-Caveat Lector- From Paris with love David Shayler, the former M15 officer exiled in France, wonders why Robin Cook told an outright lie about the assassination attempt on Colonel Gaddafi =========================================== Readers with sharp memories will recall that in October I wrote to Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, to inform him that I had information about two further traitors. Like Melita Norwood, MI5 knew of their activities but they have never been prosecuted. Just after my last column went to press, I received a reply it came not from Straw or his office but from Roland Phillips, the government lawyer who appears to have carved out a small industry for himself as a result of the government's shenanigans towards me. Last Thursday, I went to the British Embassy in Rue Faubourg-St Honorê to hand over my information. The government and the press had taken very little notice of my offers to provide information about treachery and murder. Where are you supposed to go when the relevant authorities refuse to take possession of evidence of serious crime, let alone attempt to investigate it, especially when disclosure elsewhere constitutes a criminal act? In my submission, along with the identities of the traitors, I detailed the events leading up to the M16-funded plot to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi, which went wrong, killing innocent civilians. A BBC Panorama programme, which was initially banned, has stood up much of the detail. Despite this, when details of the plot were first published in August of last year, the Parliamentary intelligence and security committee failed to investigate. Its chairman, Tom King, still refuses even to answer my letters asking what steps he has taken to hold M16 to account. Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook also refuses to answer letters asking him how he knows that the plot was, in his words, "pure fantasy" when he didn't even bother to hold an independent inquiry Those words may nevertheless have done for the Ginger Whinger. Up until that point, all the government spokesmen had stated that there had been no officially authorised operation. This line might fool the politically illiterate but most seasoned observers could deconstruct it all too well: no official operation means an operation carried out without the knowledge of ministers, deniable because ministers were never informed. But Cook, panicked, I believe, by the interviewer, went beyond the "no official plot" brief when he denied any sort of operation. I know that the Gaddafi plot happened. I know that Cook is lying. The only way the public can know is if the government decides to hold an independent and open inquiry of course, the only person who has the authority to order this kind of inquiry is... yes, you guessed it... the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook. And he's hardly likely to order an investigation which will establish that he has lied to the British people. Accountability, anyone? * IN MY last column, I recounted the paranoid story of my missing speakers. This week, with the launch of the campaign to allow me to return to the UK, it is the turn of my e-mail and internet access to fill me with paranoia. One of the unexpected advantages of being exiled in France is quicker internet access via the same lines which provide cable TV. But recently the connection has slowed down, as if someone had poured thick, heavy treacle in the works. Although the web is a technical marvel, it is still prone to teething troubles, bringing with it all the hang-ups of computers while adding on a few more just for you, so to speak. So, on this evidence, it would simply be paranoid to conclude that this sudden collapse in connection speed was the remote work of some grubby-fingered and paranoid M15 officer. But it's not just the internet. First, it was the mobile, then it was the landline as well as all the e-mail accounts. And all in the week when we were trying to launch Public Friend No 1, the campaign to get me back to the UK. I suspect that the problems with the landline may be the result of a well-known secret service trick. If a target is not actually using the phone much, M15 asks BT to place a fault on the line. The unsuspecting punter then contacts BT, who agree to send an engineer. Unbeknown to the target, the engineer works in a special section of BT called Operational Network Division. He then places a microphone in the phone junction box on the wall, which records conversations in the room and sends them down the line back to the transcribers in Thames House. I imagine the same happens in France. This all means we are stuck in a quandary. Do we persevere with the landline, our ears filled with the tweets and whoops of unrecalcitrant static each time we endeavour to dial out or hear the other end of a conversation? Or do we ask the telephone company to come round and repair the fault, knowing that we risk conversations in our flat being monitored as well? Decisions, decisions. ================================== Punch #95, December 4 - 17, 1999 DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om