Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 2, Day 2.

Yesterday (13/9/13) Rihanna kicked off the final leg of her Diamonds World Tour (DWT) in Macau, China. In what in was a pretty laughable attempt to put pressure on China this featured a slightly different set-list and a whole new wardrobe of costume. Therefore a full review of the concert should have appeared here last night. Unfortunately though the US and Russia were meeting in Geneva to discuss 'Syria.'

Basically what appears to have happened is that Russia has sacrificed Syria in exchange for improved access to Rihanna's tour. By granting Russia this increased access the US has killed off any lingering chance they had of achieving their political objectives from the tour while at the same time sending the message to the Gulf Monarchies that the US is perfectly happy to prostrate itself at their feet whenever they ask.

So as I said on Twitter the Geneva meeting represents that rarest of diplomatic feat in which both sides have managed to lose.


11:30 on 14/9/13.

Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 1, Day 6.

On Sunday (8/9/13) the US Secretary of State John Kerry travelled to London, UK for a Monday (9/9/13) meeting with representatives from the Palestine political party Fatah to discuss peace negotiations. Despite declaring at the start of this process that the US would publicly announce all such meetings of this type Kerry attempted to keep this one secret by disguising the purpose of his visit to London as discussions about Syria. Part of this charade forced Kerry to give a press conference on Syria alongside the UK Foreign Minister William Hague. At this press conference Kerry made an off hand comment about the Syrian government giving up its stockpiles of chemical weapons. This triggered a bizarre chain of events that caused the US Congress to cancel a vote on military action against Syria, both France and Russia table resolutions at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) only to immediately withdraw them and Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov getting press ganged into a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday (12/9/13).

With such a clear example of the devastating effect the wrong word uttered at the wrong time can have I am obviously hesitant as to what to say next.

However on Tuesday (10/9/13) Rihanna flew into London in order to attend a launch party for the autumn collection of her River Island high street fashion line and record an appearance on the Channel 4 chat-show "Alan Carr: Chatty Man." The UK's real reason for inviting Rihanna to London was to show the world that it had prime access Rihanna just before the start of the final leg of her Diamonds World Tour. The UK also hoped to lay the ground work for the illegal drugs element of that tour by getting Rihanna hooked on cocaine. The idea being that Rihanna would do a little big of the drug during the launch party that was attended by the habitual cocaine user Cara Delevingne. Rihanna would then do a little bit more in order to help her get through the Chatty Man recording which also features Miley Cyrus with who Rihanna has a little bit of tension. Having been delayed by the Chatty Man recording the stress of rushing to China is likely to mean that Rihanna would want to do a little bit more just to get through the Macau show. With a small war breaking out in the Philippines ahead of Rihanna's next tour date the stress of the tour and the pain of the comedowns both getting worse will mean that the temptation for Rihanna to do ever more cocaine will only grow. Obviously Rihanna attempting to transport quantities of an illegal drug like cocaine through international border post creates the same sort of legal worries as transporting quantities of marijuana only with stiffer legal penalties.

Obviously because even in espionage circles deliberately getting someone addicted to a drug like cocaine in order to destroy them is still considered a little taboo the UK tried to cover this aspect up by putting on a barrage of inflammatory news stories mainly centred around rape a paedophilia. For example the verdict was reached in the trial of Micheal Turner (aka Micheal Levell). This is the second time that Turner has been acquitted of sexual abusing young children. The first case centred around the abuse of a young boy while this trial centred around the abuse of a young girl. As Turner is/was a member of the soap opera "Coronation Street" alongside William Roache this drags up all the connections with Roache's weird interview with New Zealand TV in which he seemed to argue that paedophilia  was a Protestant religious duty. Also the UK have been trying really hard to draw comparisons between Turner and myself dragging up all the issues surrounding my Criminal Damage Court case. Then the Deputy Speaker of the UK House of Commons Nigel Evans resigned after being charged with multiple counts of rape and sexual assault. Mr Evans is gay so all these allegations relate to adult men. In nations where homosexuality is either deeply frowned upon or out and out illegal this is likely to lead to quite a lot of confusion. Finally Alan Carr the presenter of Chatty Man rose to fame as part of a double act with Justin Lee Collins. Lee Collins' career ended after it was revealed that he is a seriously strange domestic abuser who subjected his girlfriend/wife to years of physical and psychological abuse. That has an obvious connection to Rihanna's relationship with Chris Brown.

For their part the US were keen to use Rihanna's trip to London as a way to put the boot into Israel while laying the ground work to the immigration element that is going to be a feature of Rihanna's Caribbean and US concerts at the end of the tour. This involved Rihanna's management putting out a rumour that "Pour it Up" will be released as Rihanna's next single. That was intended to provoke the obvious response that Rihanna shouldn't bother releasing anymore singles from the "Unapologetic" album and instead should concentrate on getting back to her music career once her stint as a CIA agent has ended. This problem of people being forced to take a break from their careers while they complete compulsory military service has resonance in any nation that has compulsory national service but is an especially hot button issue in Israel especially with the Israeli military moving away from the manpower intensive infantry model to a smaller, more specialised model. The fact that Rihanna is not a citizen of the nation that is forcing her to do this compulsory service promotes discussion about US immigration policy because a stint in the US military is quite a common route for immigrants, especially from the Caribbean, to obtain US citizenship.

Both the US and the UK are also trying to use the visit as a way to promote discussion about Rihanna's safety and security on this tour. Although I won't give out the specific location Rihanna is currently staying in a hotel close to London's Park Lane road. Most of the other hotels in this area are currently full with delegates attending the "Defence Systems Exhibition International (DSEi) which is the worlds largest arms fair. In previous years the presence of DSEi delegates has attracted large, noisy and disruptive protests to the Park Lane area. The hope is that these scenes will be repeated during Rihanna's visit restricting her movement as she has to avoid road blocks and clashes between police and protesters. Although I haven't checked Rihanna doesn't appear to be travelling with her usual security detail made up of former US Secret Service agents who are well trained and experienced in dealing with this type of threat. The prospect of Rihanna taking a less qualified security team on her tour creates obvious worries about her safety especially in places like South Africa and the Philippines. However it must be said that this argument is unlikely to gain much traction though because Rihanna is clearly acting as a US agent so if they choose not to protect her that's their decision.

I suppose we're all supposed to spend today frantically looking for rumours about whether will attend the Chatty Man recording which is not scheduled for broadcast for a few months yet or simply blow it off so she can get to China on time. Rihanna will obviously attend the recording but I personally think that's a shame because Chatty Man is the type of program Rihanna ignore without any great consequence. In fact it brings to mind that old proverb of "If a tree falls in the forest and there's no-one there to hear it does it make a sound?"

12:10 on 11/9/13.

Edited at around 09:15 on 13/9/13 to add;

Rihanna has either just arrived in China or is just about to arrive in China so I just should quickly point out that while Rihanna was in London none of that stuff about cocaine use or protests outside the hotel actually happened.

After what I'm assuming was a relatively quiet night Rihanna went off to record her appearance on "Alan Carr: Chatty Man" around lunchtime/early afternoon. As part of that appearance Rihanna announced that "What Now" will be her next single which is intended to reinforce the idea that Rihanna and Chris Brown have broken up in an attempt to trick us into thinking there is no need for Chris Brown's restraining order to be reinstated. It also rather unsubtly poses the question of "What Now for Rihanna?" which attempts to feed the compulsory military service debate.

Although it was recorded much later in the day the episode of Alan Carr: Chatty Man featuring Miley Cyrus  also featured the UK comedy duo "Mel & Sue" who present a BBC2 show called "The Great British Bakeoff." The latest series of this has been promoted by this trailer; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUzUfP8VHkg which is very much inspired by Rihanna's song "Birthday Cake" and all it's vaginal references. Added to that as a 'gift' to celebrate the launch of her River Island line UK designer Stella McCartney sent Rihanna a clutch bag featuring the image of a penis. What the UK will claim they were doing was putting pressure on Rihanna to make her reconsider her relationship with Chris Brown. In reality what they were doing is putting pressure on Rihanna in order to make her head spin in an effort to encourage her to take more cocaine. To make matters worse Sue Perkins is gay while Mel Giedroyc is straight. This obviously promotes discussion about how they are able to maintain a close but non-sexual relationship that's possibly very similar to Rihanna's relationship with Melissa Forde. It can't have helped that Sue Perkins is from my native Croydon.

Rihanna spent Wednesday evening in a studio recording vocals for a song by a mysterious artist who has yet to be named. The intention here was they everyone would be provoked into searching really hard to find out who this mystery artist is. In reality though everyone in the business would simply look at that and see the UK doing everything in it's power to delay Rihanna's departure to China in order to increase her stress levels and encourage her to do more cocaine. On the plus side China appear to be taking a very welcoming and supportive stance towards Rihanna so she should be looking forward to quite a pleasent stay in the country.

Operation Misery: Month 7, Week 1, Day 2.

On September 24th (24/9/13) Rihanna will bring her Diamonds World Tour to Pert, Australia for the start of a series of 10 concerts in Australia and New Zealand. As I've explained before the political purpose of these concerts is to allow Rihanna's CIA handlers to asses Australian and to a lesser extent New Zealander attitudes towards a range of issues particularly immigration and drug smuggling.

The path of drugs and illegal immigrants being smuggled into Australia begins in South-East Asia in countries that neighbour China such as Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Therefore the smuggling issue provides a starting point for discussions about attitudes towards the US' "Pivot towards the Pacific" policy that involves boxing China in by bringing its neighbours into the US' sphere of influence through a mixture of lifting economic sanctions and offering protection from the threat from the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) - a threat which of course the US is helping to artificially create.

Rihanna is also being lent out to the UK in order to allow it test the loyalty of these two members of the UK Commonwealth Realm to the UK Crown. This will be done by seeing if they will be prepared to use the information provided by the UK to mount a low level harassment campaign against Rihanna. The primary target of this test would be Australia's political leaders as they fought an election campaign and tried to form a new government.

That election was held on Saturday (7/9/13) and although the formal results have yet to be announced the right-wing Liberal/Nationalist coalition led by Tony Abbott has claimed victory while the left-wing Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd has conceded defeat. In terms of how this will affect Rihanna the only good thing I can say is that it has produced an outright winner. That means there won't be a lenghty negotiation to form a coalition government in which different factions try to outdo each other by pledging to take ever tougher action against Rihanna.

Beyond that though this is the worst possible outcome for Rihanna. The Liberal/Nationalist coalition has traditionally been far more loyal to the UK Crown then the Labor Party so is much less likely to refuse instructions. Added to that Tony Abbott's government will be a new government keen to make a show of its loyalty. Finally Abbott is a Catholic and actually once trained as a priest. The relationship between Catholics and the Protestant UK Crown has historically been very bad with members of the Royal Family being banned from marrying Catholics up until very recently. Therefore Abbott is likely to be viewed with a higher degree of suspicion then say a Protestant Prime Minister. As such he is likely to want to try harder to prove his loyalty.

Also through things like the recovery operation at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand and the discovery of new evidence by the 2DayFM radio station that was involved in prank phonecalls the the hospital in which the Duchess of Cambridge was staying both Australia and New Zealand are clearly very worried that the UK will put pressure on them to lash out particularly hard against Rihanna as a sort of peace offering to the Gulf Monarchies for the UK not getting involved in military action against Syria.

That said though the type of action Australia and New Zealand will be asked to take against Rihanna will be low level, low impact stuff such as noisy neighbours at hotels, rider requests not being fulfilled and local drivers getting 'lost' going to and from concert venues rather than things that threaten Rihanna's life, limb or freedom. The primary intention being to frustrate Rihanna to the point that she delivers a series of poor concert performances so her fans lose interest. The fans may also be targeted themselves with traffic congestion around the venues, problems with public transport and the sort of poor venue management that makes it difficult for the fans to get into the venues forcing them to stand around outside for hours on end. The secondary objective is to contribute to a general sense of stress and frustration that will build over the South Africa concerts before reaching a climax at the Abu Dhabi concert at which point Rihanna is scheduled for a full scale nervous breakdown.

As I've said before I would very much like to be in closer, more direct contact with Rihanna during this period. That's because in private rather than just reeling off a long list of threats I can go into a lot more detail about what form those threats will take and how to minimise their impact. Plus once we get the business stuff out of the way we might even get back to a point where we could have some fun. Unfortunately this doesn't seem likely to happen because apparently I'm not capable of the levels of complete sycophantic devotion to which Rihanna seems to have become accustomed. As you may have noticed I'm finding that more than a little bit irritating. 

15:45 on 7/9/13.

The Great Repository of Tweets.

As you may have noticed due to the G20 and a general level of laziness I have largely been eschewing blog posts in favour of Tweets. However I feel some of those Tweets - especially the ones from Thursday (5/9/13) - could be considered important so I've decided to list them below;

"1/2 Although it was intended as a reference to the Pivot towards the Pacific Obama's decision to open his #G20 w/ a bilateral w/ Japan was"

"2/3 interesting b/c Japan went very public w/ Fukishima's toxic water as reference to my neighbours complaints about my use of herbicide."

"23/3 The Syrian Sarin gas attacks seems to be the Saudi contribution to that discussion."

"1/2 It alright though through the tornado that blew out the windows and Wednesday's 'quake that matched Tuesday's British Columbia 'quake"

"2/2 it seems the Japanese have already been wrapped on the knuckles for not respecting the volatility of the situation."

"1/2 The assassination attempt on #Egypt's Interior Minister is as it seems. A flagging protest movement diversifying into classical"

"2/2 terrorism. As I said in previous posts it's been building up over the last few weeks."

"@chattyman @RihannaDaily @rihanna and Miley Cyrus on the same night. Just admit it there's only one guest you really, really want."

"1/2 At the risk of jeopardising 100's of insurance claims I'm convinced that the #Sheppey crash was nothing more than an act of god."

"2/3 There was a certain artistry to it though. E.g early morning fog behaves a lot like Sarin which is why attacks tend to take place in the"

"3/4 early morning. The long crash was like the Gulf War's "Road of Death" and well quite a few people haven't been getting to their planned"

"4/4 destinations recently."

"1/2 As I go to bed I should point out; I haven't had a totally unproductive day. I had breakfast, went to the supermarket and got a haircut."

"2/2 I also watched my father apply more herbicide. So not totally unproductive."

Then on Friday I awoke with; "Result it's raining so I don't have to water the grass to get that lawn stuff working." and then generally started talking b*llocks.

Anyway rather proving my point about general laziness I'm now going to use this as an opportunity to talk about something entirely different;

Today in the UK some ugly women have been appearing on television once again trying to claim they don't enjoy being raped.

Then of course Micheal Turner who occasionally disguises the fact he's a paedophile by appearing in the UK soap "Coronation Street" under the stage name "Michael Le Vell"  has once again appeared in Court accused of raping a child. On this occasion I believe it was a female aged between 12 and 15 years old. Apart from the connection with rape that will become apparent shortly this was intended to promote discussion about fellow Coronation Street paedophile William Roache. Particularly that bizarre interview he gave to a TV station in New Zealand in which he posed certain ecumenical questions. Seriously if Turner gets off this charge people will start asking serious questions about what sort of deal Coronation Street has done with the UK Crown in order to stay out of jail.

Finally a pair of muppets at the BBC have decided to contradict each other over payments made to BBC staff who resigned. This classic "He said, She Said" scenario is going to lead to a stiff grilling by a House of Commons select committee on Monday (9/9/13). The important thing to remember is just like the Jimmy Savile scandal that all this stems from it is largely the government of the day trying to wipe out the BBC because, well they promised Rupert Murdoch.

However taken together all these exciting references to rape remind me of words I couldn't find on August 23rd (23/8/13) when I was last brought to Court. Basically by presenting a "He said, She said" case the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were attempting to fuel the global discussion about rape. By accepting it Croydon Magistrates Court were hoping to use the Criminal Damage case as a metaphor for that accusation that I fathered a child by raping a woman back in, I think, 2007. Of course by accepting the case I think all they've actually done is prove that (a) the prosecution is politically motivated and (b) they clearly have no problem dragging me to Court on a "He said, She said" allegation making me once again seriously doubt the substance of that rape allegation.

It was perhaps that realisation that caused my law firm to send me a note this week. It's something about Legal Aid which I should probably read at some point in the fullness of time. However there's no great rush because with the next hearing not scheduled until November I think Rihanna should be meeting the fees. After all it's only around 5 hours at GBP500. Oh and apparently Dale Cregan is refusing food.

As for the closure of the Dartford Crossing Bridge apart from invoking memories of the Lee Rigby murder and p*ssing off pretty much every motorist in the South East I'm getting a distinct odour of infrastructure spending.

22:15 on 6/9/13.

France's Intelligence Assessment on Syria.

Following in the footsteps of the UK and the US France yesterday (2/9/13) released its own intelligence assessment of the chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21st (21/8/13). It can be read here; http://www.elysee.fr/assets/pdf/SyrieSynthese-nationale-de-renseignement-declassifie02-09-2013.pdf  However if like me you don't read French you will have to rely on a dodgy Internet translation.

Personally I don't think it's worth the effort because despite being the longest report at 9 pages the French assessment is probably the least informative. The majority of it is simply a history of the Syrian chemical weapons program since 1980 that the French collected as part of their non-proliferation efforts. This is all perfectly valid but as no-one is disputing that Syria has stockpiles of chemical weapons along with the missiles to deploy them this doesn't help to shed any light on events of August 21st. In fact I would go so far as to say that it has only been included in order to help pad the report out.

The other main area the assessment concentrates on are the videos and eyewitness statements that appeared on the Internet. The report concludes that it would not have been possible for the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA) to falsify all of these. That is probably true but all the videos demonstrate is that a chemical weapon - most probably Sarin - was released. They offer no clue as to who released that chemical weapon. The assessment attempts to place the blame on the Syrian government by claiming that the SQIA lack the capability to have used Sarin themselves. This conclusion of course contradicts the Syrian governments claims, the eyewitness testimony by local residents and SQIA fighters in the area that claim the SQIA in the area had been supplied with Sarin gas and the US' own intelligence assessment. As for the SQIA ability to deploy Sarin gas once you've got canisters of the stuff it is simply a matter of unscrewing the top of the canister and the gas will spread out.

Although the French assessment doesn't give credit it also relies on satellite images provided by the US to argue that the artillery bombardment prior to, during and after the release of the Sarin gas is consistent with the standard tactical procedure for the use of chemical weapons practised by the Syrian army. This is of course true but once again is hardly conclusive because this is an almost universal tactical procedure for the use of chemical weapons that is taught to military's the world over including ones that don't have access to chemical weapons. The SQIA are most certainly aware of this procedure because their ranks now include Adnan Silu the former head of the Syrian army's chemical weapons division who helped draw up the procedure in the first place. Therefore it would be all to easy for the SQIA to use a conventional weapons bombardment as an excuse to release their chemical weapons in order to make it look as though the Syrian army were following the standard tactical procedure.

Apart from being embarrassed about how reliant they are on US' military support I think the main reason why the French assessment failed to credit US satellite imagery as one of its main sources was to avoid drawing attention to serious questions that have been raised about that information. In the 14th paragraph of the US report that can be read here; http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/30/us-government-assessment-syria-use-chemical-weapons/  reference is made to the preparation of chemical weapons several days prior to August 21st. Over the weekend this prompted the obvious question of why if the US had prior knowledge that this attack was going to take place they didn't attempt to stop the attack or warn people. The only answer the US has been able to give so far is that at the time this activity didn't look any different from the routine movement of chemical weapon stocks that the Syrian army has been regularly undertaken over the last 12-15 months. Therefore I would be very interested to know how this routine movement suddenly became concrete evidence of attack preparations when it came to writing the US assessment.

Also the 15th paragraph of the US assessment talks about a 90 minute gap between the alleged attack and the first reports of people showing symptoms of exposure to Sarin gas. Although I appreciate that in the confusion it takes time for people to realise what is going on and seek help symptoms of Sarin gas exposure normally appear within 30 minutes. That means there is a big gap of at least 45 minutes between the Syrian army allegedly firing Sarin filled rockets and that Sarin starting to have an effect on people in the area. This is more than enough time for SQIA commanders to get on the radio and order the release of their stockpiles of Sarin.


On a related note Israel and the US this morning conducted a test of Israel's US made Arrow missile defence system. This involved an Israeli air force jet firing and inert target missile and the Arrow system seeing if it could shoot it down. The test was exactly what it says on the tin. Israel is well aware that a US attack on Syria will likely be a precursor for a SQIA/Syrian government attack on Israel. Therefore they want to make sure their defence systems are working. The fact that the US has yet to confirm the Israel announcement of the test indicates a degree of tension between the two allies meaning that it will be interesting to see if the test was successful.


16:50 on 3/9/13.

Egypt's Continuing Revolution: Month: 15, Week 2, Day 2.

Amid the international reaction to the chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21st (21/8/13) events in Egypt have been very much pushed into the background. This actually makes me much more suspicious of the timing of that attack.

Saudi Arabia who are heavily backing the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA) were outraged when the Egyptian people overthrew Hosni Mubarak in January 2011 because they feared that if Egypt were to turn into a prosperous democracy people within Saudi Arabia would begin to question why they have to put up with a Monarchy almost entirely for the personal gain of the Royal Family. As such the Saudis supported the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi in the hope that its incompetence would discredit the Brotherhood and deter a similar uprising in Saudi Arabia.

Although it has caused division across the world the chemical weapons attack and any possible response should be particularly polarising in Egypt. Part of the Morsi's main problem is that in government the Brotherhood got swept up in the Sunni V Shia holy war element of the conflict in Syria at the expense of running Egypt. As such the prospect of foreign military intervention is likely to invigorate the Brotherhood's protests because they see the SQIA as their ideological siblings. This connection between the Brotherhood and the SQIA means that by association the SQIA are not particularly popular in Egypt and the prospect on US military action in any Arab country is always going to be unpopular. For example the Tamarod movement that helped oust Morsi has called for the Suez Canal to be blocked to any warships attempting to use it to take up position in the Mediterranean for an attack on Syria. Testing the strength of Tamarod's support seems to be the main reason why the US yesterday (1/9/13) announced its intention to move the USS Nimitz from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canak.

As for the security situation in Egypt it seems to be gradually improving with the government being able to incrementally move back the start of the nighttime curfew. In Cairo it now begins at 11pm which is getting close to being lifted completely. The Muslim Brotherhood through their front organisation The National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL) are continuing to hold weekly protests such as last Friday's (30/8/13) "Friday of Determination" protest. However support for these protests is dwindling with Friday's said to total no more than 20,000 people nationally and in some parts of Cairo fewer then 100 people took part in the marches. There were though 6 deaths and 190 reported wounded on Friday but these appear to be the result of clashes between the protesters and local residents rather then the result of action by the security forces.

This dwindling support for the protests seems to have prompted something of a split within the Brotherhood with some factions calling for peaceful civil disobedience while other factions seem to be taking on the classical terrorism tactics seen in the Sinai. For example on Thursday (29/8/13) 1 police officer was killed and 3 wounded when gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on their checkpoint in Port Said. On Friday (30/8/13) gunmen in a car opened fire on a police station in the Heliopolis district of Cairo killing 1 police officer and wounding another. On Saturday (31/8/13) there was another drive-by shooting at a Church in Port Said which wounded 4 police officers. This was followed by a suspected RPG attack on a container ship in the Suez Canal which failed causing no damage or injuries. On Sunday (1/9/13) a rudimentary bomb was discovered and diffused in a bag at the central train station in Alexandria. Today 2 people were injured when a hand grenade/home made bomb was thrown at a police station in the Cairo suburb of Giza. So far all of these terror attacks have been crude and amateurish but they are something the security forces need to pay close attention to in order to prevent the terrorists becoming more professional. Based on what is going on in the Sinai Egypt's security forces seem to be able to cope with this emerging threat because there the number of arrests and deaths of terrorists is increasing while the number of attacks is decreasing.

As for Morsi himself on Sunday (1/9/13) he was formally charged and will face trial over the killing of 7 protesters who had assembled outside the Presidential Palace on December 4th 2012 (4/12/12) to protest one of Morsi's many diktats/decrees. Obviously I've not seen the case papers but if, as is being reported, prosecutors have corroborated testimony from police and Republican Guard commanders that Morsi ordered them to remove the protesters only for the order to be refused they have more than enough to go to trial and probably convict regardless of whether they can prove that Morsi ordered the Brotherhood thugs who attacked the protest to do so. The case against Morsi over the January 2011 prison break is still being prepared.

The other massive piece of news from Egypt recently is that yesterday the 50 members of the Assembly to rewrite the constitution was announced. Along with the 50 alternates all I have at the moment is a list of 100 names that I do not recognise. Therefore I will comment further when I've had time to familiarise myself. However the formation of the assembly does represent a huge step in the right direction in terms of returning Egypt to democracy and cementing the revolution.


20:35 on 2/9/13.

US Congress to Decide on Syria.

Yesterday (31/8/13) US President Barack Obama announced that he will ask the US Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives) for approval to take military action against Syria. If approval is granted the decision will not be taken until Congress reconvenes after its summer recess on September 9th (9/9/13). The decision to seek Congressional approval has clearly been taken for two main reasons.

Firstly while they've happily been criticising Obama for not taking military action the Republican Party has actually been looking forward to criticising Obama for taking military action without seeking Congressional approval. This clearly robs them of that opportunity. Secondly the G20 Summit takes place in Saint Petersburg, Russia on Thursday (5/9/13) and Friday (6/9/13). If the US were to attack Syria without United Nations approval and against the express wishes of Russia it would plunge the entire summit into crisis meaning that all the preparation work on issues such as global trade and global security would be lost. This would make the US deeply unpopular amongst the 19 other most powerful nations on earth.

The decision to go to Congress though is not with out its risks. Despite claims to the contrary the US does not have any authority under international law to attack Syria without a Chapter 7 resolution from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The UNSC will not be passing such as resolution because the criteria for doing so simply have not been met. There is nothing about the Syrian government's conduct during this three year conduct that indicates that it intends to violate the sovereignty of any other nation by attacking it. Nor does any aspect of the Syrian government's conduct constitute either a crime against humanity as defined by the 1998 Rome Statute or a war crime as defined by the Geneva Conventions and associated 1925 Geneva Protocol which would be needed for a resolution under the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect (R2P)."

Also if military action were to be taken under R2P it would need to be both "proportionate and necessary." That means it would have to use only the force required to eliminate specified targets and the elimination of those targets would have to achieve a demonstrable reduction in the Syrian governments ability to use chemical weapons. The US President's own statements indicate that the military action the US is considering would a sort of 'shot across the bow' intended to send a message to the Syrian government. That sort of military action does not fulfil the criteria of "proportionate and necessary" and actually seems likely to provoke the Syrian government into increasing and escalating its use of chemical weapons.

Finally the Saudi and Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA) have indicated that they would use any foreign military action as an opportunity to gain an advantage on the battlefield. The SQIA are considered "unlawful combatants" under the Geneva Conventions so their mere presence represents a war crime. Any action in support of the SQIA would also constitute a war crime.

Although there is likely to be a large rebellion Democrats in Congress will be expected to vote in support of the Democrat President. Republicans in Congress seem likely to vote in favour of military action simply to put President Obama in the difficult position on either defying the wishes of Congress of committing war crime by ordering military action against Syria.

Another thing that will be making Obama's position particularly difficult is the role being played by the head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence services Prince Bandar bin Sultan. With the overthrow of the Syrian government now being considered Saudi Arabia's number one foreign policy objective Prince Bandar is said to be personally handling the setting up of secret operation centres in Jordan and Turkey in order to supply the SQIA with money, training and weapons including heavy weapons such as rocket launchers. Also according to the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper which is very much part of the old, colonial British establishment Prince Bandar recently met with senior Russian officials. As part of that meeting Prince Bandar is said to have promised that if Russia dropped its support for the Syrian government Saudi Arabia would cut its oil output in order to keep the global oil price above the USD100p/b that Russia needs to fund its national budget. More alarmingly it is reported that at the same meeting Prince Bandar also strongly implied that if Russia continued to block a UNSC Chapter 7 resolution Saudi Arabia would instruct Chechen Islamists to carry out terrorist attacks against the 2014 Winter Olympic Games being held in Sochi, Russia.

Saudi Arabia's apparently very sinister role in the Syria conflict was further called into question by an article published last Thursday (29/8/13) on the not exactly mainstream Mintpress News that can be read here; http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/  Based on interviews with local residents and SQIA fighters in the Damascus suburb the article claims that Prince Bandar had, for a period of months, been supplying the SQIA with Sarin gas that they were storing in underground tunnels. During the bombardment by the Syrian government some of these canisters of Sarin gas were accidentally opened by poorly trained SQIA fighters leading to the deaths on August 21st (21/8/13).

This article has been written by Yahya Ababneh a journalism student and amateur reporter. Ababneh's inexperience has clearly caused them to wildly extrapolate their conclusion from the source evidence. For example it is highly unlikely that a low-level SQIA fighter would know the exact source of a weapons shipment. Also while it is possible that the same accident occurred at several locations in and around Damascus at the same time it is highly unlikely. However the accounts of local residents and SQIA fighters corroborate the Syrian governments claims that it seized canisters of Sarin gas from the SQIA who were storing them in underground tunnels. This places serious doubt on the UK and US' claim that the Sarin gas arrived in the area in rockets fired by the Syrian government rather than the government bombardment prompting SQIA commanders to unleash their Sarin gas from canisters on the ground in order to smear the Syrian government.

Also if it can be demonstrated that Saudi Arabia supplied let alone produced Sarin gas it would represent a clear violation of the 1992 UN Chemical Weapons Convention which Saudi Arabia has signed up to but Syria has not. That is the type of violation of international law that should be referred to the UNSC for consideration of a possible Chapter 7 resolution.

16:30 on 1/9/13.