Taskforce concern

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Actually nobody in government is day-to-day in charge of bringing together all the elements of counter terrorism, particularly fighting extremist violent ideas at community level.

"And I think if you had a single minister who brought all of those elements together at a senior point in government you perhaps avoid this problem of things being started and not seen through."

He particularly cited the Muslim Taskforce as an initiative where the momentum may have been lost in what he believes is crucial in the fight against extremist ideas.

Set up to advise the government about the causes of extremism, in the wake of the London Tube bombings last July, the taskforce proposed several ideas, including a Mosques and Imams National Advisory Body (MINAB).

But taskforce members are now critical of the way the MINAB is being set up, and one of them, the British Muslim Forum, has started its own process of consultation with its members and affiliated mosques.

He is alleged to have caused 700,000 dollars (400,000 pounds, 578,000 euros) worth of damage to defence systems and rendered computers inoperable at a naval weapon station at a critical time following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Lawson argued that US President George W. Bush was unlikely to be bound by an "unsigned and anonymous" diplomatic note the lawyer had received from the US Embassy in London guaranteeing McKinnon would not be treated as an "enemy combatant".

As such, McKinnon -- who was inspired by the 1983 film "WarGames" -- was still vulnerable to a "Military Order Number One", the legal mechanism by which the US president can order a suspect's detention indefinitely, he said.

That risk meant it would be a breach of his human rights to extradite him, he added, noting that even if he was not sent to the US military camp for security suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, he was still likely to face a stiffer jail sentence.

Proceedings began last year when lawyers for the US government called McKinnon's alleged activities "the biggest military computer hack of all time".

Referring to the diplomatic note Wednesday, lawyer Mark Summers said there was no precedent for Washington reneging on its pledge and urged the matter to be taken on "faith".

Judgment was reserved until May 10.

Judge Advocate Bayliss also refused to allow the defence to call as witnesses, among others, Ben Griffin, a member of the SAS who resigned from the Army because he believed the Iraq war was illegal and who refused to serve alongside US forces because of the excesses they committed. Also barred was an Iraqi doctor who had flown to Britain to describe his experience of what has happened to the country following the invasion.

During the hearing Kendall-Smith repeatedly expressed his view that an order for him to deploy to Basra was illegal. He also described the actions of the Americans in Iraq as being akin to the Nazis.

It took the military jury of five RAF officers just one hour and 28 minutes to find Kendall-Smith guilty on all five charges of disobeying orders.

Judge Advocate Bayliss accused Kendall-Smith, a former university tutor of moral philosophy, of "amazing arrogance" and seeking to be a "martyr". The sentence was intended to make an example of him and serve as a warning to others in the forces.

"Obedience of orders is at the heart of any disciplined force. Refusal to obey orders means the force is not a disciplined force but a rabble. Those who wear the Queen's uniform cannot pick and choose which orders they will obey. Those who seek to do so must face the serious consequences," he said.

"We have considered carefully whether it would be sufficient to dismiss you from the Royal Air Force and fine you as well. We do not think that we could possibly be justified in taking such a lenient course. It would send a message to all those who wear the Queen's uniform that it does not matter if they refuse to carry out the policy of Her Majesty's government."

A spokeswoman for the Royal Air Force Prosecuting Authority said: "It is right that Flt Lt Kendall-Smith was prosecuted for disobeying legal orders. British troops are operating in Iraq under a United Nations mandate and at the invitation of the Iraqi government."

As well as the sentence, which will be served in a civilian prison, Kendall-Smith was ordered to pay £20,000 towards his defence costs which were covered by legal aid. The court heard that he had personal savings of £20,000. His solicitor, Justin Hughston-Roberts said the intention was to appeal against both conviction and sentence.

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on defence, said "Hostility to the war is not just confined to the public at large, many members of the armed forces share their concern and have genuine moral objections to serving in Iraq.

"This case illustrates the legal quagmire that has developed over the Government's decision to go to war. The Government has repeatedly had to hunt around to find legal justification for this war."

The former Labour MP Tam Dalyell said: "Any servicemen has obligations, but a doctrine was laid down at Nuremberg [trials of Nazis for war crimes] that when orders seem to be a crime against humanity, it was not a sufficient excuse to say simply: 'They were orders and I was doing what I was told.'"

Kate Hudson, chairwoman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "Many people believe the war in Iraq was an illegal war and therefore we would consider he was quite within his rights and it was indeed commendable he believed it was right to stand up to what he considered to be an illegal instruction to engage in an illegal war. We have full sympathy for him and he has our full support. We consider it to be a commendable and moral act."

Lindsey German, convener for the Stop the War Coalition, said: "The majority of public opinion agree this war was not based on international law."

Why he sacrificed his career and his liberty

"I have been convicted and sentenced, a very distressing experience. But I still believe I was right to make the stand that I did and refuse to follow orders to deploy to Iraq - orders I believe were illegal. I am resigned to what may happen to me in the next few months. I shall remain resilient and true to my beliefs which, I believe, are shared by so many others."

"Iraq was the only reason I could not follow the order to deploy. As a commissioned officer, I am required to consider every order given to me. Further, I am required to consider the legality of such an order not only as to its effect on domestic but also international law. I was subjected, as was the entire population, to propaganda depicting force against Iraq to be lawful. I have studied in very great depth the various commentaries and briefing notes, including one prepared by the Attorney General, and in particular the main note to the PM dated 7 March 2003. I have satisfied myself that the actions of the armed forces with the deployment of troops were an illegal act - as indeed was the conflict. To comply with an order that I believe unlawful places me in breach of domestic and international law, something I am not prepared to do."

"The invasion and occupation of Iraq is a campaign of imperial military conquest and falls into the category of criminal acts. I would have had criminal responsibility vicariously if I had gone to Iraq. I still have two great loves in life - medicine and the RAF. To take the decision that I did caused great sadness, but I had no other choice."

'Criminals' in Blair's Britain

Maya Evans

She became the first person to be convicted under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) 2005 last December. She had been arrested with Milan Rai at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, for reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq. She was given a conditional discharge by Bow Street magistrates and ordered to pay £100 costs.

Brian Haw

Mr Haw, 56, has held a protest against Britain's involvement in Iraq in Parliament Square since 2001, sleeping in the square. He was the intended target of SOCPA, which states that anyone demonstrating in a half-mile zone in central London must have police permission, but he won a legal battle to continue because his protest began before the law was introduced. The Government has taken the matter to the Court of Appeal.

Milan Rai

On Wednesday, Mr Rai was fined £350 and ordered to pay £150 in costs for his unauthorised demonstration at the Cenotaph, where he read out the names of UK soldiers killed in Iraq. He pleaded guilty to breaching SOCPA.

Douglas Barker

The 72-year-old former RAF pilotfrom Purton, near Swindon, was found guilty of withholding 10 per cent of his income tax in protest at the Iraq war. He had sent a note to the Inland Revenue explaining that he would give the money to charity. But in February magistrates at Chippenham, Wiltshire, dismissed his protest. Bailiffs will take property to cover the £1,215.45 Mr Barker is said to owe.

Geneviève Roberts

Seventy-one percent of those interviewed said their view of Royal, a regional Socialist leader who confirmed this week that she would probably bid to be France's first female president in 2007, had been boosted by the dispute.

Some 55 percent agreed that Sarkozy, the interior minister who long urged Villepin to back down and seek a compromise with protesting students, had also been strengthened.

The poll of 1,000 people conducted on April 11-12 confirmed other survey findings that Chirac and his close ally Villepin have been severely undermined by their handling of sometimes violent protests which drew millions onto the streets.

That could weigh on the French right as a whole, with the survey noting that 59 percent of its voters were disappointed or angry at the government's capitulation. On the left, 81 percent of voters expressed either relief or satisfaction.

Chirac agreed on Monday to scrap the First Job Contract (CPE), aimed at creating jobs by making it easier to hire and fire the under-26s but which critics argued would only create more job insecurity.

Royal, an elegant and photogenic 52-year-old, played no role in the CPE row. She has graced magazine front covers in the past week as she pursued calls for a strengthening of family values, law and order and social justice.

A poll by the Ipsos institute held at the weekend showed that Royal would pip Sarkozy by 51 percent to 49 percent if the presidential poll were held right now.

Villepin nurtured hopes of running for president but many analysts see those hopes all but destroyed by the CPE protests, which has sent his popularity ratings spinning to record lows.

France's ruling conservatives used their parliamentary majority on Thursday to rush through a bill killing off the CPE contract and replacing it with less controversial financial incentives for employers to take on young workers.

The court heard yesterday that MI5, the Security Service, believes that MB is linked to international terrorists. Reports have suggested he was detained more than once at British airports trying to travel to Iraq to join insurgent forces there. His lawyer insists he was on his way to Syria for a peaceful holiday.

Mr Justice Sullivan yesterday ruled that the Home Office had not given MB a proper right to a legal challenge against his control order.

The limited judicial oversight the government allows is only a "thin veneer of legality", the judge said, ruling that the control orders system breaches the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is enshrined in Britain's Human Rights Act.

Mudassar Arani, the lawyer for MB, said the ruling was a "slap across the face" for the government and challenged ministers to give her client an open trial, where any evidence against him would be heard in public.

Human rights groups, including Liberty and Amnesty International, also hailed the court ruling and insisted that MB and the other "controlees" must be tried in public. But the Home Office last night vowed to challenge Mr Justice Sullivan's ruling and insisted that as the evidence against the "controlees" comes from the intelligence services, they cannot have open trials.

"The government believes that control orders are the best way of addressing the continuing threat posed by suspected terrorists who cannot currently be prosecuted or, in respect of foreign nationals, removed from the UK," a Home Office spokesman said.

While yesterday's judgment does not mean that any of the existing control orders will be lifted, Lord Carlile last night said that the dispute over the law giving ministers control powers could have an effect on the use of those powers in future.

"A badly-worded law could have unintended consequences - the government may have to hesitate before making [control] orders," Lord Carlile told BBC Radio Four. If the government's appeal fails, Lord Carlile said, ministers will have to amend the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Since that act was passed, the government has been defeated in the Commons on a separate move to allow police to detain terrorist suspects without charge for up to 90 days.

In that political environment, opposition parties warn, any attempt to amend the control orders legislation could be difficult.

"If this judicial judgment cannot be overturned, we will find that, yet again, the government's incompetence has put the liberty and safety of our citizens at risk," said David Davis, the Conservative home affairs spokesman.

Called the "pigsty" since the grave site is located next to a hog farm, Rod Vienneau, whose wife was also a child victim, said a push is now underway to exhume the bodies with strong resistance from governments on both side of the border, both denying any involvement in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary.

"I have been researching this atrocity for more than 10 years since my wife went public about being abused as one of the orphans," said Rod Vienneau this week on Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal, regarding the Duplessis Orphans, who may number more than 50,000 and named after former Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis, a key figure in the child experimentation cover-up.

"We have documentation proving the link among with the CIA, the United States government and the Canadian government, all of them willing accomplices to the illegal experimentation of children.

"Thousands of children have died, thousands of others have endured great suffering and there remains about 3,000 surviving victims we know about who are still seeking justice. What's even more astonishing is that the illegal experimentation is still taking place while we speak."

Sampson, who went public for the first time in the United States on The Investigative Journal, is one of tens of thousands of children who were reduced to experimental guinea pigs by unscrupulous doctors, some known Nazi war criminals in a CIA program starting in the 1950's.

Recently, a Canadian high court in 2004 awarded damages to adult mind control victims in a related case, pinning the CIA with responsibility as well as their unscrupulous doctors, including Dr. Ewin Cameron.

For a further look at Dr. Cameron's nefarious activities, a book called The Most Dangerous Game traces the history of top-secret CIA mind control operation MK-ULTRA: from the covert importation of NAZI scientists at the end of WWII, to the illegal brainwashing experiments conducted on the patients of psychiatric researcher, Dr Cameron.

The same type of testing Dr Cameron and others performed on adults is now being traced to innocent children, as advocates for the Duplessis Orphans contend their evil knows no age limits.

Regarding Sampson's personal story, he said at the age of six he was transferred from a Catholic orphanage to a mental institution even though he was both mentally and physically sound as church and civil authorities overnight changed his paperwork, indicating he was mentally ill.

"After researching what happened," said Sampson, who also appeared this week on The Investigative Journal. "The Church made a deal with the government to turn over perfectly healthy children in return for money, giving the doctors the ability to experiment at will since we were all considered insane.

"To this day my records haven't been changed. Although I have never been mentally ill, my records still haven't been changed."

The link Sampson makes between the infiltrated Catholic Church and corrupted civil authorities is disturbing, indicating a consolidation of corruption not only in government but extending all the way to Rome and beyond.

According to Vienneau and Sampson, this inhumane treatment was accomplished with the full authority, cooperation and funding of the American and Canadian governments together with corrupted elements of the Catholic Church, one of the government's main suppliers of children used like experimental guinea pigs.

"I hope one day we can get justice and remove this evil element of people from the continent," said Vienneau. "How can we live in a society and trust a government who is killing our own children? These people will never admit to what they done and the only thing we can do is gather enough support among good people to have these corrupted leaders removed."

Vienneau also outlined what his main motives are in seeking justice for his wife, Sampson and the many other children abused by the illegal experimentation programs.

"Criminal acts: Horrific criminal acts were done to thousands of innocent children here on Canadian soil ranging from murders, tortures; disappearance of children; lobotomy's and experimental drugs and falsely labeling thousands of innocent young children from 1935 to 1975 and nobody has yet been held accountable for these free criminal acts done to the Duplessis orphans.

"Thousands of orphans were falsely labeled mentally ill, and today, this label still hangs heavy on the orphans shoulders, This label has not yet been erased, this alone is a criminal act.

"The Quebec government, the College of Physicians of Quebec; the Roman Catholic church of Quebec; the Quebec Public Trustee;(Guardianship) and the federal government of Canada and America have not yet acknowledged the harm done to thousands of young children here in Quebec.

"Constitutional Rights : The Quebec government took away the Duplessis orphans rights to defend themselves in a court of law since 1995, all though four members of parliament stated that the orphans could take a lawyer at any time for their case, but it has been 11 years now that many orphans have been trying to get a lawyer for their case but to no avail.

"Lawyer Daniel Lighter, told me flatly that the Duplessis orphans case is locked shut tight since over fifteen years. The Duplessis orphans have no Constitutional rights, it all boils down to a huge cover up."

Editor's Note: It's beyond the realm of human comprehension how newspaper owners in the mainstream lack the decency to mount an investigation for the memory of all the dead children and the many others who have suffered at the hands of corrupted politicians and church leaders.

By ignoring this story for more than five decades, major newspaper owners in the United States should be branded as co-conspirators along with the corrupted church leaders and politicians, who all march to the altar in lockstep every Sunday with the blood of the Duplessis Orphans dripping from their dirty hands.

Prominent politicians in both countries -- he singled out US Senator John McCain out in particular -- spoke of the US-Russian bilateral relationship more frequently in terms that smacked of Cold War-style rhetoric and that undermined huge gains made in the past two decades.

"I can say with full responsibility that the policy of dialogue and cooperation taken by the Russian and US presidents is supported by the political and social circles of our countries," Gorbachev wrote.

"But recently the worry has arisen: Will this policy continue?"

Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, said "euphoria" that swept Russia in the 1990s about the prospect of close relations with the United States had been replaced by disillusionment after Washington "applauded" radical reformers whose policies plunged Russia into crisis.

"At the same time, the United States reserved the role for itself in the international arena as prosecutor, judge and policeman. This could not but have been rejected, and not only by Russia."

Experience in relations between Moscow and Washington dating back to the 1980s and continuing through the administration of former US President Bill Clinton had helped build trust and Russia was interested in cooperation with the United States in a variety of areas.

"But this must be on the basis of equals. Russia will not accept the role of junior partner that it has been tapped for" by Washington, he said.

Gorbachev rejected US critics who accuse President
Vladimir Putin of rolling democracy back in Russia.

"Russia is only starting down the road of democratic reform, but it will not stray from this road. President Putin does not want this and he will not establish an authoritarian regime in Russia," he wrote.