Hoon and the secret treaties
On 9 December 2002 Geoff Hoon, the Minister of Defence, published a discussion paper on missile defence. It invited comments, particularly over the upgrading of Fylingdales and Menwith Hill in preparation for the illegal US Star Wars project. The paper had originally had no timetable or deadline. Hoon refused to give any straight answers in the House of Commons on the basis that the US government had not yet formally asked for the upgrade.
The paper, which is still available on the Ministry of Defence website, was simply an argument to agree to the US requests. The quote below gives some of the flavour of the document.
Many feared that US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABMT) in June 2002 (after the six months' notice allowed for under the Treaty) would cause global instability, damage international relationships and create an arms race. But this has not happened.
Obviously North Korea, Iraq and Iran don't figure in the MOD's perspectives.
On 17 December the formal US request arrived. Then it was Christmas.
Early in January, Hoon turned up in Yorkshire, and Scarborough MP Lawrie Quinn organised a meeting with handpicked local people. This audience was not given copies of the discussion paper. They got only one question each and they weren't allowed to discuss US defence policy.
On 15 January Hoon announced he was "minded" to sign up to Star Wars. He didn't bother to tell the defence select committee, which was about to start its own consultations.
In order to protect these upgraded US bases Hoon admitted that there would be batteries of interceptor rockets based in Britain to try to stop incoming missiles fired by "rogue" states. He also said that the US would pay to upgrade Fylingdales on the North Yorkshire moors but Britain would have to pay the cost of the interceptors.
The defence select committee said that upgrading Fylingdales requires an amendment to the US-British agreement covering American use of the radar base. A separate agreement would also be required if the US wanted to use its satellite space-based infra-red missile tracking system at Menwith Hill for the missile defence project.
This month (June) Hoon signed the US agreement on our behalf. We are not allowed to see the agreement because it is secret.
Hoon this month has also signed another secret treaty that deals with the relationships between NATO and the European Union. Lenin called for the publication of all secret treaties. This certainly will be a demand in the forthcoming European Union elections.
The Liberal Democrats
The Chapel Allerton Liberal Democrats have started their intelligence gathering early, putting out their third non-political information leaflet in a row. The latest goes over the top in asking a series of intrusive questions of the electorate. Although ostensibly for identifying possible issues for election campaigns it also gathers information that could be sold to market research companies. This clear breach of the Data Protection Act shows the contempt the Liberals have for individual rights.
However the so-called Chapel Allerton Liberal Democrats are nothing of the sort. They are really a sub-branch of Moor Allerton that has been set up to avoid giving their ambitious poet member something to do rather than challenge one of the existing Liberal Democrat councillors in Moortown.
However the avoidance of real politics by the Liberal Democrats comes from their national politics. Their aim is to avoid the key issues -- those which are concerned with who runs the country and the environment. They avoid the questions of public transport and the road lobbies in favour of the hole in the road. They avoid the Public Finance initiative in public housing in favour of an individual repair.
And above all they avoid the question of the billions of pounds wasted on the Iraqi war and the sucking up to the unelected Bush administration. Over the next few months the AGS will hammer out these questions in Liberal Democrat strongholds throughout Leeds.
John Reid, man of many offices
We mentioned the multi-talented Reid in Umbrella 59. He said that certain elements of the intelligence services were out to discredit Blair. He claimed his attack was backed by No 10. However No 10 seeing shades of Harold Wilson paranoia plus Blair's complete reliance on MI6 led to them distancing themselves from Reid.
Reid has since 1997 held the following posts:
- Armed Forces Minister
- Minister of Transport
- Scottish Secretary
- Northern Ireland Minister
- Labour Party Chairman (sexist position appointed by Blair)
- Leader of the House of Commons
And now Health Secretary.
Some MP's such as my old friend Fabian Hamilton and others are beginning to wonder what the old Stalinist bruiser has that they haven't. It is always quoted that he is a "safe pair of hands". However his main use to Blair, surrounded as he is by Gordon Brown's allies, is that he will do the PM's bidding without question.
Blair really wanted Reid to be defence secretary and for the former bearded buffoon Hoon to take over the new justice department. However Blunkett, who has now lined up with Brown, blocked this.
Deceptive surveillance
Eliza Manningham-Buller, the newly appointed Head of the largely discredited MI5, comes from a very right-wing Tory family. She was educated at the same exclusive private girls school as Princess Ann, went to an all-girl college at Oxbridge and taught at a girls' finishing school in London before becoming a typist for MI5. Even Blair had his doubts about her abiltiy to look after the security of the UK. He organised Operation 5 A Side to get rid of her. However, in the end, he didn't have much choice. She was both the choice of the old establishment inside MI5 and of the CIA with whom she has a very close relationship. Perhaps even as close as Manchurian candidate Hoon.
However she did help Blair out with her statement on Al-Qaeda and terrorist threats to the UK. This helped to take some of the heat out Cook and Short's attacks over the misleading of Parliament over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Manningham-Buller is quite an expert on Al-Qaeda. She was responsible for the intelligence services investigation into the Lockerbie bombing, and therefore would have known about the alleged £100,000 given by MI6 to Bin Laden to take out Gaddafi. The intelligence service also acted as conduits for money to prop up Saddam Hussein during the Iran/Iraq war. You can almost hear their sighs of relief that Iran has again become the main enemy.
A few weeks ago the Leeds-Hebron Friendship Link had a large meeting on the situation in Palestine. Mick Rix, the General Secretary of ASLEF, treated the audience to a rousing speech. There was also a speaker from the charity Interpal about their work in an orphanage in Hebron. Israeli soldiers closed down this orphanage. However this hasn't proved enough for the right-wing Israeli government. They have sent, with Manningham-Buller's approval, a special assassination team called the Kidon to England. This four-person team, two men and two women, joins an already existing backup team of fifteen. One of their targets is the charity Interpal based in Leicester.
Surveillance
Out and About
Mick Rix and his family with trusty Yorkshire ally Nick Whitehead (and Mandy) were seem talking earnestly to Garth and Wendy Frankland outside the fashionable and excellent Casa Mia in Chapel Allerton on Saturday night. Perhaps it was about the weather. It was wonderfully balmy.
The Brick Man
Colin Challen, the former New Labour disorganiser for Leeds and now MP for Morley and South Leeds, has called for Leeds's famous Brick Man to be built [photo of a model from Leeds City Art Gallery]. During the 1980's Anthony Gormley, the sculptor, proposed building a 100-foot high brick man in Leeds. The statute won a ballot from a number of other ideas to enhance the city centre. Right-wing Labour councillors who wouldn't know anything about art if they poked their noses in it vetoed the idea. The result has been millions of pounds of lost tourist revenue to Leeds.
Challen's revival of the idea was dismissed by Anthony Gormley who said that the idea was now history. Challen seems to be living permanently in the past. His succession of ideas on law and order echo Manningham-Buller's father, who was one the last defenders of the birch in Britain.
My old former Chapel Allerton Councillor friend Garth Frankland was a strong supporter of the Brick Man. He worked closely with the original team that developed the idea. However later on, partly because of copyright and partly to overcome some of the objections, he developed the idea of building a huge tower which would celebrate the multi-cultural nature of Leeds. Several people helped developed the idea including Claude Hendrickson and Ralph Maynard. The amazing architect Allen Todd even sketched a wonderful design how it would look. Perhaps the time has come to revive the project.
Another little betrayal
David Jamieson, the shipping minister, has pushed regulations through Parliament, which would allow British ship owners to employ cheap overseas labour. This could bring the ship workers' wages down to £2 an hour.
John Prescott, MP for East Hull and Deputy Prime Minister, argued years ago that foreign seafarers should be paid the same as UK workers.
However the P & O North Sea ferries operating out of Hull have replaced an all-British crew with Filipino labour working for considerably less money. British ships now employ over 60% overseas labour.
The spokesman for North Sea Ferries confirmed that the crews are being paid their "national wages". However the company was not flying them back regularly so they could enjoy spending their money in the Philippines. No wonder the left-wing MP John McDonnell condemned the practice as being close to slavery.
-- Half-Celestial Khan
