OCTOBER2007

Surreal indeed. Layla Anwar

I just read that Iraq is warning Turkey that an invasion would be disastrous...

Honestly, is this real or am I dreaming things up ?

Iraq is ALREADY invaded by BOTH the U.S.A , IRAN and ISRAEL in the North.

Why is the Iraqi government worried about one extra little invasion huh ?

Yalla, the more the merrier...Ahlan wa Sahlan as we say in Arabic.

Which reminds me of one smelly brave shit standing at the Iraqi -Jordanian frontier right after the U.S invasion, and letting in every single car, truck, bus, donkey, enter into Iraqi territory- no visas, no checks, no nothing and he was saying in that ugly nasal accent of yours: "Welcome to Eye Raq."

I say to Turkey, welcome to Eye Raq too.

Stealth Windows update prevents XP repair By Scott Dunn
http://windowssecrets.com/2007/09/27/03-Stealth-Windows-update-prevents-XP-repair

Top Story, September 27, 2007, Issue 124
  Turns out the "silent install" that Microsoft's been doing recently
with Windows Update actually does mess up an important function of
Windows XP. Fortunately, there's an easy command to enter to straighten
things out. ==

Stealth Windows update prevents XP repair

A silent update that Microsoft deployed widely in July and August is
preventing the "repair" feature of Windows XP from completing successfully.

Ever since the Redmond company's recent download of new support files
for Windows Update, users of XP's repair function have been unable to
install the latest 80 patches from Microsoft.

Repaired installations of XP can't be updated

Accounts of conflicts with XP's repair option came to our attention
after Microsoft's "silent install" of Windows Update (WU) executable
files, known as version 7.0.600.381, was reported in the Sept. 13 and 20
issues of the Windows Secrets Newsletter.

The trouble occurs when users reinstall XP's system files using the
repair capability found on genuine XP CD-ROMs. (The feature is not
present on "Restore CDs.") The repair option, which is typically
employed when XP for some reason becomes unbootable, rolls many aspects
of XP back to a pristine state. It wipes out many updates and patches
and sets Internet Explorer back to the version that originally shipped
with the operating system.

Normally, users who repair XP can easily download and install the latest
patches, using the Automatic Updates control panel or navigating
directly to Microsoft's Windows Update site.

However, after using the repair option from an XP CD-ROM, Windows Update
now downloads and installs the new 7.0.600.381 executable files. Some WU
executables aren't registered with the operating system, preventing
Windows Update from working as intended. This, in turn, prevents
Microsoft's 80 latest patches from installing - even if the patches
successfully downloaded to the PC.

I was able to reproduce and confirm the problem on a test machine. When
WU tries to download the most recent patches to a "repaired" XP machine,
Microsoft's Web site simply states: "A problem on your computer is
preventing the updates from being downloaded or installed." (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. After a repair install of XP, which resets the operating
system to its original state, Windows Update can't install the 80
most-recent patches from Microsoft. __

Most ordinary Windows users might never attempt a repair install, but
the problem will affect many administrators who must repair Windows
frequently. Anyone who runs XP's repair function will find that
isolating the cause of the failed updates is not a simple matter.

Beginning in July, it is not possible for Windows users to install
updates without first receiving the 7.0.6000.381 version of nine Windows
Update support files. (See my Sept. 13 story for details.) If Automatic
Updates is turned on, the .381 update will be installed automatically.
If AU is not turned on, you'll be prompted to let Windows Update upgrade
itself before you can installing any other updates. Consequently, users
are forced to get the silent update before they can attempt to install
Microsoft's latest security patches.

The problem apparently arises because seven of the DLLs (dynamic link
library files) used by WU fail to be registered with Windows. If files
of the same name had previously been registered - as happened when
Windows Update upgraded itself in the past - the new DLL files are
registered, too, and no problem occurs. On a "repaired" copy of XP,
however, no such registration has occurred, and failing to register the
new DLLs costs Windows Update the ability to install any patches.

Registering DLL files is normally the role of an installer program.
Unlike previous upgrades to WU, however, Microsoft has published no link
to an installer or a downloadable version of 7.0.6000.381. Strangely,
there's no Knowledge Base article at all explaining the new version. The
lack of a KB article (and the links that usually appear therein) makes
it impossible for admins to run an installer to see if it would correct
the registration problem.

One possible fix is to install an older version of the Windows Update
files (downloadable from Step 2 of Microsoft Knowledge Base article
927891) over the newer version. This involves launching the installer
from a command line using a switch known as /wuforce.

That corrects the registration problem, although even in this case you
must still accept the .381 stealth update (again) before you can get any
updates. The fact that the /wuforce procedure solves the problem
suggests that the installer for .381 is the source of the bug.

Manually registering files solves the problem

If you find that Windows Update refuses to install most patches, you can
register its missing DLLs yourself. This can be accomplished by manually
entering seven commands (shown in Step 2, below) at a command prompt. If
you need to run the fix on multiple machines, it's easiest to use a
batch file, as Steps 1 through 5 explain:

Step 1. Open Notepad (or any text editor).

Step 2. Copy and paste the following command lines into the Notepad
window (the /s switch runs the commands silently, freeing you from
having to press Enter after each line):

regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

Step 3. Save the file to your desktop, using a .bat or .cmd extension.

Step 4. Double-click the icon of the .bat or .cmd file.

Step 5. A command window will open, run the commands, and then close.

The next time you visit the Windows Update site, you should not have any
problem installing the latest patches.

In my articles in the last two weeks on the silent installation of the
Windows Update support files, I stated that the stealthy upgrade seemed
harmless. Now that we know that version .381 prevents a repaired
instance of XP from getting critical patches, "harmless" no longer
describes the situation. The crippling of Windows Update illustrates why
many computer professionals demand to review updates for software
conflicts before widely installing upgrades.

"I understand the need to update the infrastructure for Windows Update,"
says Gordon Pegue, systems administrator for Chavez Grieves Engineers, a
structural engineering firm in Albuquerque, N.M. "But I think Microsoft
dropped the ball a little bit communicating how the system works.
Administrators should know these sorts of things, in case problems arise."

A Microsoft spokeswoman offered to provide an official response about
the situation, but I received no reply by press time.

If you ever need to run the repair option on XP, first see the detailed
description provided by the Michael Stevens Tech Web site.

I'd like to thank Windows Secrets contributing editor Susan Bradley for
her help in bringing reports of this problem to light.

Have a tip about Windows? Readers receive a gift certificate for a book,
CD, or DVD of their choice for sending tips we print. Send us your
comments via the Windows Secrets contact page.

Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has
been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes
for the magazine's Here's How section.

British guards 'assault and racially abuse' deportees

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

Published: 05 October 2007

Hundreds of failed asylum-seekers deported from the United Kingdom have been beaten and racially abused by British escort teams who are paid to take them back to their home countries,

The scale of the alleged abuse has been uncovered in a joint investigation by The Independent and a group co-ordinating the representation and medical care of failed asylum-seekers.A dossier of 200 cases, collated by doctors, lawyers, immigration centre visitors and campaign groups over the past two years, has unearthed shocking claims of physical and mental mistreatment of some of the most vulnerable people in our asylum system.Many of the claims include allegations of physical and sexual assault and racist abuse which took place during the long journey from Britain to their home countries.

One of the cases of alleged abuse is that of Armand Tchuibeu, a Cameroon national who claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in February 2000. His application was refused last year. He was then arrested and prepared for removal.On 29 January 2007 he was collected from Tinsley House removal centre in East Sussex by four escort officers who drove him to Heathrow to catch a 9pm flight to Cameroon, as pictured on the front page from CCTV footage inside the van.He claims handcuffs were applied to his right arm. Mr Tchuibeu says he told the guards that there was no need to handcuff him as he had no intention of obstructing his removal. But he alleges that officers started to manhandle him and, while his arms were held, one of the officers punched him in his ribs and on his neck and told him words to the effect "You will go to your fucking country today, we will fucking show you what illegal people deserve in our country". Another officer is alleged to have held his head down so they could apply a leg strap.Eventually, Mr Tchuibeu convinced the escort officers he had been injured and the deportation was aborted. Mr Tchuibeu was taken to the Hillingdon Hospital where he was examined and treated. His knee was placed in a cylinder cast which he wore for four weeks.Mr Tchuibeu, who is being represented by the London solicitors Birnberg Peirce, is now bringing a civil claim for assault against the security company.

The authors of the 200-case dossier accuse the Government of turning a blind eye to the abuse in order to meet arbitrary targets for the forced repatriation of asylum-seekers.They say some of the cases they are investigating are worse than the torture and abuse the refugee suffered before making their asylum claim in this country.In nearly every case, the allegation of mistreatment is made against private security contractors employed by the Government to carry out enforced removals of asylum-seekers.Mr Tchuibeu appears to be far from an isolated case.

Milton Apollo Okello, 25, who was tortured by the Ugandan security services, claims that, after his asylum claim was rejected, he was frogmarched on to a plane and tied to his seat by British guards.But when word came through that he had won an eleventh-hour reprieve, Mr Okello claims he was taken to a van and beaten and racially abused. Mr Okello said: "The driver opened the sliding door and I was pushed into the middle of the seat. Two of the officers got on one side of me and the others came in on the other side. Officer A then punched me hard in the face and he said "These black monkeys don't want to go back to their country ..."A 24-year-old man who escaped to Britain after being imprisoned and tortured in the Republic of Congo claims that when he refused to sign a document presented to him by his escorts, three of them forced both hands backwards. One of the escorts is said to have told him: "This is the key to going home."A doctor who later conducted an examination of Mr A, wrote: "The fourth metacarpal of the left hand has undoubtedly suffered a fracture. This is highly consistent with excessive use of force during or after a failed attempt to remove him from the UK."

Dr Frank Arnold, a volunteer doctor with the Medical Justice Network, who has examined more than 100 detained asylum-seekers, says many of the injuries suffered during removal are not taken seriously enough by the British immigration authorities.He said: "Some of these injuries have been so bad that police officers who saw them appear to have been genuinely shocked. But it is my experience that medical staff who examine asylum-seekers when they are taken back into detention have greatly underestimated the severity of the injuries, including fractures and nerve damage from forcible traction on handcuffs."

In the past two years government figures show that 1,173 attempts to remove failed asylum-seekers, such ase Mr Tchuibeu have failed.The majority of those are due to the disruptive behaviour of the detainee on board the aircraft or because of an eleventh-hour judicial intervention. But others fail because of injuries suffered or the deterioration in the physical or mental health of the asylum-seeker during the removal process.Last month Mr Tchuibeu was returned to the Cameroon. After a police investigation, no one has been charged with an offence. The company denies the allegations of brutality made against its staff.

A spokesman for the Border and Immigration Agency which contracts the security companies to help carry out the removals said: "Any allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and all allegations of physical and racial abuse are referred to the police."

Three security firms are on the Government's approved list for the forced removal of failed asylum-seekers. They are Group4Securicor, International Training Academy and GEO, an American companyA spokesman said Group4- Securicor was aware of complaints made but said they had never been proven – adding the company would condemn any such action. GEO and International Training Academy both declined to comment.

The flight leaves Heathrow airport's Terminal Four, every Wednesday bearing the number KQ101. The echo of George Orwell's Room 101 is unhappily appropriate. On this Kenya Airways jet, many asylum-seekers' worst nightmares do come true. KQ101 is the deportation flight chartered by the British Government to return refugees to Africa. According to human rights groups, this flight carries out the most Africa-bound removals of unsuccessful asylum applicants to the UK. It has also become a flight that has attracted allegations of abuse by guards. From Nairobi the detainees are flown all over Africa where they are handed over to security and immigration authorities. Last night the Home Office said it had a number of contracts with airlines for scheduled and charter flights which involved the removal of failed asylum-seekers. A spokeswoman from Kenya Airways confirmed it had a contract with the Government to fly failed asylum seekers to Africa. "We have not received any complaints about these flights," she said.