Ex-MI6 chief details Balkan assassination plan

By Nick Allen and Gordon Rayner

Last Updated: 12:51am GMT 21/02/2008

The former head of MI6 has admitted in court that a secret plan was drawn up to assassinate a Balkan leader suspected of genocide. Diana, Princess of Wales inquest coverage in full Sir Richard Dearlove, the most senior spy to give evidence before a British jury, confirmed that MI6 was authorised to use "lethal force" against specific targets if it had ministerial approval. advertisement But, as he gave evidence at the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, he said assassination had never been used during his 38 years in the service, and denied "absolutely" that MI6 agents had murdered the Princess. Sir Richard, codenamed "C" during his time as head of MI6 from 1999 to 2004, was defending the agency against allegations made by Mohamed Fayed and two former spies. Richard Tomlinson had claimed that MI6 had plotted to assassinate the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, while David Shayler has spoken in the past of a plot to kill Libya's president Col Muammar Gaddafi. Sir Richard confirmed that a plan to kill a Balkan leader during the war in 1993 was put down on paper by an agent, but said it was "killed stone dead" straight away. He said the target was not Milosevic, but would not be drawn on whether the planned victim had been the notorious Serbian warlord Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic), who was shot dead in 2000. There is no suggestion MI6 was involved. "An officer working in one of the sections to do with the Balkans had suggested the possibility of assassinating another political personality who was involved in ethnic cleansing," Sir Richard said. The idea was "out of touch with service practice, service ethos and it was not a proposal to which consideration would be given," he claimed. Sir Richard was MI6 director of operations when the Princess of Wales, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. He told the inquest that he felt the allegation of MI6 involvement in the Princess's death was a "very personal one" because he was responsible for all the agency's activities at the time. The inquest heard that under the laws governing MI6 provision was made for "lethal force" to be used but only with Government authorisation in times of emergency or crisis which caused danger to the UK or its citizens. Sir Richard said lethal force had never been authorised in his 38-year career at MI6. Sir Richard described how MI6 would require authorisation from the Foreign Secretary to carry out any operation that would involve breaking the law, such as bugging or assassination, even if the act was being carried out abroad. Sir Richard gave evidence two days after Dodi's father alleged that his son and the Princess were "murdered" by MI6 on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh, Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales. He described the suggestion that the Duke was able to direct MI6 operationally from Balmoral and involve the French state in a cover-up as "mischievous and fanciful". The inquest continues.

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

Get ready for a recession...in 2009

High inflation may keep the Fed from lowering interest rates much further...and that could lead the economy to weaken even more next year.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Guess what, kids: Inflation isn't going away. And that means the Federal Reserve's job is getting tougher.

Oil is hovering around $100 a barrel. And the January Consumer Price Index figures - released Wednesday morning - showed inflation bubbling up.

With that in mind, some see dimming hopes for more aggressive interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

The high inflation figures will "further complicate the Fed's easing campaign," said Ashraf Laidi, chief currency strategist with CMC Markets US, a New York-based brokerage firm, in a note Wednesday morning.

TalkBack: Will the economy get even worse next year?

The Fed's "dual mandate" is to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth. And if the Fed keeps slashing interest rates, the risk is that the dollar will weaken further and this could fuel even more big spikes in commodity prices.

The new inflation numbers will make the Fed's latest economic forecasts - which it will release this afternoon in conjunction with the minutes from its last meeting - even more important.

It's unlikely the Fed will predict an actual decline in economic growth. But it's possible the Fed may have to lower its growth forecasts for 2008 as well as boost its projections for unemployment.

In October, the Fed said it expected gross domestic product growth of 1.8% to 2.5% for 2008 and an annual unemployment rate of 4.8% to 4.9%. Laidi wrote that he thinks the Fed will reduce the low end of its 2008 GDP forecast to 1.5% and raise the upper end of its unemployment projection to 5%.

Others think that this year isn't the biggest problem for the Fed.

David Joy, chief market strategist for RiverSource Investments, said his biggest concern now is that the Fed may have to boost rates later this year to keep inflation in check.

If that's the case, the current economic woes are nothing compared to what lies ahead.

"Our forecast is that the economy will be strong enough in the U.S. later in 2008 to cause inflation. That will lead to the Fed raising interest rates and push us into a recession in the latter half of 2009," Joy said.

Fed official: 2008 similar to 1991 recession

In other words, we have the classic case of stagflation rearing its ugly head - high inflation leading to slower growth. The Fed can only do its best to combat one of these bugaboos at a time and Joy believes the Fed will eventually err on the side of reducing inflation.

He added that there could be some good news next year. The worst might soon be over for housing and banks. But 2009 could be highlighted by what Joy dubs "rolling sector recessions" - i.e. other parts of the economy start to experience slowdowns even as the credit market recovers.

Joy also predicts that the unemployment rate will head much higher than current levels next year.

Economists at Lehman Brothers also are forecasting a tough 2009...although not necessarily a recession. In a report late last week, Lehman's economists wrote that they see GDP growth in 2009 of just 0.8% and an unemployment rate of 5.7%

The Fed, for what it's worth, forecast in October that GDP will increase 2.3% to 2.7% next year and that the unemployment rate will remain around 4.8% to 4.9%

So something's gotta give. I highly doubt the Fed will lower its targets to levels that are in line with the bleakest forecasts on Wall Street.

But if the central bank doesn't reduce its projections significantly enough, it risks looking at best, Pollyannaish about the economy, and at worst, completely out of touch with reality.

What do you think? Will the economy bounce back in 2009 or is the worst yet to come?

Recession Watch 2008

New single-family homes at 17-year low

Inflation jumps more than forecast

Deputy tasers high school student against direct orders

David Edwards and Adam Doster
Raw Story
Wednesday February 20, 2008

Outside a Maryland high school gym last Wednesday, sophomore Brandon Bennett got into a small altercation with a fellow student. It was after a basketball game and tempers were high, but the the two were separated by officials and students without much problem. Only then did things get really violent.

According to Julius Bennett, the student's father, Deputy Anthony Lenzi fired a Taser at his son after being told twice by a senior officer it was not necessary.

"He left two puncture wounds just above his heart in his chest," says Bennett. "And [Brandon] said to me that he was in quite a bit of pain because he could feel electric shocks going throughout his whole body."

The father says he has written proof Sgt. Mathew Kempel twice ordered Lenzi to holster the weapon, but Lenzi fired anyway, hitting the teen in the chest.

"Brandon did absolutely nothing wrong," says Bennett, "and there was no reason to use that type of force on my son."

The Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office says Lenzi has been reassigned to internal duties while authorities investigate the allegations. Bennett is hoping fair punishment is given.

"I will not be satisfied until I know that Deputy Lenzi will be in a position to never to this to anyone else's child ever again."

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast February 19, 2008.

Stop Blair: ambition to lead Europe hits fierce opposition

Ian Traynor and David Gow
London Guardian
Wednesday February 20, 2008

Tony Blair's hopes of becoming Europe's first president are running into mounting opposition across the EU, with Germany determined to stymie the former prime minister.

A "Stop Blair" website run by pro-Europeans has launched a petition against him; a transnational, cross-party caucus in the European parliament is forming to campaign against a Blair presidency; senior officials in Brussels are privately dismissive about the new post going to a Briton; and senior diplomats in European capitals also doubt that Blair is the right person for the post being created under Europe's new reform treaty.

"There was surprise in Berlin when Blair's name came up so soon," said a European ambassador. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany admires Blair and has "great personal sympathy for Tony", he added.

"But more generally the German political elite would be puzzled by the idea of Tony Blair. His track record on EU matters is not so great. There is unease about a Briton at the top in that job. And then personally with Blair, there's the Iraq thing."

Sources close to Merkel confirmed her opposition. "He made a lot of fine speeches about Europe but, essentially, stood on the sidelines when it came to concrete steps forward," they said.

The Lisbon treaty now being ratified by EU member states creates a new post of president of the European council, representing and chairing summits of the leaders of the 27 member countries from the beginning of next year for a maximum five-year term. The president's role and powers are yet to be properly defined. EU ambassadors are expected to meet next month to try to come up with a job description.

Praising Blair as "the most European of Englishmen", President Nicolas Sarkozy of France first threw the Briton's name into the ring last October. Blair has chosen not to dispel the reports of his candidacy.

EU officials believe a Blair bandwagon is being rolled out and hope to halt it in its tracks. "The feeling here about Blair is that he never stuck his neck out for Europe," said a senior official in Brussels. "All the political risk he took was transatlantic, always towards Washington, never for Europe. His chances are dim. Merkel is against."

The opposition to Blair feeds on his commitment to the Iraq war, Britain's high rates of Euroscepticism, the government's half-hearted ambivalence towards the EU and Gordon Brown's battles over the past six months to exclude the UK from several key elements of the Lisbon treaty by "defending Britain's red lines" against the rest of Europe.

"This is a treaty that marks quite a serious drift by the UK away from the EU," said a second senior EU official.

Full article here.

Lou Dobbs covering NAFTA Superhighway

Youtube

Thug Cop Beats Up Defenseless Handcuffed Woman

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

Shocking police station video of an argumentative woman who ended up unconscious in a pool of her own blood with two black eyes, a broken nose and broken teeth did not lead to criminal charges against the cop after officials claimed the woman "fell over."

Quite how Angela Garbarino received two black eyes, a broken nose, broken teeth and blood pouring from her head after a "slip and fall" is not quite explained by officials or ABC News, who ran with the headline Police Brutality or Slip and Fall?

Below is a low quality You Tube version, the high quality ABC News version can be watched here.

The police are refusing to press criminal charges against the officer because "no one knows for sure what occurred." That’s probably because this cowardly thug, Officer Wiley Willis, made sure his brutal assault wasn’t recorded on camera.

If police arrived at a house where a handcuffed woman was lying unconscious in a pool of her own blood with two black eyes, a broken nose and broken teeth with a man standing nearby, who would the prime suspect be? Would the police refuse to arrest the man because no videotape of the incident took place or would they go with what every single piece of circumstantial evidence was screaming out had happened?

Comments posted in response to the ABC News story underscore how blatantly ridiculous the police’s explanation and handling of the matter is.

- "What is most insulting is this: They haven’t charged the officer because "no one knows for sure what happened". Crimes are committed each and every day that aren’t videotaped and yet the suspects are arrested based on the best evidence available at the time. Why is he being treated any different? I AM a former police officer and can tell you this: in Ohio, for example, in domestic violence cases, we had a duty to arrest the obvious aggressor. Meaning this: if I showed up on scene and the man was fine and the woman had two black eyes and two busted teeth and was lying in a pool of her own blood, I didn’t need a videotape of the incident occurring, I made the arrest of the male suspect. This officer is a disgrace to both the badge and to humanity in general. I say give him a taste of his own medicine, take him out behind the woodshed as they used to say."

- "Let’s suppose my wife has black eyes, broken teeth, and is lying in a pool of her own blood when cops arrive. I say, "She fell down when she tried to leave the house." Do the cops: 1. Arrest me or 2. Let me go because, "No one really knows what happened". Cop should be in jail, now."

- "The only way a person can end up looking like that after a "fall" is if that fall was off a cliff!"

RELATED: POLICE BRUTALITY ARCHIVE

Mortgage applications down 22.6% last week: MBA

By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch

Last update: 7:00 a.m. EST Feb. 20, 2008
Marketwatch

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Mortgage applications filed last week dropped a seasonally adjusted 22.6% from the previous week, as interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages increased, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

Applications in the week ended Feb. 15 were up 33.9% compared with the same week in 2007, the Washington-based MBA's latest survey showed.

Applications for loans to refinance existing mortages were down 27.9% on a week-to-week basis, while applications for mortgages to purchase homes were down a seasonally adjusted 11.5%, according to the survey.

The four-week moving average for all loans was down 3.8%.

According to the survey, refinancing applications accounted for 61.7% of all filings last week, down from 67.4% the previous week. Adjustable-rate mortgages made up 12.8% of all applications, higher than 9.9% in the previous week.

Average interest rates for 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased last week to 6.09% and 5.55%, respectively, up from 5.72% and 5.18% in the previous week. But the average rate on one-year ARMs didn't change, remaining at the 5.72% seen in the Feb. 8 week.

The MBA survey covers about half of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

Weakening Demand? Oil Still Passes $100

By NEIL KING JR. and ANA CAMPOY
February 20, 2008; Page A3
Wall Street Journal

Crude-oil prices finished slightly above $100 a barrel for the first time yesterday despite signs the world's petroleum thirst may be subsiding.

The latest surge surprised many in the oil patch who have expected prices to head in the other direction as oil stockpiles increase and the U.S. experiences an economic slowdown, softening demand for energy. Higher prices put more pressure on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep supplies steady despite some calls within the cartel to cut output.

If prices linger at or above $100 a barrel, energy-intensive industries such as oil refiners and airlines could face higher costs, as could consumers. Oil's rise helped reverse a stock-market rally yesterday.

Analysts and traders pointed to a slew of causes for the price surge, but put the main onus on the continued flow of speculative cash into the oil market and other commodities like coal and platinum. Political instability in Nigeria and Venezuela, tightness in the light-crude market and challenges in the refining sector also contributed.

"It's a combination of lots of little things," said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank, who contends the main driver is "the huge volumes of money moving into oil and other commodities."

U.S. benchmark crude yesterday rose $4.51, or 4.7%, to settle at $100.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has touched or passed the $100 mark twice before but retreated before the end of the closing day. U.S. heating-oil and gasoline-blendstock futures also finished at nominal highs. On an inflation-adjusted basis, oil is only $3.09 below its record, set in April 1980.

Analysts said options trading helps explain the volatility. Banks sell clients such as hedge funds options to buy or sell oil at preset prices. Because banks make their own trades to cover their risks, moves can be accentuated. Big price swings in "each direction pull like a magnet," said Adam Robinson, an analyst with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Also, the futures contract for March delivery expires today, reducing investor interest in the contract and making it easier for a few big trades to push up the market, he said.

The latest price surge, if it holds up, will make it tough for the big producers within OPEC to support an output cut when ministers meet March 5, as some within the group have urged. At a meeting earlier this month, OPEC ministers pointed to the weakening U.S. economy to warn of a possible oversupply of oil in the second quarter.

Since then, most key indicators have served to buttress OPEC's argument. The Energy Department is forecasting a flattening of oil demand in the U.S. and a buildup in oil and gasoline stockpiles. Most big institutional forecasters, including the Energy Department and OPEC, now predict that demand growth will hover around 1% this year. Demand rose 1.4% last year from 2006.

Analysts still contend that increasing oil and gasoline stockpiles in coming weeks could spark a sharp retreat in prices. To keep supplies steady, they said, OPEC would optimally like to trim its output by around 600,000 barrels a day. Yesterday, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reiterated its call for OPEC to increase production.

Some market speculators seem to be fixated on refinery snags, both actual and potential, analysts said. Last summer, a bout of unplanned outages drove gasoline prices to record levels. There are fears among investors of a repeat this year, said Stephen Schork, president of Schork Group Inc., a provider of oil- and gas-market research. "Concern and fear translate into greed, and speculators take [any news of refinery outages] and hype it into much higher prices," he said.

Reformulated-gasoline blendstock futures yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped 4.4% to $2.60 a gallon on news of a fire at a small Texas refinery on Monday. The refinery, owned by Alon USA Energy Inc., has the capacity to process 70,000 barrels of crude oil a day, a fraction of the total U.S. installed capacity of 17.4 million barrels of crude a day.

With many refineries in the midst of seasonal maintenance, not all of that capacity is being used. Still, refiners have been adding more gasoline supplies to storage tanks and pipelines. Since the beginning of the year, gasoline stocks rose by 16.1 million barrels, or 8%, to 229.2 million barrels, and are well above average for this time of year, according to data from the EIA.

Serbs Torch U.N. Border Checkpoints

Associated Press
February 19, 2008

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo — Thousands of Serbs chanting ‘‘Kosovo is Serbia’’ marched Tuesday to a bridge dividing them from ethnic Albanians while others torched U.N. border checkpoints and cars to protest Kosovo’s declaration of independence.

NATO troops later closed down the roads leading to the checkpoints, cutting off the only link between northern Kosovo and Serbia, said Besim Hoti, a U.N. spokesman. The move appeared to be due to fears that the reduction of U.N. control of the border could allow Serbian militants to return to fight in Kosovo, a land

Serb nationalists consider the cradle of their state and religion. Smoke billowed from two checkpoints separating Kosovo from Serbia and flames engulfed several U.N. vehicles set ablaze in protest against Kosovo’s weekend proclamation of independence and anger over international recognition of the new nation.

For two days, Kosovo’s Serbs have shown their determination to shun the declaration by destroying U.N. and NATO property, setting off small bombs and staging noisy rallies through the Serb stronghold of Kosovska Mitrovica.

The attacks on U.N. border crossings showed the protesters’ willingness to use violence to hold onto Kosovo — and could clear the way for Serbian militants to return to fight in Kosovo, a land Serb nationalists consider the cradle of their state and religion.

Read entire article