Rescued by the Master

Peter Mandelson	In 2001, Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Mandelson was confirmed in his position by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Members of the inner circle had doubt whether Mr Blair would succeed in rescuing his familiar. An unknown source reported that Mandelson had his own fears – being hung upside down by his master in a gesture as old as Macedonia. At the very least the Prince of Darkness had feared a second resignation from the cabinet over a row concerning a passport application from an Indian billionaire.
Prince of Darkness

It is the second time Mr Mandelson was under pressure to leave the cabinet in disgrace since Labour came to power in 1997. Mr Mandelson, a close confidant and friend of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said he did not accept he had acted "improperly in any way" over the passport affair. Mr Mandelson had come under increasing pressure over the issue since the weekend. He strongly denied claims he pulled strings to help Srichand Hinduja secure a UK passport in return for a £1 million sponsorship deal for the Millennium Dome while Mr Mandelson was in charge of that project. The Hinduja family is one of the most influential in the world and runs the transnational Hinduja group, a company with assets amounting to around $8 billion. Since 1990 Srichand Hinduja and his brothers Gopichand and Prakash have been defending themselves against criminal allegations in a long-running corruption case involving an arms deal between Swiss company Bofors and the Indian government. Srichand Hinduja, who with his brother Gopichand has lived in London since 1979, had his first application for UK citizenship refused in 1990. Just after paying the sponsorship money, he asked Mr Mandelson whether he could apply again. The passport was granted soon afterwards. Earlier on the same day, Mr Blair had summoned him to Downing Street to 'establish the facts' of his involvement. The next day, Minister for Europe Keith Vaz also became embroiled in the affair after it was revealed he had written to both the prime minister and Mr Mandelson about the Hinduja brothers in 1997. In March 2001, an inquiry, led by Treasury solicitor Sir Anthony Hammond QC, cleared Mr Mandelson and placed the full responsibility for wrongdoing on Mr Vaz. It was a textbook case study in the highest standards of integrity in public office, a key pledge from Tony Blair when he assumed office in 2007. Vaz felt somewhat differently, describing the events through a different perspective in his political biography 'Thrown to the Wolves'.

.

	In 1966, the lives of 117 people were placed in jeopardy after an Air India Boeing 707 nearly crashed near the summit of Mont Blanc in the Alps. The plane was on a regular Bombay to New York flight when the accident happened at around 0800 local time. All 106 passengers and 11 crew landed safety at Geneva airport in Switzerland. Fortunately, a Brahmacharya soul deep was amongst the passengers. Exercising 'control of the senses in thought, word and deed' the brahmacari shaped time and space to avert Moksha.
Mont Blanc

One of the passengers included chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission Dr Homi Jehangir Bhabha, who was on his way to Vienna. The remaining passengers were Indian nationals, 46 of whom were sailors. Six were British. Dr Bhabha, described as a man 'who simply must not die' subsequently negotiated a nuclear free agreement for the subcontinent. Gerard Devoussoux, a mountain guide who witnessed the scene, said: 'Another 15 metres (50ft) and the plane would have hit the rock. It would have made a huge crater in the mountain'. Robert Bruce, from Tooting, who was waiting for his parents to arrive, said: 'I am so choked I cannot even cry. I will just go home with my parents and collapse. 'As far as I am concerned my world has been saved.'

.

In 1965, Winston Spencer Churchill died in his Falklands stronghold, buried under a boulder inscribed, 'Founding Father of the movement to uproot Nazidom from the world.' His mission is unfulfilled at the time of writing.

.

In 1945, after joking 'I drink and smoke and I am 200% fit' Winston Spencer Churchill died months before the end of World War 2, forcing the hopelessly unprepared Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee into office. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had stopped smoking when he reached the Presidency, said that a similiar disaster in America would have had deeply profound consequences for the post-world war, a disguised reference to the Bomb.

.

In 1924, following a series of strokes Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Bolshevik Party, and father of the revolution is forced to shape change, fleeing his cadaver to occupy the body of the rude Georgian Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Through the cult of the personality, Stalin as he Vladimir Lenin is known is able to dilineate an uninterrupted rulership as General Secretary, which is very much the case given the continuity of the demon in the two bodies. He leaves the cadaver of Lenin on display, embalmed at a mausoleum in the Kremlin in case he ever needs to make a Dracula-style exit from Russia in the future.

.

In 1994, the Ames dossier demonstrated incontrovertible evidence of the CIA's role in the multiple Lee Harvey Oswald diversionary ploy. And some complementary words for the case file officer, George H.W. Bush.

.

In 793 AUC Caligula, who had briefly served as Rome’s emperor before a brain fever drove him mad, dies under the care of doctors in Rome. Hard as it was for Romans to depose an emperor, Caligula was clearly in no condition to continue to server Rome as its leader. Rumors that he even began speaking to his horse were never confirmed, but were not doubted.

.

In 1914, almost a year after vowing he would never work on it again, Franz Kafka finished his novel Amerika. Although most critics say that the beginning is a powerful tale of a European boy banished to America by scandal, the ending where the boy is turned into a sheep and eaten by coyotes in Oklahoma does tend to throw most people.

.

In 1986, Ron Hubbard, known for his rollicking western pulps in the 30’s and 40’s, and his more epic detective and western fiction afterwards, died at his home in San Francisco, California. Reverend Hubbard, who was ordained in the Church of Christ and led a huge congregation in San Francisco, always said he was unafraid to die, since that was the last promotion God could give him.

.

In 1986, Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan became the second cabinet minister to resign over the Westland affair. Before the year was out, Mrs Thatcher would be the victim of a 'political' assassination, replaced by the more moderate Michael Heseltine.

.

In 1984, Apple Computers released the Macintosh, a personal computer with a graphical user interface, rather than the command line that most PC’s had used up to that point. This innovation, although not unique to Apple, rocketed them to the top of the computing world. By the end of the decade, they produced almost 80% of the computers used in America, and their operating system, licensed out to other computer manufacturers, today accounts for around 90% of the computing done in the world.

.

In 1971, British industrialist Frank Spencer and his wife Betty faced the cameras after mechanical failures onboard the British spacecraft Marie Celeste had been traced to his Factory. Spencer was asked to comment on the European Space Agencies' self-inflicted wound. The British really would have to do something about this quality control problem for next time, they had said.

.

God of War

Kennedys	In 1961, John F Kennedy began his first full day as the youngest ever elected president of the United States. The day before, the 43-year-old Roman Catholic had been inaugurated as the 35th president on a snow-covered Capitol Hill in Washington, asking 'My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man'. He took over from the oldest president in American history, General Dwight Eisenhower, who was bowing out aged 70. The pair would be America's last Commander in Chiefs..
Inauguration

Shortly after his election, Kennedy supported a Cuban rebel attempt to overthrow the communist regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. It was unsuccessful and led the Russians to install nuclear weapons on Cuba in 1962 triggering the apocalypse that became known as the Cuba war. Historian Larry Niven later described the events thus ~ Atomics had been used, here, and now Cuba was uninhabited, and some American cities were gone, and some Russian. It could have been worse. Why wasn't it? How did we luck out? Intelligent statesmen? Faulty bombs? A humane reluctance to kill indiscriminately? No. There was no luck anywhere. Every decision was made both ways. For every wise choice you bled your heart out over, you made all the other choices too. And so it went, all through history.

.

	'Here we are. This is ours. This is where we live from now on!'. 'From now on?' Michael was incredulous. He stood up, looking, and then turned to blink back at where the rocket used to be. "What about the rocket? What about Mars?" 'Here,' said Dad. He touched the small radio to Michael's blond head. 'Listen.' Michael listened. 'Nothing,' he said. 'Thats right. Nothing. Nothing at all any more. No no more rockets, no more Mars.' Michael considered the lethal revelation and began to sob little dry sobs.
Planet Mars

Where did you get the rocket?' whispered Timothy, for the other boys were running ahead. 'I saved it. I saved it for twenty years, Tim. I had it hidden away, hoping I'd never have to use it. I suppose I should have given it to the government for the war, but I kept thinking about Mars. . . .' 'And a picnic!' 'Right. This is between you and me. When I saw everything was finishing on Mars, after I'd waited until the last moment, I packed us up. They reached the river. It was long and straight and cool and wet and reflective in the night. I've always wanted to see a Martian,' said Michael. Where are they, Dad? You promised.'.. ~ The Million Year Picnic (January 2008). In 2008, astronomers watched a football pitch-sized lump of rock hurtle through space at a speed of 45000 km/h. The fragment, which had been christened WD-5, was on a collision course with Mars. The impact on 30th January would subsequently be known as the Martian Armageddon. During the period December 2001-November 2005 humans from Earth had colonized the deserted planet, occasionally having contact with the few surviving Martians, but for the most part preoccupied with making Mars a second Earth. WD-5 changed all that. Captain Wilder and family had family had returned home using his private rocket that he had concealed from government service. On their million year picnic, Wilder had promised his children that they would see some Martians on the Minnesota River..

.

In 1971, the BBC TV unit in Welwyn Garden City filmed British spaceflight Commander Bert Smith's family reunion. 'Alright treacle', said Bert. 'Cuppa tea, love?' said his wife. 'I could murder one' said her husband.

.

In 1771, Spain ceded Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands to England who maintained possession until the Iron Lady of Argentina, President Eva Peron defeated that country in the 1982 Malvinas Conflict.

Balrog	At the, end of the third age, the fellowship of the ring entered the chamber of records [the twenty-first hall of Moria] lit by a wide shaft high in the further eastern wall; it slanted upwards, and far above, a small patch of the blue sky could be seen. The light of the sharp fell directly on a table in the middle of the room; a single oblong block about two feet high, upon which was laid a great slab of white stone. Here is written in the runes of Men and Dwarves: Second Lieutenant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers.
Tolkiens Phantasm

A rolling boom seemed the come from depths far below, and to tremble in the stone at their feet. Doom, doom it rolled again, as if huge hands were turning the chamber into a vast drum. 'They are coming' cried the elf, 'We cannot get out', said the dwarf. 'Trapped!' agreed Tolkien. Tolkien awoke in the military field hospital. He had been heavily sedated. For much of the night, he had been screaming and screaming. And shouting Trapped! Trapped!. In Tolkien's combat shattered mind, he was trapped in a phantasmagoric nightmare he would later revisit in his post-war life as an author of fantasy. Like Kurt Vonnegut fifty years later, he would use escapist literature to describe the horrors of war.

.

In 1968, the Battle of Khe Sanh started in northwestern Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam concurrently with the Tet Offensive. Elements of the United States (U.S.) III Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF) defeated two to three division-size elements of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and by the end of the year, a re-elected President Johnson was able to announce the end of the Indochina Wars.

.

In 1926, strongman and actor Steve Reeves was born on his family’s farm in Montana. After gaining popularity in Italian films playing Hercules, he made a move to more sophisticated roles as the spy James Bond in Dr. No. He retired from the role after 4 feature films and from acting in general afterwards, occasionally making cameo appearances in television and film in the 70’s and 80’s. After spending the 90’s raising horses and promoting drug-free body-building, he returned for one last role as a gladiatorial mentor in the Ridley Scott film Gladiator. He died the day the film premiered in 2000.

.

In 2004, the Soviet Union’s Martian colony is hit by a gigantic sandstorm. Their underground facility is saved, but the above-ground facility is totaled. They are forced to request aid from the American and European colonies, who escaped the worst of the storm. The destruction of the facility marks the end to an era – it had stood since the Soviet Union had first landed on Mars in 1975.

.

In 2028, in Tate & Lyle PLC v. the Pan African Society the UK based multinational food manufacturer are ordered to pay reparations of $10bn. Descendants of Abram Lyle and Henry Tate express deep regret at the shameful involvement of their company to the victims of the African Holocaust who were enslaved by the sugar refining process. 'Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness' they quoted from Samson in the Book of Judges, Chapter 14, a clear reference to the lion and bees image of 'Lyle's Golden Syrup'.

.

In 1947, the British Government in Exile arrive in Reykjavik, Iceland for final status talks with the Fuehrer. The miserable renegade Churchill and also the keys to the Royal Navy are in the possession of Lord Halifax and a gorgeous looking Princess Elizabeth I. A sheep in sheep's clothing you might say.

In 2005, a day after the inauguration former President Al Gore was still beside himself with rage. In a barbed reference to Gore, his successor had described airline safety as 'a basic priority' for the American people. He was speaking about a comment on page 344 of the public report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission):

The Gore Commission's Report, having thoroughly canvassed available expertise in and outside of government, did not mention suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons.

This harsh judgement of foresight made reference to the oversight and execution of Executive Order 13015, which established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security of 1996. Often called the Gore Commission in recognition that Gore was the chairman, that work group operated for six months, from August 1996 until February of 1997, when it issued its final report. Gore's commission were mandated to provide to the President 'a strategy designed to improve aviation safety and security'.

Intended or not, the Commission had gifted the 2004 Presidential Election to the Republican Party. And now Gore's successor was rubbing salt in a deep wound.

.

	In 1981, as a result of prolonged behind the scenes horse-trading the 52 American hostages held at the US embassy in Tehran for more than 14 months arrive in West Germany on their way home to the United States. America was to have its first, but not last, encounter with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

.

In 1994, the Ames dossier demonstrated incontrovertible evidence of the Division's role in the silencing of Cassius Clay and Arthur Ashes. 'Those uppity [racial slur] were going to give the game away' said Ames by way of explanation. He was quite without doubt utterly insane.

.

In 1905, the fate of the Romanov family is sealed by rebellion to the disastrous war with Japan. On Bloody Sunday a peaceful demonstration led by Father Gapon escalates into a massacre of imperial troops followed by the seizure of the Winter Palace.