A sorry show

There is still a very great deal I could say about the ISC report, which was published last month. As there's legal proceedings going on, however, I'm not going to go into great detail on this blog, not yet, as I don't see why I should publish everything I now know and thus help the other side. Suffice to say this has not gone away, nor will it, and there will be more soon, so wait and see.

However, I needed a bit of a break from writing and campaigning publicly, and I wanted to concentrate on my day job, and in any case, the crisis engulfing this threadbare, exhausted administration means anything I attempt to say now will be entirely drowned out by the tiresomely unedifying spectacle of the Cabinet and Parliamentary Labour party imploding in a frenzy of private plotting and paranoia, whilst publicly mouthing meaningless platitudes as people wonder what the hell to do next.

It is infuriating how this pathetic soap opera has buried so many more important things. Here is a personal example. The 3.00pm press conference the 7/7 Inquiry Campaign Group held on the day of the report's publication was almost wrecked by the resignation of the Speaker, half an hour before it started. A message had been passed to me at lunchtime via the Cabinet Office, did those of us who had come to read the report want to go and have a meeting with Jacqui Smith that afternoon? She would clear time in her diary for us, that day, though she was presenting a policing bill. The message was greeted with suspicion by the group of people directly impacted by the bombings whom I was with. I called Ms. Smith's PPS back: was she going to announce an inquiry? No. So what was the point? We needed time to read the report properly, and to consult with lawyers and the wider group at large, and I was not sure that Ms. Smith would be in her job in a few weeks, and sure enough, now she has gone.

We went ahead with the press conference and interviews that had been scheduled. All that work - two years of work done in my spare time, all those meetings, all those late nights, weekends, time booked off work to prepare for that day, but because of the petty greed of dozens of politicians of all parties over months, no, years, the expenses scandal had suddenly reached the point where it became a perfect media storm, and important questions about how safe the country was as a result of foreign and domestic policy decisions, how effective the police and security services are, whether the truth was being told to the public in the war on terror, were swept aside in an orgy of sanctimonious point-scoring to save political skins. Afterwards I was shattered and depressed. What was the point of engaging with these people?

And so it has continued, relentlessly, ever since,'Westminster in disarray, in meltdown, in crisis'. Every day, the headlines go on, the airwaves fill up. On and on and on. Nobody has died. Nobody is about to become homeless or bankrupt as a result of the wheels coming off the Westminster machine. It is not a life-and-death crisis, like the crisis in the overstretched probation service and overcrowded prison service that let two killers free to torture and stab two innocent French students to death; it is not a crisis like the one afflicting thousands of children brutalised at home and not rescued by the overstretched social services agencies. The country is in a severe and horrible recession, people are losing their jobs, their houses, students graduating this summer face bleak prospects, draconian public services cuts are looming, the country has no money, a flu pandemic this autumn if it happens could be a far more catastrophic threat than any terrorist attack, our armed forces fight a dangerous, bloody war, and yet all people can read about is bath plugs and duck houses and flipping second homes. Righteous anger is healthier than this sullen corrosive cynicism that is now endemic wherever you turn. When people hate all politicians, turn their faces to the wall and will not vote, then we are in deep trouble. If the number of people bothering to vote has dwindled to pathetic levels, if extremist parties manage to get seats, then I will start to despair. Because this is fiddling whilst Rome burns.

It looks as if many of those in the Houses of Commons and the House of Lords no longer care about doing their jobs and serving the public, only about protecting their jobs and clinging to power. Thus our democracy sickens and withers. And yet, I know that there are still good men and women who are public servants, working in local and national politics. I have met some of them.

I actually pity them, these days.

It is indescribably depressing and frustrating to watch the buckets of ordure being wielded and to read of the thousands of back-stabbing cuts, none of them the coup de grace that would bring down the curtain. 'Politics' has become a tainted word, 'politician a term' of abuse. Months of stories laying bare the petty venalities of MPs' and Lords' expenses, the unimaginable sums of public money handed out to larcenous bankers and their failed financial institutions, and now the endless speculation about when, who, how the fatal blow will be struck against a wounded Prime Minister who seems to think he is tied to a stake and cannot fly, but bear-like, must stay the course, whatever the cost to him, to his party, to his country. Watching this play out makes you want to call the League Against Cruel Sports, or perhaps the Priory, where those burned and twisting in the merciless glare of public scrutiny go to close the door, and weep into a pillow, and try to remember who they really are, why they ever wanted this in the first place.

Have you heard the lively hum of the democracy machine in action these last few years? No, only the soft rustle of nests being feather-bedded, the rumbling of plots, the sharpening of knives and the scraping and creaking of furniture being pointlessly rearranged inside the Mother of Parliaments that has become a bunker to hide from the real world. For shame, as veterans stand at the graves of comrades this D-day, that this petty and impotent self-obsessed politics, this sorry show, this shabby shower is what passes for government. For shame.

But, to go back to where I started, this wretched government has let us down, badly, but there is hope yet for the 7/7 Inquiry campaign at least. The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, has now said he will back a judicial inquiry. The Shadow Security Minister, Pauline Neville Jones has pointed out the report's shortcomings. The Mail called for an inquiry. So has RUSI. The Liberal Democrats have called for a full public inquiry. We will get there, though I think it will take a general election first. It's sad, I've tried for 4 years with Labour, but they will not, cannot allow an inquiry, it seems. The other parties are far more receptive.

Well, so be it. What else can be done? What else is fair, and just, and right, and honourable? Let the public decide. Tonight's Euro-results will be a clue.

'Considerable damage to national security'

It is getting kind of tiresome now, how frequently it seems to happen. Something embarrassing happens to a senior person in government and all of a sudden it's OMG! QUICK! LOOK OVER THERE! A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY! 1111!!!

The latest headlines concern the scathing parliamentary report in which it is stated that the threat to national security had been grossly exaggerated just before the Crown Prosecution service was due to announce whether MP Damien Green would be charged or not. The report states that claims in a letter to the Met from Chris Wright, (Cabinet Office director of security and intelligence), that the leaks had caused 'considerable damage to national security' were 'hyperbolic'. And 'unhelpful'. And gave 'an exaggerated impression of the damage done' by the leaks. 'Frustration' in the Home Office and the Cabinet was, the report suggested, the probable cause of the exaggerated claims.

Yeah, I bet they were frustrated.

Could any examples of actual damage to national security be found? Nope. But the leaks were damaging to the Home Secretary and that must have been very upsetting indeed. What can be done? Arrest someone! That's the spirit!

Now it's all collapsed into a great flapping heap of humiliation, desperate fingers are pointing blame at Bob Quick, who resigned last week. No word from the Home Office, who are possibly looking for a passing bus to throw certain people under. But 'Scotland Yard sources' are today quoted in the Standard saying 'the only senior officer keen on an arrest was Mr Quick, who quit last week when he compromised top-secret terror raids'.

That'll be the The Top Secret Terror Raids conducted in the full glare of publicity that managed to conveniently push the embarrassing stories of the Home Secretary's expenses claims - for bathplugs and adult movie rentals and a kitchen sink - off the front pages for a day, remember.

Terrorists! Easter spectaculars! Pictures of places in Manchester! Pakistanis!

Except, unfortunately, no actual evidence of bomb-making equipment has yet been found, and now a diplomatic row has broken out with Pakistan. Pakistan has been lectured on 'doing more' to fight terrorism by the British - but Pakistan has not been given 'basic information' about the Pakistani citizens who have been nicked. Way to go, international co-operation between staunch allies in the War on Terror! Communication and intelligence-sharing is key, right?

Right?

The threat from a plot may yet turn out to be real. Worse, the investigation may turn out to have been fatally damaged by too-early arrests. Or they may be no plot at all. Who knows how parlous the state of national security is today, compared to a week ago?


Here's the thing. National security is a grave and serious concern, and those tasked with protecting it bear heavy responsibilities and should receive our dutiful support whenever it is asked for. To see the sacred and honourable business of protecting and preserving the life and liberty of the realm bastardised and cheapened so, made into a tawdry stunt, a distracting sleight of hand, to see the horrors of terrorism invoked and waved about as a tattered figleaf to cover up someone's embarrassment, for God's sake - is sick-making.

And they've done it too often now. They're always bloody doing it, this lot in power, and then the headlines fade and the news machine trundles on, and then sometimes, three months later, if you're lucky, a paragraph on page 27 states that so-and-so was released without charge, or bundled off to be deported, or whatever, and the headline-grabbing plot, the threat, the suspect and the suspicions that were made so much of at the time came to nothing after all. More than half of those arrested under suspicion of terrorism offences are released without charge.

And yet there is a threat; a threat made worse half the time by the frequently heavy-handed and misguided policies of this government at home and abroad. There are people who want to hurt us - there always have been and there always will be - and those brave and dedicated men and women in the police and security service who are sworn to the task of thwarting their plans are best served by being allowed to get on with their jobs and not being dragged into political gambits to prop up other people's sodding careers.

Communication between agencies. Intelligence-sharing. The grindingly boring business of slow, careful detective work. This is what keeps us safe, not media showboating, not civil-liberty-shredding, not ratcheting up the all-channel terror until millions of people become ill with worry and sick with anxiety. When we allow our logical thinking to be bitch-slapped by paralysing fear, and we indulge the attention-seeking posturings of the powerful who should know better, who should respect us more than to try to play us like cheap fiddles, then we do ourselves no favours, and we make things much, much worse than they need be. It blows back and bites us in the face, this bad business. Terrorism terrorises. So does reading about it all the time.

'Considerable damage to our national security?'
Yes, I should say there has been over the last few years.
And the stink, as they say, comes from the head.

Sheesh. It's always worth remembering, however grand you are, the following piece of wisdom:

And so, take it away, the original and best poster of all time, that has suddenly become wildly popular a half century on, expressing as it does the epitome of Britishness in its dignified humanity. Reminding us of a time when nobody sat about worrying about such things, because there were more important things to concern people, like whether the house would be flattened by a bomb overnight and whether loved ones would come home alive, as a result of a raging world wide war.

With thanks to some now-rather-old -hat popular internet memes
for providing the illustrations to today's irritated rant.

Good night and good luck.

Guest conspiracy theory of the month, Admiral Mullen's busy diary and whither the 'October Surprise'?

And that's my longest blog post header ever. Pre-election jitters, October surprises, it's speculation time so here is my guest conspiracy theory, the third in an occasional series. Props to me if I'm right but I'd much, much rather not be.

I note that, over the weekend, Admiral Mike Mullen - Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff - had a secretive meeting in Lake Placid with Europe's military top brass. Attendees were: Sir Graham Stirrup of Britain’s Royal Air Force, German Army Gen. Wolfgang Schneiderhan, French Army Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin and Italian Air Force Gen. Vincenzo Camporini.

I can find only 2 media mentions of this, both in very obscure publications. The Plattsburgh Press Republican writes' The day after the planes had left, Capt. John Kirby, a special assistant to Mullen, confirmed that the top military leaders from five countries met in Lake Placid to discuss mutual security issues, including Afghanistan.
“I’m not at liberty to go into the details that was discussed, but they went through a wide range of security issues that are common to all five nations,” Kirby said.
“They discussed, in broad terms, progress in Afghanistan and where we’re heading with regard to Afghanistan, particularly the NATO mission there. And they discussed other mutual issues of security concerns.”

On Monday 20th October, Admiral Mullen met Serbian president Boris Tadic, and the Serbian Chief of Defence in Belgrade, and discussed ways the two countries' militaries could work together, two weeks after the US Defence Secretary had flown to Kosovo to voice US support for its territorial integrity. Which is pretty extraordinary.

On Tuesday 21st October, Admiral Mullen met with his Russian counterpart, at the Russians' request, apparently, in Helsinki. The first meeting since Russia invaded Georgia. This has been much more widely reported. NYT writes 'The admiral said he and General Makarov had discussed American disquiet over the war in Georgia — Russia’s first post-Soviet offensive outside its soil — as well as Russian unhappiness with the arrival of American warships in the Black Sea with humanitarian aid for Georgia. Other topics included NATO’s relations with Russia and how to improve cooperation on countering terrorism, halting the proliferation of unconventional weapons and stemming narcotics trafficking'.

Also on Tuesday, Mullen was in Riga, Latvia warning Iraq that 'time was running out' for Iraq to approve a bilateral agreement with the US to extend US military operations after December 31st, the expiration date of the UN Security Council agreement for the US military to be in Iraq. Mullen also made some strongly-worded references to Iran 'meddling'.

Ho hum. Busy, busy, busy.

Now for all I know, Admiral Mullen has these sorts of high-level, high-security international top brass meetings all the time, and his recent round of meetings in such quick succession is nothing special. I am merely flagging this up because I think it is interesting timing, less than 2 weeks before an election and with no 'October Surprise' having *cough* hoved into the erm, airspace yet.

It is no secret that the imploding economy is proving catastrophic for the Republicans' election campaign, and they are desperate to change the channel to foreign policy/war on terror stuff where they percieve their Presidential candidate to have an advantage.

So if an international incident suddenly pops up... an 'October surprise' which proves an election game-changer...it is worth remembering Admiral Mullen's busy 4 days meeting key defence chiefs from Europe, Russia and the Balkans from 18th- 22nd October.

Random speculation time: Barry Cooper, a Professor of political science, writes about a possible Russian October surprise in the Calgary Herald. Russia stirring up trouble in America's back yard? Cooking up a storm in Nicaragua, Cuba, or Venuzuela, retaliation for NATO's approaches up to its borders? So I say, hmmm, what about Venuzuela's planned naval base in the Caribbean, from whence their Russian friends can gaze beadily at the US? Ostensibly the base is to help fight narcotics trafficking. Narcotics trafficking being something Mullen and the Russians discussed on Tuesday, as you'll recall.

A spot of arms-dealing, some circling warships...a Cuban Missile Crisis part 2? A civilian airliner or military aircraft shot down by rocket launchers? God knows, and we certainly could drive ourselves all wild by guessing.

Joe Biden certainly seems to think something is afoot, in the next six months, mentioning Russia and the Middle East, telling people to 'gird their loins' and making Kennedy comparisons. Biden said, somewhat unguardedly, at a fund raiser

'It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

War is of course what saved the US economy in the early days of Bush's administration, following the Enron scandal. I really hope they don't intend a war with Iran. We've had enough energy-related military interventions for a while, don't you think?

That last sentence of Biden's, by the way, was really asking for it. Conspiracy theorists will have an absolute field day when whatever it is happens, saying it was 'generated'. And something will happen, because it always does - that's the nature of international politics, and testing times during new administrations.

Just look at what's going on in Pakistan under its new cash-strapped government, as the country faces economic collapse and the loss of its western regions to militant extremists, criminals and tribal warlords. It's close to chaos, and America roaming about in the militant strongholds and tribal badlands bombing villages, ostensibly in search of Bin Laden, isn't helping. It's also making a vengeful terrorist strike on UK or US soil more likely as well. As the Americans (and everyone else) damn well knows.

You have to wonder if they'd be that cynical as to practically provoke one for election-winning reasons...but....no, I'm not going there. Pakistan, meanwhile is awash with conspiracy theories of its own.

I'm not surprised, they bloom like mould during tense times like these. They don't help, they just make people freaked out and fearful, and that is why I don't give them airtime very often. I have a temperature and am feeling pretty ill today, which probably explains why I've started rummaging through international geo-economic-politics and spooking myself out.

Re-reading Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, which isn't very soothing either. It remains essential reading though, now more than ever.

Thank God there's less than 2 weeks til the US elections, though I suppose all the legal wrangling will delay the result, unless there's a landslide. These bastards really, really don't want their party to end, nor judgment day to ever come.