I have discovered unpublished criteria used to compile Gus O’Donnell’s official “report” into the Fox/Werritty affair. I was told this yesterday by the office of the Permanent Under Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Werritty’s meetings with foreign or British officials abroad were included. Meetings which occurred in the UK were only included if Fox and Werritty were both present.
Meetings which Werritty held with UK government officials in the UK were excluded where Fox was not present.
It is frankly incredible that a report, ostensibly into whether Werritty had undue influence and access, would deliberately omit the facts of how much influence and access Werritty actually had.
The Matthew Gould meetings may be only the tip of the iceberg. What meetings did Werritty have with other senior FCO officials, with MI6 officials and with MOD officials?
Werritty’s access really was quite astonishing. As the Werritty/Gould email correspondence I published yesterday showed, he was able to get the Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary to meet him one and one, without even giving an explanation of what he wanted. 99.9999% of taxpayers could not get a private meeting with the FCO’s Principal Private Secretary even with an explanation of why they wanted it.
I have been trying to think how to get over to you how difficult this is. Let me try it this way – Richard Branson could probably get such a meeting without explanation, Richard Dawkins probably could not. The vast majority of retired Ambassadors could not get such a meeting. The vast majority of paid lobbyists and think tank employees could not casually get such a meeting without explanation. I could not get such a meeting.
Yet officially Werritty was nothing but a paid lobbyist, the sole employee of an obscure neo-con think tank. But he could get that level of access under both New Labour and the Tories. How and why?
Alexander.
“Your work on the Werrity Gould affair has been simply outstanding.”
I think the sad truth is that Craig’s work, respectfully, has not been outstanding. Excellent, very good, informative, and all sorts of other words. But I suspect Craig himself would say that this story could have been told by any number of journalists. A young graduate journo isn’t likely to have Craig’s contacts, but an experienced journo writing for (say) The Guardian does. And yet experienced journalists haven’t bothered with such a small matter as a FoI request. Craig does this part-time; a journalist does it full time – and is paid. The profession of journalism seems no longer to exist, instead we have stenography and content provision. Very sad indeed.
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That said, it has taken no little courage, so kudos. With any luck, Big Paper will pick up this tale. I suspect if they do, the Levenson enquiry will look small potatoes. Because, if I read this right, Mi6, Big Corp, the CIA and Mossad all have interlinking ties to the very top of the UK establishment. Which you’d think was news.
@Clark, well said Clark, why should Iran not enrich uranium?
it seems that the west think them and Israel are the ones to be trusted!
I bet Lloyd is one of those who was in favour of attacking Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now thinks it might not be a bad idea to attack Iran. What if Iran was the one who threatened to go in and bomb the nuke facilities in Israel?? yes the world be in uproar! yet Britain, USA, and Israel are the real rogue states. What I hate about all these propganda is that it serves the government of Iran and strenghten their hold on power. Do these imbiciles realize that?
TEHRAN—
Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America’s uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon.
“Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran,” said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and “everything they need” to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material.
“Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that’s proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat.” Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/iran-worried-us-might-be-building-8500th-nuclear-w,27325/
How close does Robert Harris’s The Ghost get to the real Tony Blair?
I’ve always thought John Smith’s untimely death was mighty convenient for Blair’s career.
“What I hate about all these propganda is that it serves the government of Iran and strenghten their hold on power. Do these imbiciles realize that?” Azra.
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Azra, as you know, they don’t care. They are interested only in hegemony. They definitely don’t want a form of governance in Iran – whatever that may be, secular democracy or theocracy or monarchy or communism or whatever – which is one, independent and two, most benefits the people of Iran. As they have wanted for the past century, they want to drive their war machined economy and they want the profits from black gold and the golden gas and the waterway and they want to surround Russia and China and they want the Indian Ocean and they want the world.
Clark
many thanks for the explanation – although it doesn’t mean that Iraq is enriching to 20% solely for that purpose. On matters nuclear I tend to disbelieve all Governments until they can demonstrate otherwise – which given past experience is not a bad stance to take.
“How and why?”
Zionism opens doors. Anti-Zionism closes them.
Lysias says: “How close does Robert Harris’s The Ghost get to the real Tony Blair? I’ve always thought John Smith’s untimely death was mighty convenient for Blair’s career.”
Blair admitted last year ( during his Andrew Marr interview ) that he was told the Labour leadership would ‘fall’ to him, about a month before Smith was killed.
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Blair also said on another occasion that he’d had a premonition that somethign would happen to Smith.
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I’m in no doubt that John Smith was ‘removed’ in order to make way for the Zionist golden boy. A golden boy who is now being handsomely rewarded by them for his sterling work while in office.
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Robin Cook was another who was regarded as a ‘liability’.
Anon 1&O, 20% is, I believe, the enrichment limit generally accepted under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Iran is enriching up to that limit, as other signatories to the treaty do. If there is a law then it should be followed, and enriching for peaceful purposes is Iran’s right under that law.
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If 20% is considered to be too much enrichment for some countries, then the generally accepted limit needs to be reconsidered internationally. Law is not law if it applied selectively. Law needs legitimacy if it is to be worthy of respect.
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The important matters are the IAEA inspections and the reputable intelligence assessments of whether those inspections are accurate. Iran has passed both these tests for years, regardless of sensationalism by certain governments and commercial “news” media.
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http://www.sipri.org/media/newsletter/essay/january12
How and Why? There is one explanation for there existing an individual capable of opening the doors of power. As in the case of Rakovsky, a bankster agent, reputedy directed by the Rothschild interests, Werrity might well be such a man. Is it such a stretch for the imagination in these times where corporate interests direct our governments as well as our armed forces to serve their interests? From its inception Israel has been a Rothschild project: And this seems to be werritys’ interests lie.