I was told by a member of the Metropolitan Police Operation Lydd team that they believe there are grounds to prosecute Jack Straw, but that the Crown Prosecution Service will bury it. That was over two years ago when I gave my own sworn evidence to the investigation.
That cover-up by the CPS is now underway – and it is extremely unsubtle. The mainstream media barely reported that the first file has been passed to the CPS on Operation Lydd. You would think that a massive police investigation into criminal activity by Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen, among others, would merit more of a splash, but not in our corporate controlled media. The timing was auspicious because, in the parallel civil case, the Court of Appeal has rejected the Government’s defence of “National Security” to prevent the case from even being heard. This after Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen arranged the kidnap and deportation to torture in Libya of Mr Belhadj, his pregnant wife and children – only one of hundreds of such crimes in which the British state was deeply involved.
Infamously, the British Embassy in Washington had been lobbying the US authorities relentlessly to prevent the publication of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on extraordinary rendition, specifically on the grounds that this would weaken Jack Straw’s defence. That defence rests on the grounds that details of kidnap and torture would annoy the United States and thus damage Britain’s security interests. As a blanket license for state involvement in torture, it only takes a second’s thought to realise how astonishingly dangerous that doctrine is. The High Court swallowed it. Thank God, the Court of Appeal did not.
So the Courts having ruled against Jack Straw, there are now two lines of defence between Straw and Sir Mark Allen, and a long spell in the pokey. The first is that the Government is appealing to the Supreme Court in London to have the case kicked out once again on “National Security” grounds. The second line of defence is the Crown Prosecution Service.
I can give you very substantial evidence that a cover-up is in progress within the CPS. Astonishingly the Lydd file has been passed within the CPS not to the serious crime division, but to the Counter-Terrorism Division. Yet terrorism is not the alleged crime here. The crimes are Gross Misconduct in Public Office, Conspiracy to Torture, Conspiracy to Kidnap and Abduct. We might relate them rhetorically to terrorism, but they are not that legally.
The incredible truth is that the file has been passed not to the Division which deals with the crimes allegedly committed by the perpetrators, Messrs Straw, Allen et al. It has rather been passed to the Divison which deals with the crime falsely alleged against the VICTIM of the case, Mr Belhadj. That simple fact tells you all you need to know about the attitude of the CPS to Operation Lydd.
In fact, the Counter-Terrorism Division of CPS works on a daily basis with public servants and security service functionaries who are themselves deeply implicated in the crimes being uncovered by Operation Lydd. A cover-up is certain.
The British Establishment really does stink.
Footnote: I phoned the CPS Press Office to give them a chance to respond. I got through to a spokesperson and left details and my number. They have not come back to me.
The British establishment really does stink. Cameron put a total stop to the Gibson Inquiry after an interim report which clearly showed that Moazzam Begg had been imprisoned and tortured with full knowledge of the secret services. This year Begg was arrested because he had been gathering further evidence against the spooks, so they needed to take a look round his computers. They banged him away for another 7 months on trumped-up charges. Instead of the establishment being investigated, and I bet this goes right to the top, they stopped those doing the investigation by closing down Cage’s bank accounts and trying to make this NGO inoperable. Last night I got knowledge that somebody who has spent many years in prison, again on largely trumped-up charges, is not going to be able to move around freely even though he is supposed to be free. They got these ideas from the Israelis. They put Mordechai Vanunu in prison for eighteen years for telling the truth about Israel’s nuclear capabilities. Then they kept him under house arrest for ten years or so. And still he is not free to leave Israel and live a normal life. While the security services that ensnared him in a honey-trap and illegally smuggled him to Israel go unpunished. The world is upside down.
which “security services”? UK, Italian or Mossad? (I don’t think MI5
had a hand in all that)
by the way, MV can be reached by email (ask barry chamish); he is supposed to be a Christian now – after leaving (understandably?) the jewish faith…………
No Andrew, it was MOSSAD. The point I am making is that our secret services and government now behave in the same way according to instructions from whoever pulls the strings. We used to have a kind of justice in this country, not perfect, but better than most.
Sorry I meant Andreas. By the way the link to your web page does not work. 🙂
This is extremely serous. Independence of the legal authorities from political manipulation is essential to the freedom of society. It is the responsibility of the news media to alert the public to any threat to that independence. It appears that the Supreme Court, the CPS and the news corporations are all colluding with the Conservative coalition government, to conceal crimes by members of a previous government, now supposedly in ‘opposition’.
Is it any worse than the CPS failure to take the case forward regarding “Cash for Questions”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4812822.stm
The media throughout the world and not just in the UK,is controlled by government, and always has been. The only vox populi available to the electorate of any country is online blogs and social media. RT news appears to be reasonably unbiased and unaffiliated and I now view this rather than the BBC.
Keep chasing this issue if you can, because it is very important to the democratic process, but I think you will be continually blocked unless you can find a more open and accessible mouthpiece.
Perhaps you should inform the DPP Alison Saunders, assuming that the decision to cover up is not hers.
They’ve been lobbying against the Senate Intelligence report, which will have redactions galore when it comes out. The conspiracy of silence has some cracks, but I don’t see anything earth-shaking being revealed. There will be plausible deniability for individuals most culpable because if a person is indicted, there will be a deal made for naming more names and the center will not hold.
Look for ‘mistakes were made’ and ‘I don’t recall, don’t remember’ and that will be it.
Thanks Craig, I very much hope that this will not be swiped under the CPS carpet.
Agree with Mcmahon, you get better and more accurate news on the web and on blogs, before the MSM picks it up and filters it.
If everyone tweets and blogs about it on FB etc. this scoundrel will have no stone to hide under except in his rotten Blackburn chiefdom.
I wonder whether he has covered up any other abuse stories, form his or neighbouring constituencies, apart from torture, he’s not far from Rotherham and much of it occurred there during his reign as justice minister. There is a whole list of past reports on the LancsTelegraph website.
Only slightly off topic
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/lei
sure/national/entert
ainment/10664267.Jur
y_sent_out_in_Le_Vel
l_rape_case/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10653587._Sexual_p
redator__from_Earby_
jailed_for_nine_year
s/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10659571.School_sp
orts_coach_from_Burn
ley_jailed_for_eight
_years_for_grooming_
14_year_old_girl/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10610470.Former_te
acher_at_Blackburn_s
_QEGS_in_historic_se
x_allegations_probe/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10631935.Colne_man
_breached_sex_regist
er_order/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10624776.Accringto
n_man_faces_jail_ove
r_child_sex_offences
/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10632026.Burnley_s
ex_attacker_jailed_f
or_seven_years/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10609166.Burnley_p
ensioner_denies_sex_
offences/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10606305.Man_from_
Blackburn__66__charg
ed_with_sex_attack/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10646096.Burnley_r
ock_singer_given_com
munity_punishment_fo
r_sending_naked_mass
age_text/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10641282.Hypnotist
_from_Blackburn_got_
client_in_trance_to_
fondle_herself/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10649978._Dangerou
s__child_rapist_from
_Blackburn_sentenced
_to_16_years/
http://www.lancashir
etelegraph.co.uk/new
s/10606637.Rossendal
e_man_on_indecency_c
harges/
CIA : “Hey only 15% of report is redacted, what’s the problema?'”
http://rt.com/usa/200307-cia-blames-senate-torture-report/
“The suggestion that CIA is delaying or obstructing the negotiations over redactions is patently false,” agency spokesman Ryan Trapani said to The Intercept. “The CIA has been doing all it can to bring the process to a conclusion as expeditiously as possible, in order that we can fully focus on the many threats facing our nation.”
Instead, Trapani said the senators’ “objections to the redactions” are what “have delayed the process.”
Lib-Dem failure road-map…http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/11/why-president-obama-hasnt-earned-our-approval/382265/
“After denouncing his predecessor’s warrantless wiretapping, Obama presided over the construction of a surveillance state more expansive than any democracy has ever known. What he hid includes documented violations of the Fourth Amendment. And the so-called reforms he urged to satiate the public are a cynical farce.
The Obama administration hasn’t merely violated the law in its failure to prosecute what the president and attorney general acknowledge to be illegal torture. It has also suppressed a still-unreleased Senate report about that torture and done nothing to prevent the next president from restarting “enhanced interrogation.”
The Obama administration continues to wage the most costly, ruinous war in the modern era: the War on Drugs. Obama did not try and fail to end the drug war. He didn’t even try.
When the Obama administration kills innocent people in a drone strike, it does not acknowledge its mistake, apologize, or compensate the family, nor does it articulate how it will prevent such tragedies in the future. Instead, the president just keeps quiet. He suppresses the number of innocents killed, preventing anyone outside the executive branch from judging the effectiveness or morality of drone policy. He invokes the state-secrets doctrine to keep the courts from judging whether he is violating the Constitution. And he hides even his own team’s legal reasoning.
Obama took two actions that set extremely dangerous precedents: He established a secret kill list, put the name of an American citizen on that list, and ordered his execution by drone strike without charges or trial or any due process. And he waged a war of choice in Libya without permission from Congress.
Under Obama, the national-security state is out of control. Set aside his policies, whatever you think about them. This is a president who let his director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lie in sworn testimony to Congress without consequences. His CIA director, John Brennan, presided over surveillance of Senate Intelligence Committee operations, also without consequence.
Compared to his predecessors, Obama has been extremely aggressive in his persecution of whistleblowers and journalists who’ve worked with whistleblowers
Excellent update from Craig.
‘It appears that the Supreme Court, the CPS and the news corporations are all colluding with the Conservative coalition government, to conceal crimes by members of a previous government, now supposedly in ‘opposition’.’
Clark- spot-on.
“The media throughout the world and not just in the UK,is controlled by government, and always has been”
I disagree. I think it’s controlled by global financial interests and certain intelligence agencies, who also control the government.
I’m completely in agreement with you on this theory, MJ. They have dumbed down the education system, controlled the masses through mindless TV, programmed them through films and games, and convinced nearly everyone that “Democracy” means voting for usual suspects a massive once every 5 years.
All governments in western capitolism are a tool of big corporations, they rule the the world and will due anything to protect their privoledge status.They will not allow their foot soldiers to be exposed and humiliated.
Many State tentacles caress each other…EU/Trade partnership with US, NATO and it’s fulminations must be kept healthy and commerce is a key element to the lop-sided wealth disbursements. So, yes to government complicity because they are inseparable.
At this rate the punters may be expected to vote in the Greens next year! But even they can be persuaded to an ecological jaunt checking out the solar panels floating on the Dead Sea. Its hopeless, the flavour of the foi gras has pervaded all institutions, all that remains is to think of England and lay down on the grassy knoll!
I think banks with their licence to lend money they merely create themselves out of nothing, powers over the economy given now to all-comers with supermarkets and corner shops setting themselves up and banks, are in a league of their own, towering over even the corporations many of which they could take down or hurt seriously at will, though private monopolies over necessities, formerly non-profit state services are not far behind in the stranglehold they have over the politicians and the public wealth. Appalling to hear that the British economy is apparently doing well, relatively, which means infact it’s still in an appalling state and more and more wealth is concentrating in even fewer hands.
A court is merely an assembly of an accused’s peers, citizens arrest Jack Straw and the others culpable in torture, which is most of Westminster and parts of the civil service and now the established judiciary itself are too accessories, try them in public, let them face their surviving victims also, no marsupials need be harmed in the process and justice will be served. Blair should just be summarily hung, or shot on sight. Most of the New Labour clique of war crims are a serious risk of flight and should surrender their passports and their persons to their nearest police station, for their own protection until special courts can be set up to deal with the grave breaches of fundamental human rights they have committed, so far with impunity, but their time, as with the bankers, will come.
@MJ
“The media throughout the world and not just in the UK,is controlled by government, and always has been”
I disagree. I think it’s controlled by global financial interests and certain intelligence agencies, who also control the government.
Actually, every one with a bit of leverage, security services, Poop Murdoch, Banksters, Cameroon and co., is using it to serve their own interest. Hence general civilizational collapse. Time to revert to a proper monarchy. I’m sure Good Queen Liz would happily send Straw and all the other New Labor scoundrels to the Tower for a head chop.
In the meantime, it’s good to see Craig Murray fighting the good fight against The War Against Terror psychopaths.
Ben E. Geserit Muad’Dib
Further Confounding
Gender Speculators
3 Nov, 2014 – 4:55 pm
“Many State tentacles caress each other…”
_________________________________________
I miss-read that at first Ben, I thought you said: “Many State testicles caress each other…”
Phew!
@Ben : “Look for ‘mistakes were made’ and ‘I don’t recall, don’t remember’ and that will be it.”
Look for the most reassuring one of all – “Lessons will be learnt”, so can all be satisfied that nothing really happened but – if it did – it shouldn’t be happening again.
Do you suppose the establishment is trying to keep a “Lydd” on the whole thing?
what happened to the previous thread stuck on donnydarko’s post on al baghdadi?
Mr Belhadj is a CIA/MI6 funded “jihadi” who fought for the empire in Libya and Syria. That’s the only reason he has been allowed to take this action.
In February 2008, the UK Government acknowledged that UK airspace and territory (on the small island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean) had been used for extraordinary rendition flights.
In March 2008 officials stated they were unsure how many other times such flights had passed through UK airspace. This is despite previously consistent denials by the Government of any use of UK airspace.
On 27 February 2009 the UK Government admitted that it had yet again misled Parliament over extraordinary rendition, acknowledging that UK forces had handed over individuals in Iraq to US authorities who then illegally rendered them to an Afghan prison known for its inhuman conditions.
_______________________________________
Good article Craig, but I wonder if, the Westminster Government will use the Justice and Security Act, to thwart any further investigation.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/18/contents/enacted
https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/no-torture/extraordinary-rendition
It has long been more than rumoured but attested to that masonic influence is widespread through the CPS and especially so amongst the Scottish equivalent Procurator Fiscals’ offices, prosecution lawyers and defence lawyers too and senior police officers also, all working to agendas more important than their public duties, and protecting one another. The waiving of serious charges against notable Edinburgh lawyers and judges in under-age rent boy scandals, and cover up of this on a vast scale, seen no-one punished and enabled these practices to continue. Then there was the protection afforded to Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton following a series of incidents long before that terrible massacre, the repeated renewal of his gun licences, even purchase of a weapon allegedly from a senior officer of the Central Police force, who would also determine his fitness to have those licences granted, over the head of more junior officers and specialist civilian staff with firearms expertise who raised well grounded concerns over the weapon types he was legally permitted.
That and issues surrounding Hamilton and the fee-paying Queen Victoria School ‘charity’ and its firing range adjacent to Dunblane Primary, where he had the run of the place; boys, residential military brats parked there or orphans were reportedly being taken out of the school with well-known establishment and political notables, who were frequent visitors scouting the meat and making donations for the service as well as dispensing pocket money.
Unlike now in England and Wales however where there is a voluntary requirement to register the fact of membership of masonic lodges and societies if employed in sensitive public affairs, which few have troubled to comply with; in Scotland no such requirement to declare being ensnared in these secret societies with their foolish oaths and rituals, and offshoots such as the Edinburgh Speculative Society, continue above and outside any scrutiny.
The stuff of conspiracy theory you might think but freemasonry, with its divided loyalties, and requirement, strictly enforced, to protect brother members, even complete unknowns, puts them often in conflict with the lawful or moral conduct and surrenders the individual will towards often despicable acts in the furtherance of advancement within their pathetic societies, as without this leg-up most of them would sink on their slim merits alone.
It is so in your face, that we are inured to the open practice of such conspiracies.
Tony M
I am afraid that what you have written about Thomas Hamilton is pure assertion with not a single shred of evidence adduced to back it up. If you have any evidence on the Hamilton case please set it out. Assertion of what is rumoured is really not very interesting.
Much of the stuff there on gun licences is an accurate summation of the official enquiry report. The allegations about QVS are well known and come at least one ex-staff member. The closing of ranks protecting fellow masons I’ve seen in action firsthand and find deplorable.
I think the main point was the sometimes inscrutable actions of the supposedly independent CPS and PF do deserve to come under the spotlight, and until it does, speculation as to their motivations and conflicts of interest, loyalties will continue multiplying and sometimes might go off on the wrong track, down blind-alleys, but it nevertheless it keeps the pressure on.
Prestwick certainly and possibly other Scottish airports were used for rendition and subsequent torture, probably leading even to deaths, and if the CPS is negligent of its duties then the equivalent PFs in Scotland need not follow them into ignominy, but seem to have made no effort to see if charges for clear offences such as kidnap, illegal imprisonment or more having taken place on Scottish soil etc. could be initiated and brought regardless of likelihood of a successful conclusion i.e. conviction(s) of high officials of the state. The considerable power to decide if charges are even brought, even to inquire, to look in earnest for grounds to do so, seem not sufficiently open or transparent enough, actually are inscrutable, they’re unanswerable to anyone wishing to determine if these important offices are serving the public interest, are sufficiently independent of the state itself or subject to other corrosive coercive influences that bring into question the blind trust given them, trust which is clearly at times misplaced and naive. It shouldn’t require an individual to seek redress in the case of their personal maltreatment to expose or force these issues, some public and accountable body should have powers to direct that an investigation be made on the public behalf, without political or other interference, where there are grounds for suspicion and considerable public disquiet. The police at present are ill-equipped constitutionally to undertake such far reaching inquiries, where senior political figures are implicated in gravely serious crimes with international and human rights implications, giving the impression that certain persons are able to bend the law any which way it pleases or suits them to do.