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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Anti-fracking protesters glue themselves to pumps at wrong petrol station

2014-01-23

Today's feel-good story! Hat tip to the Gateway Pundit. Deacon Blues put up a similar story about the same time I did.

ANTI-FRACKING protesters who glued and chained themselves to petrol pumps in Great Lever over the weekend were at the wrong garage, it has emerged.

Four people were arrested on Saturday after anti-fracking protesters used glue and bike locks to attach themselves to fuel pumps at the petrol station in Rishton Lane. The group had chosen to base the protest next to a Total petrol station after the French firm announced it would be investing more than £12 million in the UK's shale gas industry.

However, it emerged later that the petrol station was no longer owned by Total - but the new owners had not got around to taking the signs down yet.

Petrol station manager Reezwan Patel said: "We had to close for six hours, so with the loss of custom and the damage to the pumps, it could be a couple of thousand pounds we have lost.

"The thing is, Total don't own the station any more. It is owned by Certas Energy, but the signs haven't changed yet.

"The peaceful protesters were very polite and actually apologised for what happened, but the others were very stupid and have cost us a lot of money."

The peaceful ones were also pretty stupid...

Three men, and a woman, were in police custody yesterday after the protest, which forced the petrol station to close temporarily.

Those arrested were from a campaign group which has been protesting against test drilling at Barton Moss, in Salford.

A peaceful protest, organised by the newly-formed Bolton Against Fracking group, and attended by members of the Bolton Green Party, was already taking place at the petrol station, and was not linked to the campaigners who attached themselves to the pumps.

The rally was organised to protest about the potential use of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" in the UK, a controversial method

Controversial only to greenies and fools (but I repeat myself) who don't understand the science and engineering...

of extracting shale gas from underground rocks by cracking them with jets made up of water, sand and chemicals.

The unknown activists were criticised by Bolton Green Party chairman Alan Johnson. He said: "I was very annoyed, and I have to stress that these people have nothing to do with our protest. We were there to protest peacefully, and warn people about the dangers of fracking, and these people have put themselves, and others, in danger with what they did.

"We want to warn people that fracking could lead to a poisoned water supply and contaminated soil.

Except that it doesn't, but do go on...

"I am a grandfather and that is not the legacy I want to leave. We are very worried about the potential of fracking in Bolton because, unfortunately, we are ripe for it."

Campaign group Frack Free Greater Manchester had called for people to protest outside Total petrol stations across the country. Group member Sophie Baxter said: "Every company that is going to invest in fracking needs to expect these kind of actions. We were very proud of the guys who locked themselves to the pumps"

Personally I would have left them there overnight. And I would have sprayed them with water from a garden hose...

Specialist police officers removed the protesters from the pumps. A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "As a precaution, the pumps were isolated.

"Two men have been arrested for criminal damage, and a man and a woman have been arrested for criminal damage and criminal trespass."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Salafi leader: Islam prohibits murder

2011-04-16

[Ma'an] Salafi leader Iyad Ash-Shami said Friday that Salafi groups were not involved in the murder of an Italian activist in the Gazoo Strip.
Even though they were the ones holding him for ransom?
The killing of Vittorio Arrigoni "had nothing to do with Islam," he said, adding that Salafi groups and scholars all agreed that the killing of any man was prohibited.
"Yeah, those boyz kill him because he was short!"
The body of Vittorio Arrigoni was found hanged in a home northwest of Gazoo City early Friday morning, hours after the International Solidarity Movement activist was kidnapped in the coastal enclave.
"We're holdin' you for ransom, Vittorio! String him up, boyz!"
Salafi forces of Evil were suspected of kidnapping Arrigoni, last seen alive in a video posted online Thursday.

The kidnappers identified themselves in the video as belonging to a previously unknown group called The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Mohammedana.

They threatened to kill Arrigoni unless Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, released Salafist prisoners by Friday evening. Before the deadline passed, however, Hamas said his body was found.

Ash-Shami said "any government or state anywhere in the world" could have made the video, but said Salafi factions in Gazoo would meet Friday to decide how to respond to the killing.

Earlier Friday, Salafi faction At-Tawheed wa Al-Jihad denied involvement in the abduction and murder of Arrigoni, but said it was "a natural outcome of the policy of the government carried out against the Salafi."

The Hamas-run government in Gazoo has in recent years taken a hard line against Salafists in Gazoo, whose religious observances and refusal to comply with ceasefires with Israel has led to confrontations.

Hamas severed ties with Salafist faction the Army of Islam in 2007 after the group grabbed credit for kidnapping BBC news hound Alan Johnson.

Hamas helped to secure the journalist's release after four months in captivity.

In August 2009, Salafist faction Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God) announced the creation of an Islamist "emirate" in Gazoo, during a sermon at a mosque in the southern city of Rafah.

That prompted a furious response from Hamas, whose forces stormed the mosque, prompting festivities which left 24 people dead.

Link

Britain

More Allegations About UK's Labour Government Mass Immigration Policies

2010-02-10

The Government has been accused of pursuing a secret policy of encouraging mass immigration for its own political ends. The release of a previously unseen document suggested that Labour's migration policy over the past decade had been aimed not just at meeting the country's economic needs, but also the Government's "social objectives". The paper said migration would "enhance economic growth" and made clear that trying to halt or reverse it could be "economically damaging". But it also stated that immigration had general "benefits" and that a new policy framework was needed to "maximise" the contribution of migration to the Government's wider social aims.
More evidence (if it were needed) that left-wing politics represents cultural suicide.
The Government has always
lied through its teeth/
denied that social engineering played a part in its migration policy. However, the paper, which was written in 2000 at a time when immigration began to increase dramatically, said controls were contrary to its policy objectives and could lead to "social exclusion".

That was on Tony Blair's watch. While we Americans appreciated his foreign policy, and especially his ability to articulate so beautifully George W. Bush's ideas, you Brits insisted there were serious problems on the domestic side. So it now appears.

Last night, the Conservatives demanded an independent inquiry into the issue. It was alleged that the document showed that Labour had overseen a deliberate open-door policy on immigration to boost multi-culturalism.

Voting trends indicate that migrants and their descendants are much more likely to vote Labour.

The existence of the draft policy paper, which was drawn up by a Cabinet Office think tank and a Home Office research unit, was disclosed last year by Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett. He alleged at the time that the sharp increase in immigration over the past 10 years was partly due to a "driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multi-cultural".

However, the full document was made public only yesterday following a Freedom of Information request by Migrationwatch, a pressure group. A version of the paper was published in 2001, but most of the references to "social objectives" had been removed. In the executive summary alone, six out of eight uses of the phrase were deleted.

Labour has overseen an unprecedented rise in immigration, which has led to a rise of about three million in the UK population since 1997. Until recently, it accused opponents who called for tougher controls of playing the "race card".

Gosh, that sounds familiar.

Labour was forced to change its rhetoric amid concerns that the economic and social reality of immigration had alienated voters in its heartlands.

Gordon Brown pledged to secure "British jobs for British workers" as the recession led to a rise in unemployment and, just four months ago, he was accused of a U-turn when he insisted that it was "not racist" to discuss the issue.
There is no level of contempt that Brown is unworthy of.
The document released yesterday suggested that Labour originally pursued a different direction. It was published under the title "Migration: an economic and social analysis" but the removal of significant extracts suggested that officials or ministers were nervous over references to "social objectives". The original paper called for the need of a new framework for thinking about migration policy but the concluding phrase -- "if we are to maximise the contribution of migration to the Government's economic and social objectives" -- was edited out. Another deleted phrase suggested that it was "correct that the Government has both economic and social objectives for migration policy".

Sir Andrew Green, the chairman of Migrationwatch, said the document showed that Mr Neather, who claimed ministers wanted to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", had been correct in his account of Labour's immigration policy. "Labour had a political agenda which they sought to conceal for initiating mass immigration to Britain," he said. "Why else would they be so anxious to remove any mention of social aspects? Only now that their working-class supporters are deserting them in droves have they started to talk about restricting immigration."

Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, accused the Government of having a secret policy. "This shows that Labour's open-door immigration policy was deliberate, and ministers should apologise," he said. "This makes it all the more important that there is a proper independent inquiry in the origins of this policy and whether ministers have been deceiving people."

Jack Straw, who was home secretary when the paper was drawn up, has adamantly denied any secret plot and insisted that he had been tough on immigration.

~~Liar!~~ I do apologize. For a given value of tough that statement would of course be true. Granted, the value would not match common dictionary definitions, but even so.

Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said the policy changes introduced in the 1997-2001 Parliament toughened immigration rules.

Do tell. Really, do tell us.

"The reports confirm there is no evidence to back the idea there was an open-door policy," he said. "The Government was criticised at the time for tightening the policy." Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, will announce today moves to make it harder to earn citizenship.

Tightened citizenship rules are lovely idea. How about radically reducing the number of entrants allowed into the country as well?

Link

Britain

Britain raises terror threat level to severe

2010-01-24

[Al Arabiya Latest] Britain raised its terrorism threat level to 'severe', the second highest level, on Friday, days before London hosts major international meetings on how to deal with militancy in Afghanistan and Yemen.

"The UK is raising their measures to effectively where we are with the airport security measures that we have taken and announced over the last few weeks," said DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler.

" The UK is raising their measures to effectively where we are with the airport security measures that we have taken and announced over the last few weeks "

DHS spokesman Matthew Chandler

"We have enhanced our security measures and communicated specific information to industry, law enforcement and the American people," he said.

The decision to raise the level from 'substantial' means security services now consider an attack in Britain, a key U.S. ally, to be "highly likely" but the government said it had no information to suggest an attack was imminent.

Britain gave no reason for the move by its Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) which comes as Britain and other countries step up precautions in the wake of the failed Christmas Day attack on an airliner in Detroit.
Raising the threat level is expected to lead to tighter security at airports and public buildings.

"JTAC keeps the threat level under constant review and makes its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas," Home Secretary (interior minister) Alan Johnson said in a statement.

"The fact that we've moved to another threat level means we put more resources in, we heighten the state of vigilance. It shouldn't be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter," he told the BBC.

Security expert Anthony Glees said his guess was that the decision to raise the threat level was linked to the Afghanistan conference and to intelligence from the United States.

"I think it's very probable that people, either members of al-Qaeda or associated to al-Qaeda, will be figuring that it would be a huge trophy attack in some way to damage the holding of the Afghanistan conference," he told the BBC.

The threat level was last changed on July 20, 2009 when it was lowered to substantial from severe. It had been lowered to severe on July 4, 2007 from critical, the highest level, which had been declared a few days earlier following attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow.

Suicide bombings in July 2005 killed 52 people on London's transport networks and a number of plots have been thwarted since then.

Link

Britain

Britain: Terrorist threat level raised to 'severe'

2010-01-22

Hattips to both DrudgeReport and Lucianne.com

Britain's terrorist threat level was raised tonight from substantial' to severe' - meaning that counter-terrorism agencies believe an attack is highly likely'. The measure was approved at a meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee and announced by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary.

The Times understands that the decision to raise the threat level is connected to the conference on Afghanistan taking place at Lancaster Gate, London, next Thursday. Sources said there had been intensive discussions throughout the day relating to intelligence suggesting a possible attempted spectacular' by an al-Qaeda affiliated group.

But the shift was also described by one source as precautionary' rather than rooted in any firm information that an identified terror cell was plotting an attack. The threat level was lowered to substantial - meaning an attack is a strong possibility' - in July last year and a number of counter-terror measures in central London, such as stop and search, have been relaxed.

Link

Britain

Hate preacher says UK will be new Bosnia

2010-01-17

DOOM preacher Anjem Choudary has warned of a Bosnian-style bloodbath after admitting plans for a new extremist group called Democracy Is Dead.

I think it's time to deport the gentleman, with just the clothes on his back and his entire family.

The cleric forecast that a government ban on his group Islam4UK would stoke hostility between Muslims and white Britons.

He claimed there could be a repeat, on our own streets, of the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica in which Serbs slaughtered 8,000 Bosnian men and boys.

But, despite mounting tensions surrounding his views, he admitted that he is already rebranding outlawed Islam 4UK under the provocative new banner.

He said he planned to "launch a new organisation under the title Democracy Is Dead, adding: "You will have to wait and see."

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star Sunday, East London-based Choudary, 42, said: "The Government's decision to ban Islam4UK is a very dangerous one as it will only increase the potential for some very nasty conflict."

"You only have to look at what happened between Bosnia and Serbia at Srebrenica. There could be a bloodbath on the streets."

"I don't think the British people want that but, when you start to suppress ideological movements, you push them underground and there is more chance of conflict.'

"The Government has created a tinderbox situation by banning us. We were the ones calming things down."

Islam4UK was banned by Home Secretary Alan Johnson after uproar over Choudary's plans to hold a protest march in the Wiltshire village of Wootton Bassett where the public salute the bodies of soldiers brought back from Afghanistan.

But ex-lawyer Choudary was unrepentant, claiming that white Britons do not understand the strength of feeling of the Muslim population.

He said: "In some cities, one in six of the young people are Muslim. People don't realise that there are actually four to five million Muslims in the UK. Many of them do not register to vote so the Government's figures do not reflect the true size of the Muslim population."

"The Government says there are around one million Muslims in the UK but that is nowhere near accurate. Of course, most will remain silent and not complain but a few could be driven to take the law into their own hands."

"It's a very dangerous situation. You have to consider how, if there is another 7/7, the country would cope. More and more disaffected whites would be driven towards far-right extremist groups such as the British National Party and the English Defence League if there was another attack."

"If Muslims are not allowed to speak out they could be driven to use other tactics. This in turn will increase tensions with the white community. I would expect fresh attacks on Muslims and the Government will not be able to control the situation."

Link

Britain

Islam4UK banned in UK

2010-01-12

A radical Islamist group that planned a march through Wootton Bassett will be banned under counter-terrorism laws, Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said.
Whoa! How dramatic! About as dramatic as when they banned al-Muhajiroun, in fact...
Islam4UK had planned the protest at the Wiltshire town to honour Muslims killed in the Afghanistan conflict. The government had been considering outlawing the group - Islam4UK is also known as al-Muhajiroun.
Ummm... It's already banned?
A spokesman for Islam4UK told the BBC it was an "ideological and political organisation", and not a violent one.
"We only incite violence. We don't do it as an organization, only individually."
Mr Johnson said: "I have today laid an order which will proscribe al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by. It is already proscribed under two other names - al-Ghurabaa and The Saved Sect. Proscription is a tough but necessary power to tackle terrorism and is not a course we take lightly."
Whoopdy doo. Next week there'll be a new Islamic organization making faces and issuing threats and generating demands. Coincidentally it'll be headed by Anjem Chaudry.

Link

Britain

Islamists cancel Wootton Bassett anti-war march

2010-01-11

A radical Islamic group has cancelled plans to hold an anti-war march through a town famous for honouring the UK's servicemen and women killed abroad. Members of Islam4UK had planned to march through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, to honour Muslims killed in the Afghanistan conflict. The government had been considering outlawing the group, which is said to have extremist links.

Earlier this week, Gordon Brown said plans for the march were "disgusting".

Families of soldiers who died in Afghanistan had condemned the planned march, and MPs signed a motion calling on the home secretary and local authorities to prevent the protest. Wootton Bassett has become the focus of public mourning, with hundreds lining the streets every time hearses carrying the repatriated bodies of killed UK service personnel are driven through the town from nearby RAF Lyneham.

On Sunday, a statement from Islam4UK's leader, Anjem Choudary, said it had "successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan".

"We at Islam4UK have decided, after consultation with others including our Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, that no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett," he said. The group denied members had planned to carry 500 empty coffins through the town.

Islam4UK had previously said it had chosen Wootton Bassett to create maximum publicity.

The News of the World reported on Sunday that Home Secretary Alan Johnson would outlaw the group on Monday. The newspaper said comments made by senior members of Islam4UK and on websites breached the Terrorism Act. A Home Office spokesman said the final decision on whether to ban the group rested with Mr Johnson but he would not confirm the plan.

North Wiltshire MP James Gray said he was "extremely glad" Islam4UK had abandoned its plans, and he also condemned Mr Choudary's actions as a "media stunt".

"He was trying to make a political statement, the whole announcement was to get media coverage - he admitted that himself - and he achieved it. He received lots of coverage," he said. Mohammed Shafiq, from the Ramadhan Foundation, said Mr Choudary had been deliberately provocative.

"His attempt to demonstrate at Wootton Bassett was set out to provoke hatred between communities and is not welcomed in the Muslim communities," he said. "He and his cronies have no support in the British Muslim communities."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Pressure on Obama to reveal what Britain said about Detroit bomber

2010-01-06

Barack Obama is under pressure to disclose what information MI5 passed to the American authorities about the Detroit bomber after Downing Street disclosed that a file had been "shared" with the CIA in 2008. After initially denying that they had received British intelligence, senior American sources confirmed last night that they were "reviewing" what British information had been received on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

The admission is embarrassing for the White House and threatens to provoke a rift with Gordon Brown. The conflicting briefing over the shared intelligence also suggests that the transatlantic relationship may have weakened in recent months.

Confirmation that Abdulmutallab's name was passed to the US in 2008 would be a major blow to Mr Obama, although it could also open up accusations that George W Bush's administration failed to collate intelligence properly.

The Prime Minister's spokesman disclosed on Monday that MI5 information had been shared with the Americans more than a year ago. Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, confirmed this in the House of Commons yesterday. The information is understood to have detailed Abdulmutallab's contacts with radical preachers but did not give warning that he might be a terrorist threat.

White House sources are thought to be furious over the British intervention, with Mr Obama already under pressure over intelligence failures concerning the thwarted attempt to blow up the US airliner.

Mr. Brown was going to tell Obama more just before Bambi refused to meet with him ...

Yesterday, the Prime Minister's spokesman played down the rift. Both British and American officials insisted the intelligence would not have prevented the attempted attack.

However, there are growing questions as to why Abdulmutalab was granted a US visa and why his name was not on a US watch list.

In an official briefing on Monday, the Prime Minister's spokesman said of the Detroit bomber: "Clearly there was security information about this individual's activities and that was information that was shared with the US authorities."

A US counter-terrorism official did not deny that information on Abdulmutallab had been received from Britain but told The Daily Telegraph: "It's wrong to think that there was, from any source, information that identified Abdulmutallab as a terrorist, let alone a terrorist who was planning to carry out an attack in the United States."

Yesterday morning, the Prime Minister's spokesman issued a revised statement that said: "There is no suggestion that the UK passed on information to the US that they did not act on." He then said that Downing Street would not be commenting further on intelligence matters.

Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, said: "This is the second time in a week that Downing Street had given false information to the US about the nature of its discussions with the United States about over terrorist issues. For a Prime Minister to behave in this way is nothing short of a complete disgrace. These are highly sensitive issues of national importance and should be dealt in a manner that is free from political opportunism and spin."

Link

Britain

UK to launch airport body scanners in few weeks

2010-01-06

[Al Arabiya Latest] Britain will introduce its first full-body scanners at London's Heathrow airport in about three weeks' time in the wake of the failed Detroit plane bombing, a minister said Tuesday.

Airports will also be ordered to increase the proportion of people they search by hand and whose baggage they test for traces of explosives, while there will be more sniffer dogs, British Home Secretary Alan Johnson added.

"It is clear that no one measure will be enough to defeat inventive and determined terrorists, and there is no single technology which we can guarantee will be 100 per cent effective against such attacks," Johnson told lawmakers.

Link

Britain

Conservatives leading Labour in polls

2009-12-22

[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid the UK's grim financial speculations, the Conservative Party has extended its lead over the governing Labour Party. Two surveys conducted by The Observer and The People newspapers showed that the opposition Conservative Party was leading 43 percent to 26 percent in one poll, and 40 percent to 28 percent in the other respectively.

The new results come in contrast with last week opinion poll that suggested Prime Minister Gordon Brown's party was gaining public support.

The Labour Party has a parliamentary majority of 63 in the House of Commons. However, it is expected to lose its majority in the elections due by mid 2010.

The Observer speculated that finance minister Alistair Darling's announcement that the British government will be GBP 178 billion (USD 288 billion) in debt for the fiscal year contributed to new support for the Conservative Party. Darling also revealed that there will be an increase in national insurance aid that will exempt the poor, and that the public sector will have to restrict pay raises.

"The polls change around. I think there's a view in the Conservative Party that it's a done deal. Never underestimate the seriousness of the British electorate. As we get closer to the election they will be looking much more closely at the policies of the main parties," Home Secretary Alan Johnson was quoted by the BBC as saying.

Britain's elections are scheduled to take place on May 6, 2010, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that he might choose to hold the elections earlier in March.

Link

Britain

Pentagon hacker 'wants to be prosecuted in the UK'

2009-11-29

North London computer hacker Gary McKinnon wants to face court for hacking into the Pentagon's computer system but should not be tried in America, his mother has said.

Last week Home Secretary Alan Johnson finally dashed hopes that the Government would intervene in the case, insisting there was no evidence the extradition would breach Mr McKinnon's human rights.

Mr McKinnon, from Wood Green, who has Asperger's syndrome, faces up to 60 years in jail for breaking into the American systems after the 9/11 terror attacks. He says he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

Janis Sharp told Sky News: "Gary isn't trying to avoid being prosecuted, he wants to be prosecuted in the UK which is his right under the Magna Carta." She said her son's actions were a form of "cyber peace process" because he could not understand why the Pentagon's computers were so poorly protected and also believed the 9/11 attacks were "an inside job".

Earlier she told the BBC's Andrew Marr show he should not be extradited even if he did not suffer from Asperger's syndrome. She said the burden of proof in each legal system was different, leaving UK citizens at a disadvantage.

She said her son's mental state was now so fragile that she believed he would commit suicide if jailed. "Many people would rather be dead than be in a prison in America. He's had several breakdowns, he doesn't talk for days, he doesn't eat. A psychiatrist says he's detaching totally from himself. He feels like he's walking through a world that never ends."

Link

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