FEEL A BIT GUILTY...

"I recognise you from Finsbury park!"

familiar words from a Policeman, this time at the Notting Hill Carnival.

Trouble is he was standing in a "Do not cross this line" stance and my friends were jumping over a fence and appearing behind him. Apparently I pushed at him a coupe of times and he actually threw me to the floor. We did drink three bottles of Rum between err.. not very many of us.

Still I do feel totally mortified and if I saw the guy again I would apologise.

I've been on many protests and seen bad behaviour on both sides of the law. I've pretty much stayed out of it, so to revert to this "us and them" so easily when all I had to do was back off and jump over a fence is very scary. I think I've got to hold back on the grog really.

Carnival was great though. The middle bit was fantastic. No trouble, not too many people. Good sound systems, I remember people punching me when I tried to cross the carnival route, I don't really remember the journey home.

These days I am having as much fun with legal drugs I don't really need to carry illegal ones.

IMPOSSIBLISM

I'm just enough recovered to tell you...



Take the band to Britanny? Why not we thought. We hadn't been able to rehearse coherently here for a while so we thought spontaneous "Impossiblism" in front of whoever turned up in Britanny might give us some inspiration.


What can I tell you? The Druid, the van, The Impossiblettes, A Venue built into a rock of granite, The Bretagne freaks coming out of the woodwork...


A lamb sacrificed and shared amongst the people.

I didn't feel I had done myself justice musically after the first gig, as we had just come off an 11 hour ferry ride, so I was pleased when the next act, Parhal and Birgit asked me to join them. They joined us for our second gig in a cafe in a beautiful river valley in Normandy.


Thanks to our wonderful hosts and all who have made The Impossible possible.

Abu Hamza may be linked to the attacks on the USS Cole battleship in Yemen, which killed 17 sailors and injured over 30 on October 12, 2000. The evidence has been there all the time, but not looked at properly. The United States has a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location of those persons who committed or aided in the attack on the USS Cole.

Even before the USS Cole terror attack, Hamza seemed to suggest his groups dislike US ships using the port of Aden. In statement made in January 1999, Abu Hamza said: "The events in Yemen of hostage taking are a direct protests by the Yemeni people against the severe oppression the Yemeni government is forcing on its own people and a direct protest against the American and British use of Port Aden as a re-fueling base to launch the second phase of the attack on the Iraqi people!"

Couldn't really afford it but couldn't turn it down for the price either. I was after an Antoria or a Westone Rainbow, but I think i'm going to like this Korean Hondo 953 Deluxe. Now I have both the guitars I saw in my friends mums catalogue when I was 16 though this one was more expensive new than the other if I remember rightly.

STRANGE NEWS

The plea in federal court to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support or resources to terrorists means Ujaama, 41, could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

He will be sentenced Dec. 12.

Ujaama was once a prized U.S. government cooperator. He pleaded guilty in April 2003 to lesser charges of conspiring to provide cash, computers and fighters to the Taliban. He served two years in prison and agreed to cooperate with terrorism investigations until 2013.

Then in February, he was returned to prison for violating parole by traveling to Belize with a fake Mexican passport.

Ujaama said Monday he fled because he did not want to testify in a case pending against Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.



Ujaama came to the attention of law enforcement for trying to set up a jihad-training camp in Bly, Ore., in 1999. He was accused of charges that could have put him in prison for 25 years. But he pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft hailed the deal, saying Ujaama's cooperation would produce more convictions of terrorists.

But Monday, the terrorist who was convicted was Ujaama. He admitted to two counts of conspiring to provide and conceal material support or resources by:

# Talking with Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Muslim cleric at a London mosque, about setting up the Bly camp and telling him that he was stockpiling weapons for it. Ujaama met two of al-Masri's associates and took them to Bly.

Al-Masri was sentenced in 2006 to seven years in prison in Britain for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims. He also faces terrorism charges in the U.S.

# Supporting violent jihad in Afghanistan. He is accused of traveling from London to New York to raise money for a fund at al-Masri's mosque. Money from the fund was to be used for some travel expenses for Ujaama and a follower of al-Masri's to go to a jihad-training camp in Afghanistan.

He also pleaded guilty to providing and concealing material support or resources to terrorists. Court documents say he escorted the follower to Pakistan to receive training in Afghanistan and to fight "jihad on the front lines in Afghanistan."

A sentencing date has not been set. Ujaama's attorney, Peter Offenbecher of Seattle, said Ujaama sees his guilty plea "as an opportunity to accept responsibility for his past and move forward with his life in a new direction."

GOT TANK?

Someone wants it.
Oh and they also play cricket.

Introducing the next Dr Who...

For example, the editor of Politika in Belgrade says there was a “direct link” between the July 7th bombings of the London transport system two years ago and Bosnia’s foreign fighters. According to Ljiljana Smajlovic, one of the leaders of that attack – Abu Hamza – had fought in Bosnia.

THE GUY WITH THE FLIP CHART

via Craig Murray

...Who and what is the "Sufi Muslim Council"? They seem to have emerged from nowhere – suddenly their spokesman is interviewed on Radio 4 and Newsnight and a Channel 4 documentary gives their views some weight. They have a new website and a new magazine. But hardly anyone knows who they are or what they stand for?

We wanted to know the answer to these questions so we set about doing some basic research. We have uncovered very worrying links between this new council and the neocons in Washington...

...The most prominent person since its establishment is a guy called Haras Rafiq who originates from Rochdale in Lancashire.

Some may have noticed that the previously unheard of Rafiq has suddenly been giving interviews, claiming to speak for the "silent majority" of Muslims in Britain.

Haras Rafiq has said, "The prime minister and others have on many occasions rightly called for moderate Muslims to stand up and be counted. In response to this call, and following extensive consultations within the Muslim community, we have decided to establish the Sufi Muslim Council."

In most of his interviews, Haras Rafiq, talks a lot about representing 'apolitical' Sufis. However, from our investigations, the majority of Sufis in the UK had never heard of him. In an interview on Radio 4, when asked who supported the SMC, he did however say that they were supported by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

David Shayler is the Messiah

Apparently. Thats why he dresses in white.

SAVED BY CONTEXT

The splicing together of extracts from longer speeches appears to have completely distorted what the speakers were saying.

The CPS has demonstrated it will not hesitate to prosecute those responsible for criminal incitement.

But in this case we have been dealing with a heavily edited television programme, apparently taking out of context aspects of speeches which in their totality could never provide a realistic prospect of any convictions.

on Youtube here

Rachel North on Richard and Judy

ITS WORSE THAN YOU THINK...

OK, just watched Channel 4's Dispatches on Islamic extremism. A few people I have met very briefly including Shahid Butt who was in jail with Hamza's sons in Yemen, though this doco made no reference between Butt and Hamza. Also a guy I was introduced to as "Mush" from Fun-da-mental who I interviewed here who was called "Shamil" on this programme I think.

The insight into how the government is "tackling radicalisation" would have made me laugh if it didn't look so blatantly ridiculous. There was some guy from the Sufi council explaining radicalisation with graphs on a flip chart. I can just imagine the sort of people we have in government lapping all this up- as I'm sure it makes sense to them. I am absolutely certain anyone even a quarter of the way to radicalisation wouldn't even see him as a Muslim. I'm sure taxpayers money is flowing in his direction. Government ministers praised him as some sort of hero to them. This guy produces a magazine for Muslims which sidesteps Politics. They film him with a very pretty Muslim girl talking about the concept of the "Burk-kini" which is a new swimsuit for Muslim girls.

"Iraq? Afghanistan? No concern of ours. We have more pressing issues at home."

Another Imam was secretive about the government approved ways prepared to counter radicalisation.

"I wont tell you. It is not in our interest that this gets out..."

Very mysterious. More taxpayers money. Utterly, utterly ridiculous.

Good programme.

Starts on Youtube here (The idiot with the flip chart is right at the beginning.)

Channel 4 under fire for letting Muslim extremist defend 7/7

Should Channel 4's Dispatches being giving the oxygen of publicity to a radical Muslim who justifies the July 7 London bombings?

Well she wont talk to me but she's written a letter...

I'd truly love to give you the other side of the story, but as yet I'm just reading it same as everyone else


The wife of Abu Hamza, the jailed Muslim cleric, has complained about her husband's treatment in a high-security London prison.Hamza, 49, dubbed the "preacher of hate", is serving seven years for inciting the murder of non-Muslims.

In a letter to a London-based Islamic organisation, Nagat Mostafa, 46, said her husband claimed to be the victim of racist bullying and Islamophobia in Belmarsh jail.

Her letter to al-Maqreze Centre for Historical Studies was sent shortly after Hamza - who is fitted with hooks on both hands - underwent surgery in May to remove an inch of bone from his left arm stump, which had become infected.

She wrote: "I would like to bring to your attention the current plight of my husband…

"The reason that his arm needed further amputation was because of the removal of his prostheses, resulting in him constantly putting pressure on the remainder of his fore limbs. As there is no soft furnishing in his cell, he has been suffering considerable pain… After surgery, before he had even recovered from the anaesthetic, he was returned to Belmarsh, only to be told he had to move from his cell to another one. He was so weak and unable to stand that he refused, resulting in him being put in solitary confinement…

"My husband says the racist bullying and Islamophobia against him have intensified."

DRUNKEN BARD PRODUCTIONS

We did the first night of Taming of the Shrew on Friday. It started raining five minutes in, and got progressively heavier all night. Its great doing Shakespeare in a housing co op. At first people went round the houses getting umbrellas and spare waterproofs for the audience members, then in the interval as it started getting heavier someone magically turned up with a marque big enough to cover the whole audience which went up in five minutes.

I thought I had got all the laughs playing Curtis, who is a one-scene "Baldric" character, but my rehearsal ploy of disappearing straight after I'd done my bit payed off as what happened in the end of the play I watched with as much surprise and mirth as the audience.

Crazy drunken eccentric amateurs is everything that makes doing Shakespeare to me and this one didn't disappoint. By the last scene I was standing at the back in pouring rain, laughing as loud as the audience. A row of actors in front of me shouting, laughing, forgetting their lines and throwing their drinks at each other. Perfect. Pictures coming.

We are on again Friday and Saturday this week starting 8pm. If you want to come down email me for the address.