Financial Times explains Galleon insider trading allegations

Not sure whether FT allows you to link to its articles. You may have to register and go to its interactive section yourself, but this is just too useful not to draw to your attention....honest...and there's a list of other articles linked at the foot of the graphic.

Haapy clicking!

"Furious" Met chief abandons plans for armed patrols

Wow! Lets see if a Labour council can get away with calling the cops to account once the Tories are in power. But the principle matters and if Boris J establishes it for all council-police relations we will be creeping back towards democratic accountability in the UK

48 violent or sex offenders under supervision charged with further offences

Problems managing serious offenders on release

Police in £9 million scheme to log "domestic extremists"

Plod seeks to record dissidents and deviants as usual. Pretending that they are potential terrorists, presumably. All this nopnsense set up by ACPO, which used to be a Chief Constables' Trade Union and is now apparently a private company [go check its web site and weep!] It sells services commercially. Could that be why the police prioritise business and the state above the citizen taxpayer, who actually pays their wages?
There is no legal basis for an offence of domestic extremism and therefore no basis for invading citizens privacy. Just who is it in the police who hates democracy this much? I think we should be told!

Dutch Disease

Interesting tale of a Dutch bank and banker who had lots of fun, made lots of friends in the political class and then went bankrupt. Crimes of the powerful? How many more are there to go phut?

Inquiry fails to find single trafficker who forced anyone into prostitution

Analysis of the figures for those arrested during Operation Pentameter 2. Actually, there were 5 people jailed for coerced prostitution, but they had been arrested or inquiries had begun before Pentameter. More people are coerced into work than into prostitution. This was a huge operation, too. So have we been conned by NGOs with an interest in exaggerating the phenomenon? id like to see the police report rather than a newspaper account.

Rich List tycoon Trevor Baines convicted of £111 million Wall Strret share fraud

In an Isle of Man Court, astonishingly

Commons protest as Trafigura gag lifted

Carter Ruck withdraw attempt to prevent newspapers printing a parliamentary question, probably to prevent their action being tested in court and thus being prevented from trying it on again. Ethics? Nah, we're solicitors. We dont have ethics.

Haliburton plumbs new depths

This has to be read! These companies are denying employees access to the courts as well as using the courts to prevent us finding out what they get up to. Trafigura's disgraceful behaviour this week...or should that be Carter Ruck's? is actually taken even lower by the behaviour of Haliburton as described here. Have lawyers suddenly lost their ethics? This is criminal behaviour by a group of people, a company even...so it must be organised crime. Allegedly aiding and abetting rape is what this amounts to.

OLAF doesnt want independence from the Commission

OLAF is the EU anti-fraud unit. It struggles! The EU Observer article reviews the arguments about its role, powers and supervision.

Detectives must act "without fear or favour" in pursuit of M.Ps

As long as theyre Labour M.P.s! From the Torygraph, which reminds us that it was wrong to search Damian Green's office.

Soaring CCTV cameras are "costly, futile and politically motivated"

A Scottish academic speaks to the Times about CCTV

Gang tries to torch Merseyside police helicopter

Eh dear. The Liverpool criminal. These guys actually entered an RAF base and set the police helicopter alight.

Army of Mavericks Lays Down its Arms

INLA declares the armed struggle over and is in talks about decommissioning

Sordid story of building contractors and the Peoples Party in Madrid

Piece from el Pais in Spanish. 7 construction firms paid lots of money to get favourable planning decisions...awfully familiar story around the world. Lot of details about the accusations in this piece. Leads to top levels of Peoples Party

Gun murders linked to North London Turkish gangs in heroin war

Good article, linking violence to the decline of the Baybasin clan after key members jailed and a falling out with the PKK. Repeat of a recognisable pattern. Who is in charge of policy after a gang has been broken up? Betcha nobody is...

Stars caught up in alleged £219 million tax "scam"

HMRC taking Vanitis executives to court over tax avoidance scheme. Going to be an interesting case. the revenue hasnt had a lot more luck than the SFO with its prosecutions, so we shall see...

Two Wrongs Make Another Fiasco

Opinion piece, suggesting that the idiots who got us into this mess [Afghanistan and Iraq] still successfully dominate the debate. Hey, man, over here in Yurrup we noticed! We are still fighting the enemy that doesnt exist rather than the more complex and divided enemy that does in such a way that they have no choice but to work together. My friends, the secret of counterinsurgency is simple. You make it more attractive not to be fighting then to be fighting. That is not the same thing as saying you make it so painful to be fighting that you give in...More carrots, less high-level bombing..ah me. How do we get rid of Doctor Strangelove's hold on Americas thinking processes?

A Dogged Taliban Chief Rebounds, vexing U.S.

New York times piece on Mullah Omar...but not really. It harbinges the coming debate about negotiating NATO out of Afghanistan. More important is the link to McChrystal's assessment of the insurgency.

"Godfather of Russian Mafia" dies from July attack wounds

Death of "Yaponchik" one of the "thieves in law".

Army braced for imminent attack in Northern Ireland

Mortar attack expected. article also charts recent activity by dissident groups

Fears grow for safety of police on streets of Northern Ireland

Actually from the Belfast Telegraph, though printed in the Independent. May be part of Unionist v sinn fein dispute over policing, but there clearly is a growing threat to police personnel from dissident republican groups.

Drugs baron guilty over £1 million plot

Curtis Warren found guilty of planning to flood Jersey with cannabis. Warren hails from Liverpool and even in jail in Amsterdam is still considered to be a major player.

Plea bargaining your life away

Scary opinion piece on Russia's new plea bargaining law and how it gives the silovki even more power.

Radical Animal Activism Gains in Popularity

Animal rights organisations emerge in Russia. They support the work of British activists, if you scroll down through the article and have picket British businesses in Moscow. Ameican activist Steven Best has visited them. The things you learn in the Moscow Times!

Crimespotting: the new way to make money on the Internet

This cant be true...can it? You can sign your CCTV camera up to "internet Eyes" and punters score points for spotting suspicious activities....It's starting in Stratford on Avon, of all places.

"Terrorist financier" suspect named in Supreme Court's first ruling

So
Farewell then
House of Lords...
The court is dead,
Long live the Supreme Court

E.J.Thribb [after Private Eye]

Cage fighter jailed over £53 million cash robbery

This is the 2006 robbery at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge Kent. Alleged main player still in Morocco, from where a request for extradition has been refused. £20 million so far recovered.

Hackers hit more email accounts

This story started with the publication of hotmail account usernames and passwords on a website. Here, the BBC claims that it goes much further than that.

Ousted South African police chief's corruption trial begins

His defence is that this is all a conspiracy cooked up between organised crime and the prosecutors. Some lurid tales will be coming out in this trial then!

Cocaine drug of choice for under 25s, NHS figures suggest

I'm sorry, but that isnt what the figures say. 2,692 people sought help for cocaine addiction in 2007-8, while 9,632 sought it for crack and heroin. The figures showa decline in crack and heroin abuse and a rise in cocaine abuse, but there were still more than 3 times as many crack and heroin users seeking help. The headline writer needs to read the article him or herself.

More on German recruits to terrorist group

Telegraph article on same story as previous post. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has been recruiting in Germany. Story apparently goes back as far as May this year.

Video raises alarm in Germany

I should really be quoting from a German newspaper, but this is from La Reppublica, suggesting a group of converts to Islam of German origin has been seen on video training in al Qaeda camps. The videos are linked from the article.

French Government begins anti-drug education campaign

There are some stats in this piece from Le Monde [in French, of course]. 40% 0f 17 year olds have smoked cannabis at least once. Cocaine use has risen from 0.9% to 3.3% and and amphetamine use from 1% to 2.7% between 2000 and 2008. Price data given too.

Muslim Groups hit out over"funding with security strings attached"

Is this the legacy of Ruth Kelly or Hazel Blears? Remember the past two community secretaries? On the other hand, what is wrong with "building resilience to violent extremism". Someone in the article suggests it is difficult to measure compliance...Hmmm. Not beyond the wit of person, I surmise! All funding maybe shouldnt be under the "Prevent" agenda, though. There should be some funding for the alleviation of derpivation under other programmes...and surely there is?? Dont worry, the change of government will be sweeping all this stuff away shortly.

90% of US bills carry traces of cocaine

Thanks again to Monty for this...Just when was the war on drugs won, exactly?
Note that in 2007 Chinese bank notes carried no traces, but in 2008, traces were found. This will make iy difficult toprove where drug traces on a defendant actually originated.

Australian police bust hacker ring only to have it backfire

Hubris....but I'm sure we shouldnt giggle...

Judge faults freezing of assets in terror cases

Thanks Monty.
Northern Ohio trumps Texas and Manhattan here. Reasserts Fourth Amendment and attacks colonial British seizures! All about Treasury campaign against charities, mostly linked to Hamas.

Jack Straw backing down on on the spot fines

Article finishes by stating that the Magistrates Association thinks police will abuse such powers. In any case, only 50% are paid "on time", whatever that means. Needless to say, magistrates want cases to come to court. In which case, the court system needs to speed up.

Britain offered Ghadaffi £14 million to stop supporting the IRA

As usual, not sure that the headline is borne out by the article. These were issues in the 1970s. The UK government was trying to stop discrimination against British companies in trade terms. It was also trying to get the Libyans to understand the nature of the Northen Ireland conflict. The Libyan government had claims for compensation. So did the British government. Alright, all these things were part of the same negotiations, but the headline, though irresistible, is ingenuous.

CIA at work in UK, anti-terror chief tells M.P.s

Given American abilities to screw up anti-terrorist work, this is bad news, but that 12-13% of the prison population is Muslim is much more disturbing. We have to rethink prison policy in the light of the risk of radicalisation there.

Still not tired

Piece on "terrorism" by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. Four good points made. Read them!

Another alleged Camorra boss picked up by carabinieri

Article from La Repubblica. Ah, "latitante" means hiding or on the run.As I readit theyve picked up three key players in a week. Another "improve your Italian" posting.

Tel Aviv court charges Gaidamak

Article from Moscow Times on Israeli-Russian businessman. Didnt his son own Portsmouth footbal club? He is charged with money-laundering. The French are also after him for involvement in arms dealing and "Angolagate". The Israelis wouldnt extradite him to France. In addition, there is no extradition from Russia. Its unconstitutional.

BAE Systems ready to admit guilt over corruption allegations

Sunday Telegraph report..actually it says company and its lawyers want to read evidence against it before agreeing deal with the SFO. Where is the Manhattan D.A.s office when you need them? The article actually presents BAEs point of view. Not an objective word in it, journalists. You're so lazy!

How criminals communicate

Oh Wow! Laurie Taylor talks to Diego Gambetta about criminal communication codes! In the radio 4 Thinking Allowed series. First time I've found these, so it may disappear to an archive area.

Government to retreat from "super-fraud" strategy

Plans to create a National Fraud Reporting Centre scrapped. grand plan to coordinate and share informatio0n between agencies in tatters. Are we surprised? Er...no! another victory for the City...but of course, there's no money to fund it...and investor confidence in the UK? Caveat emptor, old boy!

John Gotti Jr Trial: best friend of mafia boss turns informer

There really is no honour among theives, it would appear. Lurid tales.

Up to 64,000 women in UK "are child sex offenders"

Lucy Faithfull Foundation estimate...but remember these groups have an interest in giving a high figure. Anyone out there have figures for other European countries? They suspect 320,000 paedophiles in UK, but there are only 32,000 names on sex offenders register. Newspapers love this sort of stuff. Classic moral panic. How are figures estimated? There are 56 female offenders in custody. It may be true it may be not, but until we see the methodology, it is difficult to comment.

Barbarians within the Kremlin gates

Its far too long since I posted one of Yulia Latinina's pieces. I'll let you read it for yourself

Scotland crime level falls to lowest for 29 years

Makes you wonder, innit? Crime falls, so Tory Press attacks the police. Just like Labour, not in power in Scotland, claim it's not doing as well as rest of the UK.

Jail for gangsters girlfriends who stash guns

Independent says black teenagers being targeted. Part of operation Trident aiming at crime in six London priority boroughs.

RBA company "bribed Nigerians"

Courtesy of kelly Yip's daily postings:

Article from the Age, an Australian newspaper. The srticle names UK politicians. A Reserve Bank of Australia company called Securency is named. This will be in Private Eye, perhaps, but there are a lot of injunctions being used in the UK to stop stories coming out.

Ingushetia's cycle of violence

Consequences of spillover from Chechnya, over authoritarian security services and vendetta mentality.

Mexico makes record drugs seizure

Actually its a seizure of precursor chemicals for making methamphetamine.

MI5 kept file on former Prime Minister Harold Wilson

I think we knew all this, and there is some astonishingly selective use of material here by the BBC. Times and Telegraph give the new book a more objective treatment. A bunch of paranoid obsessives [sorry people with Cold War mentality] in the Secret Service were seeing communists in every bed and ignoring paramilitaries, the book also says.

The judge who lost her head over perfume

A loose translation! Continuing the theme of using as many different ssources as possible, here's an odd one from el Pais. A magistrate has been suspended for allegedly abusing her position to obtain favourable treatment [again, loose translation]

New Lithuanian President regrets naming of country as CIA prison collaborator

Lithuania, Poland and Romania, eh? What a trio? One president done for organised crime, another with a very odd couple in charge and finally, one of the two most corrupt countries in Europe. Whose side were the CIA on exactly?

EU homeland security policy lacks democratic oversight says watchdog

The companies who make money out of European security contracts are the very ones who design them. Surprise, surprise! This is a long and excellent piece about the bodies involved in security policy making and the issues involved. Well worth a read. I read a piece on the French attitude under Sarkozy. Must find it and link it in. Its in a Belgian online journal.

Police spend less than 6 hours a week on the beat

Daily Telegraph sustain the Conservative Party campaign for change in the British police. Your blogger is stil trying to understand the agenda. Researchers have known all this for years, but the Home Office has been happy to have a police sevice for the government and business and not for the public, because that's what politicians have wanted. You can bet that we arent going to get a locally accountable police service back. Presumably the Tories want a police that deals with the "dangerous classes" and not the respectable ones. We shall see. Thats an article from each of the broadsheets just to be as objective as possible!

The Facebook Paedophile Ring

Paedophile groups are neglected in studies of organised crime, but the methodology here is important. As far as we know, these people never met. Loose networking via the internet. Other criminal enterprises are using similar methods.

Brown stands back as BAE faces prosecution over bribes

This case seems to me to disqualify Tony Blair from ever being President of the EU. The way he stopped prosecution of BaE over the Saudi case was essentially an abuse of power. Although he didnt benefit personally from his action, it was interference with the judicicial process for political reasons [Discuss].

Allegations that US paid Lockerbie witness

Your blogger has been struggling with his new laptop and will now attempt to catch up on lost posts, starting with this one. I have read another today that argues that all angles of this case have been political and makes some serious allegations about political interference in the original trial. Lots of issues here.