Bush approval rating hits all-time low

According to a poll by CBS News, President George W. Bush's approval rating has reached an all-time low of 34%, a decrease of 8 percentage points from last month, while "pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high."

59% of Americans disapprove of the job President Bush is doing, and just 30% approve of how he is handling the Iraq war.

7 out of 10 Americans, including 58% of Republicans, said they were opposed to the takeover of P&O by the United Arab Emirates-owned company Dubai Ports World.

A separate poll shows that two-thirds of Americans are of the opinion that the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina was inadequate.

Cybercrime is on the rise

If the 2006 RSA Conference in San Jose, California, is anything to go by, large corporations are fighting a losing battle against the cyber-criminals.

"My company scans 13 million emails a day, and of that email we stop between 3 million and 10 million messages a day because they contain some kind of malware [malicious software]. Of the malware we're seeing, 99.9% is crimeware - something where the bad guys are trying to steal money from the end user. We're detecting one to five new species of virus a day and seeing 100 to 200 new phishing sites appearing every day."

Alex Shipp, Messagelabs

"Crimeware is sky-rocketing, even as the stream of new viruses holds relatively steady. Since 2002 we have seen an 11,000 percent increase in malware blocked at our gateway. But the biggest threat to us are targeted attacks. We have seen targeted attacks coming from China that are specifically looking to transmit engineering data and other intellectual property to the attackers."

Jeannette Jarvis, Security Systems Product Manager, Boeing

"The FBI reported two weeks ago that $67.2 billion a year is lost to cybercrime. That's hundreds of millions of dollars a day. And most of these bad guys are not going for individuals anymore; the smart ones are part of organized crime rings attacking corporations - what they call "spearphishing."

David Perry, Global Director of Education, Trend Micro

Pinwheel galaxy in detail

The Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 ( NASA/ ESA).

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier Object 101, or M101) is the most detailed image yet of a spiral galaxy. It is a composite of 51 previous images obtained by the Hubble and several powerful ground-based telescopes.

M101 is 170,000 light years in diameter (nearly twice the size of the Milky Way) and 25 million light years away from Earth.

The detail of the image may help astronomers determine several hundred mysterious sources of X-ray emissions in the galaxy. About one third of the spots of X-rays have already been identified as supernova remnants.

Three other spots of X-ray emissions may be caused by stellar material falling into massive black holes (between 100 and 1,000 times the mass of our sun) which the stars are orbiting.

Jain head anointing festival

2 million followers of the Jain faith attended the Mahamastakabisheka (head anointing) festival, which took place in Karnataka, southern India, between February 4-19.

The festival is held every 12 years to celebrate the life and teachings of Bahubali. It involves anointing the 57 ft. high, 1,025 year old monolithic statue of Bahubali with coloured powder, water and milk.

Jainism is an ancient religious philosophy which inspired Mahatma Gandhi. It is a syncretic faith, combining elements of Hinduism and Buddhism, with peace and non-violence at it's heart. Followers of the faith are vegetarians and place great importance on the values of respect and forgiveness.

Jainism has 7 million followers worldwide, the vast majority of whom live in India. There are approximately 15,000 Jains in the UK.

U.S. ports controversy continues

The controversy over the acquisition of the British company Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O) by Dubai Ports (DP) World continues, with senators Hilary Clinton and Robert Menendez planning to introduce legislation which would prevent companies associated with foreign governments from owning a majority stake in U.S. port operations.

The $6.8 billion takeover of P&O would give DP World operational control over ports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Miami. The Bush administration has already approved the deal, but has been criticised on the grounds that it would jeapordize national security.

In today's Financial Times, Gideon Rose, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, writes that it is anti-Arab racism that has led to the furore over the ports deal. He points out that DP World has an impeccable record of operating ports across the world.

"The irony," says Rose, "is that...the Bush administration is reaping what it sowed, having previously played politics with homeland security and the war on terrorism [and] blurred distinctions in the Muslim world." However, "the crisis creates a perfect opportunity for the president to educate the Congress and the public on...how wrong it is to lump all Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners into a scary, undifferentiated mass."

Let's hope that President Bush doesn't himself lump all Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners into such a mass, and that he will take this opportunity to educate Congress and the public on the matter.

Don't mention the Holocaust, or criticise Israel

Last week, British historian David Irving was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in Austria on charges of Holocaust denial, just before London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from office and ordered to pay £80,000 in court fees for comparing Oliver Finegold, a Jewish Evening Standard reporter, to a concentration camp guard.

Heinous as Irving's views are, they are not criminal, and he should not have been imprisoned. Likewise, Livingstone should not have been suspended for his "insensitive" comments.

Millions in the Western world asked why so many Muslims made such a fuss over the cartoons of Mohammed. People should be free, they said, to voice their opinions. But the imprisonment of Irving and Livingstone's suspension make our society's double standards self-evident. It is acceptable to mock Islam but anyone who mentions the Nazi Holocaust or criticises Israel is ostracized and punished.

14 countries have made Holocaust denial a crime. More specifically, to deny that the Nazi Holocaust took place, or that 6 million Jews were not exterminated in the gas chambers, is illegal in those 14 countries.

Whether or not the Nazi Holocaust is unique is a philosophical question. There have been other comparable holocausts, genocides, and war crimes. For example, between 800,000 and 2 million Armenians were massacred in 1915-1916 by the Ottoman Empire. Yet, the Turkish government is to this day supported by the British and U.S. governments in it's denial that the Armenian Holocaust ever occurred. The term 'holocaust' has been hijacked by some to mean the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and nothing else.

In the years leading up to the Nazi Holocaust, Europe and America had decided to curb Jewish immigration. Hence, there is an overwhelming feeling of guilt, for had Europe and the U.S. allowed the continued movement of Eastern European Jewry onto their soils, then perhaps far less than 6 million Jews would have been killed by the Nazis.

The Nazi Holocaust has since been exploited by some for political reasons. It was evoked during the late 1940s when the creation of a Jewish state was being considered, and the suffering of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust has been used to portray Jews as victims, so that the myth of an Israeli David fighting an Arab Goliath is propagated. This serves to justify the brutality of Israel towards the Palestinians.

Anyone who dares to criticize Israel is called anti-Semitic. Two outstanding Middle Eastern correspondents have received death threats because of their reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Robert Fisk, Middle East for the Independent regularly receives abusive letters about his dispatches from the Middle East. The Hollywood actor John Malkovitch said, during an awards speech in 2002, that he "wanted to shoot Robert Fisk" because of his anti-Israeli opinions.

Even Jews who criticise Israel are called "self-hating Jews." Suzanne Goldenberg, for example, was The Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, until she started receiving death threats from European and American Jews over her reporting from the Middle East. Goldenberg has now stopped writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and instead has been posted to Washington D.C.

The Nazi Holocaust is also one reason why many view Israel as a morally superior state which can do no wrong. But Israel's treatment of the Palestinians eats away at the moral fabric of Israeli society and is extremely damaging to the psyche of the Jewish state. The sooner more Jews accept this, the better. It will be very beneficial for both Jews and Palestinians.

Israel & the Palestinians

The new Palestinian parliament, with 72 out of 132 seats provided by Hamas, was sworn in last weekend.

The U.S. continues threatening to freeze funding to the Palestinians, and Israel has halted the transfer of customs and tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.

How is it that the Arabs are criticised for their lack of democracy, and still criticised when they elect their own leaders in a democratic election?

Israel reiterated that they will not negotiate with the new Palestinian government until Hamas "recognizes Israel and renounces violence."

As usual, the responsibility is placed squarely on the Palestinians, whose economy and every movement is controlled by Israel.

It is high time that Israel also renounced violence, and recognized the needs of the Palestinians for self-determination and their own state.

Rethinking mammalian evolution

Artist's impression of Castorocauda lutrasimilis

The discovery in northeastern China of the fossilized remains of a beaver-like mammal have led scientists to rethink how mammals evolved.

The animal, named Castorocauda lutrasimilis, (meaning 'beaver-tailed, looking like a river otter') lived 164 million years ago in the Jurassic era and is the oldest aquatic mammal ever found.

The skeleton was found almost intact, with well preserved fur and teeth. Castorocauda was about 43 centimeters from its nose to the tip of its 13 centimeter tail, ate fish and was probably able to walk.

Previously, the oldest furry mammals were thought to have lived 125 million years ago.

"This discovery has pushed fur-bearing nearly 40 million years further into the past," says Zhe-Xi Luo, co-author of the study and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

It is generally accepted that, during evolution, fish evolved into semi-aquatic amphibians, which evolved further into land animals proper, some of which then became aquatic. Castorocauda shows that mammals returned to the water far earlier than previously thought.

The findings are published in today's issue of Science.

Culture of fear

Terrorism; nuclear, chemical and biological weapons; Bird flu, SARS, HIV/AIDS; pollution, natural disasters and global warming; crime, drugs and anti-social behaviour; immigration and asylum seekers.

These are all things that we, as a society, are told we should fear. The list could be longer. Some of these threats to our safety are real, while others are exaggerated or illusory.

The government and media deliberately cultivate a fearful, threatening environment, to ensure public support for policies that would otherwise be difficult to justify. These policies can only be implemented if the public perceives that their is a real danger to its safety. If there is no danger, or no perception of danger, then one has to be contrived. This is achieved by the media, which distorts the public's perception of events.

Our biggest fear today is terrorism. It is not terrorism in general, but terrorism committed by Muslims. Never mind that it is the Tamil Tigers who have carried out most of history's suicide bombing operations. We no longer fear the IRA now that the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland are finished. It is Islam and Muslims that are now synonymous with suicide bombings and terrorism. It is Islam and Muslims that we are now being made to fear.

This fear is peddled by the government and media for ideological reasons. World affairs are now defined in terms of a 'clash of civilizations' between Islam and 'the West,' and it is Muslims who are the enemy in the 'long war on terror.' The only justification for the brutality of the U.S. army in Iraq and Afghanistan is that they pose a real threat.

Hence, we are made to fear Islam and Muslims. The 'enemy' in any war has to be feared and dehumanized. How else can one justify killing tens or hundreds of thousands of them?

Discovery of 2 new moons orbiting Pluto

Hubble Space Telescope image of the Pluto system. Pluto is the largest object in the middle of the image; Charon the blue object beneath it; and P1 and P2 the fainter objects to the right.

Planetary scientists have discovered two new satellites orbiting Pluto, which they have provisionally named P1 and P2. The findings are reported in today's issue of the journal Nature.

The diameter of P1 is estimated to range from 60 km to 165 km, and P2 is about 20% smaller. The size of the moons was estimated from the amount of light they reflect.

Both moons appear to have circular orbits, apparently in the same plane as Charon, Pluto's first moon, which was discovered in 1978. P1 is thought to take 38 days to orbit Pluto and P2 about 25 days.

P1 and P2 are both believed to have been formed from material ejected during the collision event which led to the formation of Pluto and Charon.

NASA's New Horizons mission is due to reach Pluto in July 2015, and should allow the size and orbits of P1 and P2 to be determined more accurately.

Britain's far right

BNP leader Nick Griffin

The British National Party (BNP) will use one of the cartoons of Mohammed, which many Muslims found deeply offensive, in it's campaign for the May 4th local authority elections.

The extreme right wing party hopes to gain local council seats by using an anti-Muslim message to attract votes from black and Asian voters.

The BNP currently has 19 councillors in local authorities, and hopes to field 1,000 candidates in the coming local elections.

Anger over shrine bombing

Pakistani Shiites burning U.S. & Israeli flags

Images from a Time photoessay

The bombing of the Al-Askariyah shrine in Samarra yesterday has led to demonstrations by Shiite Muslims across the world.

The U.S. has always feared that Iran, a country of Shiite Muslims, might form an alliance with Iraqi Shiites. Yesterday's bombing will intensify these fears.

Rice meets Mubarak

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice today concluded her meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia.

Iran, Iraq and the recently sworn-in Hamas-led Palestinian government were high on the agenda.

Ms. Rice thanked Mr Mubarak for his part in trying to persuade Iran to co-operate with the UN over its nuclear programme. Journalists asked why Israel had not been questioned over its nuclear programme, and whether or not the U.S. would attack Iran.

One journalist described the situation in Iraq as a "democracy of torture," to which Ms. Rice responded that "there will be a democracy that is for Iraq...because democracy is the only form of government in which human beings truly get to express themselves."

The Bush administration had undoubtedly hoped for a consensus among its allies about how to deal with Hamas, but Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, told Ms. Rice that it was premature to freeze financial aid to Hamas before the seeing how the organization would "develop and evolve."

Regarding Egyptian domestic politics, Ms. Rice praised last year's presidential election, which she said was a step towards democratization. (Last year saw Egypt's first multi-candidate election; Mubarak still won by an overwhelming majority.) She received criticism from academics and editors, however, over the refusal of the U.S. to deal with al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin (the Muslim Brotherhood), which they saw as undemocratic. The Brotherhood, which was outlawed in the 1950s, is Egypt's largest opposition group; it was not allowed to participate in last year's "democratic" election.

Egypt receives $2 billion a year from the U.S. in military and financial aid. It has long been under pressure from the U.S. to implement political and economic reform. As the most populous Arab Muslim country, Egypt is seen as an important ally in the 'war on terror,' as well as a mediator for the U.S. in the Middle East.

Shiite shrine destroyed

Al-Askariyah shrine before the bombing

The al-Askariyah shrine after the bombing

The Shiite al-Askariyah shrine in Samarrah was today destroyed after being bombed, leading to demonstrations by tens of thousands of Shia across Iraq.

The shrine, located 60 miles north of Baghdad, was revered by Shiites as the burial place of the twelfth century imam al-Hasan al-Askari, and attracted millions of Shiite pilgrims every year.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, although dozens of Sunni mosques have been attacked, apparently by Shia, in revenge.

Iraq's population has a Shia majority, who were ruled by the Sunni elite of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime. Many Sunnis are embittered at having to cede power to the new Shiite-led Iraqi government.

The end of neoconservativism?

Francis Fukuyama writes in today's Guardian that "the neoconservative moment appears to have passed," and that neoconservativism is something he "can no longer support."

Fukuyama, who is Professor of International Political Economy at John's Hopkins University, became prominent with the publication in 1992 of The End of History. In this book, Fukuyama worshipped at the altar of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism, which he said, had emerged as the best political and economic models, while the collapse of the Soviet Union showed that Communism was flawed.

Neoconservative thinkers were influential on foreign policy during President George W. Bush's first term in office. It was neocons like Paul Wolfowitz and Fukuyama who sent an open letter to President Clinton urging him to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. Wolfowitz, who now heads the World Bank, is generally considered to be the architect of the Iraq war.

Robert Kagan, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sees the U.S. as a "benevolent empire," using its unprecedented military strength to liberate those living under oppressive regimes and to bring them democracy and capitalism. This idea is central to neoconservative thinking. Fukuyama now believes that "promoting democracy and modernisation in the Middle East is not a solution to jihadist terrorism," and that "the place of democracy promotion in American foreign policy...needs rethinking."

Many in the Bush administration expected the Iraqis to greet them with open arms, to throw flowers in the path of U.S. troops as they paraded through the newly liberated country. While there are Iraqi supporters of America's policies, it is evident that the U.S. campaign in Iraq is nowhere as successful as the Bush administration would have hoped.

"The U.S.," says Fukuyama, "needs to reframe its foreign policy...as a political contest for hearts and minds." It seems that the failure of American policy in Iraq is what has prompted him to speculate on the end of neoconservativism.

Read Fukuyama's Guardian piece here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1715180,00.html

For more on the neoconservatives, search this blog for "Project for the New American Century."

Guantanamo film actors detained as terror suspects

Four actors who played suspected terrorists in a film about Guantanamo Bay were detained by police at Luton airport as they returned from the Berlin Film Festival, where the film was premiered.

"The Road To Guantanamo" tells the true story of three British citizens who were arrested while visiting Pakistan for a wedding and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for two years without charge and then released.

Rizwan Ahmed and Farhad Harun, two of the actors, were detained at the airport along with Shafiq Rasul and Rhuhel Ahmed, who they play on screen in the film. Two other actors from the film were also detained.

Rizwan Ahmed said in a statement that Bedfordshire police called him a "fucker," and claimed that a telephone had been wrestled from his hand as he tried to call a lawyer. He says that he was asked questions such as "Did you become an actor mainly to do films like this, to publicise the struggles of Muslims?" and whether or not he intended to act in more political films.

Melissa Parmenter, who co-produced the film, rightly criticised the detention and questioning as "outrageous."

Film-maker Michael Winterbottom won the Silver Bear Award for best director at the festival. "The Road To Guantanamo" will be the first film to have a simultaneous cinema, DVD and online release, and is scheduled to be shown on Channel 4 on March 9th.

Memo shows lawlessness of President Bush

A memorandum by Alberto J. Mora, the outgoing general counsel of the United States Navy, reveals how the Bush administration consciously circumvented the Geneva Conventions in its orders on how to treat detainees at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

The twenty-two page memo, dated 7th July, 2004 and marked "Secret," is a chronological record of the Pentagon investigation into the abuse of Guantanamo detainees, submitted to Vice Admiral Albert Church, who led the investigation.

It shows that Mora had early on criticized the use by U.S. officials at Guantanamo of "physical contact, degrading behaviour (including dressing detainees in female underwear), the use of 'stress' positions and coercive psychological procedures," treatments which "violate interrogation guidelines...[and are] violative of U.S. law if applied to U.S. persons."

According to the memo, the phenomenon of "force drift" was likely to occur - if some interrogating officers believed that "some force is good, [then] the application of more force must be better...the level of force tends to escalate such that, if left unchecked, force levels to include torture could be reached."

The memo also shows that U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had approved the use "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," because "at least in that location, no law prohibited such action, no court would be vested with jurisdiction to entertain a complaint on such allegations, and various defenses [sic] would shield any U.S. official accused of the unlawful behavior [sic]."

Mora describes the methods which President Bush used to authorize abuse at Guantanamo as "unlawful, dangerous, and erroneous," and criticizes the Bush administration's plans to expand the powers of the executive branch of government. His memo also shows that Mora repeatedly warned the Bush administration that the "consequences of such practices were almost incalculably harmful to U.S. foreign, military and legal policies."

The memo will add weight to a recent request by the United Nations that the detention centre at Guantanamo bay be closed, a request which the Bush administration has refused. The disregard of the administration for international criminal and humanitarian law is no big secret; it has been openly discussed by the international community since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Read the memo here:

http://www.newyorker.com/images/pdfs/moramemo.pdf

IBM to develop smaller microchip

IBM researchers yesterday revealed advances in manufacturing microchips at a conference on materials research in San Jose.

The new technique will allow the production of chips containing circuits of just 29.9 nanometres in width (30 billionths of a metre, or 3,000 times thinner than a human hair). This is less than one-third the width of circuits currently used in microchips. Making smaller microchips reduces manufacturing costs and power consumption.

Microchips are made using a technique called optical microlithography, whereby ultra-violet light is beamed by a laser through stencils to etch circuits onto chips. IBM researchers say that passing the laser beam through liquid with a high refractive index creates a sharper focus, allowing the etching of smaller features onto chips.

The new "immersion" microlithographic technique may enable the microchip industry to come up to speed with "Moore's Law." In 1965, Gordon M. Moore, co-founder of Intel, predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double every 18 months.

Britain takes on EU over carbon dioxide emissions

The European Commission is likely to refuse Britain's request to increase its carbon dixiode emissions by 20 million tonnes a year.

Europe launched the emissions trading scheme in January 2005. Under this scheme, European Union (EU) countries agree to limit the amount of carbon dioxide they emit annually. Each country has a maximum limit on the amount it emits, and each hands out fractions of its national allocation to carbon dioxide-emitting installations (mainly power plants). Countries that emit more carbon dioxide than permitted are free to buy emissions credits from other EU countries which have emitted less than the agreed amount.

Between January and November 2005, emissions trading generated some 3 billion Euros.

Britain initially submitted a request for the annual emission of 734 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This request was approved by the EU. Subsequently, Britain asked for its allocation to be increased by 20 million tonnes, but the EU said that the September deadline for requests had been missed and that Britain would have to make do with the lower number.

The aim of the EU's emissions trading scheme is to curb carbon dioxide emissions. Most scientists now agree that the emission of carbon dioxide, caused by the burning of fossil fuels used in industry, transportation and by power plants, is contributing to the greenhouse effect and global warming. The request by the British government to increase its carbon dioxide emissions flies in the face of its alleged support for the scheme and commitment to the environment.

The EU is expected to reach a final decision soon. If the request is refused, the British government can appeal the decision.

Google rejects U.S. government demands

Just weeks after being criticized for co-operating with the Chinese government in restricting the terms which can be searched for on its Chinese site, Google has rejected a request from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) to provide details of a week's worth of search terms.

The DoJ made similar requests to Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL, claiming that voluntary internet regulation is not preventing children from gaining access to pornography.

In court documents, Google replied that agreeing to the request would violate the privacy of its users and could reveal trade secrets to its rivals. "Google users trust that when they enter a search query into a Google search box ... that Google will keep private whatever information users communicate absent a compelling reason," say the documents.

Google also said that the data would be impractical because it regularly tinkers with the search-term algorithms, which means that a search for the same term might produce different results from week to week.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed documents in support of Google's rejection of the DoJ request.

Flu: Our deadliest enemy

In the last century, more people have been killed by influenza than by any other cause, making it the deadliest enemy of humankind.

During 1918-1919, there was a pandemic of a particularly violent strain of avian influenza which killed 50 million people. This strain, H1N1, or Spanish flu, would claim more lives in 18 months than World War I.

There have also been minor flu pandemics since then, most notably in 1957-58 and 1968-69. The Asian flu of 1957-58 is estimated to have killed 1 million to 4 million people.

In a normal year, 200,000 Americans are hospitalized by influenza, leading to, on average, 38,000 deaths. In the U.K. between 2,000-4,000 deaths per year are attributed to flu. Most of those killed by flu are very young or very old, or have had their immune systems compromised in some way (by HIV infection, for example).

The most effective way to prevent a flu infection is thorough handwashing. This is because an infected person transfers viral particles to most things they touch, and the usual route of infection is by touching something soon after an infected person has touched it. The flu virus can survive on surfaces such as taps or door handles for up to 3 hours and is picked up by others, who become infected when they touch mucous membranes in their eyes, nose or mouth.

Bird flu: The fear, the facts

France is now the seventh European Union country to confirm a case of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza virus, after Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. Iran, India and Egypt have now also confirmed their first cases of H5N1.

In Asia, tens of millions birds have died as a result of H5N1 infection, which kills 100% of chickens within 48 hours of infection.

To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 146 confirmed cases of the virus being transmitted to humans, leading to 76 deaths in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

A person infected with H5N1 experiences classical flu symptoms of coughing, headache, nausea, dizziness, muscle pains and diarrhoea, as well as pneumonia, encephalitis, meningitis, respiratory distress syndrome and internal bleeding and haemorrhage.

The first virulent strain of H5N1 killed 68% of those people who became infected; more recenly, another strain had a mortality rate of 38%; and, in the spring of 2005, three out of seventeen people infected with a third strain H5N1 died.

Thus, there appears to be a pattern emerging, whereby the virus is becoming less deadly but more infectious. Flu experts say that this pattern has been a prelude to every flu pandemic in the past, and there are now growing fears that a strain of H5N1 transmissible from person to person could cause a bird flu pandemic. Such an event could have devastating effects on the global economy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the worst-case scenario is a "middle-level pandemic," which could result in up to 80 million infections in the United States with 16 million deaths, a mortality rate of 20%, assuming there is no vaccine available.

The WHO has advised governments to stockpile the anti-flu drug Tamiflu. So far, more than 40 million doses have been ordered by 14 countries, and there is talk of imposing restrictions on the international poultry trade in order to try and contain the virus.

Flu viruses originate in wild aquatic, usually migratory birds, such as ducks and geese, which carry the viruses but are not infected by them. Transmission to, and infection of, domesticated birds (e.g. chickens) causes a genetic mutation which makes the virus capable of infecting pigs and, possibly, humans.

H5N1 appears to have evolved the ability to survive in chicken faeces and dead meat. In the last few years, 147 of the 418 tigers kept in Thai zoos have died after being fed raw chicken meat infected with the virus.

The first outbreak of H5N1 was in Hong Kong in 1997. High population densities and the practice by Chinese farmers of keeping ducks, chickens and pigs penned together makes Southern China particularly prone to outbreaks of avian influenza. China raises 13 billion chickens a year. These factors increase the likelihood of an outbreak of H5N1 and also of genetic mutations, some of which could produce a highly virulent strain capable of being transmitted between people.

Given that approximately 100 million birds have died in Asia from H5N1, while less than 150 human infections have been confirmed, the fears of a pandemic seem somewhat exaggerated. One cannot, however, discount the possibility of the emergence of a virulent strain of H5N1 capable of easily infecting humans.

H5N1: Virology

Viruses consist of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) enveloped in a protein coat. There are three types of influenza viruses, types A, B and C. Those that infect humans and birds are mostly type A flu viruses.

All flu viruses, including H5N1, are retroviruses. That is, their genetic material is composed of RNA rather than DNA. H5N1 has 8 genes, two of which encode the proteins hemagglutin and neuraminidase, that are recognized by the human immune system. These two genes, called H and N, give bird flu and related viruses their name.

H5N1 viral particles

All viruses have short life cycles, which makes them acquire genetic mutations quickly. Retroviruses, and especially avian influenza viruses, are even more prone to genetic mutation, as they have unstable genes which are prone to reassortment during replication.

Anti-flu drugs and vaccines

The manufacture of vaccines is a complex process. The high mutation rate in influenza viruses means that a flu vaccine must be produced annually. It is also likely that, because of the high mutation rate, flu viruses will quickly become immune to any vaccine that is produced. For these reasons, there is little investment by pharmaceutical companies in vaccines, with vaccines accounting for only $5.4 billion of a global pharmaceutical market valued at $334 billion (i.e. less than 2%).

There are two types of anti-influenza drugs. H5N1 is believed to be immune to M2 inhibitors such as amantadine, but might be susceptible to the newer type, of which oseltamivir phosphate (marketed as Tamiflu) is an example. Currently, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is the only company to manufacture Tamiflu.

In the event of a pandemic caused by a strain of human-to-human transmissible H5N1, it is generally agreed that the demand for doses of Tamiflu and vaccine would far outweigh the supply. It would be months before adequate numbers of vaccines and Tamiflu doses could be made and distributed. Furthermore, the vast majority of the world's population would not have access to these drugs, and even in developed countries that can afford to stockpile them, public services would be overwhelmed with the scramble for vaccines and anti-virals.

Full extent of Abu Ghraib abuse revealed

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW

A U.S. army internal investigation has revealed the full extent of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. The leaked report shows that the 'Abu Ghraib Files' contain 1,325 images and 93 film clips of abused detainees, 660 images of adult pornography, 546 images of dead Iraqi detainees and 29 images of U.S. troops engaged in simulated sexual acts.

The material, which is the fullest photographic record of the abuse to date, was obtained by the online American magazine Salon, which published 18 of the photographs on its website. The photographs obtained by Salon include those broadcast on Australian TV earlier this week as well as those shown when the scandal first emerged in 2004.

Many of the images are sado-masochistic in nature. Some appear to show that the treatment shown in the photographs was carried out routinely. One image shows a naked, hooded detainee with a staff sergeant calmly leaning against a wall to write a report. Another shows Staff Sergeant Ivan Chip Frederick, who has since been tried for his role in the abuse, cleaning his nails while standing next to a detainee wearing a hood and electrical wires. Other images show the corpses of Iraqi detainees and blood-streaked cells and corridors.

Nanomachine drug delivery systems

Miniscule machines racing through the bloodstream to deliver drugs to damaged or diseased cells sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but advances in nanotechnology have made this a possibility in the foreseeable future.

Sahraoui Chaieb, a professor of bioengineering at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, believes he has discovered a novel method for delivering drugs to diseased cells. The research is published today in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Nanotechnology can be broadly defined as science at the atomic or molecular level. Chaieb's work has involved making 'capsules' from lipids, the long chain molecules that constitute cell membranes. A drug can be placed inside the capsules, which range in size from 10-100 microns (thousandths of a millimeter). It has been found that cooling the capsules by 10 degrees Celsius causes them to collapse, releasing the drug they contain.

One problem is how to cool the capsules without damaging surrounding tissue. This might be overcome with the recent development of nanoparticles which can be cooled using a magnetic field. Chaieb and his colleagues are looking for ways in which to coat their capsules with these heat-sensitive nanoparticles.

Previous drug delivery systems have been based on viral particles. Viruses target specific types of cells which they infect in order to reproduce. They have proteins on their surface which recognize the molecular structure of protein molecules on the surfaces of the cells which they infect, much as a key fits into a lock. Nanoscientists can, therefore, use the methods of the virus to try and develop nanomachines which target, for example, cancerous cells, and release their cargo of drugs near those cells while avoiding damage to neighbouring, non-cancerous cells.

Proteins are nature's own nanomachines. They are exquisite molecular machines which perform hugely diverse functions within every cell in every organism. Some of these functions include rotating motors which power the flagella that propel bacterial cells towards a food source, filaments which increase or decrease in size to cause muscle cells to contract or relax, and barrels embedded in cell membranes which open and close allowing the selective movement of substances into and out of cells.

Rather than building nanomachines from scratch, bioengineers can use the blueprints for these naturally occurring proteins in their designs. Other potential uses of biomolecular nanomachines include medical diagnostics and providing scaffolding for tissue engineering.

Consciousness & the brain

How the brain produces consciousness is the biggest problem in cognitive neuroscience. Neuroscientists have yet do provide an adequate definition of consciousness, and many of them agree that it is too early to investigate it scientifically, leaving it instead to philosophers to debate its nature. Most neuroscientists, however, would agree that consciousness, like other cognitive processes, has a neurobiological basis, while most people know what it is meant by "being conscious".

Bill Newsome, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, has long been interested in the neural correlates of consciousness. He is hoping to have an electrode implanted into his own brain to determine what happens when a specific brain region, the middle temporal cortex (MT), is electrically stimulated. Newsome believes that by altering the way he perceives the world he will gain greater insights into consciousness.

Most of the experiments into the function of the MT region have been performed on monkeys. MT is known to be involved in the perception of motion. Cells in the region respond to visual stimuli that are moving in a specific direction. The monkey experiments have shown that some cells respond to dots moving to the left, while others respond to dots moving to the right. The region also filters out ambiguous visual stimuli, that is, it is involved in reducing "visual noise".

Electrical stimulation of the brain and electrode implantation have both been carried out in the past. In the 1940s and 50s, neurologist Wilder Penfield developed a method of electrically stimulating the brains of conscious epileptic patients in an effort treat their condition. Epilepsy is known to be caused by abnormal electrical activity in certain regions of the brain; this abnormal activity is what causes the seizures which are a common symptom of epilepsy. Penfield believed that if he could locate the source of this abnormal electrical activity, the brain region producing it could be surgically removed, thus stopping the seizures.

Penfield's technique was often successful, but his curiosity led him to more dramatic discoveries. While his anesthetized patients lay on the operating table with their brains exposed, Penfield could not resist electrically stimulating other parts of the cerebral cortex to observe what happened. When he stimulated one part of the cortex (the motor cortex), he elicited movements in the patient, while stimulation of an adjacent region (the somatosensory cortex) elicited sensations of touch.

This led Penfield to begin mapping certain functions to specific areas of the cerebral cortex. Every muscle in the body, for example, is now known to be mapped onto the motor cortex, and movements are produced by the appropriate cells in the motor cortex firing electrical signals to the muscles. On the other hand, electrical stimulation of the motor cortex will elicit movement in the muscles to which those cells are connected. Likewise, being touched causes activity in specific parts of the somatosensory cortex, while stimulation of that area elicits the sensation of being touched on the corresponding part of the body. Because the face has more muscles in it than any other part of the human body, more space is devoted to it in the motor and somatosensory cortices than other parts. The hands also contain many muscles, and therefore have large parts of those areas devoted to them (see figure, below).

The homunculus ("little man") is a visual representation of the proportion of somatosensory cortex devoted to each part of the body.

More recently, implantation of electrodes into the brain has been used to treat epilepsy. The electrodes produce electrical signals which counteract those that cause seizures, and have proved to be successful. The removal of tissue from areas of the brain producing abnormal electrical activity is also effective in alleviating epileptic seizures.

The United States now has very strict guidelines on conducting experiments on humans, mainly because of the implications of research using human stem cells. Bill Newsome is therefore seeking approval from lawyers and institutional administrators before beginning his experiments.

More new images from Abu Ghraib

Dorothea Krimitsas, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said today of the new images from Abu Ghraib, that "the type of treatment in these images very clearly violates the rules of international humanitarian law, which are designed to protect people detained in the context of armed conflict."

Ms. Krimitsas refers to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which the ICRC tries to uphold, and which "forbid torture as well as any cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under any circumstance." She described the new images as "extremely shocking".

The ICRC has in the past accused the U.S. of using methods that are "tantamount to torture". This week, a draft UN report into conditions at Guantanamo Bay came to a similar conclusion; the UN is pressing America to immediately release or put on trial the 520 detainees held there without being charged, and to close the facility.

Below are more photographs showing the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. The images are graphic and some may find them disturbing. One image shows a naked prisoner, with soiled underwear placed over his head, tied in an uncomfortable position to bars in the window of a cell. Another shows a prisoner apparently smeared with faeces.

Fanning the flames

The new images from Abu Ghraib could not have come at a worse time. Less than one week ago more evidence of the abuse of Iraqi civilians by British troops in Basra was revealed, and Muslims across the world have demonstrated in protest to the cartoons of Mohammed which many of them found deeply offensive. There is now justifiable anger in Arab and other Muslim countries over these events.

The images from Abu Ghraib and the cartoons of Mohammed are fanning the flames of the current conflagration. If there is no 'clash of civilizations' between Islam and the 'West,' these recent events may well contribute to causing one, by stirring many Arabs and Muslims across the world into a frenzy. (For the origins of the idea of a 'clash of civilizations,' search this blog for 'The New Cold War.')

Disgraceful as these events are, they serve important ideological purposes in what the Bush administration now routinely refers to as the 'long war on terror.' Anyone viewing the images from Abu Ghraib reads a subliminal message that Arabs and Muslims are sub-human, that it is acceptable to humiliate, abuse and even torture them. Dehumanising the 'enemy' is necessary to justify the brutality inflicted upon them. Similarly, the implicit message in the cartoons of Mohammed is that it is acceptable to mock Islam.

Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism is not new. Arabs and Islam have long been vilified by American academics and journalists, as well as by Hollywood, which can be seen as another component of Washington's propaganda machine.

New Abu Ghraib images

Previously unseen images of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison have been obtained by the Australian TV channel SBS. The images are believed to be from the same source as those which were leaked to the press in 2004 and which led to the arrest and conviction of Lynndie England and Charles Graner. Like the earlier photographs, these also show detainees being abused and sexually humiliated.

Also obtained by SBS was video footage apparently showing detainees being forced to masturbate in front of the camera. Other footage appears to show a prisoner, who was said to be mentally ill, repeatedly banging his head against a wall. Some of the photographs show corpses and prisoners with head wounds. The photographs and footage were shown on the SBS programme Dateline.

A U.S. Defence Department spokesman commented that "the images portrayed were not part of a legal, authorised interrogation process, but were taken as part of isolated, unauthorised incidents," and that "the abuses that occurred were tragic and damaged our country's image," while President Bush called the abuses at Abu Ghraib "a disgrace."

However, an investigation carried out after the first images were leaked suggested that senior Defence Department officials had ordered officers at Abu Ghraib to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation, leading to calls for the resignation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The real Middle Eastern threat

Iran faces the possibility of economic sanctions because of allegations that it is enriching uranium to produce nuclear weapons; the victory of Hamas in the January 25th Palestinian elections led many to lose hope in the possibilty of peace in the Middle East; and Iraq was invaded in 2003 under the pretext that its alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction were a grave threat to peace in the Middle East and further afield.

Not only is the Jewish State the major obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is also the biggest threat to peace in the Middle East, and in the rest of the world.

Since its creation in 1948 Israel has been a highly militarized state. Israel's army is now one of the most powerful in the world and, while it is known that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, details of its nuclear programmes have always remained undisclosed.

When Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician, revealed details of Israel's nuclear programme to the Sunday Times in 1986, he was lured by an American Mossad agent to Rome, then abducted and smuggled to Israel. He was subsequently convicted of treason and spent the next 18 years in prison, 11 of them in solitary confinement. Upon his release in 2004, Vanunu was subjected to restrictions in his speech and movements. He has been arrested several times since then for breaching these restrictions, and in March 2005 was charged with 21 counts of "contravening a lawful direction," for which he still awaits trial.

Mordechai Vanunu

While the exact details of its nuclear programme are unclear, one thing is certain: Israel has large numbers of nuclear weapons and is prepared to use them; it is believed to have stockpiled between 100-200 nuclear warheads that it is prepared to use.

In light of this, why is it that the international community does not insist that Israel provide details of its nuclear programme? Why hasn't the International Atomic Energy Agency been asked to investigate Israel's nuclear weapons, like it did in the case of Iraq and, now, Iran? Israel has been producing nuclear weapons at its Dimona site in the Negev desert since 1958, although it is not one of the five states permitted by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to possess nuclear weapons. This begs the most important question: if Israel has weapons of mass destruction, why has no-one insisted on disarming Israel?

U.S. may withdraw aid to Palestinians

The nascent Hamas-led Palestinian government continues to be pressured to recognize Israel and renounce violence, as requested by the Middle East "Quartet" (the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations).

The U.S. will this year provide $150 million in aid for Palestinian development, with an additional $84 million distributed to the Palestinians through the United Nations. The Bush administration is expected to reach a decision in the next two weeks over whether or not it will maintain this level of funding.

"We understand there are humanitarian needs," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, reiterating an earlier statement by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice that humanitarian aid to the Palestinians might be considered on a case-by-case basis rather than withdrawn altogether.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official has said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will make a speech before the newly-elected Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) to voice his vision of peace with Israel to Hamas leaders, who now hold 79 out of 132 PLC seats. New PLC members will be sworn in on Saturday, after which the new cabinet will be officially announced.

Seconds out: Round 2

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad

Next month governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will meet in Vienna to discuss whether or not sanctions should be imposed on Iran over its resumption of uranium enrichment programmes. This will set off a chain of events similar to what happened at the UN over Iraq in 2002/03.

While the UK and France are likely to vote for sanctions, Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, could well veto any decision that is made, because of the lucrative energy deals they have with Iran.

Russia has been helping Iran to develop its nuclear reactor at Bushehr, and Russian companies are already contracted to build others. China is the world's second largest oil importer after the U.S. and its energy consumption continues to increase in order to maintain its unprecedented economic growth. Iran has vast oil and natural gas reserves which China is eager to exploit. It holds a 50% stake in Iran's immense Yadavaran oil fields, and has an estimated $70 billion contract for millions of tons of Iranian liquefied natural gas. For these reasons, neither Russia nor China are likely jeopardize their relationship with Tehran by voting for economic sanctions that the UN may hope to impose.

UN diplomacy over Iran is therefore likely to reach a stalemate, leading President Bush to act unilaterally, as he did in the case of Iraq.

Bush vs. the UN: Round 1

The United Nations Security Council chamber, New York

In the run-up to the Iraq war, President Bush said that the United Nations (UN) was in danger of becoming "irrelevant". This was extremely diplomatic of him, because the UN has, in fact, been irrelevant all along, at least as far as the Iraq war is concerned.

The UN is irrelevant to President Bush because he adheres to resolutions when it is in his interest to do so, while completely ignoring those UN decisions which go against U.S. interests and then continuing to do as he pleases.

A good example of Bush-style diplomacy is UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1441, which was passed unanimously on 8th November 2002, and which threatened Iraq with "serious consequences" if it did not take its "final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations."

Many of the fifteen member states of the UNSC, especially those such as the UK which are allied with the U.S. in its "war on terror," sided with the U.S. over Resolution 1441; others did not. President Bush had to persuade some of the non-permanent members to change their minds by threatening to withdraw financial aid. In the case of Syria, which was initially against Resolution 1441, Bush promised to consider removing it from his list of terrorist states, thus opening up the possibility of sorely-needed trade agreements with the U.S. Resolution 1441, therefore, was passed unanimously by the Security Council.

Later, when the U.S. wanted to use its military base in Turkey as a platform for attacking neighbouring Iraq, the Turkish government refused, and Bush again threatened to withdraw billions of dollars in financial aid. Turkey, to its credit, stood firm in the decision.

France, a permanent UNSC member, as well as many non-permanent members, insisted on a second resolution before any military action was taken against Saddam Hussein. President Bush, however, saw the passing of Resolution 1441 as a green light to attack Iraq, and, after the "failed diplomacy" at the UN (i.e. the insistence by other members on a second resolution), decided to by-pass the organization and attack Iraq without waiting for a second resolution.

President Bush had been happy to enforce the sanctions imposed by the UN on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The consequent trade embargo withheld from Iraqis deliveries of humanitarian goods such as medical equipment, water pumps, agricultural supplies and even antibiotics and detergents, because they have a "dual use." (The second use, according to the U.S., is for making weapons.) The oil-for-food programme was a relief effort paid by for Iraq; 30% of the revenue generated in the programme was returned to the UN for reparations, and the remainder was barely enough to feed the country.

Thus the sanctions had a devestating effect on the Iraqi people, with thousands dying as a direct result, including children. Later, when Madelaine Albright, the then U.S. Ambassador to the UN, was questioned on 60 Minutes about the sanctions, she responded: "We think the price is worth it."

The aim of President Bush the First in the 1990 Gulf War was to destroy Iraq's infrastructure, and he succeeded. The subsequent UN sanctions compounded the situation in the country, so that it was severely crippled by the time President Bush the Second attacked in 2003.

Bush the Second was victorious in Round 1 against the UN. How long will it be before Round Two - Bush vs. the UN in the case against Iran - begins? Earlier this month, the governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution "expressing serious concerns about Iran's nuclear programme," and reported this to the UNSC. Iran, in turn, is now co-operating less with the IAEA, and has given them a date for the resumption of its uranium enrichment research. At their meeting next month the IAEA governors may decide to ask the UN to impose sanctions on Iran.

UN demands closure of Guantanamo Bay

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay

An inquiry by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) has demanded the immediate closure of the American detention centre at Guantanamo Bay because of "practices amounting to torture."

The report criticizes the U.S. for the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay inmates, who the Bush administration refers to as "enemy combatants," a classification not recognized by international law.

The UN demands that "all perpetrators up to the highest level of military and political command are brought to justice," and calls for the 520 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay without charge to be put on trial or released.

U.S. officers at Guantanamo have been accused of force-feeding detainees who have gone on hunger strikes, shaving detainees' beards and desecration the Koran by throwing copies of it into the toilet. There have also been accusations of detainees being severely beaten by U.S. officers.

The Bush administration, which is under no obligation to prosecute its politicians and officers, has questioned whether it is the responsibility of the UN to conduct investigations into conditions at Guantanamo Bay. A senior Washington official commented that the UN report was a "hatchet job" which "discredited the organization." The U.S. is the largest donor of funds to the UN, and will possibly threaten to reduce, or withdraw altogether, its funding if it continues to be pressured by the organization.

Man arrested in connection with abuse "allegations"

British military police announced today that one man has been arrested in connection with the investigation into the abuse of Iraqi civilians by British troops based in southern Iraq.

The Ministry of Defence has declined to reveal the name of the man; likewise, the News of the World, which ran the story yesterday, has refused to reveal its source, the name of the corporal who is said to have filmed the footage, or the British Army unit involved.

Multi-platform release for Guantanamo film

"The Road to Guantanamo," by British director Michael Winterbottom, will be the first film to have a simultaneous cinema, DVD and online release. It is also scheduled to be shown on Channel 4 on March 9th.

The film, which will be premiered at the Berlin film festival tomorrow and stars Rizwan Ahmed, Farhad Harun and Waqar Siddiqui, tells the true story of three British Muslims who were arrested as suspected terrorists whilst visiting Pakistan for a wedding, and taken to Guantanamo bay, the U.S. detention center in Cuba.

"The Road to Guantanamo" was filmed on location in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran on a budget of £1.5 million. Revolution Films, the production company commissioned by Channel 4 to make the film, plans to release it in up to 30 cinemas.

Steven Soderberg, director of Erin Brockovich and Traffic, experimented with multi-platform release earlier this year. His new film Bubble was released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD and TV on January 27th. According to Hollywood Reporter, the film performed "dismally" at the box office, taking only $70,600 from 32 cinemas in its opening weekend.

Two stills from "The Road to Guantanamo"

"Allegations" against British troops in Iraq

The front page of today's News of the World

Photographs of Iraqi civilians being dragged and beaten by British troops were published today in the News of the World.

Video footage of the incident, which is said to have taken place in Basra in 2004, was also sent to the newspaper. The footage was apparently filmed "for fun" by a British corporal and comes with his sickening commentary - as the beatings take place, his voice is heard in the background saying "Oh yes! You're gonna get it. Yes, naughty little boys! You little fuckers. Die!"

The authenticity of the video footage has been confirmed by military experts, and Prime Minister Tony Blair has stated that the Ministry of Defence will "investigate the allegations."

These are not "allegations." Here is firm and convincing evidence of British troops abusing their power in Iraq. What really needs to be investigated is the extent to which coalition troops are abusing their power, in Iraq and elsewhere.

There has, in the past, been other evidence of humiliation, abuse and torture of Iraqi civilians by British and U.S. troops, most notably the dispicable treatment of those held at Abu Ghraib prison. The British and U.S. governments have insisted that each of the incidents was "isolated," and that the vast majority of coalition troops on duty in Iraq have behaved impeccably.

Could it be that abuse and torture of Iraqis by British and American troops is more widespread than we are being led to believe? Why would President Bush insist that his troops be exempt from going on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Court?

In the case of Abu Ghraib, it was suggested that there were orders from the upper echilons of the U.S. Department of Defence for American troops to "soften up" detainees and there were calls for the resignation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Both Prime Minister Blair and President Bush are now considering starting the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, even though the country is extremely unstable. President Bush did not foresee the guerilla war he now faces in Iraq, a war the U.S. army, despite all it's state-of-the-art weaponry, is ill-equipped to fight. Having flouted international law by invading and occupying Iraq, (losing 100 British and 1000 American troops and killing tens of thousands of Iraqis in the process), President Bush and Prime Minister Blair now want to abandon the country in its chaos.

U.S. defence spending continues to increase

President Bush this week sent his budget for the 2007 fiscal year to Congress on the same day that Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld presented the Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR).

Bush and Rumsfeld have requested a budget of $439.3 billion for the Department of Defence for next year, representing an increase of 7% over 2006 and an overall increase of 40% since 2001.

The budget proudly boasts that the U.S. has "liberated more that 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan." The increase in defence spending, says Rumsfeld, is an "ongoing commitment to defeating global terrorism."

Referring to the "Global War on Terror," the QDR warns that "the United States is engaged in what will be a long war" and that, although, "the struggle is centered in Iraq and Afghanistan," the U.S. armed forces must be prepared to "successfully defend [the U.S.] and its interests around the globe...[and] to wage this war in many locations simultaneously and for some years to come."

The QDR also contains recommendations for the continued "transformation" of the U.S. military into a "more agile and more expeditionary" force with an "ability to surge quickly to trouble spots across the globe." It also recognizes China as having "the greatest potential to compete militarily" with the U.S.

The difficulties faced by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to a shift in emphasis from "major conventional combat operations to multiple, irregular asymmetric operations (i.e. counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency).

Other recommendations include "enhancing missile defence capability," with requests for funding to develop a new precision-guided Trident missile, sea-based interceptor missiles and space-based early-warning systems; "improvements in air dominance and support" by the acquisition of more Osprey, Apache, Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters and F-22, F/A-18 E/F fighter jets, as well as the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; "enhanced maritime capabilities" with the acquisition of two DDX destroyers; and “accelerated acquisition” of Predator and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles to “expand the unmanned aerial reconnaissance force to increase intelligence-gathering capabilities to ensure around-the-clock, real-time intelligence.”

The report also recommends a 33% increase in the number of special operations forces battalions, the expansion of psychological operations, and "funding for the army's Future Combat System, with major investments in unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned ground vehicles and battlefield command and communications systems."

While spending on defence and homeland security will increase, 141 other programmes will have their budgets cut. Mr. Bush has increased defence spending every year since he took office in 2001. In 2004, he created a budget deficit of over $300 billion, the largest in America's history.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Opinion

I wrote this for the opinion pages of an international newspaper (published March 2002). It shows how scientific data can be manipulated to serve political aims:

A research paper submitted to the journal Human Immunology in September last year [2001] has been withdrawn by the scientific publishing group Elsevier after a "cascade" of complaints and threats of resignation from members of the editorial board.

The research, carried out by a group led by Antonio Arnaiz-Villena at the Department of Immunology at the Complutense University in Madrid, examined the similarities in a group of immune system genes between Palestinians and Jews, and concluded that "[they] share a very similar HLA genetic pool that supports a common ancient Canaanite origin. Therefore, the origin of the long- lasting Jewish-Palestinian hostility is the fight for land in ancient times."

A historical introduction to the paper refers to Jews living in the Gaza strip as "colonists" and describes some Palestinians as living in "concentration camps." The journal Nature describes the paper as containing "controversial descriptions of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict."

Dolly Tyan, who was then president of the American Society for Histocompatability and Immunogenetics (ASHI) has said that the research "purports to be a scientific treatise," but "offers opinion on geopolitical issues that cannot be substantiated by the data," adding that the ASHI was "offended and embarrassed by its inclusion in the journal." Having already gone to press, the paper was withdrawn at a later date. The Elsevier group quickly removed all electronic versions of the manuscript, and sent letters to librarians and subscribers asking them to ignore the paper, "or, preferably, to physically remove the relevant pages."

In the subsequent debate concerning the paper's withdrawal, the journal's editors have explained why the paper was withdrawn. Steven Marsh, one of the editors of Human Immunology, stated that the data, which indicated a close genetic relationship between Jews and Palestinians, was worthwhile reporting, and that "had the authors confined themselves to announcing their scientific results, it would have been an interesting paper." Only two months later, though, in a letter to Nature, members of the editorial board stated that they "believe the paper should have been refused on the simple grounds that it lacked scientific merit" and that their "primary concern is that the authors might be perceived to have been discriminated against for political, as opposed to legitimate scientific, reasons"; furthermore, "the limitations [of the experimental methodology] are made evident by extraordinary observations that contradict history, geography and anthropology." This reference is to diagrams that show the relatedness of the HLA genes in people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, work carried out by someone - Arnaiz-Villena, the commissioning editor for the special issue in which the paper concerned appeared - who is a recognised authority in the field.

The vast majority of published scientific papers contain inferences and conclusions that cannot be substantiated by the data being presented, and the inclusion of non- scientific material in a manuscript does not make the work unscientific. In many cases published work is often corrected, or even refuted, by the researchers themselves. Published work has not been withdrawn in the past; normally, erratum messages and letters of criticism are printed in future editions of the journal in which the research was originally published. But this was not possible because of the "depth of anger" aroused by the paper, according to Nicole Sucio-Foca, the Columbia University-based editor-in-chief of Human Immunology.

Thus, according to the editors, the paper was withdrawn not for political reasons, but because it lacked scientific merit, although the aspect of the work that the editors are trying to discredit is not the one which offended and embarrassed the editorial board.

Although the editors insist that the work was not withdrawn on political grounds, the withdrawal of the research is a political act, one which is unprecedented in scientific publishing. This is suppression of data that shows that Palestinians are human (and not the "cockroaches" or "two-legged beasts" they have been described as by Israeli prime ministers in the past) and not dissimilar to Jews. Dehumanization of the Palestinians helps justify the brutal oppression to which they are subjected by Israel. The revelation that Jews and Palestinians are related therefore reduces the credibility of the claim that Jews are God's chosen people, and that Israel is their homeland, an argument that uses biblical connotations to justify Israeli actions in the occupied territories.

The making of modern Egypt

Muhammed Ali's citadel, Cairo (taken by me)

Situated on a hilltop overlooking Cairo, the citadel was built on the site of Salah-el-Din's 12th Century fortress. Salah-el-Din (Saladin) was a Kurdish warrior who defended Jerusalem against Richard the Lionheart's army during the third Crusade. The large mosque visible in the photograph - one of the largest mosques in the world - and the rest of the citadel was built on the site of the fortress between the years 1830- 1857.

In the 19th Century Egypt was a backwater province of the Ottoman empire governed independently by the Mamluks, a military caste consisting mainly of Turkish and Kurdish slaves. Mohammed Ali was an officer in the Albanian contingent of the Ottoman army who was sent to govern Egypt by the Sultan. Beginning in 1805, Ali began eliminating the Mamluks so that he would gain absolute power over Egypt. In 1811, he invited the Mamluk leaders to the grand palace at his citadel. After they had enjoyed a lavish feast and were leaving, Ali's guards trapped the Mamluk leaders between two of the citadel's defence ramparts and opened fire with their muskets, killing them all. (Legend has it, however, that one survived, leapt on his horse and escaped by jumping over the walls of the citadel. If the legend is true the drop would certainly have killed him.)

Mohammed Ali is known as the founder of modern Egypt. After eliminating the Mamluks, he began modernizing his army and building a new public services infrastructure which included schools and modern methods of transportation and irrigation. The irrigation system built by Ali enabled him to introduce a new crop to the Egyptians: cotton. Today Egyptian cotton is widely recognized as the best in the world, and cotton exports contribute a great deal to Egypt's gross national product.

Abu Hamza jailed for 7 years

The Islamist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was yesterday sentenced to 7 years in jail. The 47 year old Egyptian, known for his radical sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in North London, was found guilty at the Old Bailey of owning an "encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad," as well as on 6 counts of soliciting to murder and 3 of "stirring up racial hatred."

It has recently emerged that British police had been aware of Abu Hamza's activities since at least 1999. The question now being asked of them is: why is it only now that he has been put on trial?

Following Abu Hamza's arrest, more than 3,000 audio tapes and hundreds of video cassettes containing recordings of his sermons were found at his West London home. His speeches targeted homosexuals and the royal family, referred to Jews as "enemies of Islam" and contained numerous references to killing non-Muslims. Police found knives, guns, forged passports and CS gas at the Finsbury Park mosque, but Scotland Yard denies that Abu Hamza was linked to the bombings on the London Underground in July last year.

It is important to remember that the likes of Abu Hamza do not represent mainstream Islam. It is, however, impossible to gauge just how many Muslims hold such opinions. Some may believe that every Muslim hopes to join the 'jihad' against 'infidels' everywhere. This is a misrepresentation of Islam (as is Abu Hamza) propagated by people who do not understand the religion. (Jihad - Holy war - actually has two meanings: the struggle against those who wish to harm Muslims, as well as the internal struggle within each Muslim; most non-Muslims are unaware of this double meaning.)

Abu Hamza may be eligible for parole in 2008 and could face extradition to the U.S. to go on trial for similar charges upon his release.

Arabic nomenclature

Abu means 'father of,' so that the literal translation of Abu Hamza is 'father of Hamza'.

Ibn, or bin, (as in Osama bin Laden) means 'son of;' as does the prefix 'Mac' or 'Mc' in Scottish names.

Om or Um means 'mother of,' as in Om Kalsoum, the legendary Egyptian singer.

Hundreds of new species discovered

Smokey honeyeater bird (Grantiella)

New species of rhododendron

Long-beaked echidna (Spiny anteater, Zaglossus bruijni)

Owlet nightjar (Aegotheles)

Undescribed species of frog (Callulops)

An international team of scientists working in the rain forests of Papua New Guinea has discovered dozens of previously unknown species of animals and plants. Among the new species discovered are giant-crowned pigeons, giant cassowaries, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo, 4 new species of butterfly and 20 new frog species. The rhodondendron discovered has a white scented flower almost 6 inches across, making it among the largest known species of rhododendron. As well as finding new species, the team also re-discovered others which were long thought to be extinct, such as the golden- fronted bowerbird and the six-wired bird of paradise. Other species thought to be highly endangered were found in abundance.

Bruce Beehler, who heads the team containing scientists from the U.S., Australia and Indonesia, has described the Foja Mountains, where the species were discovered, as a "Garden of Eden".

One argument against deforestation is that the tropical rain forests of the world are home to a large number of the millions of known species of animals and plants. The impact of humans on the environment has already had a devestating effect on biodiversity. Undoubtedly, the world's rain forests contain thousands of as yet undiscovered species, some of which might produce substances that could be used medicinally. Destruction of the tropical rain forests could lead to the extinction of such species.

Another controversial cartoon

This cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was published in The Independent. It appeared soon after the siege of Jenin, the Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, and a few days before an Israeli election.

Upon publication of the cartoon the Israeli embassy started a campaign which criticized the cartoon as being anti-Semitic. The Independent received many complaints, including many from people who hadn't even seen the cartoon.

The siege of Jenin took place in April 2002 and lasted 21 days. Dozens were killed, among them women and babies. Sharon described the siege as "our greatest victory," claiming that the "targeted" killing of Hamas leaders had been successful.

See photographs of the siege of Jenin here:

http://this.is/jenin/index2.html

The new anti-Semitism(s)

British newspapers reported last week that Prince Harry's decision to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy-dress party a year ago has led to an increase in anti-Semitism in the U.K.

The term 'anti-Semitism' conventionally means, and is taken to mean, anti-Jewish racism. Actually though, Arabs are also Semites and therefore anti-Semitism means racism towards both Jews and Arabs.

This is not to say that anti-Jewish anti-Semitism does not exist; one virulent form of it is the denial by some that the Nazi holocaust did not take place. There has been alarm in recent years over 'the New anti-Semitism,' referring, among other things, to the desecration of Synagogues and related incidents which have taken place in France, which at the time prompted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to urge French Jews to migrate to Israel.

While the rise of anti-Jewish racism is worrying, there is also an increase in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism. This form of anti-Semitism has also increased alarmingly in recent years, due mainly to the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001.

It is important, now more than ever, to gain a better understanding of both the Arabs and the Muslims. Europe contains at least 20 million Muslims, including approximately 1.6 million in Britain (most of whom are of Indian or Pakistani origin). Since 2001, Europe's Muslims have become increasingly alienated. The publication of the cartoons of Mohammed will not only lead to the continued marginalization of Europe's Muslims; it will also widen the schism that exists within Islam itself by leading more Muslims to side with extremists. Although I advocate freedom of speech, this is one reason why I think the publication of the Mohammed cartoons was foolish. Another equally important reason is Europe's increasing economic dependence on its Muslim immigrants. In the next few decades Europe will not be able to support the majority of its native population which is approaching retirement. The success of the European economy will depend more and more on young Muslim immigrants from North Africa, an area which has the youngest and fastest growing population in the world. It is in the best interests of Europe, therefore, to foster good relations with the Muslim world outside of Europe and the one within it.

The Semitic Peoples

The term semite is derived from the name of one of Noah's sons, Shem, and has come to mean anyone who claims descendency from him. Both Jews and Arabs claim to be descended from Shem.

After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis, 5:32).

These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled (Genesis, 9:19)

Linguists broadly characterize languages into 'families'. English is a member of the Indo-European family of languages; Semitic languages, which include Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic and Hebrew, belong to the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. Arabs, then, are a Semitic people to, and speak a language similar to that of Jews.

Islam & the Arabs

Islam is usually associated with the Arabs, and a common misconception is that most Muslims are Arabs. This is not, in fact, the case. Athough Islam was originally the religion of the Arabs, only 200 million of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are Arabic. The most populous Muslim country in the world with a population of 200 million, is Indonesia - i.e. there are more Muslims in Indonesia alone than there are Arabs in the world. Neither are all Arabs Muslims, with many Arab countries having large minorities of Christians.

'True' Arabs come from the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula; that is, what we today call the Yemen. Arab countries outside of Arabia are more correctly referred to as 'Arabicized' countries - they adopted the language and religion of the Muslim armies which conquered them soon after the death in 632 of the Prophet Mohammed.

A note on the content of this blog

The addition of material to existing posts on this blog, especially those concerning Islam and the Arabs, will be an on-going process

Beirut: Danish embassy set ablaze

Flames billow from windows of the Danish embassy in Beirut

Protestors burn the Danish flag during demonstration in Beirut yesterday

Protestors in Central London earlier this week

Protests over the caricatures of Mohammed continued today, with a 1000-strong march in Beirut, during which the Danish Embassy was set ablaze. This followed similar attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in the Syrian capital Damascus yesterday. Publication of the cartoons and the reaction by some Muslims to them has re-sparked a debate about a clash of civilizations between Islam and 'the West.' There needs to be a better understanding of Islam and Muslims for many reasons, not least of which is that there are approximately 20 million Muslims in Europe, including up to 6 million in France and 1.6 million in the U.K.

There is no clash of civilizations. To say that there is creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. Scroll down to read about the origins of the idea of a clash of civilizations and to see the cartoons of Mohammed.

Egypt

At least 1,000 are feared dead after a ferry, the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98, sank 18 miles from Egypt's east coast. Most of those killed were Egyptian economic migrants coming back from Saudi Arabia. Al-Salaam's sister ship was The Herald of Free Enterprise, which sank off the coast of Zebrugge in 1987, killing 187.

The sinking of the Egyptian ferry is one of the worst such disasters in the area and has led some to ask why it is that ships which would be considered too dangerous for use in Europe are being used in developing countries.

George W. Bushisms

U.S. President George W. Bush this week gave his fourth State of the Union address to a packed House of Representatives in Washington D.C. In the address, 'Dubya' vowed to wean America off its dependence on foreign oil by announcing new inititives in alternative energy, not out of concern for the environment but for reasons of national security. And, of course, he promised that he would continue to spread freedom & democracy around the world.

The entire 80 minute speech can be read here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/.

The President's language is so colourful that several small dictionaries of "Bushisms" have been published. Here are some of the funny things he has said:

"They misunderestimated me."

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."

"It is clear our nation is reliant on foreign oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas."

"I understand small business growth - I was one."

"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."

"Reading is the basics for all learning."

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children reading?"

"One of the greatest things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."

"It's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective."

"Kosovians can move back in."

"Keep good relations with the Grecians."

"This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot. I understand the emotionality of death penalty cases."

"If the terriors and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow."

David Roberts

View of Mount Sinai

Tower of David, Jerusalem

St. Catherine's monastery, Sinai

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

Damascus Gate

Cairo

Cairo

Abu Simbel

The Scot David Roberts (1796-1864) was the first British artist to paint the monuments of ancient Egypt. In 1838, Roberts spent 2 months travelling 800 miles south from Cairo. The following year, he continued via Sinai and the Holy Land to Lebanon.

Mecca

2 amazing photographs of the mosque at Mecca, to which millions of Muslims make a pilgrimage (haj) every year. The large black structure is the ka'aba (the 'cube'), a building inside the mosque that Muslims believe was built by Abraham. During their 5 daily prayers, Muslims prostrate themselves and face the ka'aba, so that Muslims in the West face eastwards during prayer and those in the East face westwards. The bottom photo was taken with a long exposure time, so that the thousands of pilgrims circumambulating the ka'aba appear as a blur. Every year a small number of pilgrims are crushed to death during this process.

A devout Muslim is required to visit Mecca at least once in his life if he has the means; the haj is one of the 5 pillars of Islam, the others being praying 5 times a day (salah), observing the fast during Ramadan (sawm), almsgiving (zakah) & accepting that there is no other God but Allah (Shahadah).

The Prophet Mohammed: A Biography

Mohammed ibn-Abdullah, the founder of Islam, was born c.570 AD in Mecca to parents belonging to the tribe of Kureish (there are alternative spellings to the name of this tribe). The nomadic tribes inhabiting the Arabian peninsula were polytheists (pagans), worshipping many different deities. Tribesman would retreat to mountain caves away from built-up areas to pray to their Gods.

Muslims believe that in the year 610, while Mohammed was praying in the mountains, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and began to reveal to him the word of God. “Iqra” (“Recite”) said Gabriel, demanding from Mohammed that he memorize and recite the words revealed to him. Mohammed was told that God had chosen him to be the Seal of the Prophets; in other words, by preaching the verses revealed to him, Mohammed would elaborate upon and complete the teachings of earlier prophets, beginning with Abraham and including Moses & Jesus. The Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mohammed many times over the next 23 years, during which time all the verses of the Koran were revealed to him. (The Koran, meaning ‘Recital,’ is believed by Muslims to be the Word of God).

After receiving his first revelation, Mohammed preached the monotheistic message of the Koran to people in Mecca. Among his earliest followers was Khadija, Mohammed’s first wife, a merchant some 25 years his senior. Others were slowly converted to Islam, but opposition from tribal leaders was strong and Mohammed was eventually forced to flee to Medina. Some years later Mohammed had built up enough followers for him to lead an army back to Mecca and conquer it. Tribes were then converted to Islam, either by the sword or by Mohammed’s charisma. By the time of his death in 632, Mohammed had united all of Arabia’s tribes under Islam. Within a few years of his death, Muslim armies spread in all directions from Arabia to conquer and convert first Egypt, then Syria and Palestine, to Islam. With conversion to Islam came the adoption of the language of Islam – Arabic. The religion is the fastest growing faith in the world today, with over 1 billion followers.

Mohammed’s journey to Medina (known as the hijra) took place in 622 AD, the year that marks the beginning of the Muslim era. The Muslim calendar is also known as the hijri calendar as it began with the hijra. It is a lunar calendar and therefore not synchronised with the Gregorian calendar we use. A lunar month is shorter than a month in the Gregorian calendar. Hence, 2006 is year 1427 in the Muslim calendar.

Blasphemous cartoons

These cartoons, depicting the Prophet Mohammed, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30th September, 2005 and more recently in 7 other European newspapers, have caused a furore, with many Muslims across the world finding them offensive & blasphemous. (The Koran does not forbid artisitc depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, but some Muslims do.)

Danish companies have warned any employees based in Arab/ Muslim countries to be vigilant or even return to Denmark for fear of repercussions; Saudi Arabia has called for a boycott of all Danish products and removed it’s envoy from Copenhagen; armed protestors have taken to the streets in Gaza; and a German citizen has been abducted by armed militants from his hotel in the West Bank city of Nablus. The out-going Palestinian president Ahmad Qurei said the caricatures “provoke all Muslims,” while Mahmoud Zahar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, denounced any aggression towards Europeans.

Similar incidents include the recent Jerry Springer musical, which has been targeted because, in the words of Christian Voice director Stephen Green, portrays Jesus as "coprophiliac sexual deviant"; the play Bezhti, which offended some members of Birmingham’s Sikh community because of its depiction of rape & violence in a fictional Gurdwara; the 2004 film Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson, which was criticised by Jews as being anti-Semitic; Martin Scorsese’s 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ, seen as blasphemous by many Christian groups for portraying Jesus as having sexual urges; and the publication, also in 1988, of Salman Rushdie’s fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, in response to which the Iranian Ayatollah Khameini issued a fatwa against the author for the novel’s alleged promotion of idolatry.

Scorsese’s film is banned from being shown in public in Bulgaria and Rushdie’s book has been illegal in Egypt since its publication.

A zealot is a zealot is a zealot, regardless of which faith they follow. Conservatives set their ideas and beliefs in stone; their rigid way of thinking forms cobwebs in their minds that obscure rationality. This has always been one of the purposes of organised religion – a set of beliefs which are to be strictly adhered to, so that the status quo can be maintained.

Another bite at Apple

The saga so far: my ipod has been defunct for some time with a suspected dead battery. I've been trying for several weeks to book an appointment at the Regent Street Apple store's "Genius Bar" so that I can have the battery replaced; all attempts have so far been futile. Components for the ipod can only be bought from Apple. Repairs can only be carried out by Apple or a small number of other companies which are licenced by Apple and only repair ipods sent to them by Apple. And I am extremely frustrated with Apple, having paid an arm & a leg for my ipod.

9 out of 10 computers sold are PCs running the MS Windows operating system. For a long time Apple catered for a small niche market of Mac users and was no real competitor to Bill Gates' Microsoft empire. Apple then invented the ipod MP3 player; other manufacturers of digital music players were foolishly reluctant to adopt the MP3 format. This file format for downloading music became hugely popular, probably mainly due to sites such as napster.com and Apple cornered the MP3 player market.

It's funny when the ways of the world are actually like the things I saw in films & on television when I was growing up. Specifically, I mean the evil big company which is only concerned with its own profits. These evil companies, as depicted in film & on TV, have dubious morals and do dispicable things like dumping toxic waste in rivers, or concealing research findings that show a product is carcinogenic, etc. You get the picture, you've probably seen hundreds of depictions of this sort of thing yourself. I now have first hand experience of the evil big company. This one (Apple) couldn't care less about customers who have already bought their product.

If you already have an ipod, you'll regret ever buying it when something goes wrong. You'll find it very difficult to get it repaired. Buy an ipod at your peril. (See earlier posts about Apple ipods and other MP3 players in the January archive.)

Project for the New American Century

Here's something I wrote several years ago, which hasn't seen the light of day (until now).

The U.S-led attack on Afghanistan, which started in October 2001, was depicted as a direct response to the events of September 11th, 2001, after which U.S. President George W. Bush declared the beginning of the “war on terrorism”.

As the Blair-Bush coalition attacked Iraq, attempts were made to link Saddam Hussein’s regime to al-Qa’eda, and the attack was likewise portrayed as part of the larger “war on terrorism”.

In reality, the strategic importance of Iraq and Afghanistan had long been recognized, and the U.S. had planned military action in both countries well before 2001, plans whose implementation can now be accelerated.

Over 5 years ago, an organization called Project for the New American Century (PNAC) wrote an open letter to President Bill Clinton, warning him of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and urging his removal. Among its authors were Jeb Bush, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and academic “expert” and government advisor Francis Fukuyama.

PNAC is a Washington D.C.-based neo-conservative think tank founded in the spring of 1997 by some of the most hawkish elements in the current Bush administration; its members include Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and chairman of the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board Richard Perle.

The organization describes itself as “a non-profit, educational organization whose goal is to promote American global leadership”, and its manifesto, a document entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century”, was published in September 2000, and recently declassified.

“Rebuilding America’s Defenses” is a blueprint for the consolidation and expansion of U.S. power in the 21st century. Speaking openly in terms of an American “empire”, it outlines what PNAC believes the U.S. government must urgently do in order to maintain and extend “a global Pax Americana” and protect American interests.

Despite America’s role as the world’s hyperpower, with “global power, global reach”, the U.S. army’s “ability to meet its major-war requirements,” according to PNAC, “is uncertain”. The military is “ill-prepared” to meet the “challenges” of the 21st century (primarily, of course, “terrorism”), mainly due to a “decline in readiness”; it is, in fact, “straining to meet the burden of its current missions”.

Hence, one major initiative proposed in the document is the “transformation” of the military into a highly sophisticated force that can project more power faster. PNAC recognizes that “a Pax Americana will not maintain itself”; therefore, “a core mission” of the “transformed” U.S. armed forces will be to “fight and decisively win simultaneous major theatre wars”.

Further, the U.S. must, “develop and deploy global missile defense…to provide a secure basis for U.S. power projection around the world”, and, “control space and cyberspace”.

PNAC practically relishes the prospect of futuristic warfare in these new “theatres”, and even apparently advocates eugenics, in anticipating “advanced forms of biological warfare that can target specific genotypes”. Needless to say, the U.S. should be the first to develop, and presumably use, these weapons.

Astonishingly, the document states that, “the process of transformation is likely to be a long one, absent a catastrophic, catalysing event – like a new Pearl Harbour”. Almost exactly one year after its publication, a hijacked plane flew into the Pentagon and two others destroyed the World Trade Centre.

Horrific as these events were, they could, in the words of Henry Kissinger, be turned into “an extraordinary opportunity”. For PNAC and other neo-cons in or around President Bush’s government, it is an opportunity for the U.S. to build a force formidable enough to impose their Pax Americana on the world, whether the world likes it or not.

According to many commentators, the influence of the neo-cons in Washington is exaggerated. Some have suggested that their critics use the term “neo-conservative” as a by-word for a cabal of ultra-rich Jewish businessmen who control American politics, such that any criticism can immediately be labelled anti-semitic.

But this group of neo-cons, PNAC, largely is the current U.S. government, and, therefore, their influence should not be underestimated. Proposals in “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”, such as large annual increases in defence spending, and “transformation” of the U.S. military, have been translated into policy by the Bush administration. A graph with unlabelled axes illustrates the think tank’s conviction that defence spending should ideally be increased to between 3.5- 3.8% of gross national product.

“America has no empire to extend”, insists President Bush; on the contrary, the U.S. is “benevolent”, and has taken it upon itself to promote “human rights”, “freedom”, and “democracy”. That “American leadership is good both for America and for the world” is one of the “fundamental propositions” to which PNAC is “dedicated”.

Indeed, America promotes “civilization” itself. Being the only hyperpower, only it is able to shoulder the burden, and, in fact, this is “America’s global responsibility”. Thus is the collective delusion from which the neo-cons, the Bush administration, and the academic “experts” who influence policy-making are suffering.

When President Bush declared the “war on terrorism”, he added, “Its outcome is uncertain”; it may last “our whole lifetime”, according to a senior Bush administration official. As if on cue, Foreign Affairs, the main journal of the foreign policy establishment, describes “the protean enemy”, after the elusive sea god in Greek mythology who defied capture by changing form.

President Bush warns that “foreign terrorists” have now infiltrated Iraq, and were probably responsible for various acts of sabotage and the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed UN representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and at least 20 others.

Thus the post-Cold War era is defined by a possibly global and certainly indefinite struggle against an invisible enemy, and the stage is set for an Orwellian world of perpetual conflict, with the U.S. “fight[ing] simultaneous major theatre wars” to maintain the “American peace” and protect its interests, while fighting “terrorism”.

An open-ended “war on terrorism” will be of huge benefit to major shareholders in the large defence contractors that will receive many billions of dollars from the Pentagon, even though PNAC warns that the proposed $200bn project for the Joint Strike Fighter, which would constitute the single largest arms deal in history, would not be “a wise investment”.

For the U.S. economy, however, the new century doesn’t look so promising, and such a “war” will prove unsustainable. The economy is already being drained by the “war on terror”, with record deficits of approximately $400bn in 2004 (ignoring the cost of war in Iraq), extrapolated to nearly $1.5 trillion in 10 years.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The “baby boomer” generation born in the 1950s will be claiming their pensions during the 2030s. One study estimated an astronomical $44 trillion gap between the cost of the pensions and the money the U.S. government will have available – that is, some 50% greater than the combined global economy.

So, as the Bush administration, and, no doubt, its successors, follows the advice of PNAC and the like, and short-sightedly funnels trillions of dollars into the “war on terrorism”, while neglecting its economic problems, it runs the risk of bankrupting the world.

Read the full PNAC article "Rebuilding America's Defenses," in PDF format here:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf.

If you don't have Adobe Acrobat, which is needed for reading the file, here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Books

I've just started reading Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being, a brilliant and very philosophical novel. Intriguing passage from said book:

"The face is nothing but an instrument panel registering all the body
mechanisms: digestion, sight, hearing, respiration, thought...[man] has also
learnt that that the soul is nothing more than the gray matter of the brain in
action. The old duality of body and soul has become shrouded in scientific
terminology."

Many will disagree with Kundera's view of the soul. I believe that a mind or soul cannot exist in the absence of a brain. Some might dismiss the existence of both entities altogether. 'Mind' & 'soul' are both abstract concepts; ask 100 psychologists for a definition of 'mind' and you'll get 100 different answers; ask 100 theologists to define 'soul' and you'll get a similar result.

I now view the mind & soul as emergent properties of the brain. As such, they are highly complex mental tasks involving the co-operation of many regions of the neo-cortex as well as more primitive sub-cortical structures of the brain. The human brain is the final frontier of knowledge; modern neuroscience is nowhere near even beginning to understand how the 1.5kg jelly-like object in your head generates thoughts, feelings, mind & soul.

To be continued....

Recognize this?

That's right, it's Coca Cola, the world's number one brand. More people recognize the Coca Cola logo that any other. The brand is therefore the first weapon in America's "soft power" arsenal to be deployed when the land of the free takes it upon itself to "liberate" poor people across the world from poverty & oppression and to show them how to become "civilized." That is soon followed by another easily recognizable logo, Ronald McDonald's Golden Arches. If that isn't enough to convince people that the American way is best, then the "hard power" is put to use. Hard power brands aren't so familiar, but people quickly recognize them when they hear a loud noise in the sky that is quickly followed by a large explosion which blows them off the face of the map.

Books

I've just finished reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond, a Professor of Geography at UCLA. Diamond uses examples from past and present societies to support his theory that there are a limited number of factors which determine the success or otherwise of a society. These factors are climate change, environmental damage, trade relations and conflict with neighbouring societies. A combination of some or all of these factors have led to the downfall of societies in the past.

Diamond pertinently notes that many successful societies collapsed shortly after becoming very wealthy & powerful, because of depletion of the available natural resources combined with conflict and/ or climate change, etc. Let's consider the hyperpowerful U.S.; its dependence on oil from politically unstable countries (America is the largest energy consumer in the world, guzzling 25% of the world total; 60% of this energy is imported); its economic dependence on foreign investment & lending (approx. 10% of U.S. economy); and its increasing import of goods from China, with whom trade relations are vital to the U.S. If circumstances were to change & affect one or more of these factors, the effects for America & the world could be disastrous.

Whereas in the past societies could survive in complete isolation from others, this is today impossible because of the increasing interconectedness of the world. A political, economic or social event taking place anywhere in the world could have global repercussions. One huge cost of China's phenomenally successful economic growth is that of pollution. Many believe that China's economic growth (10% annually for the last decade) is unsustainable; its economic growth is inevitably reliant on an alarming increase in energy consumption and, with that, more pollution. We are stretching to its limits the world's natural resources; it is questionable how long our lifestyles in the developed world can be sustained. And what about the majority of the world's population which lives in poverty and strives to raise its standard of living towards that of the developed world? How about population growth? It doesn't sound good, yet Prof. Diamond is "cautiously optimistic" that enough people are aware of this state of affairs and that they will act to reverse these trends. Worth a read, although I found his style a little annoying sometimes.

The New Cold War?

The "Cold War" is the term used to define the geopolitical landscape during the years 1945- 1989. This landscape was characterized by a stand-off between the world's two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a 'Cold' war because the superpowers fought proxy wars (e.g. in Afghanistan between 1979- 89) and did not come into direct conflict with each other, because of 'mutually assured destruction' - both the U.S. and the Soviet Union possessed large arsenals of nuclear weapons and therefore neither was willing to use them.

Otherwise, the Cold War was ideological in nature. A U.S. National Security Council document (NSC 68, April 1950) provided a blueprint for the Cold War policy of the United States, a policy to which every American president adhered throughout the Cold War years. (NSC 68 can be viewed here: http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsc-hst/nsc-68.htm.) This document explicitly states that if the U.S. is to become a dominant global power, it must, for reasons of national security, control access to the world's remaining energy sources. Clearly, brute force is the only means by which the U.S. can do this. The U.S. government knew very well that the American public would only accept/ endorse the use of force overseas by it's leaders if there was a very good reason for doing so, and therefore recognized the need to create "imaginary hobgoblins" which would scare its public into endorsing the use of force. Hence, although the 'Red Menace' (Communism) may have posed some threat to the the values and way of life of the American people, this threat was hugely exaggerated by the U.S. government. Communist "aggression" was used as a pretext for a multitude of U.S. military interventions around the globe, and when fear of Communism could not be invoked in the American people other imminent dangers were conjured up, e.g. the 'war on drugs.'

Thus, between 1945- 1989, the world stage was 'bipolar' (two-sided). This state of affairs continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union, after which Communist "aggression" could no longer be used as a pretext for the American invasion of foreign lands. Another hobgoblin had to be summoned to provide a pretext for military action by the U.S. In this ideological sense, Islam has become the new Communism. There are, however, important differences between the Cold War and the post-Cold War era . We are not now in a cold war; rather we see that the U.S. is conducting simultaneous 'hot wars' in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. is upgrading its military specifically for the purpose of fighting multiple hot wars around the world. Also, rather than being bipolar, the post-Cold War era is unipolar, with the emergence of a single hyperpower, the U.S., the only state with global reach. The aim of any power is to monopolise the use of ("legitimate?") force. Any other state or organization which dares to use force is branded "terrorist." Senior Bush administration officials stated soon after 9/11 that the so-called "War on Terror" could well last the rest of our lives.

In Washington D.C. the post-Cold War era is now conventionally defined as a 'clash of civilizations' - Islam against the West. The term 'clash of civilizations' can be traced back to an essay by Bernard Lewis in the September 1990 issue of the Atlantic Monthly journal. (The article can be viewed here: http://www.cis.org.au/policy/summer01-02/PolicySummer01_3.html.)

Bernard Lewis, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Princeton University, is considered to the foremost scholar of Islam in "the West." He was a senior advisor to the Bush administration in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2002- 03. Lewis' views on Islam can be summarized as follows. The Muslim world reached its peak 1000 years ago, when it was more advanced than other civilizations at the time. It was soon overtaken technologically by "the West," and has been in decline ever since. Because of this, Muslims around the world now feel humiliated because their once great civilization has been over-shadowed. These, according to Lewis, are the "roots of Muslim rage;" this is why Muslims around the world hate "us" ("the West"). Muslims also hate "us" because of "our" values - freedom, democracy and human rights, of which the Muslims/ Arabs (the terms are interchangeable) are incapable of conceiving because of their long history of oppressive rule. The term 'clash of civilizations' was later adopted by Samuel P. Huntingdon for a book which became influential in the foreign policy establishment of the U.S. government. A strong argument against the views of Lewis and Huntingdon can be found in the work of the late Edward Said.

Further reading

Deterring Democracy, Naom Chomsky

The Crisis of Islam, Bernard Lewis

From Babel to Dragomans, Bernard Lewis

The Clash of Civilizations & the Making of the New World Order, Samuel P. Huntingdon

Orientalism, Edward Said

Big Brother has arrived

Every day there are more infringements on our civil liberties, leading us towards a totalitarian state. There are now 4 million CCTV cameras monitering our streets here in the UK. Every mobile phone sold contains a Global Positioning System (GPS) chip which enables governments to pinpoint one's exact whereabouts. Satellites orbiting the Earth can zoom in on you or me as we walk down the street. The British government is compiling a DNA database of all its citizens and soon hopes to introduce biometric identity cards.

Big Brother is here and he's looking over your shoulder.

Essential reading

1984, George Orwell

Alternatives to the ipod

Here are 2 excellent alternatives to the Apple ipod. If you're thinking of buying an MP3 player, consider buying one of these. Everybody I know with either of these gadgets has been very pleased with them. Compare this to the thousands of complaints Apple receives about it's ipod, not to mention the appalling customer services. Be innovative - get a different MP3 player.

The Sony Walkman MP3 player boasts a whopping 36hrs of battery life. The 20Gb capacity is enough to store hundreds of CDs. The Creative Zen Jukebox also comes in a 30Gb model.

http://products.sony.co.uk/walkman_hd.asp

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=213&subcategory=214&product=9288

Outstanding website

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

10th planet discovered

A large object, imaginatively named 2003 UB313, has been discovered orbiting our sun at the edge of the solar system. UB313 is 10bn miles away from the sun; Pluto was the outermost known planet, a mere 3.7bn miles from the sun. Astronomers are now debating whether or not to downgrade Pluto from planet status, in light of evidence that UB313 is considerably than it.

The Palestinian election

Hamas (Harakat al Muqawimah al-Islamiyah or Islamic Resistance Movement) last week won the Palestinian election. Hamas (also an Arabic word meaning zeal) has been listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and Europe since 2001; many commentators in "the West" have said that this is a disaster for the Middle Eastern peace process and the EU has threatened to withdraw some $300 million of funding if Hamas doesn't recognize Israel and renounce violence.

But the election of Hamas by the Palestinian people is not likely, in my opinion, to make any difference to the situation in the Middle East. For over 30 years, Israel & the U.S. refused to negotiate with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the grounds that he was a terrorist. This allowed Israel to act unilaterally and do whatever it pleased, e.g. continuing to demolish Palestinian homes and expand its illegal Jewish settlements. When Arafat died on 11th November, 2004, Israel & the U.S. said that this would bring new hope for peace in the Middle East, etc, because it was Arafat who was the biggest obstacle to peace. And now, with Hamas elected by the Palestinians, Israel & the U.S. can continue to refuse negotiating with the Palestinians; Israel can continue to act unilaterally and expand its illegal West Bank settlements.

Hamas has been responsible for the deaths of 500 people in suicide bombings in the past 5 years. However, their being voted into power should not be seen as an endorsement of these dispicable tactics by the Palestinians; rather, one should see this as a dissatisfaction with the status quo under the corrupt and ineffective leadership of Arafat's Fatah organisation.

It should be said that the Palestinian election would put most elections in our Western democracies to shame. More than 75% of eligible Palestinians voted in the election; many, most probably, had to go through endless Israeli checkpoints to make it to the polling stations to cast their votes. For a people without their own state, denied self-determination by the brutal military occupation imposed upon them by Israel, this is admirable. Whoever said that the Arabs don't want democracy? It was the Israelis who tried to deter democracy by considering preventing Hamas from running in the election and threatening to prevent Palestinians from voting. In the end, the Palestinians demonstrated very well that they are able to elect their own leaders in a peaceful election. Unfortunately, this is not "democracy," at least not in the sense that the word is used by U.S. President George W. Bush. For Bush and his administration, "democracy" means electing any leader one wants, as long as it is the one favoured by Bush, et al. This useage of the word democracy leaves it devoid of meaning and makes a mockery of the ideals which we hold dear. Other words & terms used in this way by the Bush administration include freedom and human rights.

Theodor Herzl's vision.

In his book Der Judenstaat (1896), Herzl, the founder of poitical Zionism (the Jewish National movement) outlined his vision of a "homogenous [i.e. exclusively] Jewish state," a national home for the Jews who, throughout their entire history had suffered persecution and expulsion. A quick look at the demographics of modern Israel will show that nearly 25% of Israeli citizens are Arabic-speaking Palestinians. Arab countries have the highest rates of population growth in the world (the majority of the population of most Arab countries is under 25 yrs of age). It is very likely, then, that within the next 20 years, Jews will actually be in the minority in Israel - a far cry from Herzl's dream of an exclusively Jewish state. For Israel, this poses a problem to which there are only 2 possible solutions: 1) exterminate the Palestinians and erase any trace of their identity & existence from the world's collective memory, or, 2) crush them so forcefully that they decide to leave their land of their own accord. The latter policy is, in fact, what Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been trying to do since he came into power in 2001.

This explains why Israel & the Palestinians have never come to agree on any form of 2 state solution - Israel needs to ensure it grabs as much Palestinian land as it can and therefore will continue to expand it's settlements in the West Bank. With the election of another group of terrorists by the Palestinians, Israel's leaders can continue to act as they please regardless of wht the Palestinians or anybody else thinks or wants. Regards the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip, this was done on the condition that the far larger West Bank settlements were guaranteed to Israel. So, although the withdrawal was hailed internationally as a step towards peace, it was in fact an underhand move by Israel to consolidate (and most probably expand) the more numerous and much larger illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Why I hate ipods

I've had a 30GB ipod for over 3 years now, which I paid £400 for. I also needed a FireWire card, which cost £80, to connect the ipod to my PC. For most of that time it worked quite well, apart from a few minor problems. For example, Apple claim that a fully charged battery should last 8hrs. I've never managed to get 8hrs from my fully charged battery. The battery indicator on my ipod is also very inaccurate. Furthermore, if I didn't use the ipod every day, I had to spend 5 minutes re-booting the hard drive to get the ipod working. Quite often my PC wouldn't recognize the ipod when I connected it to upload music from the computer.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. My ipod's battery finally died a few months ago and the real problems began when I tried getting the battery replaced. I was very busy at the time and didn't have time to try and get the battery replaced until several weeks ago. How hard can it be to have an ipod battery replaced? At the moment, the answer to this question appears to be: absolutely impossible.

I assumed that I could just go to the Apple store on London's Regent Street and leave my ipod with them for repair. Arriving at the store, I waited patiently for a space at the "Genius Bar," only to be asked if I had an appointment. Not knowing that I needed an appointment, I hadn't made one. When I asked if I could make an appointment there and then, I was told that I had to go online or telephone the store on the day I wanted an appointment. I made a bit of a fuss and started getting quite angry. The sales assistant told me that I shouldn't shout at her, that she didn't devise the system and that she'd dealt with a lot of angry customers, blah, blah, blah. I pointed out that perhaps the reason a lot of customers were angry was because of how difficult it was to get an appointment. You don't have to be a genius to work that out! Needless to say, I left the store disappointed.

This was 3 weeks ago. I have since tried every day to go online and book an appointment at the "Genius Bar," to no avail. Every time I try to make an appointment I get a message saying something to the effect of "Due to unexpected high demand we are unable to assist you at the moment, please try again later." I've tried making an appointment at 7 am. I've tried at 5 minutes past midnight and I get the same error message.

Try for yourself to make an appointment with the Regent Street Apple Store "concierge,":

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/week/20060129.html

I've almost lost hope in getting my ipod repaired. Having paid nearly £500 for my ipod, I am extremely dissatisfied with the lack of customer service provided by Apple. I am seriously considering smashing my ipod to pieces and buying a Creative Jukebox or Sony Walkman MP3 player.

Apple has virtually monopolized the portable MP3 player market, with 14 million ipod Nanos/ Shuffles bought in the 3 month period leading up to Christmas. If you're considering buying an ipod, I urge you not to. If you know anybody thinking of buying an ipod, I urge you to urge them not to buy one. The ipod is a chic accessory that everybody seems to want. Don't follow the pack - don't buy an ipod.