko.

Vladimir Putin sure does seem to miss the Soviet Union and the Cold War.

Cold War redux.

Guardian:

The British government was last night bracing itself for an inevitable diplomatic backlash after expelling four Russian intelligence officers in protest at the Kremlin's refusal to hand over the prime suspect in the polonium-210 poisoning affair.

In an attempt to underline the government's anger and alarm over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the Foreign Office announced it was ceasing cooperation with Moscow on a range of issues, starting with the imposition of restrictions on visas issued to Russian officials seeking to visit the UK.

All four individuals being expelled are officers with one of the successor organisations to the KGB, a clear signal that British authorities strongly suspect that Russian intelligence agencies had a hand in the murder. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, told the Commons yesterday: "This response is proportional and it is clear at whom it is aimed."

VERY interesting...

Guardian:

The first clear signs that Gordon Brown will reorder Britain's foreign policy emerged last night when one of his closest cabinet allies urged the US to change its priorities and said a country's strength should no longer be measured by its destructive military power.

Douglas Alexander, the trade and development secretary, made his remarks in a speech in America, the first by a cabinet minister abroad since Mr Brown took power a fortnight ago.

The speech represents a call for the US to rethink its foreign policy, and recognise the virtues of so-called "soft power" and acting through international institutions including the United Nations.

A New Era- Hopefully

I was remiss in not posting about this, a few days ago. Here's some compensation...

Guardian:

"Let the work of change begin," Gordon Brown declared today as he returned to Downing Street as the new prime minister of Great Britain.

A beaming and emotional premier pledged to use "all the talents" as he prepared to reshape the cabinet and government.

Speaking with his wife, Sarah, beside him, Mr Brown told reporters: "I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen to form a government.

Guardian:

The new faces running Britain.

Guardian:

Gordon Brown today appointed Britain's first female home secretary as he unveiled a radical shake-up of his frontbench team.

Times of London:

Profiles of the knowns and the less knowns in Gordon Brown's first Cabinet as Prime Minister

Good News From Across The Pond

Observer:

A 'liberated' Gordon Brown will take over as leader of the Labour party today as a new poll reveals that Labour has pulled ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since October.

The survey for The Observer, which will be of deep concern to the Tories, reveals the first signs of a 'Brown bounce' and the end of David Cameron's honeymoon with the British people.

The Ipsos MORI poll shows that 40 per cent of voters believe Brown would make the more capable Prime Minister, against 22 per cent who believe that Cameron would be better. The poll makes even worse reading for Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who is rated by just 5 per cent of voters.

Serious Military-Industrial Bribery Scandal In Britain

Guardian:

The arms company BAE secretly paid Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia more than £1bn in connection with Britain's biggest ever weapons contract, it is alleged today.

A series of payments from the British firm was allegedly channelled through a US bank in Washington to an account controlled by one of the most colourful members of the Saudi ruling clan, who spent 20 years as their ambassador in the US.

It is claimed that payments of £30m were paid to Prince Bandar every quarter for at least 10 years.

The Prince is so close to the Bush family that's he's known as "Bandar Bush." No wonder he's always smiling. He has more than a billion reasons to be!

Potentially Good News

Blair getting out of the way may actually save Labour!

Guardian:

Gordon Brown is to set out a wide-ranging blueprint for a new Britain as he attempts to prove that he will be a Prime Minister for the whole country rather than sectional interests.

As a new poll shows Labour has gained a bounce in the polls, the Chancellor is set to unveil a host of new policies on the environment, the treatment the public can expect from doctors and fundamental changes to the constitution designed to show the broadness of his political vision and that he can outmanoeuvre David Cameron on the key issues.

Gordon Brown, Radical!

Guardian:

Gordon Brown will try to restore public trust in British politics by proposing an all-party convention that could pave the way for a written constitution.

In an attempt to draw a line under damaging perceptions over sleaze and spin in the Blair era, the chancellor will seek consensus for the historic move to enshrine certain values and rights.

The convention will also look at new powers for parliament and a rebalancing of powers between Whitehall and local government, similar to those laid out in the US constitution of 1787 which has a central place in American law and culture.

In Rights Of Man, Thomas Paine excoriated England for having no constitution. It's incredible that they still haven't bothered to actually write one. Of course, those silly Guardian writers don't realize that our current Administration is doing its best to shred ours!

Good Riddance!

Blair resigns, effective June 27. He's long planned an orderly transition, so that Labour can move on without him. Unfortunately, he has effectively destroyed the great Labour majority he first created, and it's doubtful Labour will hold Downing Street, in the next election.

A tragically flawed Prime Minister, Blair could have been one of the great ones. His support for Bush's war will always be his primary legacy.

Shredder Futures Rising In Britain

Guardian:

MI5 and the Ministry of Defence are among government agencies demanding the return of secret documents from the Stevens inquiry in advance of four key inquiries which are set to expose the full extent of security force collusion with loyalist paramilitary figures in Northern Ireland, the Guardian has learned.

In some cases the organisations asking for the paperwork have successfully appealed for the return of the documents only to shred them, raising fears that vital evidence of collusion could disappear.

As a result, officers involved in the Stevens inquiry have begun making copies of all important secret documents to avoid crucial evidence being lost.