Diary entry 27 Sep 2010
Diary entry 8 Sep 2009
Diary entry 6 Feb 2011
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has finally, this evening, released the Gould/Werritty diary entries under the Freedom of Information Act. The three links above are the diary entries for their meetings on 8 September 2009, 27 September 2010 and 6 February 2011. You may have to click a few times to get the full size image. The lines across the page usually run right across the main right centre column. The entire column, with all the details on the Adam Werritty meeting, has been redacted – literally cut out.
The same is true of all eight of the diary pages I have been sent for Gould’s meetings with Adam Werritty – all information has simply been censored. We can only speculate what is there, who else was present and the subject of the meetings.
If anyone doubts there is a cover-up of massive proportions on what Werritty was actually doing, doubt no more.
But there is one item the very existence of which is entirely damning of the FCO. An email exchange between Gould and Werritty. The emails themselves are bland and avoid mentioning the subject under discussion. But the email exchange was with Matthew Gould’s official email address on the FCO system. My initial Freedom of Information request received the reply that there was no material relating to Adam Werritty on the FCO system. These emails had therefore been deleted off it.
Fortunately, whoever deleted them had forgotten something – the FCO system allows you to attach relevant documents to your electronic diary entries. That created a copy which survived after the correspondence was deleted everywhere else on the system.
That opens up a massive question – who deleted the correspondence, and why, and how much other Gould-Werritty correspondence has been deleted from the FCO system which did not survive by chance attachment to a diary entry?
There is a further question – did the deletions happen after my Freedom of Information inquiry – which would have been a criminal offence?
I have always held it to be impossible, for example, that not one of the eight Gould-Werritty meetings was minuted. If an FCO official has a substantive meeting with somebody outside government, it is standard procedure to record it. One of those meetings even included Mossad officials. The email correspondence which survived on the diary entry but had been deleted everywhere else, shows at least some Werritty material was deleted from the FCO system. Is this what happened to the minutes and records of meetings?
The surviving email exchange is bland, but it still tells us quite a lot. It shows that Gould and Werritty were on first name terms in June 2010, when Gould was Hague’s Private Secretary, that Werritty had Gould’s mobile phone number and that Werritty was sufficiently established to be able to phone up the Secretary of State’s Principal Private Secretary – an extremely busy man – and book him for coffee and a chat on his own recognisances, without feeling the need to reference any organisation or subject of discussion:
From: Matthew Gould (Restricted)
sent: 11 June 2010 14:51
To: Adam Werritty
Subject: RE: Hi
Adam -yes, I did get the message, and asked [my PA -name redacted] to set something up for us. She will eb in touch this afternoon.
Looking forward to seeing you,
MatthewMatthew Gould
Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
I2J email: [email protected] til telephone: +44 20 7008 2059 ()) ft.n: 8008 2059
Q uri: MailFilterGateway has detected a possible fraud attempt from “blocked::http:” claiming to be www.fco.gOY.ukFrom: Adam Werritty [mailto:[email protected]
sent: 11 June 2010 14:48
To: Matthew Gould (Restricted)
Subject: Hi
Hi Matthew
I trust that you’re keeping well. I texted you yesterday on a mobile number I had for you but I’m guessing that you’re no longer on that number. I wanted to check if we could arrange for a chat next week over coffee as I’m keen to pick your mind on something. Could you let me know if you’re going to be around and when would suit?
As ever
Adam
Adam Werrity
M: +447921577884
Thanks for your 9.59 am link, Mary. There’s a rich range of David Gentleman’s work there, much new to me, including the poster in support of Julian Assange.
Gould, Werrity, Hague, Fox….tutti frutti?
Kashmiri, the back-ups don’t really matter. They found the originals, and redacted almost everything in them. The redaction probably isn’t legal anyway, but presumably they’d just redact anything important in the back-ups, too.
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I hope that someone at the FCO leaks this material.
Kashmiri, your point about other Data Holders may be useful. I suppose it is worth submitting additional FOI requests, just to make the magnitude of the redactions difficult to ignore.
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This is really embarrassing for them because they need a reason for the redactions. Usually, they claim “national security”. But officially, Werritty was no one, so there should be no security implications about anything he could have discussed with the ambassador to Israel.
Didn`t they do this in Nazi Germany!
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/mili-f08.shtml
Meanwhile the killing goes on.
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U.S. drone attack kills 10 in Pakistan: officials
Posted by The Editors on February 8, 2012, 9:46 am
By Haji Mujtaba
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan | Tue Feb 7, 2012 11:28pm EST
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(Reuters) – A U.S. drone aircraft killed 10 suspected militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region near the Afghanistan border on Wednesday, security officials and residents said, the fifth such strike this year.
The unacknowledged Central Intelligence Agency drone program, a key element in U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, was apparently halted after a November NATO air attack from across the Afghan border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers enraged Pakistan.
The United States resumed attacks with the missile-firing drones in northwest Pakistan on January 10.
In Wednesday’s attack, a drone fired two missiles at a house suspected of being a militant hideout in the village of Thapi, 15 km (10 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.
The building was completely destroyed and 10 suspected militants were killed, Pakistani security officials said.
“Almost all the men were burnt beyond recognition,” a villager said after visiting the destroyed house.
“Dozens of militants arrived later and took over rescue work. They pulled out nine bodies,” he said, requesting anonymity.
Security officials and villagers said the dead included foreign fighters but they did not specify their nationalities.
Several militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, have a presence in Pakistan’s northwestern ethnic Pashtun regions, taking advantage of a porous border with Afghanistan to conduct cross-border attacks, or plot violence elsewhere.
North Waziristan is also an important base area for the Haqqani network, an Afghan militant faction allied with the Taliban which the United States says is one of its deadliest adversaries in Afghanistan.
While the Haqqani faction says it no longer needs a sanctuary in North Waziristan and has made enough battlefield gains in Afghanistan to stay there, it is known to still operate in the Pakistani border region.
A Pashtun tribal elder said militants usually avoided gathering, limiting groups to three or four people to minimize losses in the event of a drone attack. But they had dropped their guard recently.
“It has been freezing cold in the last few days and then there were no drones for some time. That’s why the militants started living together and suffered heavy losses,” the elder, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
The use of the unmanned aircraft over Pakistan is opposed by most members of the public and Pakistani politicians, who regard the attacks as violations of sovereignty that produce unacceptable civilian casualties.
But despite its public stance, Pakistan has quietly supported the drone program since President Barack Obama ramped up air strikes after taking office in 2009.
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(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR and Saud Mehsud in DERA ISMAIL KHAN; Writing by Qasim Nauman; Editing by Serena Chaudhry and Robert Birsel)
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/us-pakistan-drone-idUSTRE81708520120208
Off Topic BUT another small piece of the puzzle. Iran and the Olympics.
Facebook and Twitter have taken down Fathers4Justice with more than 11.000 followers, without reason or notice ?
I looked around because it made no sense , they do some crazy things to be heard and you may not agree BUT to remove their freedom of speech? I then found a blog where they have a plan to call attention to themselves at the Olympics. NOW, if there is a plot to use the Olympics as a springboard to invade Iran, Fathers4Justice will have extra media interest who knows what footage may be picked up while one fed up dad is swinging from a tree as Batman and someone caught seen doing something where he or she should not be.
The same happened with 7/7 London bombings, two American witnesses the BENSON sisters were hurried away as reporters tried to speak with them. Neither were at the inquest !
http://fathers4justice-steelmagnolia6.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-fathers-4-justice.html
Disappointing redactions, but didn’t expect it to be easy either. It’s a good point that Clark makes: now, how do they justify them?
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Also, if something isn’t actually secret, is there any penalty for leaking it?
O/T Redknapp and Mandaric cleared of tax evasion. Does this mean that if we have have the spare hundred thousand or two, we can tuck it away tax free offshore?
@ Mary,
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“O/T Redknapp and Mandaric cleared of tax evasion. Does this mean that if we have have the spare hundred thousand or two, we can tuck it away tax free offshore?”
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Lucky old ‘Arry.Went to Monaco,opened an account- in his dog Rosie’s name – deposited a coupla hundred grand but just couldn’t quite remember doing ths.Honest m’Lud.
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Think this case could’ve gone either way until the last few days when Capello’s now in a bit of trouble.’Arry looks a shoe-in for the Engerlund managers job i rek and it just wouldn’t do if he had a conviction for tax evasion…
You were spot on Jives and know more about the world of football than I do. The betting is now on Redknapp, ‘a very wealthy man with property investments’ according to one comment. I see that Mandaric had the ex DPP Ken now Lord Macdonald as his counsel. Couldn’t lose. The financial affairs of Portsmouth FC sound ‘well dodgy’ to put it in the parlance. I see here that Fred Dinenage, the father of Caroline Dinenage the Gosport Con MP is defending Redknapp.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16925280
Off topic: Recently, Iran has claimed to have taken control of and landed a US reconnaissance drone. Two or three months ago, I read a report that the drone control centre in the US had to remove some “infection” from their computers. I would expect these drones to use encrypted communications, so maybe it’s more likely that Iran took control via the US control centre, across the Internet, than that they interfered with the radio control data in Iranian airspace.
@Clark, we but have to come to terms with the fact that FCO is and will be able to redact any information before sharing publicly. For example, if you took them to court, they might state that a secret service officer was scheduled to be present at each meeting – and this is already something they have a right to withhold. You will only win what they will let you win, unless somebody there makes a mistake, leaks info on purpose, or there are some systemic loopholes through which you may get access to information.
Well, to be honest I can’t imagine a country where its foreign ministry would be obliged to publish all material ever created by its officers along with their meeting schedules and minutes of all meetings.
Some shady deals which benefit selected lobby groups but are contrary to interest of the nation as a whole – like the Werritty case – should and must come to light and be prevented, and here the laws on transparency (FOI, etc.) are a great helper. Still, I have little hope of having a spectacular success here – unless someone from within FCO decides to blow up the current pro-Israel policy and consequently sacrifice Werritty, Goud etc.
@Clark,
Taking control of the US command centre? I honestly doubt arm control systems are ever physically connected to the internet.
I recently read a different explanation which sounds plausible to me.
This particular drone model uses GPS signal to control its position in relation to its flight plan (the plan itself can be loaded remotely). What has apparently happened in this case was that Iran has used fake GPS signals beaming from earth to overrun the real GPS signalling, thus making the drone believe it was nearing its landing field in Afghanistan whilst it was nearing an Iranian landing strip. The article quoted some specialists who say the relevant technology is available out there on the market.
“This is really embarrassing for them because they need a reason for the redactions. Usually, they claim “national security”. But officially, Werritty was no one, so there should be no security implications about anything he could have discussed with the ambassador to Israel”
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If anyone was to have told Werritty anything that they should not have…well all this may have implications under the “The Official Secrets Act”.
The taboo subject finally is broken and for the first time the subject of political prisoners is getting acknowledged. Political Prisoners in the North American Homeland
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Lynne Stewart, the U.S. court appointed attorney for Islamic Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, is over 71 and fighting cancer as well as diabetes in a U.S. prison. Her appeal challenging the length of her sentence goes to court February 29th in Manhattan: the government extended her prison time from 28 months to 10 years after she bravely joked about the initial sentence on the courthouse steps. Her conviction: communicating on behalf of her blind and imprisoned client. She never should have been sentenced to jail. Known through her life’s work as an uncompromising lawyer for the disadvantaged of varying political beliefs, her case represents a clear public attempt to intimidate attorneys representing fundamental human rights.
Just wondering what accountability there is, if any, for communications via mobile. Werritty first tried to make contact by text – if Gould had so happened to reply to him more quickly there would probably never have been an email from Werritty on record at all.
And Werrity is still in hiding…how long is that now?
I am not sure I understand what the issue is here. Sure the FCO are trying very hard not to comply with your FOI requests, but that, though, possibly not legal, who knows, is kind of predictable, given that Werrity and Gould etc were meeting with Mossad and Israel’s military top-brass to discuss policy towards Iran and its nuclear weapons. I mean, why wouldn’t these people involved want to keep these discussions secret, given their sensitivity. Or I mean, the fact that they don’t want to share them with Vronsky or Mary is sort of fair enough, I think. You may say, well all this is so undemocratic, but there is still democratic control over the FCO via Parliament, and that states keep secrets about sensitive issues can surely come as no surprise.
The content of these discussions is a secret. Mr Murray speculates that it is about a possible Israeli attack on Iran. But it is not secret that the Israelis are nervous about Iranian nuclear weapons and, we must suppose, are discussing the potential use of military force to counter what they perceive to be a threat. I don’t know, maybe Werrity and Gould were trying to suss out that Israeli mind-set, their thinking on this issue, and if they were then probably this important task would and will be made more easier if the Israelis are reassured that details of their plans are not placed on Craig Murray’s blog.
Can someone please explain what is so mysterious here? I ask this question irrespective of the rights and wrongs of conducting or supporting a war on Iran, which, on the face of it, does sound like a bad idea.
Sorry to intrude on private grief.
Lloyd,
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You’re missing the key point.
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Never mind not wanting to share info with Vronsky or Mary,why would the FCO want to share it with Werrity? Werrity is a civilian and has no reason to be involved in any of these discussions.All he appears to be is Fox’s bestest chum – hence Fox’s resignation.
Lloyd If you really believe this ‘You may say, well all this is so undemocratic, but there is still democratic control over the FCO via Parliament..’ then sorry but there is no hope for you.
Re Libya: How did John Simpson et al get in? Who facilitated entry? MoD? FCO? And then who showed them round, protected “our” journalists? There was obviously an open invite there, although you saw nothing of the NATO airstrikes.
Now that Libya is turning to shit, the invite gets withdrawn. There’s no facilitation. It no longer dominates our nightly viewing. As Harold Pinter might have said: It isn’t happening. And there’s no way on earth guys like Simpson would dare go where they’re not invited. They might get their hair mussed.
Is that how the mainstream media operates? Are they all embedded, 24 fuckin 7?
“Werrity is a civilian and has no reason to be involved in any of these discussions” — Jives
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and had no security clearance to be involved in them, iirc.
The headlines get more ridiculous:
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“Iran Training Thousands Of Female Ninjas Ahead Of Inevitable War” says MSNBC
http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/02/07/iran-training-thousands-female-ninjas-inevitable-war-81761/
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and
“18 premature babies die in Homs hospital after power cut caused by fifth day of shelling by Assad troops” says the Daily Mail, apparently quoting the Beeb
{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098208/Syria-18-premature-babies-die-Homs-hospital-power-cut-caused-Assad-army-attack.html#ixzz1logYkdqb}
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[Echoes of ‘Saddam’s Soldiers Threw Babies From Incubators’ (according to Kuwaiti ambassador’s daughter)]
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Infowars.com has a piece on the latest FBI warnings: ‘Purchasing a cup of coffee using cash instead of a credit or debit card, using Google Maps to view photos of sporting event stadiums and large cities, and installing software to protect your internet privacy on your mobile phone — these and many other mundane activities are now considered to be potential terrorist activities’
{http://www.infowars.com/fbi-says-paying-for-your-morning-coffee-with-cash-a-potential-terrorist-activity/}
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(Yes, I know all about Alex Jones, but he’s quoting FBI flyers and giving links.)
Mary, ok, but you want to, on the one hand, demolish their HQ on King Charles Street and on the other hand you expect them to reveal their really sensitive secrets about really serious international issues with you. I don’t think you can have it both ways.
I was merely querying the fact that you believe that they, the FCO, are under the control of Parliament.
Thank you Lloyd for pouring a long overdue bucket of cold water on this matter. I always find it interesting how many people rather than just reaching the conclusion in cases such as this where there is a lot of ambiguity as to motivations and explanations as what is going on, rather than just admitting that this is the case, just fill in the gaps with their own pet causes and theories. So are conspiracy theories born.
One can also appreciate the irony of how all these enquiries are made possible by the Freedom of Information Act which we have courtesy of their beloved Jack Straw and Tony Blair. Perhaps the even greater irony is how Mary continues to challenge our democratic processes and uses very opportunity to attack our political systems and leaders – and yet is totally silent on such matters when it comes to those regimes that she supports. Where is the democratic oversight in Iran, Syria, Russia – Mary – care to comment, I thought not.
Anon&…
You are busy with Hasbara going from thread to thread repeating the same bilge over and again. Alas the numbers of political prisoners in the “democratic” West, somehow are indicating to the world at large a dysfunctional Oligarchy experiencing an identity crisis; gone berserk.
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Further what do you mean by; “Mary continues to challenge our democratic processes and uses very opportunity to attack our political systems and leaders”? Who do you think are you? Fucking Duke of Edinburgh? Remember you are one of the many who have nothing in common with you, ie you are an individual, and “our” is only you and perhaps your ziofuckwit chums.
Private Eye (issue 1307) on sale today has the following:-
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‘International development minister Alan Duncan had a secretive meeting last year with an MI6 agent-turned businessman who has links to Dr Liam Fox’s old pal Adam Werrity, according to records obtained under freedom of information rules.
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‘The Department for International Development’s (DfID) list of ministers’ meetings says Duncan met The Gulf Consultancy to “”discuss DfID’s engagement with key partners in the Gulf region” in January 2011. But responding to an FoI request, DfID claimed it had no record of the meeting with this unknown and untraceable organisation.
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‘When the Eye pressed DfID with another FoI inquiry, it admitted that “it has come to notice that Mr Duncan’s meeting was with ‘Gulf Consultancy Services’ rather than ‘The Gulf Consultancy’ as stated.”
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‘Gulf Consultancy Services is a business name used by Geoffrey Tantum, MI6’s former Middle East director. Tantum also serves on the advisory board of a security company, G3 Good Governance Group, which financed Werrity’s activities. G3 paid up to £60,000 to fund his travels with former defence secretary Liam Fox as his unofficial adviser; and it also helped set up a trust supporting his missions.
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‘Tantum’s daughter Laura also runs a a charity, the Universal Exports Charity Foundation, funded by G3 and run from its London HQ.
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‘Duncan and the well-connected Tantum were both prominent members of “Le Cercle,” a kind of dining club for intelligence and Conservative types. The content of their meeting remains a mystery. DfID would only say it was “a general meeting, discussing political developments in the Gulf Cooperation Council region” where “no note was taken.”
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‘”The meeting had absolutely nothing to do with Adam Werrity,” said Tantum. “I did not know Adam Werrity at the time of the meeting.”
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‘What is clear is that commercial consultants have good, unrecorded access to ministers. Tantum told the Eye his consultancy “advises big companies on Middle East affairs.” Tantum’s other employer, G3, also advises big companies with Middle East interests, including BAE Systems.
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‘”It has proven extremely difficult to get a clear answer about who ministers and their officials are meeting and why,” Lisa Nandy MP, who helped identify the Tantum-Duncan meeting, told the Eye. “Why is the department so reluctant to publish the details?”‘
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Kashmiri, yes, GPS interference sounds reasonably plausible.
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http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/
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However, above is the story in question. Drone control caught a keylogger. That most likely indicates that (1) drone control systems are connected to the Internet, and (2) the system runs Microsoft Windows. Indeed, a keylogger is just the right tool to discover how the drones are controlled. It’s usually used for intercepting passwords and bank details, etc.
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It is utterly crazy and irresponsible that these killing and reconnaissance machines are controlled using the least secure operating system available.