I have obtained access to all of Stewart McDonald’s emails, after approaching a number of people to find out who might have them. This is something the entire Scottish mainstream media have failed to do.
I had no hand in obtaining the emails nor prior knowledge. I am grateful they have been so generously shared.
I want to reassure Mr McDonald that his hysterical ranting about being hacked by a state intelligence service, when he appears by his own account to have fallen for a phishing scam the average 12 year old would see through, is hilariously wide of the mark.
Who in 2023 enters their login details into a third party website because they receive an email asking them to?
I think Mr McDonald’s credentials as a defence expert and NATO warrior have perhaps taken a hit.
I also want to reassure Mr McDonald that a highly responsible journalistic process will now be undertaken. Nothing will be altered or falsified. Nothing purely personal or about his love life will appear.
In particular, anything related to his constituents will remain absolutely and properly confidential.
If Mr McDonald or the SNP wish to get in touch about other material in the emails which is particularly sensitive for reasons of which we may not be aware, that will be given every consideration.
What will be published is material in which there is a legitimate public interest, relating to interactions with NATO, the British military and MOD, the Integrity Initiative and journalists in that crooked network, parliamentary committees, intelligence agencies, foreign powers, UK government defence institutes and conservative think tanks.
There has been little online support for Mr McDonald – and what there has been is telling
There is much of interest in the cache, including emails direct to and from Nicola Sturgeon, showing the toxic relationships within the SNP group at Westminster, where McDonald regards himself as in a very small minority of Sturgeon loyalists.
It is my hope that all those emails which are in the public interest for the public to know, with redactions if responsibly required, will eventually be published as a cache, so you can make up your own mind about the material.
This is also going to be a very interesting test on journalistic freedom in Scotland and Sturgeon’s iron control over the police and prosecutorial services.
In this context, the fact that I had no connection to, nor prior knowledge of, the materials being obtained is the essential point. My own involvement is purely to have tracked down who had them and then been given access to them, as journalist and publisher.
Doubtless after the usual pressure from Murrell and Robertson, the Lord Advocate will have the Crown Office looking feverishly to find a crime in that before the end of the afternoon.
If Mr McDonald was demoted about a month ago and that may be related to this email leak business, roughly when were your laptops stolen?
And was that related too, since logically if you DID choose to hack/phish Mr McDonald the time to do so would be when NOT on UK soil?
Thus if caught, you could more easily escape and if likely to be caught, you could deposit both emails and entire laptop in a safe-house prior to returning home.
Furthermore, if this IS some attempt to trap you, and the emails were hacked prior to your second laptop-theft, then an agent in possession of that stolen laptop could plant the emails ON it. Then the laptop could ‘turn up’ conveniently, with incriminating evidence that you-done-it.
I doubt our current judicial system would bother investigating how politically convenient such a coincidence would be. And it would be back to jail and not passing GO again.
Do the authorities feel you are a particularly awkward thorn in the flesh re Assange right now? As that would give them a motive for having you in Saughton again. Last time it prevented you testifying in Spain? Anything similar coming up?
Craig is so obviously not the kind of person who would be willing or able to phish someone that even the most incompetent security person is unlikely to get this point wrong. However, if the emails contain anything that is a serious threat to the UK establishment, then I agree it would make sense for them to hope that Craig had relevant information as to who did it. Or that he had already received the emails from someone and they could use this somehow to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
While not impossible, I don’t think it’s very likely they will forge any data on a stolen laptop in this case. Most likely the majority of those involved still operate under the delusion that they are essentially doing the ethically right thing, and this would be very hard to maintain in this case.
MoD has been running an extremely tight ship since the invasion of Ukraine. If there is any defence or military material in McDonald’s emails, he will have to answer to some very intimidating people who have much more authority than a typical Met Police detective. Anyone else who becomes aware of the contents of his emails may face similar circumstances.
Nicola Sturgeon has resigned
What is going on with Sturgeon resigning?
How on earth was she dislodged from her high fortress? Cant wait for Craig or anyone to spill the goods on this.
Very skeptical on this:
Per BBC: Sturgeon is asked when she first began thinking about quitting her role as first minister.
“I’ve been thinking about it with oscillating intensity,” she says with a smile.
“A couple of weeks ago it started to crystallise a bit more.”
And although she “couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment”, a funeral for 89-year-old independence campaigner Allan Angus yesterday had a “clarifying effect” on her thinking.
Is the deep State retiring some of its Capos? (Ahern’s resignation seems similar) What will they now put in her place?
Is there a possible connection between the fact that you hope to publish these emails and the First Minister’s resignation today. Or is her timing completely coincidental?
There is good reason to believe that at present Ms Sturgeon has more to fear from McPlod than Mr Murray. The simple question “where is the 600k?” will not be easy to answer in a convincing manner.
Stewart McDonald is in a great deal of trouble. There are many people in MoD who are appalled at his negligence, especially since he has attended a number of MoD courses and briefings on cyber security and was well aware both of his responsibilities and also of how to avoid being hacked. He was the SNP’s spokesman on defence until December and may well have been party to sensitive information. If he put any of that information in his emails (absolutely verboten), he is toast.- since last March, MoD has battened down the hatches very firmly and routine press and political briefings have almost completely stopped.
Craig, please take the greatest care with any defence or military material in McDonald’s emails. The maximum penalty for negligent breaches of the Official Secrets Act is two years in jail, and MoD would like nothing more than an opportunity to hang somebody from a lamp post.
Quite right, Cedders. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 contains three specific exemptions for defence-related disclosure:
“What exemptions are contained in section 26 of FOIA?
Section 26(1)(a) provides an exemption for information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the defence of the British Islands or of any colony.
Section 26(1)(b) provides an exemption for information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability of, effectiveness or security of any relevant forces.
Section 26(3) provides an exemption from the duty to confirm or deny whether information is held if doing so would, or would be likely to, prejudice any of the matters mentioned in subsection 26(1).”
All exemptions are subject to both the public interest test and the prejudice test, as explained in more detail on the linked page.
Let’s have them asap and out this thoroughly insidious group – let’s get real again.
Woke no more!