'Coincidental Terrorist Attacks' in Tunisia France Kuwait

[scienceplease 2]

The fact that terrorist attacks seem to be coincidental with other major world news events is, hey, just coincidence, right...

But how about THREE terrorist attacks in a seemingly coordinated fashion right at the same time?

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-air-products-dent-tunisia-attack -20150626-story.html

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Cf Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia coinciding with the opening ceremony of kid 2008 Beijing Olympics

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Tunisia attacker
Eyewitness said attacker had a beard!
Who knows who did this?
Nobody
Theatre
Accomplices who escaped?

[ian neal]

BBC news states there will be UK inquests for the British dead of Tunisian attack compared with

No inquest for British victims of 9/11

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Tunisia
Gunman conveniently dead
Accomplices forgotten about
Ah
Tenth anniversary of 7/7 coming up in a week's time

[scienceplease 2]

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

"He didn’t show any signs of extremism or anything. He never talked about religion" - friend of Tunisian murderer

Tunisia beach attacker; from rap fan to killer

By Patrick Markey and Tarek Amara

GAAFOUR, Tunisia | Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:28pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0P811420150628?irpc=932

By Patrick Markey and Tarek Amara

GAAFOUR, Tunisia (Reuters) - On Wednesday, Saif Rezgui sat down with friends in his Tunisian hometown to chat about his favorite soccer team, girls and his break-dance skills over coffee and cigarettes.

On Thursday, he met up with his uncle in Gaafour, catching up on family matters, on a break from his master’s studies in the nearby historic town of Kairouan.

A day later, Resgui walked calmly though the Imperial Marhaba beach hotel on Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast opening fire with a Kalashnikov, and in more than five minutes slaughtered 39 foreign tourists in the name of Islamic State.

Once again, Tunisia is in shock over how one of its young men with little warning turned from what appeared to be a normal life to hardline violent ideology of Islamic jihad.

Again, a well-educated Tunisian from a middle class family appears in a short time to have fallen prey to radical recruiters who turned him away from a life of soccer and music to become a militant Islamist.

In Gaafour, an isolated farming town on the arid plains southwest of Tunis, neighbors and family struggle to piece together how a neighborhood favorite and son became a killer responsible for the country's worst militant attack.

Authorities and witnesses say Rezgui was the only gunman who opened fire on the beach of the Imperial Marhaba, working his way through the pool, and hotel reception picking out foreigners, before he was shot himself by police.

Just as with the two young Tunisians who attacked the Bardo museum in Tunis in March, killing 21 people, Saif gave little hint to family and friends of his new radical beliefs. If anything he revealed nothing at all.

A fan of break-dance, rap music and most of all Club Africa, Tunisia's league champions, Rezqui worked part time in the small Ben Hassan café in Gaafour serving coffee and cigarettes.

"Who could imagine he would commit such a horror?" Ali Rezgui, his uncle, told Reuters, slumped in a plastic chair outside the modest one-story white house where the family gathered to mourn.

"Maybe he was changed where he studied, maybe it was something on the internet. But we just don't have any answers."

Like many rural Tunisian towns, there is little opportunity for the youth of Gaafour, a dusty collection of low buildings amid the wheat fields and scattered olive trees.

But neighbors and friends remember Rezgui as a cheerful chatty young man who prayed regularly, but never talked about religion. He was studying away but was often back home.

Last Wednesday, he met with four or five friends in a café to catch up after returning from his studies in Kairoaun. They talked about football even singing team chants.

"He didn’t show any signs of extremism or anything. He never talked about religion," said Mohammed, a friend. "It's a shock to see someone who you spend so much time with, a friend, become a killer."

SIMILAR PATH

Whatever his motivation, Rezgui had taken a well-traveled path. Middle class Tunisians, from footballers to professionals and students have left from similar towns across the country to fight for Islamist militant groups overseas.

The government estimates more than 3,000 Tunisians are fighting for Islamic State and other groups in Syria, Iraq and increasingly in neighboring Libya.

Threats from Islamist militants is becoming the greatest challenge to Tunisia since it emerged to democracy following its 2011 uprising against autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

Democracy brought a new constitution and free elections, but the end of Ben Ali's suppression allowed ultra-conservative Islamist movements to flourish. Some turned violent; others took over mosques and religious schools to spread a hardline message in one of the Arab world's most secular countries.

The Bardo killers -- one from a similar rural town as Gaafour; the other from Tunis -- were both recruited by hardline preachers at their mosques. Both spent time in Libya at training camps before their attack.

How Rezgui fits into this current is still unclear. There was little clue at all he had been recruited. Gaafour’s mosque is not linked to any ultraconservative Islamists.

He was studying in Kairouan which, with its famous Great Mosque, after the 2011 revolution become a hub for hardline Islamist groups such as Ansar al-Sharia.

But authorities say Rezgui was not on any terrorism watchlist or known to associate with hardline Islamists. He was not known to police as a suspect. Security sources said he appeared to have been radicalized just over the last six months.

"He was in contact with extremists outside of Tunisia, through the internet," one security source said.

Forensic evidence shows that all the bullets at the beach resort massacre were fired from the Kalashnikov Rezgui used in the attack, indicating he was the only attacker, the source said.

Rezgui may have acted alone as a so-called "Lone Wolf" jihadist more inspired by Islamic State's jihadist message than associated directly with the militant group. But he kept his secret life well-hidden.

"It's hard to believe. I really can't comprehend it," said Ahmed, who danced in a break-dance group with Rezgui. "When I saw his image with the Kalashnikov, I just keep thinking of how we had just been together."

(Reporting by Patrick Markey; editing by Ralph Boulton)

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Tunisia hotel attack: Authorities 'sure' killer did not act alone as they search for accomplices http://ind.pn/1HqcEke

Tunisia hotel attack: Authorities 'sure' killer did not act alone as they search for accomplices

Exclusive: Men who shared a house with Seifeddine Rezgui remain at large
A A+




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By KIM SENGUPTA
Monday 29 June 2015
Seifeddine Rezgui – the student who carried out the murderous attack in the Tunisian resort of Sousse which left at least 30 Britons feared dead – disappeared along with six other young men he shared a house with a month before the slaughter on the beach, The Independent understands.
A number of the men, who had rented the property next to the Mosque of the Seven Virgins in the Islamic holy city of Kairouan, remained at large.
The group led secretive lives, deliberately avoiding contact with local people, according to neighbours, who also claimed that there were visits by a group of Salafists before the building was suddenly left empty. Authorities in Tunisia are “sure” Rezgui had help in Friday’s murderous rampage – though not direct – and are searching for his accomplices.

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There were reports that the 23-year-old Rezgui had recently visited his home town of Gaafour, 50 miles south-west of Tunis. The identities and whereabouts of his housemates remain unknown. A Tunisian official involved in the inquiry said the authorities were trying to trace the men because they may have vital information about their dead housemate.
Isis, which had given Rezgui the name of “Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani” [from Kairouan], has claimed responsibility for the shooting of the 39 tourists in Sousse, along with the bombing of a mosque in Kuwait and a decapitation in France on the same day.
Rezgui, however, was not on any security watchlist in Tunisia. In London, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, presided on Sunday morning over a meeting of the emergency committee Cobra, saying authorities do not believe Rezgui was singling out British tourists, but was randomly killing anyone who looked European.
The government in Tunis has announced that it will put in an extra 1,000 armed police to protect tourist facilities and hotels after hundreds more were deployed at beach resorts in the aftermath of the massacre. The state news agency, TAP, reported that gunmen had raided homes for food in el Kef, around a 100 miles from the coast, before heading into hills bordering Algeria. It was unclear whether there was connection between this and the Sousse killings.
Seifeddine Rezgui was given the name of ”Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani” by Isis, who have subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack Seifeddine Rezgui was given the name of “Abu Yahya al-Qayrawani” by Isis, who have subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack (AP)
Read more: Anger at tour operator's cancellation policy
Number of Britons killed feared to be as many as 30
Locals formed 'human shield' to protect hotel from gunman

The Foreign Office in London stated that further attacks may follow in Tunisia. The warning was echoed by the Imam of the Great Mosque of Sidi-Uqba in Kairouan who maintained that it was “inconceivable” that Rezgui was not prepared for the murders by others. He added that the jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, an al-Qaeda affiliate banned in Tunisia, was among the chief suspects although, he said, there may also be an Isis connection.
Imam Taib al-Gazi told The Independent that “damaging actions by weak governments” which followed the overthrow of the dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali four years ago had contributed to Kairouan being infected by extremism.
“From 2011 to last year we had all kinds of imams coming here, from Tunisia and abroad, from Saudi Arabia and Gulf States and other places to spread this kind of thought. This has now been stopped by the new government, but there were plenty of opportunities for this man Rezgui to be indoctrinated,” said Imam Taib.
However, the imam said he was against an emergency measure announced by the Tunisian Prime Minister, Habib Essid, to shut down 80 mosques accused of espousing violence. “It would be better to change the imams there. None of these mosques is in Kairouan. We had trouble like that in two mosques last year and we changed the imams”, he said.
Imam Taib al-Gazi said foreign imams had been coming to Tunisia and preaching extremism Imam Taib al-Gazi said foreign imams had been coming to Tunisia and preaching extremism
The imam said he acknowledged that extremists wanted to use houses of worship to spread their “bad message”. Ansar al-Sharia was allowed by the government of the time to hold a meeting at the Great Mosque two years ago. “It was a big mistake; we were against it – we did not give our permission for this,” he stressed.
“Also the people of Kairouan were against it. They had to put the police in front of the mosque to protect Ansar from the angry people of this city. The following year Ansar tried to use the mosque again, this time they were stopped from even entering Kairouan.
“What happened shows that Kairouan is not place for terrorists. Because this killer lived here for a while, this city is now getting a bad name. But he wasn’t even born here.”
Many others in Kairouan, 60 miles away from Sousse, also felt that the presence of Rezgui had unfairly tarnished the image of the city.
Read more: What we know about the British victims
Man who 'took a bullet' for his fiancé in Tunisia alive in hospital
Backdrop to slaughter is history of violence against Muslims

The residents of Sidi Belkacem district complained that they faced being traduced because the murderer had lived among them.
“But it was only for about eight months and we hardly ever saw them during that time. They went to that mosque but never mixed,” 22-year-old Imene Mohammed wanted to explain. “Whenever they were going to and from the house they would just look at the ground. This was not just with women – they would not look at the men either.”
Youssef Echarfi nodded his head: “They would do anything not to talk to you; they would not even talk to you at the mosque. They were not rude but would pretend to be on the phone so as not to have a conversation.
“Towards the end they just kept themselves shut up in the house. Now I wonder what was going on in there. Then they had visitors, men with big beards and again I wonder what was going on.”
Policemen patrolling the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse where tributes have been laid to the dead Policemen patrolling the beach in front of the Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse where tributes have been laid to the dead (AFP/Getty)
It is not, of course, known whether Rezgui’s journey to becoming a killer began at his birthplace. His Facebook postings had begun to change from expressing his fondness of techno music and breakdancing to jihad and death. His last entry on New Year’s Day 2015, when he was living in the Belkacem district, read: “May God take me out of this unjust world and perish its people and make them suffer. They just remember you when you die.”
Rezgui’s murderous rampage has had a profound impact on Tunisia’s main source of income and employment, tourism. Three thousand foreign visitors left in 24 hours after the killings.
The government will be holding meetings with foreign ambassadors to describe the new security measures being taken to protect their nationals.
“German, French and British officials have informed us that they will not prevent tourists from coming to Tunisia, but they want to participate in the investigation and to see clear security decisions”, the Tourism Minister, Salma Loumi, announced.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Truck Driver Who Beheaded Boss May Not Have Had Terrorist Motive

France beheading attack: Yassin Salhi tells investigators he murdered and beheaded his boss because of 'problems at home and at work'

But investigators remain convinced that Mr Salhi’s links with radical Islam, including Isis, also motivated the attack
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-beheading-attack -yassin-salhi-tells-investigators-he-murdered-and-beheaded-his-boss-be cause-of-problems-at-home-and-at-work-10350887.html

By JOHN LICHFIELD
Sunday 28 June 2015
The truck driver who beheaded his boss before trying to blow up a chemicals factory may have been deranged, rather than motivated by religion, French investigators believe.
Breaking his silence after Friday’s attack, Yassin Salhi, 35, told interrogators that he had decapitated his employer “in a car park” because of “problems at home and at work”.
Before attacking the factory near Lyon, Mr Salhi used his mobile phone to take an image of himself with the severed head of his boss, Hervé Cornara, 54. He then sent the image to a number in Toronto, Canada. French and Canadian investigators believe the number may have relayed the image to an acquaintance of Mr Salhi who is fighting with Isis in Syria.
But searches of Mr Salhi’s home in the Lyon suburbs have produced no evidence to suggest he was in contact with a terrorist network. He was taken to his home by police on Sunday to assist in a new search. There was nothing to indicate he had planned either the beheading or the attack on the Air Products chemical factory at Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, south-east of Lyon.
“We are not sure whether he was just a believer in fundamentalist Islam who went crazy or whether we are dealing with a genuine terrorist,” an investigation source told Le Parisien newspaper.
Mr Salhi said he had murdered the manager of his delivery company in a car park an hour before he arrived at the factory. “He spoke about personal difficulties linked to his work and family life which might have led him to commit his crime,” said the source.
French crime scene investigators, Gendarmes and rescue forces are seen at work next to a black plastic sheet outside a gas company site at the industrial area of Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, Forensic investigators and gendarmes next to the fence where the head was found in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier
The French news agency AFP reported that Salhi had quarrelled with his boss a few days ago after he dropped an expensive consignment of computer equipment.
Just before 10am on Friday morning, Mr Salhi chained his employers’ head to a fence at the Air Products factory and placed banners professing faith in Islam. He then drove his truck, loaded with cylinders of chemicals, into the side of a warehouse, but the explosion was only weak.
Read more:
'Islamist' decapitates boss and tries to blow up factory near Lyon
David Cameron warns: 'These attacks can happen anywhere'
France attack: Public opinion has been inflamed

Mr Salhi’s colleagues at the ATC transport firm said he was cheerful and hardworking.



MEANWHILE...
Grenoble attack: Man found beheaded and Islamist flag raised above factory in France - latest
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11700513/Greno ble-attack-Man-found-beheaded-and-Islamist-flag-raised-above-French-fa ctory-live.html

By Raziye Akkoc, and Henry Samuel, Paris
6:13PM BST 26 Jun 2015
There were explosions reportedly heard near the industrial gas factory near Grenoble, south-eastern France where one person is believed to be dead and several hurt

• A decapitated body was found near a gas factory in south-eastern France, near Grenoble
• A man suspected and named as Yassin Salhi has been arrested and identified
• Grenoble attack: Man found beheaded and Islamist flag raised above factory
• Yassin Salhi: Everything we know about the suspected attacker
• Tunisia attack: deadly shooting in front of tourist beach hotel in Sousse - latest
• Islamist terror attacks in Tunisia, Kuwait and France, in pictures

WASHINGTON POST SAYS: "BRACE BRACE BRACE"
Terror fears mount in France
Washington Post-Jun 27, 2015
... Prime Minister Manuel Valls, were already warning the nation to brace for more terror attacks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/terror-fears-mount-in-france/2015/ 06/27/0160c498-1c4d-11e5-bed8-1093ee58dad0_story.html

[Shoestring]

From today's Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3142556/Was-second-gunman-beac h-British-survivor-shot-legs-says-attacked-different-man-using-handgun .html
Was there a second gunman in ‘red shorts’ on massacre beach? Two British survivors insist there was another shooter in Tunisia rampage

Two survivors of the Tunisian beach massacre have come forward to insist there was a second gunman during the murderous attack which left 38 dead - as many as 30 of them British.

Kirsty Murray and Steve Johnson - who were in entirely different parts of the complex - have said independently of each other that they believe Seifeddine Rezgui was not the only gunman last Friday.

Mr Johnson, a retired police officer, says he saw a second man standing with Rezgui on the beach.

He claims this man, dressed in red swimming shorts, was holding an automatic rifle and shooting the tourists along with the gunman in dark clothing.

The eye witness's account suggests that the gunman was not a 'lone wolf' as current reports state.

His account is backed up to an extent by Kirsty Murray, who was shot in both legs by a man she says was not Rezgui in a hotel corridor.

But she says it was not an automatic rifle, like Rezgui was using, but a smaller weapon.

Her father Neil said: ‘She believes there were at least two gunmen because she was shot at close range with a handgun.

'Both her and her fiancé have said there was more than one gunman. One person is not capable of doing that much damage anyhow.'

... Mr Johnson, of Leicester, said he watched events unfold from the third floor after escaping from the beach.

'There was gunfire going during that time and by the time we had got up to the third floor and were looking down, we saw a number of bodies on the terrace and the steps and saw another guy - because my colleague had seen the man in the black shorts and shirt on the beach shooting people and now we have got a guy in red shorts with a gun walking down through the terrace and down by the pool and it looked like local people running away from him,' he told BBC World at One.

Asked if he was sure there were definitely two attackers, he said: 'What I am saying is the one on the beach - definitely. The one by the pool? Who else would have a gun in swimming shorts walking down in that sort of environment and why were people running away from him?'

... Jean, a grandmother-of-three who did not want to give her full name, said many of her fellow British guests at the Marhaba were convinced there was another gunman who came into the reception and started shooting at the height of the mayhem.

[scienceplease 2]

Wife of Yassin Salhi is baffled...

Hear her say...

"Come to the house, search it, we have a normal family life. I don't know why he would do that!"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33293178

[outsider]

Kirsty Murray was Craig Murray's (ex- British Ambassador to Uzbekistan) niece; he had a post about it on his blog, but has removed it at family request.

'America’s “Coordinated” Multinational Ramadan Terrorist Attacks. France, Tunisia, Kuwait, China':
http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-coordinated-multinational-ramada n-terrorist-attacks-france-tunisia-kuwait-china/5459581

'.....The involvement of Chinese citizens in ISIS is increasingly under scrutiny. Just two weeks ago, Malaysia’s Home Minister confirmed that 300 Chinese militants had used his country as a transit point to join ISIS. Three weeks ago, Chinese authorities arrested 10 Turkish nationals for providing false passports to alleged terrorists from Xinjiang.

And once again, US support can be found throughout the region in which these terrorists are based in western China. The US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) even goes as far as listing China’s Xinjiang region as “East Turkistan,” a fictional name for the client state the US and its terrorists hope to carve out of Chinese territory.

The Motivation

It is clear that ISIS is not carrying out these attacks in the hopes of “winning” its war, but instead, to seemingly perpetuate it, expand it, and even push it into so-far spared regions of the planet. The attacks in France and Tunisia served only to anger and frighten European populations who will in turn, only support further foreign wars aimed at “fighting ISIS” but conveniently accomplishing all of Wall Street and Washington’s other goals along the way.

The attack in Tunisia in particular, was another stroke aimed at the ruling government. The attacks in Kuwait were aimed directly at the only viable opposition that threatens the US-backed regime in Kuwait City. Similar attacks have been made in Saudi Arabia itself, aimed not at the US-proxy regime, but at its opposition.

In China it is clear that the United States supports Uighur terrorists and their ambitions to carve off a large portion of China to create a client state the US can further strengthen its encirclement strategy versus Beijing. The US State Department openly funds the political wings of these terrorist groups and fully backs their separatist rhetoric.

It appears that only the United States and its hegemonic ambitions stood to gain from the otherwise senseless violence perpetrated this Ramadan. Its enemies have been directly attacked, and its allies given further justification for military adventures abroad. And not coincidentally, it is only the United States and its vast, criminal intelligence community that possess the operational capacity and network of proxies necessary to organize and execute such large scale and conveniently timed attacks.

The Ramadan attacks serve as a warning that modern-day imperialism is alive and well. Its methods of projecting hegemony are both direct and indirect. With terrorism so potent a weapon, it is assured that this modern empire will continue employing it for as long as it is profitable.'

Yes, indeed, it is certainly strange that 'Islamic Terrorists' seem to attack the West's and Israeli's enemies (apart from the 'False Flag' hoax attacks).
But still, you'll have brainwashed kids in Europe joining IS for 'Jihad', totally oblivious they are bringing about Israel's 'Yinon Plan', 'Balkanisation' of Arab and Muslim countries surrounding Israel, and bringing about 'Greater Israel'.

I wonder how many of them will end up topping themselves, when they realise, like the Tunisian student after the 'Arab Spring', that they have been conned?

[outsider]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Kirsty Murray was deliberately targeted because she was Craig's niece.

[Shoestring]

[TonyGosling]

this removed now from Craig's blog

Kirsty’s Story
Tuesday, June 30, 2015 7:22
http://beforeitsnews.com/politics/2015/06/kirstys-story-2722508.html

Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist

I knew with certainty that the BBC and official line of a lone gunman being responsible for the Tunisian attacks was a lie, because one of the victims of one of the “other” gunmen was my dear niece Kirsty.

We had a terrible day of the attack, because for hours Kirsty was simply missing. I was the whole day on the phone to the FCO and Tunisian authorities, and we feared the worst. My brothers Neil (Kirsty’s dad) and Stuart managed to get out to Tunisia that very day. The only thought that we had was Kirsty’s safety. Thankfully she has been (strange to say in the circumstances) miraculously lucky in the path of the bullets. Many others were less fortunate. Radley also was less fortunate. I know how the families must feel of others, and there are some who even now are suffering the agony of no confirmation of disappeared relatives. 12 hours of that were bad enough.

I was however simply astonished by the utter incompatibility of my knowledge of what actually happened, to the lone gunman line being pumped out by the BBC (I am in Ghana and not seeing other UK media). Every hour I kept expecting the lone gunman nonsense to be corrected, but instead the line hardened and was earnestly discussed and promoted by more and more BBC presenters and experts, despite being entirely untrue. It felt very weird to have direct personal access to the knowledge they were lying in this way; even though I saw it from the inside for years as a British diplomat.

We are a large and close family and tough, as Kirsty exemplifies. Kirsty has the love and support she will need after this traumatic experience. Now she is safely back and speaking to the UK media, I can acknowledge the connection with pride. It is, incidentally, a striking example of the stupidity of random terrorism. Kirsty was a leader in the series of school pupil walkouts in opposition to the war in Iraq.

[TonyGosling]

What DID firm paid £1.4million by UK to fight terrorism in Tunisia do for its money? Foreign Office facing serious question over £1.4m payment to security firm run by former advisers

UK-based Aktis Strategy was paid the money to train counter-terror units
Now facing furious backlash after 38 holidaymakers were killed in Sousse
Firm was founded in 2013 by ex-Foreign Office adviser Andrew Rathmell
Tunisian president has tonight declared a national state of emergency
By MICHAEL POWELL IN SOUSSE, TUNISIA and BARBARA JONES FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 00:12, 5 July 2015 | UPDATED: 00:39, 5 July 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3149735/What-did-firm-paid-1-4 million-UK-fight-terrorism-Tunisia-money-Foreign-Office-facing-questio n-1-4m-payment-security-firm-run-former-advisers.html

The Foreign Office is facing serious questions tonight over the revelation that it paid £1.4 million to a security firm run by its own former advisers to combat Islamic extremism in Tunisia before the beach massacre.

UK-based Aktis Strategy was handed the money to train counter-terror units in the Tunisian National Guard and advise on threats to public safety in the tourist hotspot.

But the company’s directors and Whitehall officials who fund them will now face an angry backlash after 38 holidaymakers – 30 of them British – were gunned down at Sousse.

The former Tunisian national security minister who set up the unit told The Mail on Sunday that he could not ‘blame people in England who must be asking where all their money has gone’.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former member of the UK Government’s Cobra security committee, said the money ‘perhaps should have been more widely dispersed, rather than being allocated in its entirety to Aktis and the Tunisian Interior Ministry.’

The firm was founded in 2013 by Andrew Rathmell, 49, a former deputy director of the Strategy Unit at the Foreign Office and an adviser in conflict resolution. Rathmell was in charge of Aktis’s Tunis office earlier this year.

His fellow directors are Alex Martin, 45, a former diplomat who spent three years as First Secretary at the Foreign Office, and Matthew Waterfield, 43, who worked for DFID in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, and currently advises the Government on stabilisation planning. The company had set up publicly-funded projects in five countries and has offices in London, Gaziantep (Turkey), Beirut, Tunis and Karachi.

The British Embassy and Tunisia’s Interior Ministry announced the Tunisian unit in November last year. At the time Ridha Sfar, Tunisian Deputy Minister of the Interior, said it would work ‘to manage risk, pre-emptively tackle security threats through forward planning, address key threats such as border security and terrorism.’

But Mr Sfar told the MoS yesterday that when he had announced the unit he had no involvement with the British company paid to run it. ‘All my dealings were with the British Embassy,’ he said. ‘I suppose they must have outsourced the work we agreed on to this company.’

He added: ‘Clearly there has been an overall failing in our security, leading to the terrible incident in Sousse. I cannot blame people in England who must be asking where all their money has gone. They must be feeling there is little to show for the financial support they gave to us.’

The revelations came as the Tunisian President declared a national state of emergency last night.

Aktis has described itself as being on the front line of the fight against Islamic State, providing security at the Lebanon border funded by the European Union along with other Middle East projects – a Foreign Office-funded community security programme in Syria; a food security programme in Gaza paid for by DFID; and a citizenship project in Libya also funded by Britain.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Police officer in Sousse tells MEE his team only started working in resort town TEN DAYS after beach attack http://t.co/VgZXcWS0oC #Tunisia

Today the government remains silent, as the spokesperson for the Ministry for the Interior has been sacked. There is a lack of information about the progress of the investigation. This is in addition to the new anti-terrorism law that was adopted on Friday 23 July. Very similar to the one that prevailed under Ben Ali, it may signal the lifting of the ban on the death penalty. - See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tunisias-ghost-town-sousse-122339626 #.dpuf


Spying on Americans: Senate Intelligence Authorization Act, Would Allow Arrest of Journalists & Anti-war Activists http://www.globalresearch.ca/spying-on-americans-senate-intelligence-a uthorization-act-would-allow-arrest-of-journalists-anti-war-activists- academics-and-students/5467952

[scienceplease 2]

Yassin Salhi's confession is very strange. His reason for killing is weak in the extreme "problems at work and home" and then he had "selective memory".