Robert Peston On Andy Coulson Evidence

A colleague of mine, Raymond Buchanan, has sent me his notes of the evidence Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, gave in the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial last December. At the time, Mr Coulson  was still the Director Of Communications at 10 Downing Street .Sheridan asked Mr Coulson: "did the News of the World pay corrupt police officers?"Mr Coulson replied: "Not to my knowledge".Mr Coulson's reply in that case has become resonant following the disclosure I made in my blog a couple of days ago about e-mails that were passed to the Metropolitan Police on 20 June by News International.These e-mails show Mr Coulson authorising payments to police officers for help with stories.

Mr Coulson has still not contacted me following the message I left on his voicemail. 

From Robert Peston's Blog

Foreign Contractors Taking Jobs From Iraqis

Thousands of foreign workers came to Iraq after the 2003 invasion as employees for foreign companies contracted by U.S. forces, mostly working inside U.S. military bases. After 2007, private Iraqi employment agencies imported thousands more. But with the official unemployment rate at 15 percent and another 28 percent in part-time jobs, the government plans to deport illegal foreigners. Many of the private agencies stopped work after Iraq halted visas for foreign workers on January 1. With Iraq trying to recover from years of war, destruction and depredation, securing a scarce job is increasingly a priority for many Iraqis.

"We have started developing a mechanism to deport foreign labourers who entered Iraq illegally," Aziz Ibrahim, general director of the labour office at the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry, told Reuters in an interview. No one knows how many illegal workers entered Iraq or stayed after working for foreign firms that left when their contracts expired, but Ibrahim estimates the number in the thousands. The government is only issuing work permits to workers at foreign firms that hire at least 50 percent Iraqis for their work force, officials said. Firms importing labour must pay $5,000 for each worker to a fund to help jobless Iraqis with loans and benefits. Thousands of foreigners, mainly from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and some African nations, work as cleaners and labourers in restaurants, shops, hospitals and hotels.

Fairouz Jubidali, a 19-year-old Bangladeshi who came to Iraq in 2009 through a Bangladeshi job agency, said he paid $4,500 to obtain work for three years. He earns $300 a month cleaning, stocking and selling at a Baghdad food store. He says he was duped.

"I was deceived by the agency. They did not tell me that I would go to Iraq," he said. "I thought I was going to Gulf states. When my contract expires I will leave Iraq because the situation is not safe."

Foreign workers complain they are subjected to humiliating conditions and employers sometimes withhold or delay pay. They have no recourse because they are working illegally. Recently, 30 Sri Lankans working for a Lebanese firm building housing in Maysan province went on a hunger strike, and some threatened to hang themselves if they were not paid for two years' work. Anger over power outages, food ration shortages, corruption and government ineffectiveness is heating up the political climate in Iraq as it tries to shake off the legacy of years of violence, sanctions and economic decline. Despite its huge untapped oil and gas reserves and steadily rising oil output and revenue, 23 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the planning ministry said. Ibrahim Jameel, the shop owner who employs Fairouz Jubidali, said deporting foreign workers will not solve joblessness.

"It is impossible to find Iraqis who accept this kind of work with such pay ... most unemployed Iraqis are university graduates," he said. Economic analysts played down the possible impact of the government's measures for unemployed Iraqis. Foreign workers are less costly than their Iraqi counterparts.

"It's not a major change or solution to unemployment because they are not competing for Iraqi jobs," said Salam Smeism, an economist and Iraqi bourse board member. But central government officials defend their measures against foreigners as necessary to ease chronic unemployment.

"Providing jobs for Iraqi unemployed is our duty. All these measures are to solve the unemployment crisis," Ibrahim said.               (From Foreign Policy Journal).

UK Politics - Is The Murdoch Stranglehold Over?

The novelty of this transformed choreography takes the breath away. Senior figures in both the bigger parties are used to paying homage. As a BBC political correspondent, I was the only journalist who travelled with Tony Blair in July 1995 for his famous meeting with Rupert Murdoch at a conference in Australia. The investment of political and physical energy was staggering. Murdoch issued an invitation at relatively short notice to Blair, a summons that could not be ignored. Blair, Alastair Campbell and Anji Hunter dropped all plans, flew for 24 hours, taking sleeping pills to manage the jet lag, attended the conference and returned in time for Prime Minister's Questions.

There was no formal deal between the future prime minister and the mighty media emperor during that fleeting round-the-world trip, but I was certain by the end of it that at the very least The Sun would be neutral and Murdoch could relax about future media ownership laws. Subsequently Campbell's deputy in No 10, Lance Price, described Murdoch as the third most powerful figure in the Labour government after Blair and Gordon Brown. Murdoch's editors were the equivalent of powerful apparatchiks in a dictatorship.

Similarly, when in doubt, as Cameron and George Osborne often were in the early days of their leadership, they turned to News International. Their appointment of Andy Coulson showed the importance they attached to securing the endorsement of those who count. Read more.

Sun Front Page On General Election Day

THIS HAS TAKEN ON A WHOLE NEW MEANING NOW

Phones Of Bereaved Military Families Hacked By News International

Col Douglas Young, the chairman of the British Armed Forces Federation, said police were failing families by leaving them in the dark about whether or not they had been targets.

He said he would seek a meeting with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner if families were not told within days whether or not they may have been hacked.

“It is now imperative that the police do follow up and do say as quickly as possible 'we have now contacted everybody involved’ because otherwise it is going to leave a lot of worry and concern,” he said.

A spokesman for the Army Families Federation added: “Families who have endured the loss of their soldier will find this privacy assault disgusting and indefensible, as will all serving personnel who will question the sanctity of their precious phone calls home.”

The Murdoch Empire, is disintegrating, Mordor-style, by the hour.

Obama's Latest Iraq 'Strategy'

Obama's policy for Iraq is now : 'providing opportunities for enhancing kinetic ground based tactical strategies.' it seems. More at The Trench.

Iraq And The US Narrative

Noticeably and grievously absent from U.S. mainstream corporate media accounts like this one are the facts about what the Iraqi public actually have to say about the foreign occupation of their country.

A February 2004 poll by Oxford Research International showed that 39.5% of Iraqis supported the presence of coalition forces in their country, with 13.2% strongly in support, while a majority of 50.9% opposed the foreign occupation, with 31.3% expressing strong opposition.

In May 2004, a poll conducted for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)showed that “80 percent of the Iraqis questioned reported a lack of confidencein the Coalition Provisional Authority, and 82 percent said they disapprove of the U.S. and allied militaries in Iraq.” Presumably referring to the same poll, theTelegraph reported, “More than half of Iraqis would feel safer without Americantroops in the country, according to a leaked poll showing that a mere 10 per cent now backed coalition forces.” Read more.

Abu Ghraib Abuses - Australian Department

"We need to assure ourselves that we have learned from the mistakes of the past and we need an inquiry with full Royal Commission powers to ensure that the key information gets into the public domain about our policies in relation to the detention and treatment of prisoners of war."

The documents obtained by PIAC refer to the case of a group of 59 armed fedayeen and four Iranians captured by Australian special forces in Iraq in April 2003. To maintain a legal fiction that Australia did not take prisoners, their capture was attributed to a single US soldier attached to the Australian unit.

One of the Iranians was apparently beaten to death aboard a British helicopter while being transported to a US detention facility. Read more.

Tragedy Has A Face

'Tragedy is looking at fate for a lesson in deportment on life's scaffold. If we find the lesson painful, how shall we face the event?'  -  John Masefield

Yemen - Anti-Saleh Protests Continue

Said Ghaddafi On NATO

Said Ghaddafi on NATO on this clip. He's part right, actually.

Greek Commandos Intercept Gaza Peace Flotilla

This is the price for the world bailing Greece out (Golden Fleeced?). Humiliating yourself at the behest of the US/Israeli axis.

Peace In Iraq - Civilian Death Toll Worst In A Year

The number of Iraqis killed in violence in June was the highest since the start of the year, according to figures released today.
A total of 271 people, 155 civilians, 77 policemen and 39 soldiers died in attacks last month, data compiled by the health, interior and defence ministries showed. The overall toll was the highest monthly figure for Iraq since September, when 273 Iraqis died. The previous high for this year was January, when 259 were killed.

A further 454 people were wounded in June, including 192 civilians, 77 police officers and 39 soldiers. Fourteen US soldiers also died last month, making it the deadliest month for American troops in three years.

Lets Hear It For The UN 'Security' Council

"Britain is on the United Nations Security Council, a body distinguished by the fact that its five permanent members - the others are the United States, Russia, China, and France - are the world's biggest arms dealers." "... and the other members export every year some $36 billion's worth of arms." "In Britain, almost half of all government research and development funds goes on the military and arms industry."

Quoted from: Hidden Agendas by John Pilger - pp. 107 and 136, New Press Edition 1998