Defence Industry Daily
September 21, 2009
Aging Array of American Aircraft Attracting Attention
21-Sep-2009 15:45 EDT
Related Stories: Americas – USA, Budgets, Contracts – Modifications, Corporate Innovations, Field Innovations, Forces – Air, Forces – Marines, Forces – Naval, Logistics Innovations, Other Corporation, Policy – Procurement, Procurement Innovations, Public Partnering, R&D – Contracted, Spotlight articles, Support & Maintenance
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The current US Air Force fleet, whose planes are more than 23 years old on average, is the oldest in USAF history. It won’t keep that title for very long. Many transport aircraft and aerial refueling tankers are more than 40 years old – and under current plans, some may be as many as 70-80 years old before they retire. Since the price for next-generation planes has risen faster than inflation, average aircraft age will climb even if the US military gets every plane it asks for in its future plans. Nor is the USA the only country facing this problem.
As this dynamic plays out and average age continues to rise, addressing the issues related to aging aircraft becomes more and more important in order to maintain acceptable force numbers, readiness levels, and aircraft maintainability; avoid squeezing out recapitalization budgets; handle personnel turnover that becomes more and more damaging; and keep maintenance costs in line, despite new technical problems that will present unforeseen difficulties. Like F-15 fighters that are under flight restrictions due to structural fatigue concerns – or grounded entirely.
The biggest contracts aren’t always the ones deserving of the most attention. Enter the USA’s Joint Council on Aging Aircraft (JCAA), and initiatives like the Navy’s ASLS. Enter, too, DID’s Spotlight article. It seeks to place the situation and its effects in perspective, via background, contracts, and a research trove of articles that tap the expertise and observations of outside parties and senior sources within the US military. The latest addition is a $75+ million contract to BAE…
- The JCAA
- Contracts & Key Events [updated]
- Aging Aircraft: Some Additional Readings
Continue Reading… »
Boeing in Flight on Production of (Re)New H-47 Chinooks
21-Sep-2009 11:18 EDT
Related Stories: Americas – Other, Americas – USA, Avionics, BAE, Boeing, Contracts – Awards, Contracts – Modifications, Europe – France, Europe – Other, FOCUS Articles, Forces – Special Ops, Helicopters & Rotary, New Systems Tech, Other Corporation, Protective Systems – Aircraft
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DII FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record; this FOCUS Article covers the CH-47F/MH-47G helicopter programs, in the USA and abroad. The CH-47 Chinook’s distinctive “flying banana” twin-rotor design stems from the brilliant work of aviation pioneer Frank Piasecki. It gives Chinooks the ability to adjust their positioning very precisely, while carrying a large airframe whose load capacity has made it the world’s most popular heavy-lift helicopter. The USA expects to be operating Chinooks in their heavy-lift role past 2030, and the history and structure of that effort is detailed here.
The CH-47F looks similar to earlier models, but offers a wide range of improvements in almost every aspect of design and performance. While the related HH-47’s $10-15 billion CSAR-X program win has been nullified by the program’s termination, delivery orders continue for CH-47Fs and for MH-47G Special Forces configuration helicopters. Orders or formal requests have also come in from Australia, Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands, with more countries expected to follow. The latest news involves a minor refurbshment contract for special operations helicopters…
Algeria Switching Frigate Order, Buying Helicopters from Italy?
20-Sep-2009 20:07 EDT
Related Stories: Africa, Finmeccanica, Helicopters & Rotary, Issues – International, Other Corporation, Rumours, Surface Ships – Combat
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According to London’s Asharq Al-Awsat, Algeria has shifted negotiations for 6 FREMM multirole frigates from France’s DCNS to Italy’s Fincantieri, while negotiating a contract with AgustaWestland for about 100 helicopters. The paper reports that Algeria will receive the frigates in 2011:
”…equipped with American anti-submarine missiles following a deal with Italy worth 4 billion euros. The deal replaces a similar agreement with France…. Algeria concluded another deal with Italy to sell 100 helicopters.”
ASROC on board could become an issue, however. As for the helicopters…
Continue Reading… »
US Military: The DLA’s Prime Vendor MRO Contracts
20-Sep-2009 18:00 EDT
Related Stories: Americas – USA, Bases & Infrastructure, Contracts – Awards, Contracts – Modifications, FOCUS Articles, Logistics Innovations, Other Corporation, Policy – Procurement, Procurement Innovations, Small Business, T&C – SAIC
Around 1997/98, the Defense Logistics Agency changed their business practices, and entered into Prime Vendor long term sustainment contracts with various suppliers to provide materials needed to support the maintenance, repair, and operation (MRO) of its facilities. Items such as plumbing, electrical components, heating/ ventilation/ air conditioning (HVAC), lumber, fixtures, other hardware supplies, etc. would be included. The Prime Vendors need not make these items; the idea is to use purchasing power and commercial purchasing practices to consistently get the US Department of Defense the best prices on these civilian items, delivering them quickly and with little overhead.
These contracts are not small; collectively, they represent billions of dollars each year. Unless otherwise stated, the contracts are issued by the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP) in Philadelphia, PA. Specific purchases then take place via orders under the overarching contracts described below, up to the limits mentioned. The USA is divided into a number of regions, and these contracts also include locations abroad; DID has used the same geographical groupings in describing these contracts over the past couple of years, and the firms receiving them.
The latest additions include large MRO contracts in the Southeast region…
Continue Reading… »
US proposes net neutrality rules
September 21, 2009
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The US has proposed new rules that would require internet firms to respect the principle of “network neutrality”.
The head of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) said that “all web traffic should be treated equally”.
The new rules are intended to prevent firms throttling bandwidth-sapping web traffic such as streaming video.
Networks on both sides of the Atlantic have long argued for a two-tier system, where those that can pay are given priority over those that cannot.
“There are few goals more essential in the communications landscape than preserving and maintaining an open and robust internet,” FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
“It is vital that the internet continue to be an engine of innovation, economic growth, competition and democratic engagement.”
It is the first time that the Chairman has spoken out on the issue since being appointed in June.
‘Extraordinary platform’
He proposed two new rules to guide the FCC’s approach to network neutrality.
The first would prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from discriminating against bandwidth-intensive web-content and applications by slowing or blocking it.
“They cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks, or pick winners by favouring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers’ homes,” he said.
“Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider.”
The second would mean that ISPs would have to be more transparent about how they manage network traffic.
The two new rules join four previous guiding principles of the FCC, which state that all consumers must be able to access “lawful” content, applications, and services, and attach non-harmful devices to the network.
“I believe the FCC must be a smart cop on the beat preserving a free and open internet,” Mr Genachowski said.
“This is not about government regulation of the internet,” he added. “It’s about fair rules of the road for companies that control access to the internet.”
President Barack Obama backed the concept of network neutrality in the presidential race. It also has the support of large companies such as Google, eBay and Amazon.
However, telecommunications firms on both sides of the Atlantic argue that carrying high-bandwidth content, such as video, puts an extra burden on their networks and costs them money.
They argue the cost should, in part, be borne by the websites or the consumers.
The new rules will be formally proposed at a meeting in October.
bbc.co.uk
Q+A: Could Israel strike Iran over nuclear concerns?
September 21, 2009
google pic.
(Reuters) – Israel has not given up the option of a military response to Tehran’s nuclear programme, Israel’s deputy foreign minister said on Monday, after Russia had said Israel’s president gave an assurance Israel would not attack.
Many analysts believe the risks of a strike by Israel, even one not endorsed by its ally the United States, are significant.
Here’s where matters stand:
COULD ISRAEL LAUNCH A STRIKE AGAINST IRAN?
It’s a poker game with high stakes and a degree of bluff. Israeli leaders refuse to rule out any option [ID:nLD462373]. They do not believe Iran’s assurances it wants only nuclear energy. Noting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated assertions that Israel has no future, Israel has said an Iranian bomb would be a threat to its very existence that it simply would not tolerate.
Last year, however, it emerged officials were making plans for how Israel might live with a nuclear Iran in a state of mutual deterrence. And a June poll showed Israelis would not expect a nuclear Iran to attack. Last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said even a nuclear Iran could not destroy Israel, stating: “Israel can lay waste to Iran.”
Since becoming prime minister in March, Benjamin Netanyahu has, aides say, made ending threats from Iran a defining element of what he sees as his personal role in Jewish history. A 1981 Israeli air strike that destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear reactor, as well as a strike in Syria in 2007 that is cloaked in mystery, set precedents. Despite a policy of silence, few doubt Israel has nuclear weapons and missiles that can hit Iran.
WHAT MIGHT HOLD ISRAEL BACK?
It is not clear how Israel would define achieving its goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But a pledge from Iran to forswear such arms, backed by some form of supervision and intelligence data, might be a minimum. Much will depend on Iran’s actions and on U.S. President Barack Obama and others, who are pressing Iran through sanctions and diplomacy.
While many analysts doubt Iran’s denials of military intent, some say Iran may be content with showing it has the potential to go nuclear quickly, without actually arming itself. Israel, however, might not accept that level of potential threat.
In the meantime, were Israel to consider a unilateral strike on it Iran it would have to weigh several major risks:
– of retaliation, not just from Iran but its allied guerrilla groups, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas
– of economic and diplomatic backlash from U.S. and allies
– of a failed attack still triggering the above reactions
WHAT ARE THE KEY ELEMENTS IN TIMETABLE?
First, Iran’s technology: Israel’s national security adviser said in July it had passed a “red line” in terms of being able to make its own nuclear explosive but could not make significant amounts nor yet put viable nuclear warheads on its missiles. Continued…
reuters.com
Mixed Blessings
September 11, 2009
Golfer Tiger Woods holds his newborn daughter Sam Alexis Woods as wife Elin kisses the baby. Woods has famously refered to his mixed-race identity as ‘Cablinasian,’ a word he derived from Caucasian, black, American-Indian and Asian. (WireImage, Gretchen Dow Mashkuri/Associated Press)
By Lisa Khoo, CBC Radio’s The Current
“Mixed Blessings” is a four-part series on CBC Radio’s The Current that looks at the growing number of people of mixed race, and what it means to identity, arts, culture and public policy.
The series will air the week of Sept. 10, on The Current at 8:30 a.m. (9:00 in Newfoundland) on CBC Radio One and online at cbc.ca/radio.
Listen to the episodes:
Sept. 10 (Runs 23:25)
Sept. 11 (Runs 22:36)
Sept. 12 (Runs 21:20)
Sept. 13 (Runs 22:36)Some of the items have been edited because of online rights issues.
Download episodes from The Current podcast:
Sept. 10 (Runs 23:02)
Sept. 11 (Runs 22:44)
Sept. 12 (Runs 19:50)
Sept. 13 (Runs 23:04)
Think Tiger Woods, Vin Diesel, Keanu Reeves, Mariah Carey, Sean Lennon — more and more mixed-race people are turning up in the media and in Canadian society.
In the past decade Canada’s demographics have changed radically, as more immigrants from visible minorities settle here, and the number of mixed-race marriages has gone up, leading to more mixed-race children.
Today, mixed-race people are perceived as ethnically ambiguous, even exotic, and are being touted as a marketer’s dream. Mixed-race people are starting Facebook clubs, activist groups, writing books, plays, poetry. They’re doing visual art, documentaries, even standup comedy routines. In addition to exploring their own identities, they’re challenging our notions of race, ethnicity and national identity. That has implications for public policy as well as society as a whole.
“We’re going to have to rethink what it means to be a Canadian,” says documentary maker Anne Marie Nakagawa, who is of Japanese and Irish-Scottish descent (photo). “I think in 20 years we won’t be thinking the person in the ‘I Am Canadian’ beer commercial is necessarily someone of European descent. At least I hope not.”
Identity questions
Lisa Khoo, senior producer, The Current
My ancestry is Chinese, Malay, English, and Scottish. My mother has blue eyes and blond hair, and my father had black hair and dark brown eyes (photo). I have light hair and hazel eyes. I don’t look British, but I don’t look Chinese either. What am I? Mixed-race people get asked that question a lot.
“If it’s the first question out of someone’s mouth when they first meet me, it’s a bit frustrating,” said Karen Suzuki, a Toronto filmmaker of Japanese-Canadian and German descent.
Suzuki’s ancestors on both sides have been in Canada for four generations (photo).
“Why do we look at someone’s face and immediately need to know where they come from, how they got to look that way? It almost feels as rude as asking someone, ‘How much do you weigh?’ It’s as if they look at you and want to know the number, the mass … I’m so much more than that. It’s a much longer answer than white, black, Asian,” Suzuki said.
Author Lawrence Hill, whose father was black and mother was white, wrote about how he deals with the question in his best-selling memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada, published in 2001. He wrote:
What is wrong with The Question? Nothing at all — when it is asked at the right time, when it results in a genuine interest in you as a person, and when the person asking the question actually accepts the answer. Let’s dissect the interrogation process. Imagine me at a party, sipping mineral water. A stranger walks up.
STRANGER: “Do you mind me asking where you’re from?” [This is code for "What is your race?"]
ME: “Canada.” [This is code for "screw off."]
STRANGER: “Yes, but you know, where are you really from?” [This is code for "You know what I mean, so why are you trying to make me come out and say it?"]
ME: “I come from the foreign and distant metropolis of Newmarket. That’s Newmarket, Ont., my place of birth.” [Code for "I'm not letting you off the hook, buster."]
STRANGER: “But your place of origin? Your parents? What are your parents?” [Code for, "I want to know your race but this is making me feel very uncomfortable because somehow I'm not supposed to ask that question."]
Concludes Hill: “I suppose the reason many of us mixed-race people find The Question offensive is not just that it makes assumptions, which are often false, about our identity, but because it attempts to hang our identity on one factor: our race.”
Fluid identities
Many mixed-race people describe themselves as having fluid identities, perhaps as a result of constant negotiations between multiple ethnicities, traditions and communities.
Paul Bramadat, who is of Indo-Trinidadian-Scottish-Irish descent (photo), says he’s learned to turn the ambiguity into an advantage in his adult years. But during his adolescence, it was an isolating experience being in between.
“When you are trying to become a person, going through adolescence, struggling with who you are at best of times … this other complication, along with hormones, school, drugs alcohol … adds another wrinkle. At the time it was very challenging, disorienting and alienating,” Bramadat said.
Now, he says, it has helped him, especially in his career as a professor at the University of Winnipeg where he teaches about multiculturalism and tolerance.
“More than ever I am coming to appreciate the ambiguity, the looseness. I think it’s actually been very helpful for me. It’s made me more open about learning things, about other cultures, other religious groups, that I think is reflected in my research,” said Bramadat.
By the numbers
The number of Canadians identifying themselves as belonging to more than one group, including white, Chinese, South Asian, was 328,115 in the 2001 census. Executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies Jack Jedwab says that number may double by 2027.
“I think we can expect as much as a doubling of people of mixed ethnic and racial background in the next 15 to 20 years simply by virtue of the increased social acceptance of such mixing … People of different backgrounds are far more in contact today than they were, say, 20 or 30 years ago,” he said.
The number of mixed marriages in Canada rose by 35 per cent between the 1996 and 2001 census to 452,000. The visible minority population in Canada grew threefold between 1981 and 2001 after Canada’s immigration policy changed with the introduction of the Immigration Act in 1976. It set up a point system to determine entry into Canada.
Between 1956 and 1976, 63.6 per cent of immigrants came to Canada from Europe and the U.K., while 11.9 per cent came from Asia. By 2004, 48.6 per cent of immigrants came from Asia, 19.7 per cent came from Africa and the Middle East, and 17.8 per cent came from Europe and the U.K.
A look at history
Mixed-race people have a long history in North America, starting with the Métis, the product of unions between French traders and native women as far back as the 1700s. They developed their own language and customs and today are legally recognized along with the Inuit and First Nations. But their status did not come without a struggle, similar to what other mixed-race people are experiencing today.
“The idea that society doesn’t know how to deal with the mixing of cultures is a very key part of how we are all treated,” says lawyer Jean Teillet, whose great-grandfather was Métis leader Louis Riel, and whose mother is of Polish ancestry.
“I think circumstances of the collective Métis Nation and individuals of mixed race are probably a difference of scale but not in nature. The individual in each group will have the same situations,” Teillet said, “Who are you, what are you, why aren’t you just a Canadian, what’s your background, what do you identify as? Those things are all things Métis people experience every day as well.”
A new name
Some European-Asian people are adopting a new name to describe themselves — Hapa. The term itself is not new. It is from Hawaii, a state where most people have mixed backgrounds and embrace their fused heritage. Hapa means half, and is sometimes used as a short form for “hapa haole,” which means half-Caucasian.
Kip Fulbeck
Prof. Kip Fulbeck, who teaches at the University of California at Santa Barbara, is one of the leading voices using the term. His father is Caucasian and his mother is Chinese (photo). He became aware of “Hapa” while living in Hawaii.
“I use it because there was simply no better way to describe myself. My whole life it’s either been a clinical scientific terminology “Amerasian” or “Eurasian,” words which are really biological. I didn’t like that. Hapa felt more home-style, more downtown.”
Last year, Fulbeck published a book called Part Asian, 100% Hapa (photo), featuring hundreds of photos he took of mixed-race people. Each picture is accompanied by a statement by the individual, identifying themselves. At the shoots, said Fulbeck, the air was electric, as people saw others who looked like them, a point of connection many had not felt growing up.
“To me it was always a struggle to fit in. I was always identified as ‘other.’ Every school form or job application asked me to check one box on these stupid ethnicity questionnaires. For me that was asking me to pick Mom or Dad and I didn’t want to do that. I realized identity is a personal thing. I decided I was Hapa — mixed-blood or mixed-race — and if people wanted to talk about it, I was fine talking about it,” said Fulbeck.
Jeff Chiba Stearns is a Canadian animator who also uses the term (photo). He grew up in Kelowna, B.C., with a Japanese-Canadian mother and Caucasian father. Stearns describes his signature style of work as “Hapanimation,” fusing elements of Japanese anime with traditional animation.
His film What are you anyway? is a funny, poignant story of how he came to embrace his heritage, and he’s currently producing a documentary on his family called One Big Hapa Family. He embraces the term, with mixed feelings.
“Using the word Hapa allowed us to escape from other people’s definitions. But has it become a box? It’s good for a sense of community but is that in danger of becoming too limited? It should be fluid.”
Picking a side
Some people of mixed race have chosen to identify more fully with one of their heritages. While individuals vary within every community, some mixed African-Canadians identify more strongly with black culture. In the U.S., people were identified as black by law if they had any black ancestry whatsoever, the so-called “one-drop” rule.
People with one black parent and one white parent identifying themselves as black is, said author Lawrence Hill, “a historical trend that has marked the experiences of blacks in North America since we’ve been brought here 400 years ago. But it’s also an internalized response. Many black people tend to feel this way, and embrace this aspect of their identity very proudly, regardless of the levels of their mixture in their family.”
In the U.S., many African-Americans were opposed to changes to the 2000 census which allowed people to pick several ethnic backgrounds, out of concern that it would reduce their numbers.
There are also mixed-race people who have little or no attachment to their ancestry. Anne Marie Nakagawa studied in Japan for two years but didn’t identify with the culture or society at all.
“I’ve discovered that being Japanese, whatever that is, is against my nature. Many things that are Japanese are counter to my intuition so I couldn’t call myself a Japanese person,” she said.
Many Japanese-Canadians have been in Canada for several generations and feel few ties to Japan. Having endured internment during the Second World War, the vast majority intermarried with people of European descent. Now, 95 per cent of Japanese-Canadians are in mixed marriages.
Debunking ‘race’
The idea that the world can be divided into a handful of separate races has been debunked by biology, even as the term continues to be used by social scientists. The idea of races gained traction in the 19th century when scientists, including Linneus, were applying classifications to all animals and plants. There were four, then later five, races: red, yellow, black, brown and white.
Today geneticists know that, in reality, humans share approximately 75 per cent of the same genes, and the genes for skin colour and hair type are just a fraction of those. While people do look different around the world, those differences unfold gradually and have more to do with adapting to local geography over time.
“Today we recognize quite strongly that race per se is not a natural biological fact about human variation,” explains leading anthropologist Jonathan Marks. “It’s composed of a negotiation between what we might call natural facts of difference and cultural facts of otherness.
“It’s not that people don’t differ from one another — obviously everybody differs from everybody else except identical twins genetically — but we perceive some differences as significant and other differences as insignificant. And that’s at the heart of the problem of race, that what we decided that the difference between these two people is not very important and the difference between those two people is very important and that’s a very subjective cultural assessment.”
Even though science may not focus on skin colour, we live in a very visual world, and racism still exists, whether it’s based on outdated notions or not. Some sociologists say the idea of race as a social construct is still useful, particularly in fighting racism.
The implications
Some people suggest that, as we move into a time when ethnic and racial lines are being blurred, Canada needs to update its multicultural policy. Born out of the 1969 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the policy was announced in 1971. It was designed to help cultural groups foster their identity while being able to fully participate in Canadian society. That later led to a Multiculturalism Act in 1988. Multiculturalism is also legally enshrined in Section 27 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says laws will be interpreted to preserve and enhance the multicultural heritage of Canada.
Critics say the policy has been a positive force but now needs to move beyond helping individual ethnic groups and stress our shared values of tolerance, the rule of law.
“In a society where there’s increased mixing, which is going to be the case particularly for the younger generation of Canadians, we’ll probably focus more on the individual and trying to ensure that that individual has a larger freedom to choose their lifestyle and culture without obstacles or discrimination or other barriers being put in their way of doing these things,” said Jack Jedwab, from the Association of Canadian Studies.
For some mixed-race people, it’s about getting beyond race completely or refusing to let yourself be defined by classic notions of race. Some say that what’s more important than race is gender, class, religion, language, location, occupation, age … that at any given time all these things are important in a range of ways.
Karen Suzuki lists the things that are more important to her than her racial history.
“One day I’m a filmmaker, one day I’m a martial artist, one day I’m an aunt, I’m always a daughter, a partner, and always a woman.”
“I think people get to do what they want,” said Paul Spickard, professor of anthropologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who has written extensively on mixed-race issues.
“We live in a democracy and this is a place where individual freedom is one of our highest values. I think people ought to be allowed to define themselves as makes sense to them.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/mixedblessings/
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Al-Qaeda connection
September 8, 2009
BBC News home affairs correspondent
Rauf’s arrest in Pakistan forced UK police to seize the airline bomb plotters
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In the summer of 2006, as they were making final preparations for the plot to bring down multiple airliners over the Atlantic, both Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar took time out to send e-mails to Pakistan.
They were communicating with Rashid Rauf, a British man from Birmingham who had been living in Pakistan for six years.
Their e-mails, written in code, were essentially updates on their progress.
“I set up my music shop now. I only need to sort out an opening time. I need stock … Ali wrote on 3 August 2006.
The prosecution said he was telling Rauf that the bomb factory was ready, that he just needed to choose a day for the attacks and to get hydrogen peroxide, a key ingredient, from Sarwar.
‘Facilitator’
So who is Rashid Rauf? Why were the plotters communicating with him about their plans?
Intelligence on Rauf has suggested possible links to the London bombings
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British officials believe he was their link with al-Qaeda, possibly involved in their training.
Recent intelligence assessments suggest his involvement in plans to attack Britain go back several years.
At the end of 2008, MI5 and MI6 wrote to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee to say that “in the light of recent analysis of intelligence received” Rauf may have been involved in the 7 July London bombings.
They said their assessment was that he was a “facilitator” of the attacks, and that the bombers were “directed some way by elements of al-Qaeda based overseas”.
Rauf also has links to Muktar Ibrahim, the leader of the failed 21 July London bombings.
When Rauf’s house was raided in 2006, Pakistan police found the belongings of two British men who had travelled with Ibrahim to Pakistan in 2004 – and then disappeared.
Information about Rauf has continued to come in, most notably from men detained in the United States and Belgium.
There were even arrests in Britain this year because of intelligence about Rauf’s future plans, though in the end nobody was charged.
Fled UK
Rauf first came to the attention of police in the late 1990s when he was accused of obtaining a satellite phone by deception.
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CODED EMAILS
 How is the skin infection you were telling me about? Has it got worse?  Message from Pakistan to Abdulla Ahmed Ali, fearing police surveillance
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In 2002 he fled Britain after his uncle was savagely stabbed to death in Birmingham, and intelligence suggests he spent the subsequent years in Pakistan, plotting attacks on the West.
He was eventually arrested in 2006, but at exactly the wrong moment.
On 9 August Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command had what they say was “good coverage” of the suspects in the airline plot.
They were following the leaders and keeping track of the movements of the others. They just wanted more definitive evidence before they moved in.
Then came news that Rauf had been detained in Pakistan and, to their intense annoyance, British detectives had to bring the whole operation forward in a hurry.
A senior police officer has told the BBC that Rauf’s arrest followed a meeting at the White House, chaired by President George W Bush himself.
Body missing
The president and his advisers were so concerned about the risk to America that they encouraged the Pakistanis to take Rauf into custody. This has been denied by former advisers to President Bush.
Drone attack: Rauf reported killed by US strike
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When asked about it, a British official said: “We know that when we share intelligence with our partners, they will sometimes make different decisions on grounds of their own national security.”
The story does not end there. Rauf’s lawyers claim he was tortured in Pakistan and the next year he made an extraordinary escape.
Two police officers were accompanying him back from court when, bizarrely, they let him enter a mosque unguarded to pray, and he simply disappeared.
Last November came news that he had been killed in Pakistan by a missile fired by a US drone. But his body has never been recovered.
The British intelligence assessment is that Rauf – a key figure in the 7 July attacks and the airline liquid bomb plot and possibly many others – is more likely dead than not.
bbc.co.uk
