Trial of ex-Mi5 agent David Shayler & the media blackout

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johnhorne (1068 posts) Oct-08-02, 11:56 AM (ET) Trial of ex-Mi5 agent David Shayler & the media blackout David Shayler may know some incredibly damning things, but for now at least, the public won't. It would appear that Downing Street has ordered a complete blackout of his trial in the press. Charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act by revealing details of a plot to assassinate Gadafy in an interview several years ago, he has, for some time, been living in exile in France. However, he's now facing the music & despite low-profile coverage by the UK media building up to the trial, yesturday's initial hearing has been all but axed from the media, presumably by an order from on high. This is where the myth of Britain's free press is brought to light. Shayler's trial is highly relevant to 9-11 for the following reason, reported by the London Evening Standard yesturday: "He is expected to claim that British secret service agents paid up to £100,000 to al Qaeda terrorists for an assassination attempt on Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffy in 1996. He is seeking permission to plead a defence of "necessity" - that he acted for the greater good by revealing wrongdoing by the security service." http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1488303 This is the only article left online which dares to be so bold. The Scotsman refers to the Gaddafy plot, but not the al-Qaeda connection. However it does also mention more of Shayler's allegations, namely: "The trial will centre around a number of allegations made by Shayler about M15 holding files on prominent politicians, including former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. He also claimed the secret services ignored warnings that might have prevented bombings in the London in 1993 and 1994." http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1109572002 The Guardian did have a story online, but it's now been 'disappeared'. The most recent coverage now is this little snip: "An Old Bailey court yesterday heard legal arguments relating to the trial of David Shayler, the former MI5 officer charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act. The judge ruled that they cannot be reported. Mr Shayler's trial is now expected to be heard before a jury next week." http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,806640,00.html They do have an article briefly covering the start of the case, but it discloses no information whatsoever about the content of the trial, but it does reveal: "The Guardian reported today that ministers had demanded the trial be held in secret." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4516862,00.html I would assume that that reference is to the following story which still shows up on a search for "Shayler" using Google News: Guardian: "Ministers issue gag orders for MI5 trial " http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,806011,00.html (also now disappeared is this: Leicestershire Mail: "SHAYLER AT OLD BAILEY FOR TRIAL" http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=42474&command=displayContent&sourceNode=42310&contentPK=2760776 The Guardian website has a small archive of stories relating to Shayler from the past 24 months: http://www.guardian.co.uk/shayler Shayler's own website has also been disappeared. What was originally www.shayler.com is now non-existant. Using www.archive.org, you get some interesting results. The archive of January 2002 is no longer there. The archive of September 24th 2001 takes you to a porn site. The most recent I can salvage is from June 2000, available at the following link: http://web.archive.org/web/20000608192145/http://shayler.com/ Of other UK newspapers, the Independent has nothing, BBC has nothing, The Times has a very small summary, noting the media ban, The Telegraph has nothing, The Mirror has nothing and I have seen or heard nothing of this. Indeed, it was only because of the dead link on the Guardian site that my curiosity was peaked. I don't know if journalists are banned period from attending the trial, or if the ban is only on reporting it. It it's the former then one hopes that international media can circumvent the D-Notice that Blair has put on any coverage of this trial & possibly add some more light. Either way, a great many secrets will be shared in a court room this week; secrets that would implicate British intelligence in using al-Qaeda to do its bidding -- as recent as 1996. Download DUTV: Links page - http://burningbush.netfirms.com/DUTV.html "There is increasing interaction between images and language. One might say that living in society today is almost like living in a vast comic strip." - Jean Luc Godard from 'Two or Three Things I Know about Her'   Alert Edit | Reply | Top

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Subject     Author     Message Date     ID    on limits of trust PATRICK Oct-08-02 1  1 story today, from Australia johnhorne Oct-09-02 2    Shaylergate also up at Propgandamatrix and Scoop! ewing2001 10/11/2002 3        (semi OT) UK spies reject al-Qaida link johnhorne 10/11/2002 4            wow- this latest Guardian article rockz!! ewing2001 10/11/2002 5  They found him guilty johnhorne Nov-04-02 6  MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden' johnhorne Nov-12-02 7    I read this stuff Doc Paulie 11/12/2002 8        Switch the "C" with "SH" DulceDecorum 11/12/2002 9  The link to the Shayler site yella_dawg Nov-16-02 10    and you'd be a fool & a communist johnhorne 11/16/2002 11

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PATRICK (1360 posts) Oct-08-02, 03:38 PM (ET) 1. on limits of trust When it comes to overriding interests even the vaunted UK press has its limits as seen in its varied support of the Venezuela coup and this complete retreat from government oversight. Maybe all big media is prone to these limits even without partisan bias.   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

johnhorne (1068 posts) Oct-09-02, 06:33 PM (ET) 2. 1 story today, from Australia "Media gag on alleged plot to kill Gaddafi" "The British media have been gagged from reporting sensational courtroom evidence of former MI5 spy David Shayler, including his alleged proof that the British secret service paid $270,000 for al Qaeda terrorists to assassinate Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 1986. In its efforts to contain Mr Shayler's allegations to the privacy of the court, the government has even stopped the media from reporting its successful attempt to win a gag order. The decision by an Old Bailey judge to stop the media from reporting parts of Mr Shayler's evidence came on Monday after two senior ministers, David Blunkett and Jack Straw, signed Public Interest Immunity certificates. The certificates, which were submitted to the court, insisted that the media and the public leave the court if the activities of the security and intelligence agencies were raised by the defence. The then Labour opposition strenuously opposed the Tory government's use of the certificates during the arms-to-Iraq prosecution in the early '90s. Some guilty verdicts were subsequently overturned on appeal because the defence successfully argued that it had been deprived of relevant information. When such certificates are issued, it is standard practice for the judge to read the applications and publicly hear the arguments for and against a gagging order, before ruling. But in the case of Mr Shayler - a 36-year-old former MI5 officer who is accused of disclosing government secrets to the media and in a book - the government wanted the judge, Justice Alan Moses, to consider the application in private. The British media widely reported on Monday that lawyers acting for Mr Shayler had accused the government of trying to "intimidate" Justice Moses. But on Tuesday the newspapers - many of which had mounted their own legal case against the application of the certificates - reported simply that the court had heard legal arguments relating to Mr Shayler's trial. "The judge ruled that they (the legal arguments) cannot be reported," The Guardian reported." http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/09/1034061258269.html Download DUTV: Links page - http://burningbush.netfirms.com/DUTV.html "There is increasing interaction between images and language. One might say that living in society today is almost like living in a vast comic strip." - Jean Luc Godard from 'Two or Three Things I Know about Her'   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

ewing2001 (3251 posts) Oct-11-02, 08:34 AM (ET) Reply to post #2 3. Shaylergate also up at Propgandamatrix and Scoop! (The missing original british articles- "D-Notices") http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0210/S00061.htm SHAYLERGATE: British Press Gagged on Reporting MI6's £100,000 bin Laden Payoff By Paul Joseph Watson From: http://www.propagandamatrix.com/shayler_gate.html "...Tony Blair has tonight ordered a D-Notice on British media reporting government officials signing court gag orders. This regards the case of former MI5 officer David Shayler, who has evidence to prove MI6 gave £100,000 to bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, arms to Iraq and had prior knowledge of several terrorist attacks on London in the 1990's... ...The original London Guardian report was entitled 'Ministers issue gag orders for MI5 trial' and was located at http://www.guardian.co.uk/shayler/article/0,2763,806009,00.html - as you will see if you click on the link, it's disappeared down the memory hole. The text I extracted from the report for my original link to it is as follows..." GROUND ZERO Forum NYC http://forums.delphiforums.com/ground_zero2001 http://www.ourDNA.org http://www.lebensaspekte.de 911Skeptics worldwide unite! Supporter of the 911-Skepticism Movement NYC, Washington, San Francisco, Connecticut, Ohio, Portland etc... Support public LIHOP-evidence now, SETUP later! http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00068.htm http://www.lihop.net Martin Luther King III, Nina Hagen, Spooky, Patti Smith, Ralph Nader got our 911-files! How Cynthia McKinney got our 911-files + Bush-Booker-Video (SGTV) http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=9053&forum=DCForumID60 Support the 911-Truth Commission: http://www.911nationalnetwork.org/petition/ Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, Howard Zinn etc... http://www.petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html http://www.ctnow.com/features/lifestyle/hc-profile0929.artsep29,0,5020067.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dlife Support the No.1 911-Bookmark-List: http://globalfreepress.com Support the No.1 911-Timeline Center: http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/ How the 911-Lie started: Bush at Booker Elementary http://ewing2001.kulturserver-berlin.de/Bush_Booker_SGTV.mov http://burningbush.myip.org/DUTV-BUSHWTC.zip http://burningbush.myip.org/DUTV-BUSHWTC.small.mov Please donate for GZ Forum NYC. Every $10 counts. (telephone bills, phone research, PR costs, media tools,video distribution, hardware upgrade, security solutions, provider costs, various investigations etc...) Info at http://www.lebensaspekte.de/groundzero/donation.html 911Skeptics in the media: http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.conspiracy.0912w NOTE: Any use of non-standard English words that are in quotes within this post should not be construed by any member of DU as prejudice against Southern people, African Americans, Asian people, Northern people, Arabic people, Jewish people, Christian people or any other group save one. These words are blatant prejudice against STUPID people.   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

johnhorne (1068 posts) Oct-11-02, 01:38 PM (ET) Reply to post #3 4. (semi OT) UK spies reject al-Qaida link "British intelligence agencies are dismissing claims by the Bush administration that there are links between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network. The claims are being used by President Bush to press his case against Saddam Hussein, amid growing unease among Americans of the prospect of a US military invasion of Iraq, especially without British participation. The allegations have already sparked off a dispute in the US over the way information and speculation by the CIA is being used by the Bush administration for its own ends. Both MI5 and MI6 have been deeply concerned about unsubstantiated claims made by senior members of the Bush administration, notably Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, about the threat posed by al-Qaida. They say the claims could be counter-productive since they are plainly misleading. Mr Rumsfeld claimed last month that American intelligence had "bulletproof" evidence of links between al-Qaida and the Iraqi regime. He later added: "But they're not photographs. They're not beyond a reasonable doubt." This week Mr Bush suggested that al-Qaida leaders were in close contact with Baghdad. British intelligence sources firmly reject such claims. Asked whether President Saddam had links with al-Qaida, one well-placed source replied: "Quite the opposite." The clear message from British intelligence is that far from allying himself with al-Qaida terrorists, the Iraqi leader is distancing himself from them. British sources interpret the murder in Baghdad of the former Palestinian terrorist leader, Abu Nidal, in August as evidence of President Saddam's concern about accusations he is harbouring terrorists, especially one whose loyalty he could not rely on. British intelligence sources also dismiss claims by Washington hawks that Mohamed Atta, believed to be the ringleader of the September 11 terrorists, met an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague on several occasions. They also dismiss claims that Ramzi Youssef, convicted of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre, was in fact an Iraqi agent who studied in Swansea. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4521019,00.html Download DUTV: Links page - http://burningbush.netfirms.com/DUTV.html "There is increasing interaction between images and language. One might say that living in society today is almost like living in a vast comic strip." - Jean Luc Godard from 'Two or Three Things I Know about Her'   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

ewing2001 (3251 posts) Oct-11-02, 02:41 PM (ET) Reply to post #4 5. wow- this latest Guardian article rockz!! GROUND ZERO Forum NYC http://forums.delphiforums.com/ground_zero2001 http://www.ourDNA.org http://www.lebensaspekte.de 911Skeptics worldwide unite! Supporter of the 911-Skepticism Movement NYC, Washington, San Francisco, Connecticut, Ohio, Portland etc... Support public LIHOP-evidence now, SETUP later! http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0208/S00068.htm http://www.lihop.net Martin Luther King III, Nina Hagen, Spooky, Patti Smith, Ralph Nader got our 911-files! How Cynthia McKinney got our 911-files + Bush-Booker-Video (SGTV) http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=9053&forum=DCForumID60 Support the 911-Truth Commission: http://www.911nationalnetwork.org/petition/ Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, Howard Zinn etc... http://www.petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html http://www.ctnow.com/features/lifestyle/hc-profile0929.artsep29,0,5020067.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dlife Support the No.1 911-Bookmark-List: http://globalfreepress.com Support the No.1 911-Timeline Center: http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/ How the 911-Lie started: Bush at Booker Elementary http://ewing2001.kulturserver-berlin.de/Bush_Booker_SGTV.mov http://burningbush.myip.org/DUTV-BUSHWTC.zip http://burningbush.myip.org/DUTV-BUSHWTC.small.mov Please donate for GZ Forum NYC. Every $10 counts. (telephone bills, phone research, PR costs, media tools,video distribution, hardware upgrade, security solutions, provider costs, various investigations etc...) Info at http://www.lebensaspekte.de/groundzero/donation.html 911Skeptics in the media: http://www.examiner.com/news/default.jsp?story=n.conspiracy.0912w NOTE: Any use of non-standard English words that are in quotes within this post should not be construed by any member of DU as prejudice against Southern people, African Americans, Asian people, Northern people, Arabic people, Jewish people, Christian people or any other group save one. These words are blatant prejudice against STUPID people.   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

johnhorne (1068 posts) Nov-04-02, 11:44 AM (ET) 6. They found him guilty Former MI5 officer David Shayler has been found guilty at the Old Bailey of three charges under the 1989 Official Secrets Act. Shayler, 36, was found guilty of the charges which included disclosing documents and information to a Sunday newspaper in 1997. Earlier, he told the five women and seven men jury that he had disclosed the information because he feared for his life. Shayler said he had no option but to go to the media because "You can't just go and knock on the door of No 10". He added: "I can tell you that I did fear for my life." Shayler said he admitted that he had done what he was accused of - disclosing information and documents, which he obtained as a servant of the Crown, to the Mail on Sunday newspaper in August 1997. http://www.itv.com/news/Front515936.html ** From Saturday: Shayler tells jury: I'm gagged David Shayler, the former MI5 officer, yesterday appealed to an Old Bailey jury to clear him from the charge that he had broken the Official Secrets Act, saying he was prevented from revealing the very information they needed to know. "I'm in an impossible position, because I can't tell you the one thing you need to know", he told the jurors during heated exchanges with Nigel Sweeney QC, the prosecution counsel. Mr Shayler said that, as an agent, he had been excluded from a meeting over an operation, codenamed Shadower, with the commissioner responsible for monitoring telephone taps. Mr Shayler referred to "unlawful bugging", adding: "I am put in a position where it is a crime to report a crime." Mr Justice Moses, the trial judge, has told the jury that Mr Shayler is limited in what he can reveal in his defence. The judge warned him against trying to raise matters not relevant to the specific charges against him. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,824494,00.html Download DUTV: Links page - http://burningbush.netfirms.com/DUTV.html "There is increasing interaction between images and language. One might say that living in society today is almost like living in a vast comic strip." - Jean Luc Godard from 'Two or Three Things I Know about Her'   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

johnhorne (1068 posts) Nov-12-02, 00:04 AM (ET) 7. MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden' Startling revelations by French intelligence experts back David Shayler's alleged 'fantasy'about Gadaffi plot British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. The latest claims of MI6 involvement with Libya's fearsome Islamic Fighting Group, which is connected to one of bin Laden's trusted lieutenants, will be embarrassing to the Government, which described similar claims by renegade MI5 officer David Shayler as 'pure fantasy'. contd: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,837333,00.html Download DUTV: Links page - http://burningbush.netfirms.com/DUTV.html "There is increasing interaction between images and language. One might say that living in society today is almost like living in a vast comic strip." - Jean Luc Godard from 'Two or Three Things I Know about Her'   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

Doc Paulie (584 posts) Nov-12-02, 05:52 AM (ET) Reply to post #7 8. I read this stuff and I keep seeing Condi Rice with "nobody could have known" flashing in my head. Hint to idiots running things....never-ever negotiate/offer cash/hang-out/pay-off/or even breath the same air as known murders and crooks. Course if your goal is to be made to look like fools than continue on with your "sophisticated" strategies. I am so sick of the wimps in our Government.   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

DulceDecorum (365 posts) Nov-12-02, 10:54 AM (ET) Reply to post #8 9. Switch the "C" with "SH" and instead of "nobody Could have known," you get "nobody SHould have known."   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

yella_dawg (30 posts) Nov-16-02, 08:49 AM (ET) 10. The link to the Shayler site http://web.archive.org/web/20000608192145/http://shayler.com/ is locked. You can't see it now. yella   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

johnhorne (1068 posts) Nov-16-02, 01:27 PM (ET) Reply to post #10 11. and you'd be a fool & a communist if you thought that the government had anything to do with it The "Memory Hole" managed to salvage section of the site: http://www.thememoryhole.org/spy/shayler/ today's Guardian has an article about Annie Machon - Shalyer's girlfriend: The spy who loved me http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,3604,840388,00.html & cryptome has a couple of immunity certificates & similar related to attempts to censor the story & historic articles on the case: R v. Martin Bright: HMG Censors Shayler Article http://cryptome.org/r-v-bright.htm Qadahfi Assassination Plot, 14 February 2000 http://cryptome.org/qadahfi-plot.htm Public Friend No. 1, 16 February 2000 http://cryptome.org/shayler021600.htm Libyan Intelligence Service Activity in the UK, 14 April 2000 http://cryptome.org/mi5-lis-uk.htm Why Prosecute David Shayler?, 28 August 2000 http://cryptome.org/shayler-why.htm Judgment in Steen v. HMG in OSA-Shayler Case, 21 March 2001 http://cryptome.org/steen-v-hmg.htm Shayler v. Court of Appeal - Judgement, 29 September 2001 http://cryptome.org/shayler-v-coa.htm MI6 Plot to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi, 11 November 2001 http://cryptome.org/shayler-gaddafi.htm House of Lords - Regina v Shayler (On Appeal From The Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)), 22 March 2002 http://cryptome.org/hmg-v-shayler4.htm UK Bans News of MI Assassination Plots, 16 October 2002 http://cryptome.org/uk-gag.htm R v. David Shayler - Public Immunity Certificate (10 April 2002), 7 November 2002 http://cryptome.org/r-v-shayler.htm Download DUTV: Links page - http://burningbush.netfirms.com/DUTV.html "There is increasing interaction between images and language. One might say that living in society today is almost like living in a vast comic strip." - Jean Luc Godard from 'Two or Three Things I Know about Her'   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

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