8th July 2013
I imagine everyone went to work this morning in good spirits after Andy Murray’s victory yesterday. The history books will show he won in three straight sets but it wasn’t like that at all. You could see in the final game when he was walking back to the base line, after saving the second break point against him and having lost three championship points, that he felt inside he had no physical strength left. Who knows what might have happened if he had lost that game. Well done, Andy.
I mentioned the 1996 Jillings Report, running to 300 pages, on 4th November 2012. Thanks to FoI requests made by the BBC a copy of it has been found in council vaults and it is published on their website this morning. Mr Jillings has told the BBC it was plain to him that something was amiss in North Wales so he was shocked when his findings were suppressed.
On the Korean airliner crash it seems everything was perfectly normal until seven seconds before landing, coming in over the sea. At that time the crew realised they were going too slowly and tried to abhort one and a half seconds before touch down by rising back into the air. However that was too late and the back of the plane hit the boundary wall where the runway jutted into the sea. Two Chinese teenagers were killed, one it is said by being run over by a rescue vehicle on the ground. The plane was evacuated in two minutes and was extensively burnt. It could have been a lot worse although I think a few have been badly hurt.
It is becoming extremely volatile in Egypt. Fifteen protestors were killed last night. Some people out on the streets want to get their way whatever the consequences. The phrase civil war is now being used. Jim Naughtie was saying early on Today this morning from Cairo that the people need to be given a vision for the future, through economic progress and social development. Otherwise things look bleak. It now seems uncertain as to whether Mr Al-Baradei was appointed interim prime minister last week after all.
Before 7am was a report from MAN trucks in Germany. They are designing a completely new kind of long curvaceous lorry which besides other factors would apparently be much safer for nearby cyclists.
Gordon Corera’s second Radio 4 programme on cyber threats is being broadcast tonight. The BBC webpage says the Olympic official whose responsibility it was, received a phone call from GCHQ at 4.45am on the morning of the opening ceremony to say they were worried that a cyber attack might be made to turn off the Olympic Stadium power supply whilst the show was in progress. I think it likely the messenger was a Gang helper. As you can imagine that information caused a lot of consternation. Manual back ups had to be provided for during some frenetic hours in case it actually happened, which it didn’t. Currently it seems we are very focused on cyber security for the state but not the private sector unlike many other countries. Later this year a national emergency response team (Cert) will be established to cover both areas in a coordinated fashion.
Tony Blair was interviewed on Today this morning. I think he wanted to say that Egypt has been broken for quite a few months and we need to help as much as we can because of the ramifications for the region as a whole. He says 17 million citizens have been out protesting on the streets.
The Church of England is having a General Synod at the moment with another go at moving forward on it’s schisms. Yesterday on the past inaction relating to child sex abuse allegations the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham said his church body had protected itself at the expense of the person who had been abused. Justin Welby has said a complete cultural change of thinking is required.
It is feared about 40 people could have been killed in the Lac-Megantic train wagons explosions. Some people may not be found as their remains have completely burnt away. The Canadian prime minister has visited and said that part of the town looks like a warzone. He has promised he will get to the bottom of what happened and see such a thing can never occur again.
Today’s FT says the president of Bolivia, whose plane stopped off in Vienna last week, has now also offered Edward Snowden asylum.
It reports as well that it was the conservative Egyptian Muslim Party Nour who objected to the appointment of Mr ElBaradei. They have broken with their allies the Muslim Brotherhood in joining with the new political alliance but it seems are making strident demands. The piece also says that Quatar have strongly backed the Brotherhood in the past. The UAE and Suadi Arabia are two countries who have wanted the Brotherhood disposed it is suggested.
9th July 2013
After the English Party leaders had been sipping refreshments in the garden of No 10 Downing Street with Andy Murray in the afternoon a wide eyed Yvette Cooper appeared on Channel 4 News last night. She said she thought future undercover policing operations should be independently authorised by a body such as the Office of Surveillance Commissioners. She also indicated it might be best to have some form of independent inquiry into specific policing issues thrown up by the Stephen Lawrence revelations.
I had not heard about it but also on the programme was a lady barrister who wrote an article a few week’s ago criticising the police’s Yewtree investigations into historic child sex abuse. She said that at the time they happened some of the allegations, such as older men touching up young girls, would not have been considered serious enough to warrant prosecution. In her view after one serious case had been identified, that of Jimmy Savile, the pendulum swung too far towards puritanism for other men. So that fairness applies in the future to both alleged victim and alleged perpetrator she suggests there should be no anonymity for accusers, very old allegations should not be actionable, and the age of consent should be reduced to 13. That all makes a lot of sense to me. I referred to the age of consent elsewhere in Europe on 21st June 2013.
I wrote about the difficulties of being out in public space on 5th July 2013 and on Primrose Hill in London in particular on 8th June 2013. By coincidence Jon Snow based himself there for the broadcast. Right at the end he walked over to a cyclist in full garb sprawled on the ground behind him and asked his views about the future. The man seemed surprised Jon had done that. I don’t think it was in the cyclist’s script. Jon asked him what he did. He said a city banker. Then milling around was a man in his office shirtsleeves in dark glasses. Just as Jon was finishing the man seemed to get a text on his phone. He immediately took a photo of Jon. Possibly he might say his girlfriend was asking for a momento of the occasion if asked.
The National Air Traffic Services centre in Southampton has had a problem today involving loss of sight of airspace over Jersey. Some flights were delayed. It was a computer problem which was solved by a re-boot of their system. That sounds a little laugh-laugh to me.
As I understand it at the moment participating unions pay a political affiliation levy taken automatically from their 3 million members, unless they are specifically told not to, so as to put the Labour Party into funds. It is worth about £8 million a year, £3 being charged to each person, and estimates are that if members had to specifically say they wanted it paid to Labour the sum would drop to £3 million. In addition the levy is a matter between union and member so Labour themselves do not know who is paying them and is unable to make contact with individuals to see if they would like to help more. In his speech today following the Falkirk affair Ed Miliband announced he wants to end automatic affiliation fees to Labour paid by the unions. Len McCluskey was on the World at One at lunchtime saying he could see no reason why his union’s general political levy on it’s members should not continue. They would then be able to also become associate Labour supporters for an extra £3 if they wished. It seems the nuts and bolts of the idea will be sorted out in negotations beteween the two sides to be chaired by a former Labour Party general secretary. Mr Miliband has also said he wants all-Party talks on the long term funding of political parties to restart.
Some more details have emerged this afternoon on the Lac-Megantic explosions. From a BBC webpage it seems the train was being pulled by five joined locomotives. When it was parked one was left running to provide power and the engineer walked off presumably for the night. That seems a little strange to me. In any event there was some form of conflagration on the train and the fire brigade were called. When they arrived they turned off the fifth engine. That caused it’s hydraulic brakes to fail and the whole train started to roll off down the hill. An eye witness has said the wagons were on fire before they derailed.
A Met Police Assistant Commissioner appeared before the Commons Home Affairs Committee today. She said the police have asked for and received a copy of the tape recording of Rupert Murdoch held by journalists which I referred to on 4th July 2013. They wanted it to assist in their enquiries.
There was quite a stark interview I thought on Channel 4 News this evening with the former policeman who led the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry for four years after the Macperson report. He said he knew absolutely nothing about a smear campaign against the Lawrence family but more shockingly I feel intimated he did not think his superiors would have told him even if there had been one. He said he authorised the secret recording because he didn’t feel anyone else would. I received the impression he did that for the protection of his own men, in case they were accused of some misdemeanour afterwards. I believe he was saying his team were working in an isolated box without any friends inside or outside of the police.
I emailed Lib Dem councillor Duwayne Brooks, Stephen Lawrence’s frind, yesterday to offer my support and to say I would be pleased to give evidence before any judge led enquiry that may be held into past years’ police undercover work that may be held.
The Council of Europe was established after the second world war with Britian being a founder member. It now covers 47 counties. In 1959 the organisation created the European Court of Human Rights which has always had the authority to tell member goverments what to do in the civil liberties field. Today it seems a lot of, mainly Conservative, politicans are not pleased our grandfathers set up that arrangement.
The court is in the news because, by a 16-1 majority, it’s judges have decided it was unfair for us to change our law in 2003 so that people could be sent to jail for the whole of their life without review. Our prisons hold 49 individuals in that category and three of them asked the court for a ruling. I consider it is vengeful to believe an individual can never change their ways throughout their life. However the solution is straightforward. If we don’t wish to abide by the law of the European court we should leave it and start thinking of more constructive things.
After Osama Bin Laden was found and killed by the Americans in May 2011 the Pakistani parliament commissioned an independent enquiry. The 337 page report was finished about six months ago but hasn’t been made public. It has now been leaked to the al-Jazeera media organisation. It says apparently that the fact Mr Bin Ladan lived in the army garrison town of Abbottabad for six years shows gross incompetence and culpable negligence in all areas of Pakistani governmental bodies, including the army and intelligence service.
In December 2011 the Home Secretary ordered a review of how the police use their stop and search powers, following complaints made by some after our riots in the summer of that year. The Inspector of Her Majesty’s Constabulary was on Today this morning. He said his report found that in 27% of instances either no reason had been given for a stop and search or if it was the action was not justified. He suggests that leads to a lack of trust in the police. The government will give it’s conclusions on the report by the end of the year.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was on the edition. He spoke clearly and authoritatively I thought. He said he looks upon it as his responsibility to see that women become bishops as soon as possible. The way forward is to have a clear set of principles but within that individuals will be able to follow their own consciences subject to due oversight.
The just installed Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, gave an interview to the programme prior to his meeting in No 10 Downing Street with David Cameron next week.
Lebanon, a country of just over 4 million, has taken in 600,000 refugees from Syria. Today we announced the transfer of £10 million in long term aid to the country, for improving basic services and creating jobs.
10th July 2013
A local BBC webpage reports today that 15 people, presumably including some who worked there, have been arrested on suspicion of stealing hundreds of thousands of durty free goods from Gatwick airport.
I went in this morning for the first of a two day volunteering role at a local Grammar school. We mentors are helping sixth form boys and girls get a taste of the business world they might expect when they get older. The Gang set up for me was quite like my last volunteering role I started writing about on 26th May 2013. There were about 20 adults in the early morning briefing room. We were paired off to work with one group of teenagers each. My match was a professional man of about my age. By coincidence we were chatting over coffee before we knew we would be together. He was putting forward some hard, uncaring views in my opinion and I let him know I disagreed. He was quite taken aback at my impoliteness. When our pairing was called out he physically deflated. He knew he was going to be in for a difficult day. Obviously not the sort of thing he is used to at all. We were late in sitting down at the back of the room because he was not paying attention. However, even with that, two volunteer ladies seemed to wait for us to move first and then sat next to me. When seated, listening to the opening remarks, the side of his body started touching the side of mine. He was hoping, conciously or unconciously I feel, that I would recoil in submission. It was quite animalistic really. However I pushed him back.
The fourth, and most senior Gang person in my view, arrived late. It is a tactic I have seen several times now. I can see little point in it myself. It just seems to be one of those Gang culture things, although possibly it is also a hidden visual signal they use. One good example that comes to my mind, which I see I did not mention in my book, was on 26th April 2008 when I attended a Neighbourhhood Watch meeting at Kent Police headquarters. Just after the event had started in their lecture hall a group of about six came in and sat in the back row. Almost immediately their leader tried to stir anti-police emotion amongst the large number present. Fortunately it did not work.
I am certain none of the four knew of each other beforehand. However my partner very soon picked up, in my view, that he was in the presence of a senior man there to look after him. He sucked up to him for the rest of the day.
My partner used to work, I see from their website, for an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services which was founded in 1865. It now employs 142,000 people in 65 countries. The other man, I found out later, is a BSkyB executive. Whether I prompted him to speak in the school hall I am not sure. I suspect I had made him so cross he could not contain himself. About 100 of us were being addressed by a board member responsible for 600 staff of a London financial organistion. Even though she only had a cookery O level when she left school she made it to the top. She said she had found over the years that general bias against women had become less pronounced. When at the end she invited questions I asked, because I felt it was a good news area, if she could give a couple of specific examples of how things had improved for her. Immediately after that the man, standing at the back of the room, talked about set backs in your career and how you cope with those. That prompted her, in a completely unconscious way I believe, to say she was just about to leave her job and start on a new venture. This evening I suspect that question might make the lady have a few niggly doubts. My worry is that, when they feel it appropriate, the lady will be reminded of that exchange so she becomes aware of the Gang’s hidden intelligence network. The message will be, in my view, that she should do as they wish and not resist.
When we started with our group of nine 17 year olds my partner addressed them. I could hardly believe it when he specifically remarked what was said in the room was secret between us. They were amongst friends so could do and say what they wanted. It would go no further. Within five minutes he had a go at me, in effect saying I was being too familiar with the children. I rebuffed him, which interestingly produced a positive buzz from them as they worked on their first task. I asked him to respect my way of doing things. Thinking about it afterwards I am sure he wanted to make a complaint about me to someone outside of the room. He even started making for the door at one stage. However as we argued he realised he would look pretty silly if he had done so. I simply hadn’t done anything wrong. After that he was fine. Indeed as the morning wore on I began to wonder if my thoughts were too unkind towards him. He was quite a nice guy. He had no interest in the kids but I really could not blame him for that. The clincher though for me was after lunch when he asked me where I lived. I was reasonably specific but not totally. That however was not good enough for him. He had been briefed, in my opinion, to get a particular road name out of me which I gave him. I have absolutely no idea why it was thought that would make me feel uncomfortable. The Gang are arrogant but mostly not clever.
As I final thought about the day I am relieved there was no sign, except for one, of any hidden Gang influence on my teenage group. My early exchange with my partner helped that young man no end in my view. Unfortunately it has not always been the case with some some close to my family, from good homes, I have come across in recent years. These were a really nice, unaffected bunch of kids.
Our first Official Secrets Act was dated 1911. The world has changed a lot since then. I really don’t understand why States still think secrecy is such a fantastic idea. I was genuinely surprised to hear Sir Malcolm Rifkind argue so forceably for it, in a discriminatory way, on The Long View on Radio 4 yesterday, a recording of which I found through a link on the Today website. Sir Malcolm can see nothing contradictory with saying that we should definitely not spy on Canada and New Zealand for example, as I mention on 5th July 2013, but there is nothing wrong with doing that to France and Germany. Why should he expect the public to accept such an arbitrary distinction without giving any reason for it? People are people wherever they live. The rational connection I make however is that the five eyes nations of America, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are, by total coincidence no doubt, also the home base territories in my view of the American Gang.
The boss of the train operator in the Lac-Megantic crash has been talking to the media. From what he has said I think there are two lots of brakes applied to a parked train, one to the locomotive and one to the wagons. When the correctly applied one was removed for the locomotive in order to deal with the fire on board, the wagons ran away. His conclusion therefore is that the one applied to the wagons was never applied correctly by his employee when he parked the train.
The severance payments story at the BBC is not dying down with Lord Hall and Lord Patten appearing before the Commons Public Accounts Committee today. The National Audit Office has said that 25% of severance payments to top executives it looked into were above what was legally required. £25 million was paid to 150 leavers.
Sometimes you do want to pull your hair out. You can see where the press regulation story is going. The Gang have got all their experts together and are tying the politicians up in knots. It is painful to watch. Just after Today started this morning I discovered that the press’ Royal Charter proposal will not be considered by the full Privy Council until October at the earliest.
It obviously never occured to our political hierarchy that an opaque, archaic Royal Charter route for press regulation is not suitable for today’s age. The clear Gang strategy is to get the process bogged down in legal niceties and meanwhile introduce their own unilateral system with which they are happy. The three Party leaders have been outmanouvred. It makes you wonder whether, like the rest of us, they might just as well accept the situation and let the Gang get on with it.
If only those with democratic power would show a bit of trust in the public I really do think that is the way forward. A lot of us are only attracted by sensational news. The Gang story isn’t that. It is an ever present long going slog. Non-targeted people, if they notice, will just carry on as they always have, pleased that they are so lucky. For the thinking ones amongst us though I do genuinely feel knowledge would make a massive difference. To understand how it all works does allow you to fight back and protect yourself. We should all be given the information so that we can call a spade a spade.
People value freedom. When it is completely denied they are willing to risk their lives, so important is it to them. It is what the Arab Spring was all about: and more recently events in Turkey, Brazil and Egypt. If we Brits were told we are in an undercover war many of us would be hopping mad too. We deserve better. Many would become passionate in my view and want to do their bit.
The Chief Inspector of Prisons was on Today this morning just before 7am reporting that levels of violence at Feltham Young Offenders institution in London are not acceptable. He says that if you were a parent of a juvenile in there you would be terrified for their safety.
On Monday Toronto suffered flash floods after 3.9 inches of rain fell in one day, the biggest ever. 300,000 homes lost electric power.
11th July 2013
I have finished my second day in school. I am pleased to say it was far less eventful than the first. My partner was assigned yesterday afternoon, with my agreement, to another group. It was felt I think that he was needed elsewhere. I noticed tensions in the management team during the morning so I suspect he made waves in his new position. I tried to chat to him over morning coffee but he did not want to know. My reading is that he was in Gang hot water last night for a job poorly done and therefore felt badly towards me. By chance at lunchtime I sat next to a teacher in his thirties. I have had contact and wondered about him before. From his subject of conversation I concluded he is a Gang helper. I gave him one of my looks afterwards so he knew I thought that. At a function in the school hall later, part way through he chose to stand in my direct line of vision. It was an act of defiance in my view. He knows I only have suspicions. I have no evidence. I cannot touch him. He has his support from his friends outside the school. Besides me I suspect he does not like his colleagues nor his pupils very much. However I am sure he hides that very well.
One interesting aspect of our chance encounter I feel is that he knew nothing about the four I mentioned yesterday and they knew nothing about him. The Gang director obviously thought it best that way. He was not briefed at all about what he said to me. He acted that way just because he felt like it. He knew beforehand I am not flavour of the month. You could say it was a culture thing.
The Justice Secretary has announced today he has asked the Serious Fraud Office to investigate whether G4S have broken the law in overcharging the goverment under a contract for the tagging of released offenders entered into by the Labour Administration in 2005. It seems likely another supplier, Serco, has also overcharged but they are cooperating with the government’s audit. G4S do not think it appropriate at the moment. I am particularly interested to know why the story has broken at this particular point in time. I wonder if it might have something to do with an email I dispatched on Tuesday and a letter I posted today. Be that as it may I think the government, like the Labour Party over the weekend, decided they wanted to do the right thing. I applaud both of them. I heard Eddie Mair interview Francis Maude about the tagging story on PM this afternonn. From the tone of their voices it was obvious, in my view, that there is a part of the story the public are not being told about. My suspicion is that journalists feel the government are unfairly picking on G4S; that, in their view, ministers wish to use them as a scapegoat. It seems government officials have known about the probable overcharging since 2008 but nothing has been openly said until now. I think it likely there could be some embarrassment for the government further down the line. I notice it has been the Cabinet Officer Minister who has been giving media interviews this evening, not the Justice Secretary himself.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has finally announced today that it will be increasing MPs’ pay after the next election by £6,000, to £74,000 per year. No doubt any of the new school of MPs will be able to refuse that addition if they wish. Michael Gove has been out and about today saying he thinks IPSA is silly and that he believes MPs are well paid. I doubt if Mr Gove truly believes that. I do not feel he is acting responsibly as a future potential leader of the Conservative Party.
A shocking medical story which sticks in my mind from my book, in the chaper 12 appendix, is about defective surgical instuments made in Pakistan. In June 2011 two thirds of the world’s supply was made there. Yet when a spot check was made on 19 Pakistani instruments 12 were found to be defective. Most had microscopic shards of glass on them which could puncture surgical gloves and get inside patients. Only one of our 180 NHS trusts at the time rigourously checked their supplies. I hope that has now changed. Along the same lines I read a BBC webpage this evening that our regulator is recalling 16 prescription medicines from pharmacists, made at a particular factory in India. Evidence of forged documents was found at the site and possibilities of cross contamination existed.
Early, Today were talking about an advisory service which has been set up to combat stalking. A lady was interviewed who said two examples of how she was stalked by her ex-partner were a text he send her once of a noose and how for days on end he would leave his vehicle outside her parents’ home.
The was a lady on the programme from NHS Blood and Transplant saying they want the public to start thinking about the subject of organ transplants. Just because it is not a very nice subject does not mean we should pretend it could never apply to our family. At the moment relatives can override the wishes of a just died person to donate their organs. That doesn’t seem very fair to me. A proposition the lady put, with which most people I hope would agree, is that if you would accept a dead person’s organ, after being in a serious accident say, you should likewise be prepared to offer yours to others after your demise.
The gentleman on Thought for Day on the broadcast was reflecting on the emotional comment we see in newspapers a lot. The Gang have known for a long time what a powerful tool emotion is. It can be used to destabilise people. To disturb the normal balance between out heads and our hearts. Fear is a particulary debilitating emotion. Yet, if you get it right, I think high emotion can be used for good. It is scary but you can adapt it for taking someone out of their comfort zone; so that they challenge themselves without consciously realising it. If they are too weak, it will make things worse. But if they have an element of strength beforehand it can give them confidence. They appreciate they can withstand external pressure entirely from within themslves.
Doreen Lawrence said at a Commons Home Affairs Select Committee hearing yesterday that she would like a public inquiry into the police action surrounding Stephen’s death. With all the recent twists and turns she said she no longer knows what to believe. She remarked that when police officers visited her home and asked for private details of family and friends their explanation was that it is often found those close at hand are involved in serious crime. She responded that her son’s killers were known to be white. Her contacts are black.
12th July 2013
I feel it was extremely good of the Prime Minister and Mayor of London to take time out from their busy schedules to attend Lee Rigby’s funeral, with full military honours, in Bury today.
I see from a BBC webpage that it is the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery next month which my book illustrates, if anyone ever reads it, impinges slightly on my own story. Apparently the BBC will be broadcasting a drama about the heist later in the year. The page compliments a Radio 4 programme to be broadcast tomorrow about the life and times of the robbery mastermind Bruce Reynolds who died in February. I suspect Mr Reynolds was no more than a Gang helper. He will have understood that but quite understandably will not have wanted to share it with anyone else I believe. He fled to Mexico with his family but when his money ran out returned to England. The law caught up with him and whilst in prison his marriage broke down. He and the lady were eventuall reconciled however and he committed himself to caring for her until her death in 2010. Perhaps he realised he owed her something. He cannot have been all bad.
As I say in the book I think 1963 was when the Gang became of age in this country. They proved out there in the real world that their techniques of hidden manipulation, without revealing themselves, actually work like a dream. It was also the year of the Profumo Scandal, not a money making exercise but using the same entrapment methods to destabilise important people out there in public view. In that instance in my opinion human opportunities were provided which men do not want to refuse, so a chance is taken thinking it is all in private. Only later is the sillyness of that assumption realised.
Coming to today the G4S and Serco affair reveals, for me, how complicated Gang structures have now become. That story I suggest is all about individual Gang cells operating in isolation for the purpose of making their own money but secretly being manipulated from above, without them caring about it, for the slow destabilisation of our political and governance structures generally. In this case I believe you will have had autonomous gangs in G4S, Serco and government. The other troubles G4S have had, and their present negative stance, show in my view that gangs are strong in that company. The open reaction of Serco to the news indicates I suggest they are weak in that organisation. Serco have nothing to hide.
The three Gang centres will realise they are being coordinated from above but are grateful because the process is helping them on their way. In contrast to the fate of Rupert Murdoch the other day they do not know how to stitch their superiors up even if they wanted to. And neither would it be a very good idea to talk about how it all works. That would expose their own wrong doing. All in all a very neat little system.
Roula Khalaf compares Algeria and Egypt in Wednesday’s FT. In 1991 the Algerian army took control when a democratic election was not going the way they wanted. Because the sides would not then talk to each other a 10 year civil war resulted. Jihadi attacks continue to this day. The result is that now neither Islamists nor liberals are empowered. In Turkey however, when the army similarly stepped in in 1997, the Islamists devised a political strategy for moving forward. She suggests the Muslim Brotherhood follow the second example not the first.
The same page reports that the ousting of Mr Morsi has been bad news for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The trade tunnels linking Gaza to Egypt started to be demolished last month but now the border itself has been completely shut. Economic activity has been noticeably affected. The Egyptian fuel supply has stopped. Mr Morsi was a Hamas ally. Now their only friend is Mr Erdogan in Turkey.
Luxemborg is a country of half a million people within the European Union. You wonder therefore why it has need of a national secret service. However yesterday’s FT reports that it’s prime minister has just called a snap general election after it has emerged that it’s spying services acted inappropriately between 2005 and 2009. It is alleged he tried to cover it all up and denies any responsibility for what happened. Because it is all about state secrecy details are sparse of course but seemingly phone conversations of top politicians were being bugged. One parliamentarian has alleged that the country was actually being run by secret agents over the period.
David Gardner notes in the paper that Bashar al-Assad has been quite gleeful on the fall from grace of the Muslim Brotherhood. Thankfully things in Egypt have been relatively quiet since the army shot dead more than 50 Brotherhood supporters outside the building in Cairo where it is believed Mr Morsi is being held, at the beginning of the week. I think that may have been a bit of a wake up call for the military. Perhaps they were not entirely blameless and their generals realised good people within their ranks are capable of manipulation just like the rest of us. The key now, in my view, is for the Brotherhood to re-engage with the political process.
I read on a BBC Kent webpage this afternoon more details about the death of a 21 year old man attending a house party in Folkestone on Saturday night. For some reason he became violent. Initially he was restrained by members of the public but when the police arrived they took over. Four officers were involved in that confinement. The man became unwell and died. An initial post-mortem examination has not established the cause of death. The IPCC, it seems, are carrying out a quick and resourced investigation. Their investigators are in Folkestone and ask any residents who may have information to make contact with them.
I wrote about false memories on 14th June 2013. The note came back to me when I saw Sergeant Danny Nightingale interviewed by Mark Urban on Newsnight last night. Mr Nightingale is a serving SAS officer who has just been court-martialed for bringing a weapon back here from Afghanistan after a tour of duty there. When sentenced it is likely he will go to military prison for years and then be medically discharged. He has a wife and family and faces bankruptcy. The difficulty is that when initially questioned he did confess. Now however he believes his memory to have been false. The correct word apparently is mind conflagration. If it is Gang related, which I think it will be, he will have been set up; firstly by having the gun planted on him and secondly by having the false memory implanted in his mind. Hopefully he may be able to work out how both those might have happened. The realy clever think though, which reeks of the Gang, is the cover for his victimisation. It seems the SAS have always operated pretty much on their own outside of MOD control, causing much resentment no doubt. It would only take a few well placed words to their heirarchy therefore that this case is the ideal opportunity to show the SAS who is really boss. That creates it’s own internal snowballing effect of pressure. If you were sitting on the deciding panel I imagine you would have to be quite a maverick to even suggest the Sergeant’s story might just be true.
The end of the broadcast was wound up with a report from Georgia. Until the government changed in 2003 the country was riddled with corruption. A back hander was required to get even the simplest things done. The government’s attitude used to be that those ways were just part of their culture. It was such a massive problem nothing could be done about it. However President Mikheil Saakashvili made a big diffence. He sacked the whole of the 16,000 strong traffic police force and replaced them with officers who would not accept bribes. Everything suddenly became totally transparent. However Steve Rosenburg’s analysis is that it was all low and medium level corruption. The elite just carried on as always and that fault line is now coming back to bite the dog. I expect the American Gang might also have moved in to fill the vacuum. They are very set in their ways and current difficulties involve intimidation of key businessmen by the state. Steve Rosenburg interviewed a man who used to run one of the country’s largest telecoms companies. He was asked to participate in some form of Prism communications surveillance programme. He refused. Shortly afterwards vandalism started occuring to the company’s equipment. Then out of the blue he was fined by the tax authorities. If he had not paid £5 million he would have gone to jail. He felt he could no longer resist. He lost his company through it which, I am sure, now gives the government full access to all it’s telecommunications traffic.
Organised by Gordon Brown, and his wife I expect, Malala Yousafzai spoke with total pugnaciousness and vigour at the United Nations in New York on her sixteenth birthday. She said that extremists are afraid of women and that universal children’s education is the only way forward for the world. The building had been taken over by 500 teenagers for the day. Apparently there was a buzz of excitement around. We really need to get this idea of an effective world government off the ground.
Edward Snowden had a 45 minute meeting with various non-governmental people in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport today. I have just read his statement on the Wikileaks website using a link on a BBC webpage. It is powerfully reasoned and sincere. He has paid a lot for his stance. He wants to fight back. To be frank I feel a little that way myself. I am a bit fed up with you all for not doing what you should have done, over too long a period. Russia has reiterated he can stay with them for a bit if he wishes so long as he abides by their house rules. In the situation he is in I feel that is a very good, and I do have to say kind, offer.
13th July 2013
I read about the ‘Ndrangheta again this morning on the BBC website to go with an edition of From Our Own Correspondent. It is about Maria Carmela who is no longer the mayoress of a small town of 3,500 in Calabria. She was fighting Organised Crime with too small a number of comitted companions and has finally thrown in the towel. Perhaps she feels that if her citizens really enjoy living in a blighted landscape with rubbish always on the streets that is up to them. She needs to get back to a private life. Interestingly she believes that if change is ever brought about in the region where she lives it will be women who achieve it. At the moment though she says there are not enough who think like her.
An intercity train was leaving the outskirts of Paris yesterday afternoon. They carriages were picking up speed as they passed through a section of points on the track and derailed. The train crashed into a suburban station in front of it. At least six people were killed. That scenario is uncannily similar, it seems to me, to the Potters Bar rail crash here in May 2002. If I make that connection I am sure many under Gang influence will too. If they do not initially it will be pointed out by their friends. I consider it is a clear warning to them that they can never even hope to control their own lives. It is best to keep your head down, stay quiet and get on with things as best you can. The other possible lesson I take from the incident, in typical American Gang fashion, is that for them it is picking on the members of an opposing gang. France are not one of the five eyes nations I referred to on Wednesday. Their citizens therefore are suitable targets to be picked on. If I am right of course it is an irrational, perverse way of looking at the world. Unfortunately however it does not stop such things happening.
Another act of Gang intimination happened yesterday in my view in Tipton, Birmingham on the day of Lee Rigby’s funeral. At 1pm it appears a nail bomb exploded on a disused railway line behind a mosque. That is normally the time for Friday prayers but yesterday they were held at 2pm due to Ramadam. The incident tells us a lot it seems to me where we currently are in the Gang story. Unlike in Woolwich in May the Gang had no individual in a suitable psychological state they could persuade to go and kill someone as an act of terrorism. However they need to boost their moral as much as anyone else and it was decided an act of terrorism was what was needed. So they settled on the next best thing. Use Gang employees themselves. However that then creates it’s own problem for them. Their supposed rule is they must never subject their people to inappropriate danger. The ruse they came up with therefore was to set off the device knowing that no one would get hurt. Local residents would still be frightened enough as they would suppose the perpetrators didn’t understand the practices of the Islamic calender.
I do also have a deeper thought about the Tipton event. By ensuring there were no personal injuries the Gang Master ensured Gang helpers in the police would be under no great pressure to hunt down their leads. If the police do catch the men who were up on the disused railway line the low level criminals might decide to say who had put them up to it. And if the police then questioned the men at the higher level they might decide to say how they were contacted to arrange the event. That process of course could lead right to the top of the tree. The Godfather could never allow even the possibility of such a thing ever happening. He must keep his identity secret at all costs. Which, you will understand, is why I have never been assassinated. Because I am an honest, private citizen who at the end of the day just wants to get on with my own life in my own way, it would never have been feasible to arrange that without leaving the possibility of a smoking gun pointing back to the ultimate paymaster. Whilst on the subject there may be rumours around that I wish to commit suicide. If so they are false. I have no wish to shorten my life.
It is leaders of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland who have currently lost their rationality in my view. Because they were told it would be a bit unfriendly to march past a road where Republican families live, and would not be allowed to do so, they thought it appropriate to bring their people out on the street to get all hot and bothered. The Gang duly said thank you very much for that bit of cover and did what they know best. They arranged some violence. But not against just anybody. Whilst he was standing on a public street the deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Nigel Dodds MP, had a brick thrown at him and was knocked unconscious. 32 police officers were also hurt during six hours of rioting.
Earlier in the week it was announced 630 police officers from the mainland were travelling to Northern Ireland to assist the PSNI to watch over this year’s parades season. After last night it has been announced another 400 are going. It would be nice if the Gang themselves could see the writing on the wall. They are, actually, outnumbered.
Today yesterday reported on the Dail deciding that if a woman’s life is in danger Ireland will allow her foetus to be aborted. The change will not cover instances of rape nor incest. After two full days of heated debate in the Catholic country the change was passed by a large majority. Views, I am sure, will change over time. At the moment 11 ladies a day travel to Britain for an abortion, so at least they retain a realistic choice to have control of their own bodies as they think best.
I don’t feel David Cameron would have visited Kazakhstan, an incredibly resource rich country, a week last Sunday unless he felt sure he was on reasonably sound international political ground. The Boston bombers came from there. Then a bit more background I feel came in last Saturday’s FT. The Kazakh state is pursuing a former politican and businessman over misappropriation of at least $6 billion from it’s BTA bank. Legal procedings have been taking place in the UK since March 2009. In July 2011 the businessman was granted assylum here. On 26th May 2013 the man was photographed by a security company at a villa in Italy. The following night the villa was raided by Italian authorities. The businessman was not found but his wife and six year old daughter were taken away. After a court hearing five days later the wife and child were deported to Kazakhstan using a plane chartered by the Kazakh embassy in Vienna, for allegedly using fake passports. The pair are staying with the lady’s parents in Almaty. The United Nations are not at all happy with the actions of the Italian goverment. The businessman says the Kazakh president wishes to use his family as hostages in the financial fued between the two men. Italian lawyers for the lady have appealed against her deportation.
The Guardian has reported this week, from papers given to it by Edward Snowden, that Microsoft helped the NSA bypass it’s own encryption system when passing on it’s customers’ communications data for use in the Prism programme.
There was a frustrated Keith Vaz on Today this morning speaking to his Commons Home Affairs Committee’s report on our immigration system problems. After being in the spotlight for so long things are just not getting any better. In fact they are getting worse, with outstanding applications increasing by 175,000 to over 500,000 in the last nine months of 2012. Consultant fees have gone up from £27,000 to £500,000 (sic) in a three month period. Mr Vaz wonders despairingly what the UK Border Agency are doing with all the money they are being given.
Another disheartened politician was Diane Abbott, Shadow Public Health Minister, in the Commons chamber as broadcast on Yesterday in Parliament on the programme. The government have announced that the implemenation of plain packaging for ciragettes, to help reduce our smoking habit, will be delayed. The reason given is to see how a recently introduced branding ban in Australia goes. Ms Abbott could find no sense in that. The suspicion is that it is a political move associated with the Australian Lynton Crosby being appointed in November 2012 as the Conservative Party’s campaign consultant for the next General Election. Mr Crosby is linked to a lobbying firm which works for cigarette maker Philip Morris.
I read this evening that the Paris train crash could have been a lot worse. The French Transport Minister has said the driver had used absolutely extraordinary reflexes in that he immediately sounded his horn. That alerted a train coming in the opposite direction which otherwise would have ploughed into the wreckage. You do wonder sometimes if someone is watching over us abiding by the rules they themselves have to follow.
14th July 2013
The jury have decided that the white neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot dead a black teenager in a gated Florida residential devevelopment in February 2012, is guilty of manslaughter not murder. The man has received no punishment. It strikes me as a case very similar to those we get here sometimes about whether it was reasonable for a householder to kill a burglar when found in their home. The boy was taking a short cut back from the shops. The man thought he was acting suspiciously. There was an altercation. The unarmed teenager punched the man he said. The man used his gun. It would not have happened of course if ordinary citizens did not carry guns in America.
There was a piece on the Sunday programme on Radio 4 this morning to commemorated the 18th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were killed there by Bosnian Serb forces. Two survivors were interviewed. They said people were shot dead solely depending on whether they had a Muslim sounding name or not. They fled there with their families at the time it was being defended by Bosniak forces. One said he still thinks about it every day. He lives two parallel lives. I am sure people cannot really understand what it is like for him. He made the decision not to not walk out of the UN compound with his parents to their deaths. He said he wished to keep his thoughts about that to himself. At the end of the discussion the interviewer said he was very grateful to the man for relating his pain. The man replied there was no need to be grateful. He was doing his duty for the people who were killed.