I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

The Elephant In The Room

I spent this afternoon at the London Independent Film Festival, seeing a new 9/11 film, The Elephant In The Room.

The film proved to be a very mixed bag. You can read my thoughts on it here.

Watching Us..........

I took the pictures below on Essex Road in Islington in February.

The vehicle concerned was not monitoring a bus lane, and it was a good three quarters of a mile south of the congestion zone. The van, which appears to be registered to Capita, was solely concerned with monitoring people and vehicles as they went about their business.

Since then I have seen the vehicle just passed Whipps Cross Hospital, again randomly monitoring passers by.

It does not make me feel any safer, but its a nice little earner, no doubt at public expense, for Capita.

Richard Tomlinson Sold Short?

The March issue of Eye Spy magazine has rather pulled a fast one with regards to ex-MI6 man Richard Tomlinson.

Tomlinson is perhaps best known for his observation that he was aware of an MI6 plot to kill a major political figure in the Balkans, based on the use of a blinding light in a tunnel. This would appear to have similarities to the manner some people suggest Princess Diana's car was forced to crash in Paris in 1997.

On its contents page Eye Spy comments:

"Former MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson gives evidence at the Diana Inquest - and admits he was wrong about the plot".

That is a very clear statement, but not one backed up by the content of the article on page 46 of the magazine. There we are told that Tomlinson had instead admitted that Slobodan Milosevic may not have been the intended victim of an MI6 assassination plot he became aware of whilst in the service (I was not aware he had ever been insistent it was Milosevic)
Eye Spy then adds that Tomlinson also admitted the plot may not have involved the use of a bright light, before paradoxically adding "An unnamed MI6 officer, referred to as 'A', conceded he was the creator of the "bright light plan".

I do not follow how these revelations are supposed to undermine Tomlinson's long-term hypothesis, and it certainly does not appear to back-up Eye Spy's view that Tomlinson had admitted he was 'wrong' about such a plot. Indeed even Eye Spy has to recognise Tomlinson's core point - that MI6 was willing to consider the assassination of a major European politician to obtain its perceived aims.

Nice people.

I am not sure why Eye Spy is so keen to do down Tomlinson, but he certainly does not seem to be getting the rub of the green from them in this instance.

A Plug For 9/11 Cultwatch

I know a lot of people come to this site looking for comment and analysis on the 9/11 'truth' cult and their activities.

Rather than clog this site up, all of it goes onto either the 9/11 Cultwatch site, or the 9/11 Cultwatch blog. Check them out!

Chronicling The RAF's History

Over the past few months I have had some interesting correspondence with the Kersplebedeb group in Quebec. They are planning a major two part book in 2008 on the German Red Army Faction, a political group that has always fascinated me, as much as an example of how not to struggle as anything.

In the run up to the book they have collated a series of RAF related articles, documents and communiques, many of which I have certainly not seen in English before. The German Guerilla website can be viewed here.

Picture This?

One of the most fascinating publications on the political fringe is Heritage and Destiny, published by the Lancashire based fascists of the England First Party.

What is remarkable about Heritage and Destiny, and indeed the EFP, is the huge number of peope in its ranks who have been expelled from other far-right organisations for being agents provocateurs, or have jumped from such groups before they were pushed.
This list is headed by EFP activist Peter Rushton, expelled from the BNP for working with the 'anti-fascist' magazine Searchlight, and Heritage and Destiny Editor Mark Cotterill, who managed to scuttle Nick Griffin's 'American Friends of the BNP' operation, before heading back to the UK with a welter of accusations flying around his ears. Step down a rung in this milieu and you are still tripping over spooks - it was interesting to spot Alan Winder, late of a very fishy attempt to set up a British KKK, hamming it up recently in the pages of Heritage and Destiny.

The political line in H&D is at least consistent. It concentrates on transparent shit stirring in the BNP. If the BNP were marching round waving swatstikas, they would complain it was too extreme. When the BNP denies it is a fascist party and tries to paint itself as a moderate nationalist party, they complain it is not extreme enough.
Issue 30 contains a great editorial from Mr Cotterill himself. In the September 2007 copy of the BNP's Identity magazine, a somewhat short-tempered Nick Griffin made the bizarre claim that Searchlight editor Nick Lowles, and Heritage and Destiny deputy editor Peter Rushton are one and the same person. Cotterill not surprisingly spotted an open goal:

"Several nationalists known to Mr Griffin have seen photographs of Nick Lowles, who has spoken to numerous public meetings. It is quite clear that he is not the same person as our assistant editor."

He is of course right, although saying something is so is not the same as proving it so.

But there is one simple way to sort the issue out once and for all. Heritage and Destiny could of course publish one of these pictures of Nick Lowles, who is (ostensibly at least) a political opponent of theirs. What's the betting that even if they had a pile of pictures of Mr Lowles, they would never publish any of them until he had been exposed elsewhere?

Searchlight's Alan Winder, minus his white pillow case.

Webster Griffin Tarpley's London Talk Analysed

I had the 'honour' of attending yesterdays London talk by one of the leaders of the US 9/11 'Truth' Movement, Webster Griffin Tarpley.

You can read a report of his extremely dubious historical analysis here.

Launch of Inside The Crevice - Islamist Terror Networks and the 7/7 Intelligence Failure

I spent yesterday evening in Lincolns Inn Fields, listening to the launch of Nafeez Ahmed's Parliamentary Briefing paper on the 7/7 bomb attacks.

The government position - of four "clean skin" bombers has now unravelled completely, and an interesting panel joined Ahmed to press for a public inquiry into the attacks.

Where's The Shayler Coverage?

If you have come to this site looking for coverage of David Shayler's bizarre collapse into full 'David Icke messiah' mode, I have placed it all on the 9/11 Cultwatch blog.

You can view comment, replies from 9/11 cult members and a video of Shayler in action here.

Fun With Fascism? - Joe Owens New Book Reviewed

“Action! Race War To Door Wars - A Life Lived On The Edge” by Joe Owens (£9.99, Lulu, 2007)

The British far-right has not produced much in the way of significant memoirs or appraisals. Astonishingly Nick Griffin failed to follow up his court victory with either a book covering his trial, or an autobiography. Has a British politician ever had such a platform, then failed to build upon it? Anti-fascists everywhere should be grateful for Griffin’s idleness.

Looking at my own bookshelves, veteran fascist John Bean’s “Many Shades of Black” was rather flat, and suffered from the authors need to play down parts of his past, to be accepted as the loyal Griffinite he now is. Anyway, you can’t take a man seriously who wears a syrup!
Of the other memoirs I have read two particularly disappointed me. Knightsbridge Safe Deposit robber Valerio Viccei tells us nothing about his time as a fascist gunman in Italy during the ‘years of lead’, in his “Too Fast To Live” but much about his criminal career in England. As he was to be murdered by Italian police not long after he left the UK, he will never get the chance now.

Burnley man Andrew Porter tells us a lot about Burnley FC’s Suicide Squad in his memoirs, but little of detail about racial division and fascism in east Lancashire. Given he was jailed for 3 years after the 2001 riots, I had expected more. And of course Martin Webster’s “Rum, Sodomy and the Fash” is yet to appear (sorry I made that one up).