Do remember the innocent victims of the attacks on the Twin Towers. I will. The horror of what happened to them that day was unspeakable.

But I shall be avoiding the wall to wall neo-cons and those making money from “security” who will infest the media today. And I will also remember the 500 times more people who died as a result of the attack on Iraq, which had no connection with the attack on the Twin Towers, and no WMD. And I will rmember those who will die in Afghanistan and Libya today.

It is not impossible the anniversary will spark a terrorist attack. But it is quite certain that possibility will be played upon by those whose interest it is in to keep us in a perpetual state of fear, to justify wars abroad which benefit the oil, armament, military supplies and security industries, and provide the excuse for enhanced power for politicians at home at the expense of all our liberties.

Remember New York’s vicitms. But remember all the other victims whose lives have been destroyed by wars launched using the attack on the Twin Towers as a propaganda excuse. I shall do my remembrance standing on the stormy seashore. Not in front of a television.

I am delighted that Gulnara Karimova has been kicked out of New York fashion week. The world of super wealth and glamour has no conscience, but it does have brands to protect. It seems that it is the stark truths about Gulnara in some of the leaked Wikileaks US diplomatic cables of Jon Purnell that have finally put a bump in her career of schmoozing with the A-list.

Strangely, my statcounter shows that for the last few days I have had a good number of different people arriving on this site from google searches for variations of “Gulnara Karimova’s height” or “How tall is Gulnara Karimova?”

I haven’t worked out what has prompted this. I should like to think it is some plan involving telegraph poles and piano wire.

The Guardian has an interview with Vanessa Redgrave. She is truly noble. Not necessarily always right – nobody is – but always kind, giving and helpful. You can’t ask more from anybody.

When I whistleblew on UK complicity in torture, I was smeared, falsely accused, sacked and my self worth and physical health were both destroyed. I was given by doctors a maximum of three years to live. I was penniless, living in a friend’s flat, and in danger of just giving up on life. Corin and Vanessa Redgrave actively sought me out. They invited me to dinner in a little Indian restaurant along King Street from the Lyric, Hammersmith, where I think Corin was appearing. I don’t think they realised it, but I hadn’t had money to eat for several days. I have never known such empathy. They seemed to understand what was happening to me, with very few words from me.

Vanessa was leaning heavily on a stick, and Corin seemed rheumy. But they still had a life force that spilled over enough to revitalise me. They thought I was doing something worthwhile – you must remember, that when I was trying to tell the world in early 2004 our government was complicit in torture abroad, the government told everyone I was lying, mad and a crook.

Corin and Vanessa made no attempt to twist my tale to an ideological construct. They just wanted to say thank you. They just wanted to buy me a meal. They just wanted to help. I am sure there must be thousands like me touched briefly by Vanessa’s kindness over the years.