Thursday, 14 June 2012
Blackwater (now Academi) was just awarded a $17 million contract for "security services" at FOB Dwyer in Afghanistan. h/t @robertcaruso
Undercover policeman 'fire-bombed shop
An MP has used
parliamentary privilege to name an undercover police officer who
allegedly planted a fire bomb at a London department store in 1987.
Green MP Caroline Lucas said a jailed man, Geoff Sheppard, believed police officer Bob Lambert planted a device.Mr Lambert infiltrated the Animal Liberation Front and his evidence helped convict two men of fire-bombing three Debenhams stores.
In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Lambert denied planting the device.
The attack in Harrow, north west London, did £340,000 of damage and was part of a series of attacks on stores, including attacks in Romford and Luton, which cost £8m and caused Debenhams to stop selling furs.
When contacted by the BBC for a response, Mr Lambert referred to his statement in the Guardian.
He told the newspaper: "It was necessary to create the false impression that I was a committed animal rights extremist to gain intelligence so as to disrupt serious criminal conspiracies.
"However, I did not commit serious crime such as 'planting an incendiary device at the [Debenhams] Harrow store'."
Speaking in Parliament, Ms Lucas called for a "far reaching public inquiry into police infiltrators and informers".
Ms Lucas said one of the other men who was jailed claimed when he heard about the fire at Debenhams in Harrow "I straight away knew that Bob had carried out his part of the plan".
Ms Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: "It seems that planting the third incendiary device was perhaps a move to bolster Lambert's credibility."
She said Mr Lambert was known by the alias Bob Robinson and "pretended to be a committed environmental and animal rights campaigner between 1984 and 1988".
Ms Lucas said: "In October 2011, after he was exposed as an undercover officer, Bob Lambert admitted that, and I quote 'In the 1980s I was deployed as an undercover Met special branch officer to identify and prosecute members of Animal Liberation Front who were then engaged in incendiary device and explosive device campaigns against targets in the vivisection, meat and fur trades'."
She said: "Mr Lambert has also admitted that part of his mission was to identify and prosecute specific ALF activists."
Ms Lucas added: "He says: 'I succeeded in my task and that success included the arrest and imprisonment of Geoff Sheppard and Andrew Clarke'."
'Culprit never caught'
She said: "Sheppard and Clarke were tried and found guilty, but the culprit who planted the incendiary device in the Harrow store was never caught."
Ms Lucas said: "Bob Lambert's exposure as an undercover police officer has prompted Geoff Sheppard to speak out about that Harrow attack.
"Sheppard alleges that Lambert was the one who planted the third device and was involved in the ALF's co-ordinated campaign."
The Brighton MP said Sheppard had made a statement, which she had seen, and she quoted from it: "Obviously I was not there when he targeted that store because we all headed off in our separate directions but I was lying in bed that night, and the news came over on the (BBC) World Service that three Debenhams stores had had arson attacks on them and that included the Harrow store as well.
"So obviously I straightaway knew that Bob had carried out his part of the plan.
"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Bob Lambert placed the incendiary device at the Debenhams store in Harrow. I specifically remember him giving an explanation to me about how he had been able to place one of the devices in that store, but how he had not been able to place the second device."
Ms Lucas said: "This case raises anew questions about the rules governing undercover police infiltrators and informers, particularly when it comes to those officers committing a crime - an area where the law is particularly grey."
Tougher guidelines
Police Minister Nick Herbert insisted there are tougher guidelines for police to follow.
He said: "Undercover operations are sometimes necessary to protect the public to prevent or detect crime. I think we should commend the difficult and often dangerous job performed by our undercover officers.
"It is important for me to point out that the deployment of Lambert took place in the (1980s) and that was before the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, or RIPA as it is known, came in to purpose.
"That is the legislative framework that enables police and the authorities using covert human intelligence sources such as undercover officers to ensure they are acting within human rights legislation."
@'BBC'
Q and A: PM Gillard dodges question on Assange
Has the PM asked the USA if they intend to try to get Assange
from Sweden?
Why does the question matter: and why will the PM not
answer it?
The state owes its citizens protection when they get into
trouble in another country: that obligation is the counterpart of a citizen's
duty of loyalty, which underpins the crime of treason. It is an
obligation which arises regardless of whether the citizen is a person you
admire or a person you despise.
Assange is undoubtedly famous
or notorious for his work at Wikileaks; he is the
subject of calls by some US politicians that he be assassinated; he has been
called a 'cyber-terrorist' by other US politicans and
commentators. Bradley Manning has been treated disgracefully by the US
over the past two years, and if the US get their hands
on Assange, he will be in real trouble: not because
he has broken any law, but because his Iraq video embarrassed the Americans.
It is important to find out what, if anything, the
Australian government has done to determine what the Americans will try to do
in relation to Assange.
The circumstances in which Sweden sought Assange's extradition were extremely unusual. He had
been tod by the Swedish authorities that he was free
to leave Sweden. He did so, and went to Britain. After Wikileaks revealed a large number of cables which irritated
the USA (and which were re-published by the mainstream press around the world)
The Swedish authorities sought to extradite Assange
from Britain: not to face charges, because he has not been charged with
anything. They wanted to get him to Sweden in order to question
him. He offered to speak to them in Britain, but they refused that offer
and pressed to extradite him. Immediately, their true motives become a
matter of legitimate speculation. The USA have
a 'witness borrowing' programme with Sweden. It would be naïve to imagine that
they will not try to get their hands on Assange.
Julia Gillard condemned Assange
as soon as the big leak of cables happened. She has softened her stance
since then, but not much. She has conspicuously refused to say whether
she has asked the US whether they will try to get their hands on Assange. She avoided answering the question on
Q&A on Monday 11 June, even when Tony Jones pressed her.
The question is worth putting until the PM is prepared to
answer it, because then we will know what sort of help Assange
will need, and whether he will get the help he is entitled to. He will surely need all our help if the
Americans ‘borrow’ him from Sweden.
Is it possible that an Australian government would leave
one of its citizens to be mistreated by America? Just ask David Hicks
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