In this issue:

Letter Bombs Target Leading EU Figures

Fascist-Synarchist Groups Behind Letter Bombs?

Blair Pays Surprise Visit to UK Troops in Iraq

New Trouble for Blair in Hutton Inquiry

Diana Named Charles as Plotter of Her Death

British Probe: Was Diana's Death More Than an Accident?

Inquest Into Diana's Death Worries Royals

Signs of Economic Life for Franco-German Nuclear Projects

Neo-Con Funding Behind Destabilizations in Eurasia

From Volume 3, Issue Number 2 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Jan. 13, 2004

Western European News Digest

Letter Bombs Target Leading EU Figures

On Jan. 5, a letter bomb detonated in the Brussels office of Hans-Gerd Poettering, chairman of the Conservative Party bloc in the European Parliament, when his secretary opened it. No one was injured and damage was minimal. This bomb, like four others sent to EU figures, was mailed from Bologna, Italy, on Dec. 22, and it contained a book, as did the bomb mailed to EU Commission President Romano Prodi, which exploded when opened on Dec. 27. Another letter bomb, mailed to Jose Ignacio Sanchez, head of the Spanish group of conservatives in the European Parliament, was defused by security personnel before it reached his office.

The so-called "Informal Anarchist Federation," which claimed credit for the letter-bomb campaign, was previously unknown. What is clear is, is that an intense anti-EU black-propaganda campaign, targetting the Franco-German alliance, has been launched in recent weeks, by both radical left-wing and right-wing groups.

Fascist-Synarchist Groups Behind Letter Bombs?

A senior European security source pointed to fascist-synarchist elements, behind the recent rash of letter bombs to leading figures in the European Union, in a discussion with this news service Jan. 5. He agreed with the assessment of Italian Judge Carlo Mastelloni, who dismissed the idea that anarchists were responsible, and noted that the fact that the bombs were sent from Bologna, among other evidence, as pointing to extreme right-wing type networks.

This source views these attacks—both the recent attacks on EU figures, and others over the last six months—as not being centrally coordinated, but of a "copy-cat" nature, perpetrated by like-minded, yet organizationally distinct, cells throughout Europe. The source noted the connections into Switzerland and to organized crime, because whenever one looks at right-wing extremists, it is always organized crime elements who supply the infrastructure. From organized crime, it will phase into higher levels such as P-2 in Italy, Gladio, and intelligence services.

Blair Pays Surprise Visit to UK Troops in Iraq

Prime Minister Tony Blair made a surprise visit to the southern city of Basra, Iraq, Jan. 4. He flew in from Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was vacationing with his family, and where he met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Jan. 3. In his one-day visit to Iraq, he met military commanders and addressed some of the 10,000 British troops stationed in and around Basra.

Blair told the troops: "We're facing not only terrorism," but also "brutal and repressive states who because of their brutality, because they don't actually have the support or consent of their people, are developing weapons that can cause distraction [sic] and destruction on a massive scale, and are a huge, huge liability for the whole security of the world.... Iraq was the test case.... If we had backed away from that, we would never have been able to confront this threat in the other countries where it exists."

He called the soldiers "the new pioneers of soldiering in the 21st Century," but then reminded anyone old enough to remember of the very old soldiering in Vietnam, by calling for "winning the hearts and minds of people."

New Trouble for Blair in Hutton Inquiry

Lord Hutton's delayed release of his report on the suspicious death of weapons expert David Kelly last July could spell big trouble for Prime Minister Tony Blair, fresh from his surprise Jan. 4 New Year's trip to Basra, Iraq, which was panned in much of the press.

The Guardian reported Lord Hutton is intending to delay publication of his report, originally targeted to be released the week of Jan. 12, because "he has yet to apportion final blame" for the death Kelly. The Guardian asserts the delay "will pile further pressure on Tony Blair and Geoff Hoon, his Defence Secretary," especially as the delay will possibly mean that the report will be issued just around the time that the government is facing a revolt among Members of Parliament over planned imposition of tuition fees.

The Jan. 3 Daily Mail called Blair's Basra trip "a coldly calculated stunt from a Prime Minister who has made them his specialty," suggesting he really went to "save his political reputation," by "reinvent[ing] the reasons for the war in Iraq," and diverting attention from the issue of the never-discovered "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs).

The Independent attacked Blair for the "cynicism" of his Basra visit, saying it will be "self-defeating," because it reveals his obsession with scoring "political points," while the Daily Mirror wrote that a preferred message would be to say when troops would be coming home. The same day's Daily Express warned Blair "cannot ignore" the flap over WMD.

The Glasgow Herald said the Basra visit, as the Blair's first New Year's visit, rather than to a domestic site, underscores how much Iraq will dominate British politics in 2004, especially as his "heavily guarded 'surprise' visit,... demonstrates how dangerous the country [Iraq] remains."

Diana Named Charles as Plotter of Her Death

Princess Diana named her ex-husband, the Prince of Wales, as the person plotting her death by car accident, in the letter she gave to her butler, Paul Burrell, as "insurance," 10 months before she died in a fatal car crash in Paris, Aug. 31, 1997, the Daily Mirror wrote Jan. 6.

Burrell had kept back the name Diana wrote in her note of October 1996, when he first revealed its contents, in his book in the fall of 2002. Royal Coroner Michael Burgess, who is holding the inquest into Diana's death, has requested the full letter from Burrell. Since this means that the name, censored in Burrell's book, would enter the public domain, the Mirror decided to publish it, the paper announced. This was not Burrell's decision.

The full sentence in her letter reads: "This particular phase of my life is the most dangerous—my husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure & serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry."

British Probe: Was Diana's Death More Than an Accident?

Britain's most senior police officer is investigating whether Princess Diana's death was more than an accident, Coroner Michael Burgess announced Jan. 6. Burgess opened, and then adjourned, the inquest into Diana's death, until 2005, announcing that Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, would examine the various reports about the 1997 crash, including the 6,000-page French report on the disaster, which took the lives of Diana, her companion Dodi al Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, in Paris.

Burgess said that the inquest was adjourned until next year, to allow investigation of the complex case. This is the first formal British investigation of the deaths. A separate inquest is being held into Dodi al Fayed's death.

Burgess said: "I am aware that there is speculation that these deaths were not the result of the sad, but relatively straightforward, road traffic accident in Paris. I have asked the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to make inquiries.

Inquest Into Diana's Death Worries Royals

The lead article in the London Times Jan. 7 reports that "senior members of the Royal Family reacted with incredulity," to the surprise announcement by Michael Burgess, Coroner of the Queen's Household, that he has called in Scotland Yard, to investigate her death.

The royals had hoped all speculation, rumors, and "conspiracy theories" had been put to rest, with the publication of the report by French Judge Stephan, but this is not the case. They had assumed, that the Coroner would engage in brief formalities. Prince Charles and other royals are reported to be "devastated."

Signs of Economic Life for Franco-German Nuclear Projects

French energy firms like EDF and Areva are negotiating with German firms in the same sector, about joint investments in the construction of new power plants in France, based on the EPR technology. The renewal of the 59 French reactors, most of which are more than 20 years old, has to occur between 2010 and 2030, which means that the procedure to launch new projects has to begin soon.

France is thinking of a standard new reactor type of 1,600 megawatts, and their call on the Germans to co-invest, reflects the fact that, for the time being, no new nuclear-power plants can be built in Germany, because of red-green sabotage. At the same time, German imports of electricity generated in power plants from France, will remain high, or even increase, over the coming years.

The EPR, a joint development of Germany's Siemens and France's Framatome firms, is also offered to other countries: Finland is the first to sign a contract for an EPR project, to be completed by 2009.

Neo-Con Funding Behind Destabilizations in Eurasia

A half-page article in the Jan. 4 issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, focusses on the role of Serbia's OTPOR (Resistance) in Georgia and other countries. It mentions that among the most important financial sources of that group are the United States Institute of Peace and the National Endowment for Democracy, the latter of which has a Republican branch, the International Republican Institute, and a Democratic branch, the National Democratic Institute." Both are Congressionally chartered "quangos" (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organizations), and receive government funding; the article especially highlights the NED, as a leading neo-con organization.

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