Sim-O

The Guardian:

Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Labels: Law/Legal, Saudi Arabia

19 March is the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Not much to celebrate really, is there.

This blogswarm will promote blog postings opposing the war in Iraq and calling for a full withdrawal of foreign occupying forces in Iraq. Five years of an illegal and catastrophic war is five years too many. On the March 19 anniversary of the conquest of Iraq by the Bush Administration, there needs to be a loud volume of voices countering the pro-war propaganda from far too many politicians and corporate media outlets.

Via Justin

Labels: Blogging, Iraq

“I’m not ‘man’, I’m not ‘dude’. I am Officer Rivieri!”

Not anymore.

Via Bloggerheads

Labels: The Police

I bet the Yanks don’t have a problem with ‘friendly’ fire that day.

Source

Labels: Ahmadinejad, Iran, Iraq

Independent:

A laptop containing the medical records of more than 5,000 patients has been stolen from a hospital, it was revealed today.

The computer was taken from the outpatients department at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, West Midlands, on January 8.

It contains a database with information on 5,123 anticoagulation patients, the hospital said.

Letters have been sent to those affected and police have launched an investigation.

A username password is needed to get into the laptop and another username and password is needed to open the database, apparently.

I hope they were one of the more imaginative public servants.

Labels: Government, Health

Guardian.co.uk:

“The British government appears to have “rolled over” in response to Saudi pressure to drop an investigation into alleged bribery in arms deals, a senior judge said today.

Two high court judges are reviewing the decision of Robert Wardle, the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to drop the investigation into allegations of bribery and corruption in contracts between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia. BAE and a Saudi national security adviser, Prince Bandar, deny the accusations.
…
There were repeated efforts by the UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia and personal overtures from Tony Blair. Irresistible pressure forced them to drop the prosecution,” Rose said.

The prime minister “stepped over the boundary between what is a permissible exercise and impermissible attempts to influence or dictate a decision on the investigation by expressing his view,” she said. “This is the clearest case of intervention that goes too far.”

Rose said Wardle and Goldsmith both explained in December 2006 that they had decided to drop the investigation after being repeatedly told the move was essential to safeguard national and international security.

She said the real reason for dropping the investigation “was not national security but the commercial situation”, and called the decision unlawful and based on “tainted advice”. Rose argued that there was no imminent risk to the public, and that national security could not be a factor that “trumps all”.

She said Blair and other officials intervened after renewed threats by the Saudi royal family to cancel a proposed order for Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft and withdraw security and intelligence cooperation if the investigation continued. The deal was signed last September.

Labels: Blair, Law/Legal, Saudi Arabia

Mad Mel Phillips is on Question Time.

As expected she’s being a twat and she’s only just opened her mouth.

Update 23:07

She did say that the Beth Din Amendment was put in place to benefit both Jews and Muslims. I bet it wasn’t.

Also, they’ve spent half the programme discussing this one issue, Surely a Muslim MP or journalist or commentator could’ve come on. I do not know if a Muslim person was asked or if they couldn’t un-invite one of the panel, but it’s been the big story all week and if there is one public person that isn’t going to talk sensibly about this subject it’s that fucking loony Mel Phillips.

Labels: Twats That Talk Bollox

BBC:

Britain’s curry houses are suffering a staffing crisis as immigration officials tighten up on issuing work visas.

Friday nights may never be the same again.

The beer industry will take a big knock, with all the lager that washes those vindaloos down, and then there’s all the loo roll that’s used on a Saturday morning too…

Labels: Odds and Sods

…for help.
Not the sort of help Tim was after, of which, the half time report (with Nick & Elroy) updates on what’s going on and who the players are (the half-time show looks promising too), but for some techie help.

I’ve bought a domain name from 123reg.co.uk (ok, ok, I know *now*) and can’t get it working properly with blogger and am hacked off waiting for 123regs’ support to reply. If you a regular reader (I can dream, can’t I?) you might’ve noticed me struggling already.
So if you can help drop us a line and I’ll let you know the problem. There may be an honourable mention and a link in my blogroll in it for you. If you’re already in my blogroll, then there’s not a lot else I can offer really.

Labels: Odds and Sods

Now, I don’t profess to know a lot about Sharia, or in fact anything, but I d believe that it is not going to cause a problem for the British legal system or British society at large.

I confess I didn’t read or listen to what the Archbishop said or didn’t say, but then I don’t need to.
Why?

Well, Sharia is described as archaic, prejudices against women, brutal as well as having all sorts of other crimes levelled against it by people who know as much as I do about it.
These accusations may well be true in certain countries that use it as a form of control or because it is misinterpreted. Or it may well be brutal and prejudiced against women. I don’t know. And to be honest when it comes to Sharia in Britian, I don’t give a shit.

I don’t give a shit because it’s not going to happen. Not like the scaremongers reckon, anyway.

To pick a couple of points that are brought up so readily, because being lazy, I’m not going to do a long post (do I ever?) and go through everything piece by piece.

With that in mind, one of the obvious protests is the two tier legal system.
There, apparently already is, for example Jewish Beth Din Courts. Although these can only be used in civil dispute and not only must both sides be Jewish, both sides must accept the authority of the court. Even then as the example in the link says about divorce

And in the case of divorce, the parties must still obtain a civil divorce alongside the religious one

So the Beth Din is in addition to, not in stead of the legal system. It is no different to any other type of arbitration, religious or not (although making sure that each party is there under their own free will is another matter that, again, is not exclusive to Muslims).
There is nothing, in principle, to Muslims doing this now, and I suspect they already do.
As far as the other scary stories about oppression of women and chopping off hands,I cannot see any law being enacted in this day and age that would exempt certain groups of people from receiving various human rights and handing control of those rights to various non-government controlled bodies (Government controlled bodies, yes, I can see that happening, and not to certain groups, unless you count the UK population asa whole) that would enable the male population to dictate what the women wear and when they can go out etc.

And brutal punishments like stoneings and chopping off hands? C’mon get real.

Don’t worry, it ain’t gonna happen, not in a scary ‘Muslims want to impose Islam on us all’ Daily Mail type of way.

Update:
Bugger. I forgot to include related posts:
Chicken Yoghurt
Mike Power
Sticks & Carrots
Lenin
Septicle Isle has done several posts

Another update:
Via PDF: mmm. very interesting.