I have discovered unpublished criteria used to compile Gus O’Donnell’s official “report” into the Fox/Werritty affair.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?
“some states worry about the potential acquisition of NUCLEAR weapons by the nut cases in Tehran?” — Lloyd
.
There is some evidence that Werritty’s links in the US were Koch-brothers funded, and Tea Party connected. You don’t call them nut cases?
One explanation is that Werrity was just the creature of Liam Fox – if he could have been disassociated from Fox then my guess is that Fox would still be Defence Secretary.
Anon – I agree. My guess is that Werrity was an unofficial conduit to and from Liam Fox, who was probably being generous to his friend and/or too lazy to be in two places at once. But if we see that Werrity was Fox, if you see what I mean, then the fact that he met some of the Israeli top brass to discuss their thinking on the Iranian nuclear issue is not really that odd. Like I said, it would be more odd if discussions like these were not taking place.
Lloyd,
.
So you don’t find it odd that a UK Defence Minister sent his mate to nuclear discussions just because they were mates or Fox was simply lazy?
.
Jeez…why didn’t he send his gardener,barber and window cleaner too?
Lloyd/Jives – the issue is not that Fox was too lazy to go himself. The issue is that Fox-Werrity appeared to be running a parallel foreign policy to the government Fox was meant to be serving – one that took a far more aggressive line on Iran than the Cabinet. This sort of thing challenges the basic tenets of democracy – even the feeble one that we have.
Lloyd, can you explain to me why you are so frightened of Iran’s nuclear programme? The CIA have clearly stated that Iran is neither producing nor attempting to produce nuclear weapons. Here it is, straight from the source:
.
http://www.dni.gov/reports/2009_721_Report.pdf
.
The IAEA has repeatedly stated that Iran is not diverting nuclear material to weapons production. Check Wikipedia for direct links to the IAEA reports:
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran
.
Do you understand the immense difference between weapons grade and non-weapons grade uranium? Weapons grade has to be 90% enriched or more. Iran is enriching to only 20%.
.
Lloyd, are you aware that Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and thus has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes? Do you know of Iran’s fatwa against nuclear weapons?
Anon 1&O, how does your theory at 7:41 pm account for all these meetings, the covering-up of those meetings, and the redactions in the documents obtained by Craig Murray’s FOI request?
It is his access to Gould under New Labour too which makes me thnk there is more to this than just his being known as Fox’s creature or the representative of Tory donors.
Fox was employing these three special advisers, SPADS, as at June 2010.
Secretary of State for Defence
Luke Coffey
Oliver Waghorn
Hayden Allan
.
The Cabinet Office released a full list of special advisers as of 10 June 2010
.
I cannot find a later list. Just look at the salaries being forked out by you and me for these wannabes.
http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/files/2010/06/special-advisers-pay.pdf
.
Re Coffey on Aangirfan’s blog
American Luke Coffey has worked for US Defence Secretary Liam Fox
On 6 June 2010, The Sunday Times reported that the UK Defence Minister lets a US ‘mole’ roam the Ministry of Defence
According to the Sunday Times in June 2010:
UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox (Fox dismisses gay smears ) has had Luke Coffey, a man with links to the CIA, as a special adviser.
Liam Fox is said to want the UK to buy American, rather than British, military equipment.
Luke Coffey has run the London branch of an American think tank called Censa (Council for Emerging National Security Affairs).
At least a quarter of the members listed on its website have been in the CIA or other American intelligence agencies.
Luke Coffey has been issued with a pass giving him access to all areas of the Ministry of Defence.
~~
{http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2011/10/uk-defence-scretary-to-be-sacked.html}
Craig – I agree that Werrity’s access to FCO (and other?) officials under New Labour means that others in the UK (and US) besides the Tea-Party Tendency in the Conservative party have a stake in the anti-Iranian and pro-Pentagon matrix of policies. The Blairite side of Labour has been well represented by Miliband Senior both in and out of office. My expectation is that some of the Atlanticist US-UK groups [there are several] have for many years sought to make sure that whoever is in power in the UK is locked into at least tacit support for American supremacist policies.
.
It’s a bit like Murdoch making sure that the Sun supports whichever party is in power or is likely to gain power; but also uses its smearing and bigging up journalism to promote those in the two main parties who are instinctive poodles or whose loyalty can be secured by carrots or sticks – including blackmail threats of revealing discreditable episodes in their public or private lives, initially by firing warning shots : “Just remember, we can destroy your career if you step seriously out of line”.
.
So, Werrity is just the sort of person who can straddle both camps because he is working with the strident or closet neo-con bedfellows in both parties. As for funding, while I suspect that is a factor in some cases, bribery is hardly necessary for those who have sold their souls.
“In a lucrative industry reliant on insider information and expertise, Mr Pienaar has made it his business to be well-connected. A number of Establishment figures are on the company’s payroll”
,
Inside the corporate intelligence company which bankrolled Liam Fox
,
,
The spurious, and baseless noises about Nukes, WMD, etc. that in turn are addressed with Sanctions, and ultimately war, are in fact designed to legitimise the money carousel, that channels the proceeds of taxation revenues, and public funds into privately held accounts. This game has been played for far too long, and the pernicious results of the ongoing fraud are to be seen everywhere, affecting everyone, whilst destroying the nation states, in its wake.
,
It is an indictment to any “democratic” system, that can tolerate, aid, and abet a snake oil salesmen with unfettered access to various political leadership offices, treating these a his local coffee house. This patently obviates any need for accountability and creates the necessary smoke screen for those in the positions of political leadership to engage in corrupt practices designed to enrich themselves, and their sponsors. This taking place whilst the corrupt perpetrators are afforded the cover to remain functional without any dangers of being held accountable, through the constructs of plausible deniability.
Iain …’to promote those in the two main parties who are instinctive poodles or whose loyalty can be secured by carrots or sticks – including blackmail threats of revealing discreditable episodes in their public or private lives, initially by firing warning shots : “Just remember, we can destroy your career if you step seriously out of line”.’
.
I always thought that ‘they’ had something definite on Blair. Clarissa Dickson Wright gave much information in her book Spilling the Beans
on his youthful activities.
Steve Coogan on Question Time right now, mentioned “the market for torture”. This might be a rare treat…
Clark
First of all I didn’t put forward a theory – I don’t yet have enough information to do so. I could speculate on a number of alternatives.
For example, Perhaps the Govt wanted to get a message across to Fox without it being seen as a direct direct negotiations between Govt and the Opposition. Believe it or not there are some areas where it best that other countries see that there is a common stance between Govt and Opposition – and the FCO would be naturally reticent about providing information about what that stance may be.
Whether that stance is what Craig, and his possibly not disinterested source,claim it to be, still remains a matter of speculation in my mind. Employees of the FCO, old and new, have never been above playing political games on their own account, as anyone who reads political biographies knows all too well. I think you will find that Civil Servants have developed not a few means of putting information beyond the FOI Act – some of which Mr Pickles has publicly encouraged.
PS I understand that 20% enriched uranium is not weapons grade – but perhaps you could explain what 20% enriched uranium can be used for over and above lower levels of enrichment – I am told there is no conceivable medical purpose. The FOI Act being non existent in Iran means that we are unlikely to ever get a proper explanation from that quarter.
BTW it is pretty well know that Werrity was Fox’s bag carrier before the election as well as after. Those that know him suggest that he doesn’t have the capabilities to be some sort of intelligence mastermind. And those who know Liam Fox know that he is quite capable of developing his own idiotice ideas without assistance from others.
Mary: well, go on. if you have the book, spill the beans. Being impatient, a quick Google was helpful, producing this extract:
.
Spilling The Beans on Blair
.
The noted barrister and, to date, youngest woman ever called to the Bar, Clarissa Dixon Wright had this to say about some NL notables in her book Spilling The Beans ISBN 978 0 340 93389 3
.
“There were a number of the present Cabinet around, Tony Blair for one, although we called him Miranda in those days, and nobody ever thought how powerful he would become. He was regarded as a poor sad thing with his guitar and his rather girlish looks, and was also considered something of a fantasist; his story about attempting to stow away on a plane to the Caribbean from Edinburgh was a source of great amusement as there were no transatlantic flights from Scotland back then. The boys I knew who had been at Fettes with him didn’t have many good words to say about him. Much more impressive was Jack Straw, who we would have picked as a man destined for the top. I always rather liked him; despite his inflamed oratory and his passionate communism there was something rather honest and even kind about him, although with hindsight perhaps he wasn’t ruthless or dishonest enough for the top. Peter Hain, even before he dug up the wicket at the Oval, was much disliked. He smelled of naked ambition without, as far as we could see, the talent to match and with an enormously high opinion of himself. Then of course there was Cherie, clever, hungry for success, for love, desperately needy, the product of another dysfunctional home. In those days she was very close friends with her head of chambers, Derry Irvine.”
.
Her good word for Straw carries a bit of weight because of her spot-on judgement of Peter Hain. And she is, after all, fitting people into the appropriate circle of the Inferno.
“PS I understand that 20% enriched uranium is not weapons grade – but perhaps you could explain what 20% enriched uranium can be used for over and above lower levels of enrichment – I am told there is no conceivable medical purpose. The FOI Act being non existent in Iran means that we are unlikely to ever get a proper explanation from that quarter.”
,
This is the kind of mendacious shit that is passed as debate!
,
The existing research reactor for medical isotope in Tehran uses 20 percent enriched Uranium, and the tripartite (Iran, Turkey, Brazil)deal about its supply was scuppered by US, yet somehow finds its way onto the board. Why?
Mary,
Blair’s moniker in high school was Emily as per pupils attending school at the same time as he did.
Jon,
.
“Lloyd/Jives – the issue is not that Fox was too lazy to go himself. The issue is that Fox-Werrity appeared to be running a parallel foreign policy to the government Fox was meant to be serving – one that took a far more aggressive line on Iran than the Cabinet. This sort of thing challenges the basic tenets of democracy – even the feeble one that we have.”
.
I know that Jon..i wish there was a wink emoticon i could access here…lol
Werritty as a conduit eh? Nah,more like the rosy-cheeked plum cherub that old but powerful men use then cry “my sweet young darling” afterwards,once they’ve used them.
For any that are interested Google The Very Rev.Dr Ronald Selby-Wright. A mentor of Blair at Fettes.He used to visit my school,too,in the 70’s.He seemed to visit alot of boys private schools.
.
Very,ahem,interesting.
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2010/02/tony-blair-and-child-abusers.html
Anon 1&O, uranium enriched above the levels useful in power generation is used to fuel research reactors. Such reactors are used for many things, including the production of medical isotopes. In fact, even highly enriched uranium (over 20% enriched) is useful for the production of some medical substances.
.
Since two-thirds of all the world’s medical isotopes are made in just two reactors, we can predict that (1) there is a great incentive for Iran to develop such reactors and (2) there will be vested interests trying to prevent Iran from doing so.
Jives,
You dark horse. Thanks for the info on the rev.
Dear Craig,
Your work on the Werrity Gould affair has been simply outstanding. It is a complete scandal and deeply sinister that the mainstream media is ignoring all this.
@ Fedup,
.
“Jives,
You dark horse. Thanks for the info on the rev.”
.
Dude,i’m not a dark horse.Just a survivor-which is important.Many,i’m sure,were groomed in such circles from a very young age.Almost,in fact,like an organised scene.Oooh perish the thought eh?
Clark,
“(1) there is a great incentive for Iran to develop such reactors and (2) there will be vested interests trying to prevent Iran from doing so.”
,
,
You bet there are many vested interests pretty pissed off about any progress made by Iran.
,
Gas centrifuges are not used exclusively for uranium isotope separation. Cascades of gas centrifuges are used to separate – in kilogram quantities for commercial sale – the isotopes of zinc, tungsten, molybdenum, krypton, xenon, germanium, iron, sulfur, oxygen and carbon.
,
Many Types of Isotopes
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?
——————————————————————————————-
It`s quite simple really, people like David Icke were right all along and far from as crazy as most suggest. It is all corrupt, there is collusion and conspiracy and there are hidden agendas. Always have been and always will be, are we really dumb enough to believe that those in power do not abuse it, do not manipulate it and do not conspire with others in power,,,,,,,,,, In our dreams the altruism of power and leadership, its always been a vehicle for self progression, it always will be and we at the bottom will always be acceptable collateral damage should we be either stupid enough to place ourselves in the way or just plain unlucky enough to find ourselves there. Money and power will always override morals and justice and only a fool would ever consider it would be otherwise.
.
Israel throws plenty of money around on the political circuit and as long as we remain a capitalist and possession based society if you want more sway than them then you had better cough up more money to get it, politics like any other commodity will always be for sale to the highest bidder. lol
Werritty….anglicized version of, um, say, Wertgeld…?
Richard Branson could probably get such a meeting without explanation
.
What about Michael Caine?
Two recommendations for Aangirfan? Let’s make it a third! Between Aang and Craig and Lagavulin I say God bless Scotland.