Apr. 27 - Update on the arrests in England last month on terrorism charges: Two men and woman held by terrorist police were released when the court did not approve an application for their further detention:

Warrants for the further detention of the seven men until this Thursday have been issued by Manchester city magistrates. But District Judge Michael Abelson ruled at a specially convened court which sat on Friday and Saturday that there was no right in law to hold the other three.

Conspiracy charges are very difficult to prove.

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Apr. 27 - The three IRA members who had been accused of training Columbian terrorists in bomb-making techniques were acquitted of the charges but the prosecution has filed an appeal.

The news report says the defence destroyed key witnesses on the stand.

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Apr. 27 - Sheesh, and I thought our State Dept. was a total screw-up! Dismay over Blair stance on Mid-East:

Tony Blair's approach to Iraq and the Middle East was savaged last night by 52 senior diplomats, who questioned his support for America's "doomed" policy in the region.

Their unprecedented onslaught came as the Government confirmed it was discussing sending more troops to Iraq to fill the gap left by Spain's withdrawal.

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Apr. 22 - The Oil for Food program scandal (UNSCAM) has been covered by several articles today in the Daily Telegraph (UK) as well as other media in Britain, Canada, and the U.S.

From the Telegraph, UN officials 'covered up Saddam theft of billions in aid for Iraqis':

Saddam Hussein diverted huge sums from the £60 billion United Nations oil-for-food programme for the poor and sick of pre-war Iraq to foreign governments and vocal supporters of his regime worldwide, the US Congress heard yesterday.

Senior UN, French and Russian officials were alleged to have connived at the scandal, said Claude Hankes-Drielsma, who is leading the Iraqi Governing Council inquiry into the affair.

He said some suppliers, mostly Russian, routinely sent out-of-date or unfit food, or sent fewer goods than were paid for and padded out contracts. In that way they created an excess that could be skimmed off by Iraqi officials.

One of those named in Iraqi files as having received bribes on the sale of oil is Benon Sevan, the UN official in charge of the programme. Mr Sevan, who is on extended leave pending retirement, denied the claims.

Mr Hankes-Drielsma, a former leading executive at the London-based auditors Price Waterhouse, said that Saddam and his henchmen pocketed billions in surcharges and bribes.

The biggest humanitarian scheme in the UN's history had provided the dictator and "his corrupt and evil regime with a convenient vehicle through which he bought support internationally by bribing political parties, companies, journalists and other individuals of influence.

"The very fact that Saddam Hussein, the UN and certain members of the Security Council could conceal such a scam from the world should send shivers down every spine in this room today."

There are enough problems attendant on the birth of democracy in Iraq without burdening the country with an organisation that proved so inadequate in confronting the previous dictatorship, whether over oil for food or defiance of Security Council resolutions. George W Bush and Tony Blair may welcome shedding the odious status of occupiers. But they should be under no illusions that the UN will prove an adequate substitute. Given its record in the Balkans and the Middle East, their continuing faith in that body as providing a unique cloak of legitimacy is astonishing.

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Apr. 20 - Speculation is unavoidable when an arrest on charges of sabotage involves high-speed trains - Cops quiz 'rail vandal':

POLICE are questioning a lad aged 15 over an apparent series of attempts to derail a high speed train, it emerged today.

It appears the youth was arrested after rail workers reported that obstacles had been placed on tracks near LondonÂ’s Paddington Station.

Debris was discovered on the rails where First Great Western trains travel at speeds of up to 100mph.

One train smashed into 8ft of steel fencing, which it dragged along the track, ripping off early warning safety equipment used to alert trains to danger.

The attacks have all affected trains heading into the capital.

Superintendent Andy Ball, of the British Transport Police, said the damage caused to the trains was "fairly substantial".

"We are not just talking about vandalism, we are talking about premeditated damage with intent to harm human life," he said.

Mr Ball told how four pieces of troughing - used to cover cabling at the side of the track - had been dragged 5ft across both railway lines.

Each piece of troughing weighed 60lbs.

"There are serious safety fears that the train could have been derailed," he said.

There have been eight incidents over the past six weeks at Westbourne Park, west London, police said.

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Apr. 20 - From the Daily Telegraph (UK): Ten held in raids over 'Islamic plot' in Britain.

Ten people were arrested in dawn raids yesterday by anti-terrorist police alerted to an alleged Islamic extremists' plot to blow up civilians in Britain.

Security services are believed to have intercepted mobile telephone and e-mail messages that indicated the possible bombing of a large gathering.

It is understood that officers from the Menwith Hill listening station in North Yorkshire, GCHQ in Gloucestershire and the United States National Security Agency spent weeks monitoring the movements of a number of suspects before the search warrants were executed.

Intelligence chiefs believe al-Qaeda fanatics planned to blow themselves up amid 67,000 unsuspecting supporters. A source said: “The target was Old Trafford.”

The Islamic fanatics planned to sit all around the ground to cause maximum carnage.

They had already bought the tickets for various positions in the stadium, cops revealed last night.

But armed cops foiled the horrific plot - which could have killed thousands watching Manchester UnitedÂ’s home game against Liverpool on Saturday - in a series of dawn raids yesterday.

May 2 - 13:41: According to this report from Australia, the British paper the Observer says the grounds for a plot to set off explosives during a soccer match are groundless based on a statement by one of the lawyers for the defence. (End update)

Sheikh Mohammed bal Qadri, deputy director of a mosque in Upper Brook Street, said he did not believe any of his members were among those being held.

He added: “Since September 11 we have been very vigilant, as mosques should be.

“If I see a person who is new, I ask him why he is here and what he is doing and ask these kind of questions.

“We are against these evil acts. In the religion of Islam we have tolerance.” The raids follow revelations last week that police in Manchester had raised their terror alert level.

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Apr. 17 - No one should be surprised that British PM Blair is in accordance with the president's support of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and portions of the West Bank; what would have been a surprise would have been if the president had not discussed this with the prime minister before the announcement was made. That's just common sense, but few expect that in the news media any more.

To the story: Bush, Blair endorse Israel's land claims:

"Look, what have people been asking for years?" he added. "They've been asking for the Israelis to withdraw from the occupied territories."

Sharon reportedly said that the plan would bring an end to the dreams of Palestinians.

As the avowed aim of a great many Palestinian groups is the annhilation of Israel, I can't help wondering if that's the dream Sharon was referring to, but I too haven't seen the context of the comments.

In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians are reported to have marched demanding the release of prisoners being held in Israel:

In Gaza City, parents carried pictures of their imprisoned sons and daughters. Actors dressed as Israeli soldiers beat shackled and blindfolded Palestinian "prisoners," using the back of a truck draped with barbed wire as their stage.

Leaders of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad threatened to kidnap Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips in future prisoner swaps with Israel - a tactic successfully used by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.

09:04 - CNN has a summation of the Israeli disengagement plan.

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Apr. 1 - To update this post about the UK arrests of eight British men and the Ottawa arrest of a Canadian, Mohammed Momin Khawaja, on terrorism charges, there was another arrest in the UK Thursday evening.

The CNN reports this on the arrest in Saudi Arabia of Khawaja's father, Mahboob Khawaja:

Saudi intelligence sources said the arrest was made at the request of the Canadian government. It was not known what charges, if any, the elder Khawaja might face.

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