Another Lefty Idiot Talking Bollocks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/nov/30/sex-offenders-adoption-children


Let sex offenders adopt and work with children, says report

London School of Economics family law expert calls for each case to be judged on merit

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* Afua Hirsch
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 November 2010 09.40 GMT
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Hands of child and parent Adoption: blanket bans on sex offenders are open to legal challenge, the LSE report argues. Photograph: Lisa Spindler/Getty Images

The government could face legal action if it continues to ban sex offenders from working with children, according to research published today.

A report by a family law expert argues that some sex offenders should be allowed to adopt or foster children, and claims that the current blanket ban is discriminatory.

"Sex offenders shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush," said Helen Reece at the London School of Economics, who wrote the report. "People need to be carefully screened for adoption and fostering, but each case should be taken on its merits.

"There shouldn't be blanket rules. What somebody has done before is not necessarily what he or she will do again. When someone has served a sentence, as far as you can, you should treat them the same as anyone else."

The report points to legal challenges that have overturned other blanket bans on adoption, including a 2008 case in which the House of Lords said rules in Northern Ireland preventing cohabiting couples from adopting children were discriminatory.

"If we believe that blanket bans are an effective and legitimate means to protect children then we should no more allow cohabiting couples to adopt or foster than convicted sex offenders," said Reece.

But claims in the report that cohabiting couples can present more of a risk to children than sex offenders are likely to provoke anger among groups concerned with child protection.

Responding to the report, the government said child and adult safety was its priority. "It is vital that children and vulnerable adults are protected," a Home Office spokesperson said. "We are committed to ensuring that decisions on who is suitable to work with the vulnerable are proportionate and meet the test of common sense."

Sex offenders have been prohibited from working with, and adopting, children since 2006, when measures were put in place to prevent a recurrence of the murder of schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham.

The "vetting and barring" scheme introduced by the 2006 law has divided opinion, and was halted by the home secretary, Theresa May, in June after criticism that it was "draconian" and would deter volunteers .

This month a group of nurses who had been automatically placed on the barred list after they committed offences at work successfully challenged the scheme in the high court, claiming their human rights had been violated.

"The vetting and barring scheme contradicts human rights legislation and is therefore challengeable," said Reece. "I agree with this government that it should be brought back to commonsense levels."

Griffin, the EDL and the slow death of Nationalism

Here is the fundamental reality and truth that the BNP members and supporters of Griffin will not acknowledge or accept - the BNP will NEVER take power in our country.

Regardless of who runs the BNP, it will never be able to take power.

This is because of its public image and the past political, strategic and tactical decisions of both Tyndall and Griffin.

It is able to exist as a political party and win a few percentage points in elections, and gain just enough percentage points in votes to keep the members happy and ensure the Griffinite pigs on the BNP payroll are able to justify their salaries, but as a political party it is loathed, despised and hated by the mass of the public.

Tyndall and Griffin killed any chance of the BNP ever being a mainstream party.

Tyndall in his jackboots and nazi uniform destroyed the BNP's public image and Griffin with his greed, stupidity and arrogance destroyed its internal infrastructure and ability to reach out into wider society and organise our community.

Therefore the longer the BNP remains in existence as a political party as it is currently run, then the more damage it does to the Nationalist cause.

All the intelligent nationalists that could have propelled the BNP into the mainstream have been expelled, suspended and alienated by Griffin.

All that is left are newbies, who leave after realising just how much of a joke the BNP is under Griffin, or the croneys of Griffin on the BNP payroll.

The problem in the BNP began as both Tyndall and Griffin were too stupid to realise the true nature of our society.

Unlike every racial group in the last fifty years, only the 'white' racial activists thought the solution to their problems was to form political parties and to try and get elected into power.

Blacks, Jews, Muslims and other minority groups did not set up political parties to get themselves elected into power - what they did was establish legal groups, community groups, pressure groups and lobby groups who then promoted their interests in society OUTSIDE of politics or they joined existing political parties and used their legal and lobby groups to get those parties to then represent their interests.

They did not seek to organise their communities as political movements, they understood that in the modern society power comes not just via the ballot box but also via court cases, civil rights marches, demonstrations, lobbying politicians, legal actions and other forms of non-political activism.

Only the white community activists followed the route of forming political parties and seeking to put all their eggs into one basket - and failed.

No other racial group has ever done this.

In fact the actions of leaders like Griffin and Tyndall and the BNP when it was run by them has ensured that in our multi-cultural system, where every racial group is expected to organise as a racial community, only the white community is called 'racist' for doing the same.

This is because the past actions of BNP leaders have ensured that the white community has ONLY EVER organised itself politically, and by only ever organising POLITICALLY, the images of Tyndall in his Nazi uniform or the examples of the greed, corruption, stupidity and arrogance of Griffin throughout his political career, can be used to destroy the legitimacy of any white community organisations.

The fact that Griffin has deliberately sought out to associate himself and the BNP with any independent organisations, ensured those organisations could then be called 'bnp fronts' and their legitimacy attacked and their ability to organise in society restricted.

The BNP has destroyed the legitimacy of the right of the indigenous British community to organise as a community in the multi-cultural process due to the actions of people like Tyndall and Griffin.

Therefore the fact that the indigenous white community are organised solely around the issue of politics, means that the white community can be called racist when they support the BNP.

I saw this problem over eight years ago and put in a place a strategy to solve the problem.

I set up the Solidarity Trade Union to defend nationalists in the work place and also Civil Liberty to defend them in legal cases.

But after I established those organisations to be independent, autonomous organisations within the nationalist movement and not under the control of the BNP - the first thing Griffin did was take control of them directly by appointing people who either worked for him or who were his old cronies like Pat Harrington.

Instead of being independent organisations, they became adjuncts of the BNP itself - simply because Griffin wanted total control over them for the sake of his own pathetic ego.

This is why Griffin wants to be the Chairman of the BNP, an MEP, a parliamentary candidate for Barking and Oldham, London Organiser and created the Stalinist constitution - simply because his ego demands HE runs things because Griffin truly does think HE IS THE BNP !

Griffin doesnt care about the Nationalist struggle - only his own power, income and position.

Due to the actions of both Tyndall and Griffin the BNP will NEVER win power.

That is not to say the role of politics and political parties like the BNP cannot play an essential role in the nationalist struggle, as they do.

The BNP has an essential role to play in the strategic and tactical struggle of nationalism, but it has done nothing to achieve these goals.

In fact Griffin has undermined these strategic and tactical goals, simply as he runs the BNP for himself as a money making scam for losers.

Unfortunately many BNP members have a losers mentality.

They have accepted the fact that BNP is a party of perpetual political failure and yet still fund this failure.

This is why the BNP can lose virtually all its elected councillors, lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations, fail to disclose its accounts due to fraud and theft, lose hundreds of thousands of pounds in court cases and yet they still support the party.

It is because they have a losers mindset, in that they are so used to losing, they simply accept it.

When you are used to losing, then you have low expectations.

The fact that supposedly rational people can witness the fraud, incompetence, corruption, nepotism and endless stupidity from Griffin and his cronies year after year, and yet just accept it, shows we are not dealing with rational people.

The fact that they have remained silent and passive as the BNP has lost dozens of councillors reveals that these people do not care about the BNP taking power and saving our country and people - all they care about is being part of the BNP, regardless of how incompetently it is run.

Even when we do win elections we lose - as Griffin then fails to use those wins and elected politicians in the strategic and tactical way required.

Even worse than that, Griffin so interferes and alienates those elected councillors that they walk away and ensure entire areas are 'immunised' against the BNP in future.

Griffin will also act to ensure popular candidates who are intelligent, well respected and efficient like Alby Walker are removed as candidates to ensure they do not challenge him in the party as a viable alternative leader.

The moment anyone in the BNP appears to be a contender for leadership they are removed or made to resign.

Andrew Brons is not a threat to Griffin simply as Andrew Brons is interested solely in retiring. He wants to ensure he does a good job as an MEP for the party, and then when his term is over retire from public view.

This is why Andrew has not joined the other expellees.

The fact is that at the next European elections both Griffin and Brons will lose their seats.

And all they will have achieved in that time period is the enrichment of Griffin, the slow death of nationalism politically and the demise of the BNP itself.

Sure they have made some good speeches in the EU - BUT SO WHAT !

The election of two BNP MEP's, or even 12 UKIP MEP's, is a total waste of time.

They can change NOTHING in the EU.

Their strategic and tactical role as MEP's should have related solely to expanding the BNP socially and politically in Britain, and not their jobs in the EU.

The fact that Griffin thinks he is doing a great job in the EU proves the man is an idiot.

The fact is that for British Nationalists they did not fund the election campaigns that got Griffin and Brons elected to the EU so they could do a good job in the EU.

They funded and assisted them getting elected to enable them to develop the BNP in Britain. The EU is just a sideshow, any work they do there is fundamentally a total waste of time. Regardless of what they say and do, the EU will do as it wants.

Therefore they were not elected to work in the EU, they were elected to use their positions to develop the BNP - and we have all seen how the BNP has imploded since they were elected.

Their time in the EU will be marked as the moment the BNP died as a political party and political movement in Britain.

This happened as Griffin was too stupid and too arrogant to realise what their real roles were - instead Griffin sought the limelight, adoration and the attention of the middle class bourgeoise society from which he came and that rejected him whilst Andrew Brons just wanted a quiet life until he retires.

The BNP cannot take political power in our society.

Therefore the BNP's role in our society IS NOT AS A POLITICAL PARTY, it must be used as the organisational centre from which a whole new nationalist movement derives.

This was always the role the BNP should have undertaken.

The BNP should participate in politics solely in order to organise socially and within communities.

Those groups and organisations it should have deployed activists to establish and run should not ever have been hijacked by Griffin, as he did with Solidarity and Civil Liberty, but instead should have been autonomous organisations who undertake what the white indigenous community should have been doing for the last fifty years - which was copying the blacks, Jews and Muslims and others and organising legal campaigns, civil rights campaigns, community organisations that represent our people and other essential non-political struggles.

The fact that the ONLY organisation that the white indigenous community has to represent their interests is the BNP, means the white community is classfied as racist when it demands its rights via voting for the BNP. This is why the BNP councillors who are elected are ignored or in the event they actually start doing a good job like Alby Walker and start being respected in their communities and council chambers, Griffin then ensures they resign.

Even when BNP activists and elected officials start to do what they need to do, which is to be respected for their work as councillors in their communities, they then become a threat to Griffin and have to be removed.

The only charity in Britain that seeks to represent the indigenous community is the Steadfast Trust, which has also been comprimised by Griffin as Jane Phillips who set up the charity now works as Griffins legal adviser and for the BNP.

Thanks to Griffin - solidarity, civil liberty and the Steadfast Trust can all be called 'racist' and attacked due to them being proxies of the BNP or because of their links to the BNP.

Its almost as if Griffin wants to ensure Nationalism never succeeds, for as soon as anything new comes along that stands a chance of propsering outside the control of Griffin - he deliberately seeks to take control of it and thus ensures it can be called 'racist' due to its links with the BNP and him and thus ensures it can no longer function in our society as an autonomous organisation.

But this failure to recognise reality is not just a product of Griffin and BNP members.

Even Eddy Butler still thinks the BNP is a political party.

It isnt.

Its role as a political party is over.

It cannot win power, therefore its role in the nationalist struggle is no longer predicated on its operations as a political party.

Those who think the role of the BNP in the contemporary nationalist struggle is political are fools.

Regardless of who led the BNP - Griffin or Butler - the BNP cannot take power.

Therefore its primary role must be OUTSIDE politics.

It must stand in elections not to win seats, but to allow activists to create community networks, to organise our people in their communities, to establish legal and social groups, to recruit and organise local people to develop NATIONALIST COMMUNITY NETWORKS.

But this means that the party would have to be accountable to the people who fund it, instead of being a financial black hole where money goes in and produces nothing in return such as in elections.

It would also require Griffin to surrender power down to communities, to recruit new talent, to establish alternative organisations that draw funding away from the BNP and hence from him - and he will never do this.

The EDL shows us the depth of anger in our communities.

The EDL reveals that our people are ready to be organised as a community.

Yet the BNP postures politically and does nothing to organise our communities.

Even if the BNP under Griffin did seek to organise our communities it would do so in such a way that Griffin would seek to retain control over those groups, to enable him fleece them financially and to ensure that they would be tainted with the stench of Griffin and his corruption.

Griffin would never direct BNP resources into establishing autonomous and independent organisations that benefit nationalism, as to that means they would not benefit him financially or the BNP financially.

Instead Griffin orders BNP activists to undertake stupid and crass fundraising stunts like the 'Bring The Troops Home' scam, which are designed for nothing but to collect databases of names so Griffin can ponce money out of them.

The BNP needs more than a new leader and a new constitution - it needs a complete strategic and tactical overhaul.

But this requires internal pressure on the leadership to force them to change their behaviour, and this will not happen simply because most BNP members do not care about our people and our country, they simply care about the BNP and Griffin.

They say they are fighting for our people and our country, but then they turn a blind eye to the fraud, corruption, abuses of power, nepotism, croneyism within the BNP and the collapse in the BNP vote.

By pretending all is fine in the BNP - THEY ARE DOING THE ENEMIES WORK FOR THEM !

They do not realise that the more they support Griffin and his pathetic version of the BNP - the more they are damaging the nationalist movement itself.

The true nationalist does not need to hide amongst a group of idiots who pretend to themselves that the emperor is wearing clothes, the true nationalist stands up and shouts THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES when the emperor is wearing no clothes.

Only the gutless, moronic, corrupted, cowardly and insane refuse to recognise reality.

Rationing To Come

The job is done, the bankers destroyed the economic system and with it the global food production system. All the money has gone that could have been used to reboot the system.

Rationing is being prepared as the prelude to the coming food collapse.




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/8165769/Cancun-climate-change-summit-scientists-call-for-rationing-in-developed-world.html





Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world

Global warming is now such a serious threat to mankind that climate change experts are calling for Second World War-style rationing in rich countries to bring down carbon emissions.

Second World War Rationing: Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world
'The Second World War and the concept of rationing is something we need to seriously consider if we are to address the scale of the problem we face' Photo: GETTY
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent 7:30AM GMT 29 Nov 2010

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In a series of papers published by the Royal Society, physicists and chemists from some of world’s most respected scientific institutions, including Oxford University and the Met Office, agreed that current plans to tackle global warming are not enough.

Unless emissions are reduced dramatically in the next ten years the world is set to see temperatures rise by more than 4C (7.2F) by as early as the 2060s, causing floods, droughts and mass migration.

As the world meets in Cancun, Mexico for the latest round of United Nations talks on climate change, the influential academics called for much tougher measures to cut carbon emissions.

In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years.

This would mean a drastic change in lifestyles for many people in countries like Britain as everyone will have to buy less ‘carbon intensive’ goods and services such as long haul flights and fuel hungry cars.

Prof Anderson admitted it “would not be easy” to persuade people to reduce their consumption of goods

He said politicians should consider a rationing system similar to the one introduced during the last “time of crisis” in the 1930s and 40s.

This could mean a limit on electricity so people are forced to turn the heating down, turn off the lights and replace old electrical goods like huge fridges with more efficient models. Food that has travelled from abroad may be limited and goods that require a lot of energy to manufacture.

“The Second World War and the concept of rationing is something we need to seriously consider if we are to address the scale of the problem we face,” he said.

Prof Anderson insisted that halting growth in the rich world does not necessarily mean a recession or a worse lifestyle, it just means making adjustments in everyday life such as using public transport and wearing a sweater rather than turning on the heating.

“I am not saying we have to go back to living in caves,” he said. “Our emissions were a lot less ten years ago and we got by ok then.”

The last round of talks in Copenhagen last year ended in a weak political accord to keep temperature rise below the dangerous tipping point of 2C(3.6F).

This time 194 countries are meeting again to try and make the deal legally binding and agree targets on cutting emissions.

At the moment efforts are focused on trying to get countries to cut emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 relative to 1990 levels.

But Dr Myles Allen, of Oxford University’s Department of Physics, said this might not be enough. He said that if emissions do not come down quick enough even a slight change in temperature will be too rapid for ecosystems to keep up. Also by measuring emissions relative to a particular baseline, rather than putting a limit on the total amount that can ever be pumped into the atmosphere, there is a danger that the limit is exceeded.

“Peak warming is determined by the total amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere, not the rate we release it in any given year,’ he said. “Dangerous climate change, however, also depends on how fast the planet is warming up, not just how hot it gets, and the maximum rate of warming does depend on the maximum emission rate. It’s not just how much we emit, but how fast we do so.”

Other papers published on ‘4C and beyond’ in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A warned of rising sea levels, droughts in river basins and mass migrations.

MUST WATCH - EU EXPOSED

Excellent video ;


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Xu-5B22Ok

Must Watch - California Dying

See how the California dream is dying due to the bankers ;



http://maxkeiser.com/2010/11/27/on-the-edge-with-max-keiser-california-dreaming/

The Coming 2011 Food Crisis

http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2010/10/27/the-food-crisis-of-2011/


The Food Crisis Of 2011

Oct. 27 2010 - 4:51 pm | 15,971 views | 2 recommendations | 16 comments
Posted by Addison Wiggin

A farmer in Batavia, Illinois plants corn in h...

Food prices are high and going higher

Every month, JPMorgan Chase dispatches a researcher to several supermarkets in Virginia. The task is to comparison shop for 31 items.

In July, the firm’s personal shopper came back with a stunning report: Wal-Mart had raised its prices 5.8% during the previous month. More significantly, its prices were approaching the levels of competing stores run by Kroger and Safeway. The “low-price leader” still holds its title, but by a noticeably slimmer margin.

Special Offer: The result of easy money from the Federal Reserve has always been a tsunami of inflation. Don’t let inflation destroy the purchasing power of your dollar-based assets. Click here for time-sensitive investment information from renowned precious metals and hard asset advisor Curtis Hesler in Professional Timing Service.

Within this tale lie several lessons you can put to work to make money. And it’s best to get started soon, because if you think your grocery bill is already high, you ain’t seen nothing yet. In fact, we could be just one supply shock away from a full-blown food crisis that would make the price spikes of 2008 look like a happy memory.

Fact is, the food crisis of 2008 never really went away.

True, food riots didn’t break out in poor countries during 2009 and warehouse stores like Costco didn’t ration 20-pound bags of rice…but supply remained tight.

Prices for basic foodstuffs like corn and wheat remain below their 2008 highs. But they’re a lot higher than they were before “the food crisis of 2008” took hold. Here’s what’s happened to some key farm commodities so far in 2010…

* Corn: Up 63%
* Wheat: Up 84%
* Soybeans: Up 24%
* Sugar: Up 55%

What was a slow and steady increase much of the year has gone into overdrive since late summer. Blame it on two factors…

* Aug. 5: A failed wheat harvest prompted Russia to ban grain exports through the end of the year. Later in August, the ban was extended through the end of 2011. Drought has wrecked the harvest in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan – home to a quarter of world production

* Oct. 8: For a second month running, the Agriculture Department cut its forecast for US corn production. The USDA predicts a 3.4% decline from last year. Damage done by Midwestern floods in June was made worse by hot, dry weather in August.

America’s been blessed with year after year of “record harvests,” depending on how you measure it. So when crisis hits elsewhere in the world, the burden of keeping the world fed falls on America’s shoulders.

According to Soren Schroder, CEO of the food conglomerate Bunge North America, US grain production has filled critical gaps in world supply three times in the last five years, including this summer…

* In 2010, when drought hit Russian wheat
* In 2009, when drought hit Argentine soybeans
* In 2007–08, when drought hit Australian wheat

So what happens when those “record harvests” no longer materialize?

In September, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that global grain “carryover stocks” – the amount in the world’s silos and stockpiles when the next harvest begins – totaled 432 million tons.

That translates to 70 days of consumption. A month earlier, it was 71 days. The month before that, 72. At this rate, come next spring, we’ll be down to just 64 days – the figure reached in 2007 that touched off the food crisis of 2008.

But what happens if the U.S. scenario is worse than a “nonrecord” harvest? What if there’s a Russia-scale crop failure here at home?

World Grain Carryover Stocks

“When we have the first serious crop failure, which will happen,” says farm commodity expert Don Coxe, “we will then have a full-blown food crisis” – one far worse than 2008.

Coxe has studied the sector for more than 35 years as a strategist for BMO Financial Group. He says it didn’t have to come to this. “We’ve got a situation where there has been no incentive to allocate significant new capital to agriculture or to develop new technologies to dramatically expand crop output.”

“We’ve got complacency,” he sums up. “So for those reasons, I believe the next food crisis – when it comes – will be a bigger shock than $150 oil.”

A recent report from HSBC isn’t quite so alarming…unless you read between the lines. “World agricultural markets,” it says, “have become so finely balanced between supply and demand that local disruptions can have a major impact on the global prices of the affected commodities and then reverberate throughout the entire food chain.”

That was the story in 2008. It’s becoming the story again now. It may go away in a few weeks or a few months. But it won’t go away for good. It’ll keep coming back…for decades.

There’s nothing you or I can do to change it. So we might as well “hedge” our rising food costs by investing in the very commodities whose prices are rising now…and will keep rising for years to come.

“While investor eyes are focused on the gold price as it touches new highs,” reads a report from Japan’s Nomura Securities, “the acceleration in global food price is unrestrained. We continue to believe that soft commodities will outperform base and precious metals in the future.”

So how do you do it? As recently as 2006, the only way Main Street investors could play the trend was to buy commodity futures. It was complicated. It involved swimming in the same pool with the trading desks of the big commercial banks. And it usually involved buying on margin – that is, borrowing money from the brokerage. If the market went against you, you’d lose even more than your initial investment.

Nowadays, an exchange-traded fund can do the heavy lifting for you, no margin required. The name of the fund is the PowerShares DB Agriculture ETF (DBA).

There are at least a half-dozen ETFs that aim to profit when grain prices rise. We like DBA the best because it’s easy to understand. It’s based on the performance of the Deutsche Bank Agriculture Index, which is composed of the following:

* Corn 12.5%
* Soybeans 12.5%
* Wheat 12.5%
* Sugar 12.5%
* Cocoa 11.1%
* Coffee 11.1%
* Cotton 2.8%
* Live Cattle 12.5%
* Feeder Cattle 4.2%
* Lean Hogs 8.3%

So you have a mix here of 50% America’s staple crops of corn, beans, wheat and sugar…25% beef and pork…and 25% cocoa, coffee and cotton. It might not be a balanced diet (especially the cotton), but it makes for a good balance of assets within your first foray into “ag” investing.

The meat weighting in here looks especially attractive compared to some of DBA’s competitors, which are more geared to the grains. It takes about six months for higher grain prices to translate to higher cattle and hog prices.

You can capture that potential upside right now…and you’ll be glad you did when you sit down to a good steak dinner a few months down the line. After all, it’s going to cost you more.

The Food Shock of 2011 by Addison Wiggin originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning.

The Coming Food Collapse Part 2

http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=936


Food production is one of the most essential concerns of any society. Without direct availability and ease of consumption, without the consistent flow of agricultural goods, every nation existing today (except the most primitive) would immediately find its infrastructure crumbling and its people in a furious panic. It’s strange to me, then, that long term independent food planning is the one concern that many Americans seem to take most for granted. Firearms and ammo, camping gear and bug-out-bags, MRE’s, beans, and rice; these are the easiest part of your survival foundation. The hard part is not storage of goods, but devising a solid and practical plan for sustainability in the long term. This starts with the capacity to support your own agriculture regardless of how long the grid is down, even if it is down indefinitely.

Understandably, there will be some people who do not have enough land to implement many of these strategies. They should still know the fundamentals and be ready to apply them at a retreat location or within a community should the opportunity arise.

In the first chapter of our ‘Survive Anything’ series, we covered all the consequences of a nuclear attack on American soil, and how to not only make it out alive, but even thrive after such an event:

http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=273

The reason Neithercorp covered survival tactics for a nuclear strike first was simple; we wanted to make it clear that the title of this series is not an exaggeration. Truly, ANYTHING is survivable with the right knowledge and preparation. Those who promote a ‘doomer’ view of economic collapse or global war are on average people who have simply given up before the struggle has even started. Therefore, their opinions on survival are empty, and barely worth the effort to ignore. Life goes on after collapse, as it always has since the beginning of organized civilization. It is YOU who decides whether or not you will be a part of that life. It is you who decides your chances of success.

With that success in mind, let’s dive into the most important aspects of food survival in a country where infrastructure has ceased to function…

Emaciated Grocery Chains

Last winter, I witnessed perhaps the most incredible snow storm I have ever seen in my life. A low pressure system punished the Northeast with downpour after downpour, stopping most road travel and cutting power to millions for at least a week. Being that the average family has only a week’s worth of food or less in their pantry, you can imagine the chaos that unfolded. Those grocery stores with backup power were flooded with customers buying armloads of batteries, water, ice chests, and, of course, foods that don’t require refrigeration. Now, what I want you to imagine, is what would have happened if no grocery stores had been open that week. What would have happened if they had never reopened? How many people would have been in the very real position of starving to death? From what I observed that winter…far too many…

The problem of storage and backstock is widespread in the U.S. and the culprit is actually one which we have been trained to admire; efficiency. It is because of the over-application of efficiency in grocery models and in the freight sector that most outlets carry little to no backstock in goods. Instead, they order goods as quickly as they sell out, refilling shelves on a product by product basis. This means that in most grocers, what you see on the shelf, is all that they have. The speed of trucking deliveries makes this business model possible, but its operation suffers from a seriously fatal flaw…

Grocery stores may seem like a bounty of goods at first glance, but if freight shipments shut down, or even slowed, those aisles would empty within the span of a few days. Many households in America operate on the same faulty “efficiency”. They rely on the weekly trip to the grocer to maintain the pantry while also attempting to save money by reducing backstock. It’s a frayed rope holding up too much weight, a completely inflexible system that cannot withstand any deviation from the set routine. One unexpected disaster could render the entire food and agriculture distribution network immobile.

Many grocery chains also function on a line of credit from banks while operating at a loss. Profits are poured directly into the liabilities the companies incur from loans and then more money is borrowed to continue ordering goods. Some stores in the chain (flagship stores) usually bring in enough money to cover the red ink of the other branches, however, what if banks were to cut off credit completely to a grocery chain? Or maybe ALL grocery chains? The cycle of debt, to sales, to profit, to debt, becomes disrupted. Any stores that rely solely on credit to stay open for business would immediately lose the ability to bring in new stock. Again, we are faced with empty shelves in less than a week.

This scenario is entirely possible in the U.S. today, especially in the event that big banks institute capital retention in order to protect themselves from a further collapse of investment markets. Banks have already restricted loans to consumers down to the bare minimum. A restriction of loans to the business sector in the near future is not that far fetched.

Food In A World Without Walmart

The above section illustrates just a few of the weaknesses in U.S. food distribution. I haven’t included the catastrophe inherent in a hyperinflationary situation because I think the consequences of that are self evident. The point is, if you are not standing on solid ground in terms of not just food storage, but a plan for sustainability, then you and your family are in serious danger. This is not a game, and it is not to be taken lightly. It is not something to be shrugged off and postponed for some undefined “later date”. If you have not already started the process of prepping for economic downturn or collapse, then you need to start today.

Buying food with a long term storage capacity is half the battle, and I recommend purchasing at minimum a year’s supply of these goods totaling at least 2000-2500 calories a day per person. Do not forget to include salts, sugars, and ample fats, without which, your body cannot function. Being that we have covered food storage in great detail in previous articles, let’s examine some practical methods for food production after your stores run out.

Squarefoot Gardening: One of the most productive styles of gardening I have ever seen is devised by Mel Bartholomew, a civil engineer who was frustrated with the immense waste involved in single row gardening. The process involves building easy to make above ground 4 foot by 4 foot soil boxes and then dividing those boxes into grids. These grids retain water and nutrients to a much greater capacity than traditional yard gardens, resulting in up to 80% less space required, 90% less water use, and 95% less seed to grow the same amount of vegetables. Fertilizer is not necessary and existing soil can be easily used. I would not set up a survival garden any other way.

There is one downside to squarefoot gardening, however, and it is one of visibility. If you are in a situation which calls for discreet growing of crops, then the highly visible soil boxes and neat rows will stand out like a sore thumb and alert others to your presence. If you feel secure in the defense of your homestead or retreat, though, then garden visibility is irrelevant and Bartholomew’s strategy is the best by far. Read his book, or check out his website here:

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Non-Hybrid Seeds: Non-hybrid heirloom seeds are basically the seeds nature intended to be planted. These are the only seeds you should ever consider using for your survival garden for numerous reasons. Genetically modified seeds are unreliable, give you a low production count of vegetables, and very few quality seeds can be taken from the plants for the next season. Not to mention, there is no telling what has been infused into the DNA of GMO’s. A company in California called Ventria Bioscience has created a form of rice which contains HUMAN DNA, and this rice has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture! The reason? Ventria claims it can be used to treat diarrhea in children, of all things…

I don’t know what the direct health effects are of people consuming food made out of people, and I would rather not find out. I never thought I would see the day when the movie ‘Soylent Green’ was treated less like fiction and more like a documentary…

Natural Pest Control: I hate to say it, but in the event of a total collapse, it may be best to keep pesticides in stock. The first few years of a grid down scenario will likely be brutal, and if you are extremely dependent on your garden crops to keep your family fed, then you don’t want to take any chances on vermin decimating your plants. That said, there will probably come a point when your pesticides will run out, and natural methods will be necessary.

Some proven tactics of organic pest control include…

Lady Bugs (ladybugs eat pest insects and are incredibly beneficial to any garden)

Organic Pesticide (often contains garlic, chilli pepper or powder, vegetable oil, and water)

Repellent Plants (some plants naturally repel pests, like garlic, tobacco, or rhubarb. Some hot peppers are so acidic that they act as an anti-bug defense. Any peppers that contain large amounts of Capsaicin should be included in your garden plan)

Vinegar (can be used as an effective weed killer)

Cornmeal (can be applied to garden soil or turned into a juice and sprayed on crops. Cornmeal attracts fungi from the Trichoderma family, a good fungus which kills pest funguses)

Plant Daisies Around Fruit Trees (daisies attract a certain kind of wasp which is the natural predator of the bagworm, a worm that is notorious for killing crop trees. This wasp also kills locusts, an added bonus)

Herbs (strong smelling herbs repel many animals, including deer, that would attempt to feed on your veggies. Of course, you might like the idea of attracting deer to your property too…)

Grow For Your Region: The region in which you live will greatly affect the types of crops that grow well. Listed below are the various regions of the U.S. along with the vegetables that thrive best in them…

Northeast – Tomatoes, sweet peppers, snap beans, garlic, potato, bulb onion, cabbage, broccoli, mustard, spinach, eggplant, sweet corn, cucumber, radish, snow pea, asparagus

Southeast – Sweet pepper, garlic, hot pepper, broccoli, summer squash, collards, watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, scallion, lima bean, pole bean, sweet potato, potato, radish

Midwest – Corn, onion, lettuce, tomato, garlic, squash, pumpkin, turnips, beets, broccoli, cucumber, hot pepper, carrot

Central Rockies – Carrot, spinach, tomato, bush snap peas, potato, radish, fava beans, beets, shallots, leek, scallion

Northwest – Snow pea, pole bean, potato, garlic, pumpkin, squash, hot pepper, scallion, lettuce, onion, carrot

Southwest – Tomato, carrot, summer squash, bulb onion, snow pea, sweet pepper, eggplant, hot pepper, beet radish, sweet potato, southern pea, scallion

Keep in mind that these are not the only crops you can grow in your region, just some of the top producers. Many vegetables will grow almost anywhere in the U.S.

Most Nutritious Plants: The plants and vegetables with the highest nutritional content of vitamins and minerals are: Sunflower seeds, soybeans, almonds, leaf amaranth, broccoli, navy beans, collards, potatoes, dandelions (yes, the weed), lima beans, northern beans, kidney beans, okra, spinach, kale, butternut squash, sweet potato, peanuts, avocados, and watermelon (believe it or not).

Focus On Grains: Grasses that produce grains are hearty and grow almost everywhere in the U.S. Grains are the mainstay of our diets because they are so abundant and because they can be stored for years, even decades if needed. Families and communities hoping to restore food production after a breakdown in infrastructure will need personal gardens, but also reasonably sized tracks of land set aside for wheat, rice, barley, oats, etc.

Wheat is one of the few plants that can grow during the winter, but only if nitrogen content in the soil is adequate. Growing legumes in a garden patch can add large amounts of nitrogen, after which, wheat plants can be rotated in. Wheat also needs loose soil to grow well, and compacted soil can ruin a crop. The squarefoot method can be used just as easily for wheat as with regular garden vegetables and could help avoid the soil compaction problem, along with certain space issues.

‘Hard Wheat’ is the best type to plant if you live in a dry temperate climate with cold winters. ‘Soft Wheat’ is better for climates with more moisture and mild winters. After harvest, your wheat kernels should be stored in a cool dry place (40-60 F is optimal) and sealed in containers that prevent oxygen exposure.

Grains are the single most important food item for the survivalist because of their longevity. Civilizations are built and rebuilt on grains and grain storage. The average adult requires around 275 pounds of wheat a year, and the average child requires around 175 pounds a year. A well maintained acre of plants will produce around 40 bushels or more of wheat. A bushel contains around 60 pounds of wheat, meaning a standard acre could yield around 2400 pounds of grain; more than enough for two families every year. If the squarfoot method is applied, the yield could be significantly higher and the space could be reduced tenfold. Extra grain can be easily packed away, saving you in the event of a bad crop or other unforeseen problems. Grains combined with beans also make a complete protein in the event that your diet is low on meat. The advantages of grain production for survival are endless.

Indoor Growing And Hydroponics: I realize the word “hydroponics” is synonymous with wacky weed, Maui Wowie, and that shy neighbor in the aviator shades that lives on the corner lot of your block. Of course, its none of my business what that guy is growing in his basement, nor is it the government’s, but before you go out to order a subscription of ‘High Times’, let me assure you that my primary reason for bringing up hydroponics is one of survival, and not “mind expansion”.

Hydroponics is simply a method for growing plants using electric lights that simulate the rays of the sun, and this includes vegetables. There are many benefits to growing your food indoors.

If you are in a survival situation which offers minimal protection and greater danger from looters or others, you may want to consider the hydroponic option. This method would be a considerable edge for those who have chosen to stay within a city or suburban landscape with less open land and more people in tighter quarters. A hydroponic garden in your home or apartment might show up on infrared surveillance, but otherwise, no one would be the wiser to your food supply.

Hydroponic plants grow 30% to 50% faster than outdoor plants and their vegetable yields are often much higher. Some hydroponic systems don’t even require soil for growing! ‘Active Systems’ use a pump to supply nutrients to your plants while ‘Passive Systems’ use a wick to absorb nutrient solutions and pass them on to the roots of your crop. You can build your own hydroponic system using guides available on the web, or you can purchase pre-made systems. Pre-made systems with special lights are likely to run you around $1000, though deal hunters may be able to put something together much cheaper.

The downside to hydroponic growing is that you are paying for the light that you would normally get for free from the sun. Not to mention, in a grid down scenario, you lose your light source completely (we will cover strategies for survival electricity in the next installment of this series). But, if you have the ability to produce your own electricity, then indoor growing may be a godsend. Keep in mind that with hydroponics, food growing can be done year around, even in winter. Pests are much easier to control. And, your crops are also much safer from a threat I see rising to the forefront in the near future; GMO pollen. GMO pollen has the ability to “infect” healthy non-hybrid plants and mutate their seedlings. What would happen if your acre of veggies was suddenly hit with a blast of GMO pollens from breeds that use engineered terminator seeds? Say goodbye to next year’s crop, unless you have indoor gardens and extra seeds to back you up…

Sprouting: One easy way to get nutritious greens any time of year without special growing lights or fancy equipment is to sprout beans. All you need is a wide container with small holes in the bottom, and any number of sprouting beans or seeds. These include; lentils, garbanzo, mung, adzuki, pea, peanut, alfalfa, barley, pinto, and others.

The beans are spread in a thin layer across the bottom of the container and sprayed lightly with water daily. Some indirect sunlight is recommended. After around 3 to 5 days, they will begin to sprout, producing healthy greens even in the dead of winter.

The Omnivore’s Advantage

Vegetarianism seems like a spartan way of dieting, but really, vegetarians have a difficult if not impossible time when it comes to survival environments. Vegetarianism is a luxury, one that you cannot afford if you hope to get through a grid down event. The key to survival is flexibility and adaptability. Forgoing a meal of meat is not an option if you wish to avoid starving.

While killing and dismembering Bambi for your stew pot is not the most pleasant of exercises for many, its something all of us might have to get used to very soon. Traditional hunting, though, is not the most practical way of obtaining meat during a collapse, and counting on hunting alone could very well end in empty plates for you and your family on a regular basis. Here are some strategies for making sure that never happens…

Raising Chickens: Chickens are some of the easiest livestock to raise. They require little space. If allowed to roam the yard they practically feed themselves, they lay eggs which are a fantastic source of protein, and, when they stop laying, they can be eaten.

One problem to watch out for with chickens is ‘fowl cholera’. Symptoms include greenish yellow diarrhea, difficulty breathing, swollen joints, darkened wattles. Infected birds die quickly and there is no treatment. Destroy all infected birds, even those that survive (they become carriers and infect new birds immediately). Other diseases and sicknesses usually require some care and warm shelter, while the bird’s immune system takes care of the rest.

Raising Rabbits: Rabbits are another very easy to raise meat source, though they cannot be allowed to roam like chickens and dry warm cages are necessary. As we all know, rabbits breed like there’s no tomorrow, so you will have a never-ending supply of new stock. Rabbit food is relatively inexpensive to store, though veggies from your garden often work just as well. In fact, planting a couple quick producing crops just for your rabbits may be an effective feed source. Rabbits also need clean water regularly, because they dehydrate easily.

Bring The Game To You: Running around the forest with your scoped bolt action may not be the cleverest way to put meat on the table during a collapse, unless you have a lot of well armed buddies to keep watch over you while you lounge in your tree hide for half the day. There is too much wasted time and too many risks involved. During a societal breakdown, sometimes you have to work smarter, not harder.

Bringing the game to you is not so difficult as long as you know what they like. Leaving salt licks and corn on the perimeter of your land will bring deer, and in some places wild pig. Wild flower and clover patches attract rabbits which can then be snared. Wild turkeys like crabapples, beechnuts, and acorns during winter, and clover during spring.

Another more expensive option is to build a small artificial pond on your land. Animals for miles around will congregate there to drink, especially if there are no other streams or lakes nearby.

Don’t Be A Liability

Preparation is not just about you, it is about all the people you save by not becoming part of the problem. The more Americans prep, the less Americans starve in the midst of calamity. Fewer empty stomachs means less fearful minds and less panic when the other shoe drops. In this sense, survival preparation is not a hobby, or a mode of self interest, it is a duty. Frankly, if we care at all about the continuity of our ideals, our belief in freedom and independence, then we should also feel obligated to become more self-sufficient. If the economy were to slip into oblivion tomorrow, would you be a pillar of strength, or just another frantic helpless man-child waiting desperately for a handout from the nearest criminal bureaucracy? Would you be a strong-point in the protection of liberty, or a weak link holding the rest of us back?

The strength of one can have reverberations in the lives of thousands. Preparation makes us strong. Adaptability and knowledge makes us unafraid. Training and experience makes us successful. These are the principles upon which America was founded, and these are the principles which will allow America to live on.

RIP Leslie Nielsen

R.I.P Leslie Nielsen, star of the best science fiction movie ever made, and the film which defines the genre, The Forbidden Planet.

GO THE SWISS !

Deport convicted foreigners, say Swiss in early referendum results

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:39 PM on 28th November 2010

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Preliminary results show the majority of Swiss voters are in favour of foreign criminal deportation

Preliminary results show the majority of Swiss voters are in favour of foreign criminal deportation

Foreign convicted criminals should be deported from Switzerland, early results of a referendum have revealed.

Figures released on national television showed 53 per cent of voters are in favour of a proposal to automatically deport immigrants convicted of serious crimes such as murder, rape and trafficking drugs and people.

The initiative - put forward by Switzerland's right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) - is the latest indication of an increasing hostility towards immigration.

Last year the Swiss backed a ban on construction of new minarets, drawing international condemnation.

At present, non-nationals are deported on a case-by-case basis.

Foreigners make up more than one fifth of Switzerland's 7.7m population and a disproportionate number are convicted criminals, officials have revealed.

The SVP has been campaigning for towards their proposal being passed with posters showing a group of white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag.
Toni Brunner leader of right-wing party SVP campaigned for the referendum

Toni Brunner leader of right-wing party SVP campaigned for the referendum

They were first displayed when the SVP began collecting signatures for the referendum.

However, there are a proportion of the population fighting against the proposal.

A native of Lebanon who recently received a Swiss passport said: 'We're not all criminals.'

Last year the Swiss backed a ban on construction of new minarets, drawing international condemnation.

In the same referendum, 58 percent of voters also vetoed a second proposal that would have imposed a minimum state tax on the very rich, the preliminary figures showed.

Currently tax rates vary among cantons, yet they remain low compared to elsewhere in Europe.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1333871/Deport-convicted-foreigners-say-Swiss-early-referendum-results.html#ixzz16bYn7SwA

Stephen Fry and the Koran Burning Child

I wonder if stephen fry and the other lefty / liberals will burn a koran, like they re-tweeted the bomb threat, to ensure this childs prosecution is dropped by the pathetic coppers and teachers who have caused her such distress.

http://www.scotnetwork.com/technology/i-am-spartacus-bomb-joke-campaign-explodes-on-twitter


Thousands of tweeters repeat bombing joke in support of Paul Chambers, who lost his appeal against conviction

Twitter users angered by the conviction of a man who threatened to blow up an airport in a Twitter joke showed support for him in their thousands today, thumbing their noses at the law by republishing the words that landed him in trouble.

Paul Chambers, a 27-year-old accountant, yesterday lost his appeal against his conviction and £1,000 fine for a comment he made in jest when he was concerned that he might miss a flight to Belfast.




What a pathetic joke of a country this is where a 15 year old child can be treated worse than the Islamist filth that spit at our soldiers in our streets.









http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/11/28/english-defence-league-identify-school-where-girl-set-fire-to-koran-66331-27728946/

English Defence League identify school where girl 'set fire to Koran'

Nov 28 2010

A SCHOOL where a 15-year-old girl allegedly burnt a copy of the Koran could become the target of extremists.

English Defence League supporters identified the school, alongside demands for the mass burning of Islam’s holiest book in protest at the pupil’s arrest. The youngster allegedly posted a video of her setting fire to the Koran on Facebook.

The footage was reported to education chiefs and subsequently removed. She was arrested on suspcion of inciting racial hatred on November 19. A 14-year-old boy was also arrested on suspicion of making threats.

Both have since been released on police bail. Sandwell Council and West Midlands Police had asked the media not to name the school in an attempt to prevent extremists provoking trouble.

But EDL supporters ignored the request and, as well as naming the school on the internet, called for demonstrations that could lead to violence. But a senior teacher at the school said the girl did not realise what she was doing.

He said: “If she stopped to consider the fallout, and the offence it would cause to people within her own community, I honestly don’t believe she would have done it.”

When One Dumps Socialism

A socialist becomes a conservative, the moment they start paying tax.

WOW !

No computer anywhere in the world is now safe.

Whoever sent computer virus this could potentially right now control the worlds nuclear weapons, the global stock market and our energy / food / water / air traffic infrastructure.



http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/#ixzz16TkLh7up


Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions

By Ed Barnes

Published November 26, 2010

| FoxNews.com

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An aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.

AP

An aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.

In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.

The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters where scientists in the clutches of an evil master are secretly building a weapon that can destroy the world. Then render that weapon harmless and escape undetected.

But in the 21st century, Bond doesn't get the call. Instead, the job is handled by a suave and very sophisticated secret computer worm, a jumble of code called Stuxnet, which in the last year has not only crippled Iran's nuclear program but has caused a major rethinking of computer security around the globe.

Intelligence agencies, computer security companies and the nuclear industry have been trying to analyze the worm since it was discovered in June by a Belarus-based company that was doing business in Iran. And what they've all found, says Sean McGurk, the Homeland Security Department's acting director of national cyber security and communications integration, is a “game changer.”

The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus.

Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

The target was seemingly impenetrable; for security reasons, it lay several stories underground and was not connected to the World Wide Web. And that meant Stuxnet had to act as sort of a computer cruise missile: As it made its passage through a set of unconnected computers, it had to grow and adapt to security measures and other changes until it reached one that could bring it into the nuclear facility.

When it ultimately found its target, it would have to secretly manipulate it until it was so compromised it ceased normal functions.

And finally, after the job was done, the worm would have to destroy itself without leaving a trace.

That is what we are learning happened at Iran's nuclear facilities -- both at Natanz, which houses the centrifuge arrays used for processing uranium into nuclear fuel, and, to a lesser extent, at Bushehr, Iran's nuclear power plant.

At Natanz, for almost 17 months, Stuxnet quietly worked its way into the system and targeted a specific component -- the frequency converters made by the German equipment manufacturer Siemens that regulated the speed of the spinning centrifuges used to create nuclear fuel. The worm then took control of the speed at which the centrifuges spun, making them turn so fast in a quick burst that they would be damaged but not destroyed. And at the same time, the worm masked that change in speed from being discovered at the centrifuges' control panel.

At Bushehr, meanwhile, a second secret set of codes, which Langner called “digital warheads,” targeted the Russian-built power plant's massive steam turbine.

Here's how it worked, according to experts who have examined the worm:

--The nuclear facility in Iran runs an “air gap” security system, meaning it has no connections to the Web, making it secure from outside penetration. Stuxnet was designed and sent into the area around Iran's Natanz nuclear power plant -- just how may never be known -- to infect a number of computers on the assumption that someone working in the plant would take work home on a flash drive, acquire the worm and then bring it back to the plant.

--Once the worm was inside the plant, the next step was to get the computer system there to trust it and allow it into the system. That was accomplished because the worm contained a “digital certificate” stolen from JMicron, a large company in an industrial park in Taiwan. (When the worm was later discovered it quickly replaced the original digital certificate with another certificate, also stolen from another company, Realtek, a few doors down in the same industrial park in Taiwan.)

--Once allowed entry, the worm contained four “Zero Day” elements in its first target, the Windows 7 operating system that controlled the overall operation of the plant. Zero Day elements are rare and extremely valuable vulnerabilities in a computer system that can be exploited only once. Two of the vulnerabilities were known, but the other two had never been discovered. Experts say no hacker would waste Zero Days in that manner.

--After penetrating the Windows 7 operating system, the code then targeted the “frequency converters” that ran the centrifuges. To do that it used specifications from the manufacturers of the converters. One was Vacon, a Finnish Company, and the other Fararo Paya, an Iranian company. What surprises experts at this step is that the Iranian company was so secret that not even the IAEA knew about it.

--The worm also knew that the complex control system that ran the centrifuges was built by Siemens, the German manufacturer, and -- remarkably -- how that system worked as well and how to mask its activities from it.

--Masking itself from the plant's security and other systems, the worm then ordered the centrifuges to rotate extremely fast, and then to slow down precipitously. This damaged the converter, the centrifuges and the bearings, and it corrupted the uranium in the tubes. It also left Iranian nuclear engineers wondering what was wrong, as computer checks showed no malfunctions in the operating system.

Estimates are that this went on for more than a year, leaving the Iranian program in chaos. And as it did, the worm grew and adapted throughout the system. As new worms entered the system, they would meet and adapt and become increasingly sophisticated.

During this time the worms reported back to two servers that had to be run by intelligence agencies, one in Denmark and one in Malaysia. The servers monitored the worms and were shut down once the worm had infiltrated Natanz. Efforts to find those servers since then have yielded no results.

This went on until June of last year, when a Belarusan company working on the Iranian power plant in Beshehr discovered it in one of its machines. It quickly put out a notice on a Web network monitored by computer security experts around the world. Ordinarily these experts would immediately begin tracing the worm and dissecting it, looking for clues about its origin and other details.

But that didn’t happen, because within minutes all the alert sites came under attack and were inoperative for 24 hours.

“I had to use e-mail to send notices but I couldn’t reach everyone. Whoever made the worm had a full day to eliminate all traces of the worm that might lead us them,” Eric Byers, a computer security expert who has examined the Stuxnet. “No hacker could have done that.”

Experts, including inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, say that, despite Iran's claims to the contrary, the worm was successful in its goal: causing confusion among Iran’s nuclear engineers and disabling their nuclear program.

Because of the secrecy surrounding the Iranian program, no one can be certain of the full extent of the damage. But sources inside Iran and elsewhere say that the Iranian centrifuge program has been operating far below its capacity and that the uranium enrichment program had “stagnated” during the time the worm penetrated the underground facility. Only 4,000 of the 9,000 centrifuges Iran was known to have were put into use. Some suspect that is because of the critical need to replace ones that were damaged.

And the limited number of those in use dwindled to an estimated 3,700 as problems engulfed their operation. IAEA inspectors say the sabotage better explains the slowness of the program, which they had earlier attributed to poor equipment manufacturing and management problems. As Iranians struggled with the setbacks, they began searching for signs of sabotage. From inside Iran there have been unconfirmed reports that the head of the plant was fired shortly after the worm wended its way into the system and began creating technical problems, and that some scientists who were suspected of espionage disappeared or were executed. And counter intelligence agents began monitoring all communications between scientists at the site, creating a climate of fear and paranoia.

Iran has adamantly stated that its nuclear program has not been hit by the bug. But in doing so it has backhandedly confirmed that its nuclear facilities were compromised. When Hamid Alipour, head of the nation’s Information Technology Company, announced in September that 30,000 Iranian computers had been hit by the worm but the nuclear facilities were safe, he added that among those hit were the personal computers of the scientists at the nuclear facilities. Experts say that Natanz and Bushehr could not have escaped the worm if it was in their engineers’ computers.

“We brought it into our lab to study it and even with precautions it spread everywhere at incredible speed,” Byres said.

“The worm was designed not to destroy the plants but to make them ineffective. By changing the rotation speeds, the bearings quickly wear out and the equipment has to be replaced and repaired. The speed changes also impact the quality of the uranium processed in the centrifuges creating technical problems that make the plant ineffective,” he explained.

In other words the worm was designed to allow the Iranian program to continue but never succeed, and never to know why.

One additional impact that can be attributed to the worm, according to David Albright of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is that “the lives of the scientists working in the facility have become a living hell because of counter-intelligence agents brought into the plant” to battle the breach. Ironically, even after its discovery, the worm has succeeded in slowing down Iran's reputed effort to build an atomic weapon. And Langer says that the efforts by the Iranians to cleanse Stuxnet from their system “will probably take another year to complete,” and during that time the plant will not be able to function anywhere normally.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/26/secret-agent-crippled-irans-nuclear-ambitions/#ixzz16ZAfGMuB

SWAMPED

Two million: The new homes Britain needs to build to cope with the next 25 years of immigration

By Steve Doughty
Last updated at 1:38 AM on 27th November 2010

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More than two million new homes will have to be built over the next 25 years to cope with immigration, official figures disclosed yesterday.

They showed that room will have to be found to provide homes for 83,000 migrant families a year if the influx continues at the current rate.

More than a third of all the new houses and flats made available between now and the mid-2030s will be needed for individuals and families coming to Britain from abroad, the analysis said.
Open house: Migrants arrive in Britain. At least 600,000 homes will have to be built in London and the South East

Open house: Migrants arrive in Britain. At least 600,000 homes will have to be built in London and the South East over the next 25 years

At least 600,000 of these will have to be in the most overcrowded parts of the country, London and the South-East.

The demand for homes to house migrants is a key reason for the need to build, the Communities Department said. ‘Population growth is the main driver of household growth, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the increase in households between 2008 and 2033,’ said a spokesman.

Around two-thirds of population growth is directly brought about by immigration. Immigration pressure groups accused officials of trying to underplay the effect of the flow of people into the country on new housebuilding.


More...

* Number of second homeowners in rural hotspots up 2,000 per cent in five years

Development is highly unpopular among the great majority of people living in the southern half of the country, where transport, health and social services, water and power supplies are already struggling to keep up.

Sir Andrew Green, of the Migrationwatch think-tank, said that officials had failed in their analysis to mention the role of immigration in population growth and had

relegated any mention of housing for migrants to technical discussions in the second half of their paper. ‘It is inexcusable for the Government to paper over the huge impact of continued massive levels of immigration on housing,’ he said.
Highlighting the immigration issue from yesterday's Daily Mail

Highlighting the immigration issue from yesterday's Daily Mail

‘If immigration is allowed to continue at present levels it will account for just over a third of new households in the next 25 years.

‘The first response to the housing crisis should be to face the facts. The last government was in denial. That cannot be allowed to continue.’ Home Office ministers have capped numbers of visas for workers from outside Europe and are moving on to try to reduce the record rate at which students, many of them thought to be disguised economic migrants, are arriving in Britain.

The Office for National Statistics recorded 211,000 foreign students coming into the country last year and its latest figure for ‘net migration’ – the number of people added to the population in a year after immigration and emigration are both counted – is 215,000. According to the Communities Department, immigration amounts for 36 per cent of the demand for new homes over 25 years.

Much of the rest will be needed because of family break-ups and the ageing population.

The decline of marriage and the rise of cohabitation have resulted in much higher numbers of single parents and separated fathers, and older people increasingly live alone. In all, 5.8million new homes will be needed by 2033, the analysis said.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333540/Two-million-The-new-homes-Britain-needs-build-cope-25-years-immigration.html#ixzz16TFdrTw3

WIKILEAKS - the shit hits the fan

U.S. warns Britain over new WikiLeaks revelations that will 'expose corruption between allies'

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:37 PM on 26th November 2010

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* 3 million documents set to go online
* Bombshell leak thought to include U.S. assessments of Gordon Brown
* Secret talks on return of Lockerbie bomber to Libya may also be leaked
* Allegations 'include U.S. backing of Kurdish terrorists'
* U.S. diplomats face being kicked out of countries in backlash
* Corrupt politicians expected to be named and shamed

Blowing the whistle: Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is said to be preparing to release more sensitive documents

Blowing the whistle: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks (pictured earlier this month), is said to be preparing to release more sensitive documents

David Cameron was warned last night by America that damaging secrets of the ‘special relationship’ are about to be laid bare.

The U.S. ambassador to London made an unprecedented personal visit to Downing Street to warn that whistleblower website WikiLeaks is about to publish secret assessments of what Washington really thinks of Britain.

The website is on the verge of revealing almost 3million documents, including thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent to Washington from the American embassy in London.

The bombshell leak is thought to include U.S. assessments of Gordon Brown’s personality and his prospects of winning the General Election, and secret discussions on the return of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.

Assessments of David Cameron’s election chances and his private assurances to U.S. officials may also be included, Government sources believe.

They fear they will emerge on Sunday in co-ordinated releases in newspapers in Britain, Germany and America.

The British government is so worried that last night it issued a D-Notice, warning that publishing the secrets could compromise national security.

The website has previously released secret details of allied military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Revelations of American brutality in Iraq and Afghanistan created shockwaves, made WikiLeaks notorious and led to its founder Julian Assange - an Australian-born computer hacker - being vilified by governments around the world. He is now wanted for alleged rape in Sweden.

In total, around 2.7million confidential messages between the U.S. government and its embassies around the world are to be released.
Expose: Wikileaks reported on its Twitter page that U.S. allies are being warned

Expose: WikiLeaks' posts on its Twitter page showing how the U.S. government, in anticipation of an imminent expose, is briefing its allies on what to expect

The U.S. State Department warned that the leaks would damage relationships around the world.

Spokesman P J Crowley said: ‘These revelations are harmful to the U.S. and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.’

The U.S. ambassador to Britain, Louis Susman, was seen going into Downing Street and the Foreign Office yesterday to brief officials for what was described as ‘contingency planning’.

‘He came in to explain what they thought we could expect,’ said one Whitehall source.

Defence sources said British national security could be ‘put at risk’ by the release, as they are expected to contain details of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and pull-outs and revelations about secret service practices and intelligence sources.

‘These revelations are harmful to the U.S. and our interests. They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world’

Downing Street is braced for potentially hugely embarrassing disclosures about private U.S. assessments of Britain and its leaders.

There are fears of even the most apparently trivial secrets being hugely damaging.

One British official said they feared that mutual American and British contempt for the French would emerge.

‘Moaning about the French was practically a sport,’ he said.

Mr Cameron’s spokesman declined to discuss the nature of any confidential communications that could be released.

He said: ‘Obviously, the Government has been briefed by U.S. officials, by the ambassador. I don’t want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.’

As well as Britain, the U.S. has warned the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Israel in advance of the release.
Gordon Brown
David Cameron
Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing

Concern: Bombshell leaks are thought to include a U.S. assessment of Gordon Brown and David Cameron's election chances - and secret talks on the return of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi (right) to Libya

It has been claimed that a backlash by countries upset over the leaks may lead to U.S. diplomats being expelled.

The next release is expected to include thousands of diplomatic cables reporting allegations of corruption against politicians in Russia, Afghanistan and other Central Asian nations.

But there were no specific details as to the nature of the corruption allegations or which governments are involved.

However, according to the UK-based Arabic daily newspaper al-Hayat, the WikiLeaks release includes documents that show Turkey has helped Al Qaeda in Iraq - an extraordinary revelation which could kill off the country’s hopes of joining the EU.
‘HA HA, I HIT THEM'’: THE EXPOSES THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

Until now WikiLeaks had published two batches of classified files.

The first was about the war in Afghanistan and gave a grim picture of the day-to-day struggle against the Taliban and the frustrations of trying to train the Afghan police.

The second covered the period in the occupation of Iraq between 2004 and 2009 and contained revelations that America failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape, torture and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.
Video expose on Wikileaks

The information also revealed that more than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents - U.S. and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

In addition, the logs claim that in one incident a British rifleman shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets.

Before the June exposes, the whistleblowing service shocked the world with the publication of a video in April showing American soldiers laughing as a helicopter strike kills around a dozen civilians in Baghdad.

In the 17-minute black-and-white footage, pictured above, from an Apache helicopter gunsight, the crew can be heard discussing the carnage as if they were playing a video war game.

One soldier can even be heard shouting: 'Ha, ha, I hit 'em.' Another says: 'Look at those dead b******s.'
WHO IS JULIAN ASSANGE AND WHAT IS HIS WEBSITE WIKILEAKS ABOUT?

WikiLeaks was set up in 2007 by journalist and computer programmer Julian Assange.

The Australian, whose parents met at a protest against the Vietnam War, says he wanted to allow whistleblowers to publish sensitive materials without fear of being identified.

Mr Assange, pictured below at a press conference in July following his first major expose, says his website's complex set-up is designed to ensure that information sent to it becomes anonymous before it is passed on to the web servers.
Julian Assange of WikiLeaks

Its servers are spread all over the world and do not keep logs, so governments cannot trace where the information is being sent and received from.

Even so, WikiLeaks encourages donors to post the material to them on CDs to its base in Iceland, over encrypted internet connections or from net cafes.

The service, which also runs a network of lawyers to defend its publications and sources, claims that none of its informants have been traced so far.

Adding to this intrigue, Mr Assange's legal team have recently been busy arguing over an international arrest warrant which has been issued for the WikiLeaks boss by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The allegations, which the 39-year-old has repeatedly denied, relate to two women he met while on a visit to Sweden in August.

Mr Assange’s London lawyer Mark Stephens, has said the claims were 'false and without basis’.

The Washington Post reported that the files will contain allegations that the U.S. has supported the PKK, a Kurdish rebel organization that has been waging a separatist war against Turkey since 1984.

The U.S. says it has known for some time that WikiLeaks held the cables.

No one has been charged with passing them to the website, but suspicion focuses on Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over an earlier leak.

A Downing Street spokesman today declined to discuss the nature of any confidential communications which may have been obtained by WikiLeaks.

But he said: 'Obviously, the Government has been briefed by U.S. officials, by the U.S. ambassador, as to the likely content of these leaks.

'I don't want to speculate about precisely what is going to be leaked before it is leaked.'

The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv warned the country's foreign ministry that some of the cables could concern U.S.-Israel relations, the daily newspaper Haaretz claimed.

WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed earlier this week that its new release would be seven times larger than the nearly 400,000 Pentagon documents related to the Iraq war which it made public in October.

The U.S. State Department confirmed it has begun notifying foreign governments and it fears serious diplomatic fallout over the expose.

'These revelations are harmful to the United States and our interests,' said a spokesman.

'They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.'

Senior military staff on both sides of the Atlantic are still furious over that release of 400,000 classified documents, the biggest military leak of all time.

They detailed what WikiLeaks founder Assange called 'compelling evidence of war crimes' by the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraq government and sparked calls for a full inquiry.

Should WikiLeaks go ahead with its promise, it will be the third time it has published such information in the face of opposition from military top brass around the world.
MYSTERY OF ASSANGE ‘LIFE INSURANCE’ TWEET

WikiLeaks is urging the public to download a mysterious ‘insurance’ file said to contain information to be released if Julian Assange is killed.

In a Twitter post today (pictured below) the whistleblowing service published a link to the Pirate Bay file sharing site with the comment: 'Now is a good time to download some ‘history insurance’.
Expose: Wikileaks reported on its Twitter page that U.S. allies are being warned

The giant file, nearly 2GB in size, is said to contain thousands of secret U.S. documents aimed at embarrassing the nation’s government, and potentially causing harm to the United States’ relations with allies.

The file has been around since this summer and is heavily encrypted.

In the event of Mr Assange’s death (or some other unspecified reason), the secret key would be released — exposing the documents to all who have downloaded and obtained the key.

It is uncertain why WikiLeaks is now urging users to download the file, but it just may be that they’re planning to release the key soon.

The first batch was about the war in Afghanistan and gave a grim picture of the day-to-day struggle against the Taliban and the frustrations of trying to train the Afghan police.

The second covered the period in the occupation of Iraq between 2004 and 2009 and contained revelations that America failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, rape, torture and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers.

The information also revealed that more than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents - U.S. and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

In addition, the logs claim that in one incident a British rifleman shot dead an eight-year-old Iraqi girl as she played in the streets.

The information will almost certainly have come from the Bradley Manning, the dissident U.S. army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked the first tranche, some 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in Afghanistan.

Adding to the controversy is the international arrest warrant which has been issued for Mr Assange by Swedish prosecutors over allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The allegations, which the 39-year-old Australian has repeatedly denied, relate to two women he met while on a visit to Sweden in August.

Assange’s London lawyer Mark Stephens, has said the claims were 'false and without basis’.


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Asian paedophile Taboo

Asian gangs, schoolgirls and a sinister taboo: As nine men are jailed for grooming up to 100 for sex, the disturbing trend few dare talk about

By Sue Reid
Last updated at 12:48 AM on 27th November 2010

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At a pristine house on the ­outskirts of Derby, life is slowly getting back to some semblance of normality. The teenage girl living here is a college student who’s put photos of herself dancing and laughing with her friends on several social ­networking websites.

A few miles away, another teenager, only a ­little older at 18, won a prize last month for being an ‘inspirational’ student at her college. A third girl, a child of 14, has a loving mother who waves her off to a Derby school each morning from a terrace home with a manicured front garden and picket fence.

The three girls from decent families have, almost certainly, never met. Yet each has become caught up in what’s believed to be the biggest case of serial sex abuse ever uncovered in Britain. This week, nine men from Derby were jailed for a string of offences against these girls and 24 others whom they groomed for sex.
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Guilty: Married fathers Mohammed Liaqat (left) and Abid Saddique who were jailed at Leicester Crown Court this week

The gang — all but one of whom were Asian — roamed the streets in a BMW with blacked-out windows looking for girls. They plied them with vodka from bottles and plastic cups ­hidden under the seats, before raping or ­abusing them. They were not the only victims in Derby. Up to 100 girls may have been ensnared in this horror after being lured by the smartly-dressed gang into the car outside school gates, shops, ­coffee bars near the city’s railway station and a local park.

Over weeks and months, the girls were taken to houses in Derby and other towns before being raped by the gang and their friends, some of whom paid the men in cash.

In rundown flats with mattresses on the floor, the girls were locked into rooms and turned into sex slaves. If they protested or refused, they were threatened with being beaten with a ­hammer and even told they would be shot. The depraved sex acts were filmed on mobile phones and may have now been sold on through internet pornography sites.

As one of the girls, a 16-year old raped by the gang, said through tears this week: ‘They would take you out, buy you ice creams and a lovely, nice meal. There’s a part of you who thinks it’s really exciting: “I have met this lovely man.” You feel like they’re going to keep you safe. They then abuse every part of you.’

If this was a one-off, it would be deeply ­troubling indeed. The reality is, it’s not. Many schoolgirls — one just eight — living in towns and cities all over the north of England are ­falling prey to gangs who groom them to be sex slaves for themselves or other men.
Depraved: Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique from the gang cruise the streets of Derby

Depraved: Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique from the gang cruise the streets of Derby

The resulting court cases have marked ­similarities. A gang of five Asian men was jailed earlier this month for a total of 32 years for a string of sexual offences against girls aged between 12 and 16 in Rotherham, South ­Yorkshire. The judge, Peter Kelson QC, told the men they were ‘sexual predators’, adding: ‘You had what you regarded as your fun. Now you will take your punishment. All five of you were ­convicted of sexual activity with a child. The clue is in the title: a child.’

This case came just weeks after a privately-educated schoolgirl, forced into sex slavery at 14, bravely gave evidence in court against nine Asian men, who were jailed for her ‘­sustained sexual abuse’ over many months.

The girl was picked up by the gang while walking through Rochdale, Greater Manchester. They took her to a nightclub, gave her vodka, and then drove her to a private house where three men had sex with her. For 11 days, missing from home, she was passed around ‘like a piece of meat’ from man to man before finally managing to escape.

The experience of all these young girls has an uncomfortable element to it. It is a subject that in politically correct modern Britain is almost taboo — rarely spoken about by the police, the courts or even the ­agencies that counsel the girls afterwards.

The simple fact is that the ­perpetrators are almost all Asian and from the north of England — and their victims white.

This week, the BBC reported the Derby case repeatedly on radio with barely a mention of the fact all but one of the gang members were Asian, or the fact the vast majority of the victims — 22 of the 27 mentioned in court — were white girls.

Victim: Burst into tears as she recounted her ordeal

Victim: Burst into tears as she recounted her ordeal

In the city’s own newspaper, an eight-page investigation under the lurid headline in red capitals ­‘Monsters in our Midst’ showed ­pictures of all nine gang members and printed their names, but failed to use the word Asian once.

At this point, it should be said loud and clear that the vast majority of Asian men are decent, law-abiding citizens and that rapists come from all racial and social backgrounds.

But as Emma, a 21-year-old who eight years ago became a sex slave in another northern town and now counsels other victims, told the Mail recently: ‘The truth is, most men running the gangs in the north of England are Asians of Pakistani ­origin. But very few of the authorities will say this.’

Instead, it has been left to some outstandingly brave members of the Muslim community, former MP Ann Cryer (who was roundly criticised for speaking her mind when seven years ago she said Asian gangs were ­raping white girls) and a handful of the girl victims to highlight the reasons behind this deafening silence.

Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Lancashire-based Ramadhan Foundation, a charity working for peaceful harmony between different communities, has said: ‘I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist. These men are criminals and should be treated as criminals — whatever their race.’

In Derby this week, Shokat Lal, chairman of the city’s Pakistani Community Centre in the Normanton area — where many of the girls were taken to seedy flats and then sexually attacked by the gang – spoke out, too: ‘It is important that political correctness or fear of offending any particular group of people does not get in the way of protecting those who are vulnerable.
At work: Gang members stop two girls in the street late at night and engage them in conversation

At work: Gang members stop two girls in the street late at night and engage them in conversation

‘This is not an issue of race or ­religion, but about right and wrong, and people committing criminal acts. Vulnerable girls are being exploited for sex. We must stand together as one, people of all backgrounds, to denounce these vile acts.’

On the Derby doorstep of one of the girl victims, a relative told me: ‘Our child is beginning to get over it. She is hoping to go to university and enjoying life, even going down into the city ­centre to shop or to see friends.

‘We know what has happened and all about the men who are doing this. We only wish the whole world knew the truth and their own ­community might then step in and stop them.’

So why are such vile crimes taking place in so-called modern, civilised Britain?

One reason is the money that can be made. According to Scotland Yard, a gang can reap £300,000 a year from prostituting a young white girl. There is more money in selling a girl for sex than peddling drugs — especially if she is a virgin and free of sexual diseases.

And then there is a controversial, but relevant, cultural issue. Asian men of Pakistani heritage often believe white girls have low morals compared with Muslim girls. ‘They wear what they call “slags” clothing, showing much of their bodies and “deserve what they get”,’ an Asian social worker in the north of England has told me.
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Jailed: Akshay Kumar (left) and Ziafat Yasin are now behind bars as a result of their association with Liaqat and Saddique
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Jailed: Mohammed Imran Rehman (left) and Graham Blackham were members of the gang that held sex parties with underage girls in Derby

The girls are held in contempt by the gang members, who do not even call them by their own names. They refer to each one by the same generic term, either to the girls themselves or to their Asian friends on their mobile phones — the Urdu term ‘gori’, which means simply ‘white-skinned female’.

To add a further twist to this ­brutal cultural divide, the gangs hide their own names from the girls. They call themselves by unidentifiable nicknames, a simple trick which makes the police’s job of tracing the culprits more difficult. And, of course, the girls have no idea who they really are.

In the cases that have come to court in the north of England, whether in Rochdale, Rotherham or in Derby, the modus operandi is invariably the same.

A schoolgirl is out with her friends in the town centre, often on a ­Saturday afternoon or after class on her way home. She’s bored, so when a group of smiling men pull up in a flash car blaring rap music she takes notice. The men, smartly dressed, start their chat-up routine. They ask her to ‘chill’ with them. They say ‘come for a ride’ and tell her she’s pretty. They promise they will buy her a meal at any place she chooses.

Once in the car, they produce a plastic cup of vodka and give it to her in the back seat.

They hand her a cigarette or a spliff of cannabis, too. The girl is befuddled, but charmed. The gang plays a waiting game, telling her to meet them tomorrow at the same place.

She gives them her mobile phone number and they warn her she must not tell her parents about anything that has gone on.

The trap has been set. As Emma, the counsellor captured by a gang at 13 in Leeds, explained to me: ‘I thought I was having a great time. I was young and a virgin.
‘I had no idea the men were part of a gang when they drove up in a Bentley with personalised number plates.’

Not one word of her story would surprise the Derby schoolgirls who over the past year have given their accounts in a series of court cases which ended this week. The two 28-year-old gang leaders, Abid ­Saddique and Mohammed Liaqat, both married fathers, face years behind bars after being found guilty of sexual abuse over an 18-month period.

Despite barely uttering a sentence during police interviews, the pair told the court that their ­sexual encounters were ‘consensual’ or did not happen at all. They said they were living a secret life, hidden from wives in their arranged marriages and their families.

Abid Saddique told the court: ‘These are girls I did not respect and these are girls who are just ­partying and taking drugs and we had consensual sex.’

Mohammed Liaqat, who lived on benefits and with a wife recently arrived from Pakistan, said in ­evidence that he used nicknames to cover his tracks from police and to keep his double life from his family.

It was only a chance arrest in late 2008 that halted the Derby gang. Staffordshire police stopped a car in nearby Burton upon Trent which was carrying three men, including the two gang leaders, and two young girls. They were suspected of shoplifting.

The girls were taken back to Derby in a police car and told ­the horrified officers about what was going on. Meanwhile, a nurse from one of the city’s schools alerted police that a girl had come to her surgery saying she had been gang-raped.

It was the start of a huge undercover operation involving 100 detectives. Even now, police don’t believe that all the girls ensnared by ­Saddique, Liaqat and the rest of the gang have been found.

As Detective Superintendent Debbie Platt of Derbyshire Police said yesterday: ‘We were really shocked with the scale and extent of what we’d uncovered, but this is a very hidden crime.’


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