The Green Ribbon

McGuinness claim: another dirty trick?

The extraordinary claim that Martin McGuinness is an MI6 agent had been hinted at on the internet for some time before it emerged in the press last week.

A former British Army agent handler, known by the pseudonym Martin Ingram, had been alluding to it on the Slugger O’Toole website for some time before it was published by the Sunday World.

Ingram merits attention because he was the man who exposed Freddie Scappaticci as Stakeknife, a British Army mole inside the IRA.

Nevertheless, the evidence for his latest claim looks decidedly thin. By his own account, it’s based on information provided to him by a serving PSNI Special Branch officer. There is little to suggest the information is authentic, and there are good reasons to question the motives of Special Branch officers, who have long been accused of an anti-agreement agenda.

US envoy pledges full investigation of mercenary videos

My latest update on Tim Spicer and the Peter McBride case is online at Antiwar.com.

Spicer eyes Iraqi infrastructure

There was one particularly significant comment in Tim Spicer's interview with the Guardian at the weekend:

I don't subscribe to the view that there is a civil war going on, but if the coalition left it could very easily disintegrate into one. The Iraqi security forces are not ready to take control. And therefore there would be a very significant increased role for private security - protecting critical infrastructure like oil, power station and water supplies, otherwise the insurgents will blow them up. (Guardian)

This sounds a lot like the EO/Sandline business model devised by Spicer's old patron, Heritage Oil director Tony Buckingham. I've quoted Madelaine Drohan's description of that model before, but it's worth repeating:

Through my investigation, I learned that Tony Buckingham had been making a practice of introducing Executive Outcomes to weak and unstable governments in need of armed support. These governments often hired the mercenaries to retake prime resource areas in their countries -- diamond mines in particular -- from rebel forces. Once these areas were back in a government’s control, mineral concessions were awarded to multinational corporations. When it was revealed that some of these corporations were associated with Buckingham, he was accused of employing armed force to acquire mineral riches, much as the imperial chartered companies had done a century before. Buckingham never talked to the media, but his spokespersons insisted that there was no connection between the introductions Buckingham had made to the governments of Angola and Sierra Leone and the subsequent arrival of DiamondWorks in those countries. (Random House Canada)

Devolution round-up

A couple of stories that I don't want to let pass unnoted:

Research shows that just 30% of voters intend to back Labour in the constituency vote at next year’s Scottish election, down 5% on 2003. On the second vote support is 27%, down 2% since the last election.

The poll confirms Labour’s worst fears — that the Liberal Democrats and a resurgent Scottish National party would have enough seats to form a coalition and oust Jack McConnell from office. (Sunday Times)

THE debate over whether the Scottish parliament should be given more powers has taken a step forward with the creation of a cross-party parliamentary group, writes Jason Allardyce.

Jim Mather, the SNP shadow enterprise minister, has called on parliamentary colleagues across the political spectrum to join the new body, which will examine the case for more financial autonomy for Scotland. (Sunday Times)

The Levellers and British identity

Interesting piece on Levellers Day from historian Tristram Hunt:

Yesterday, I joined Tony Benn and a large crowd in the Cotswolds to commemorate these martyrs to democracy. Organised by the Workers' Educational Association, the Levellers' Day festival remains one of the few living monuments to Britain's hidden heritage of democracy. But why does Burford hold such a lonely place in our history calendar? Why are we still so shy of our radical past?

Last week saw a welter of commentary on Education Minister Bill Rammell's call for teaching 'British values' in schools. The left took it as a cue for more historical self-flagellation; the right for cultural triumphalism. Yet, disappointingly, what Rammell had, in fact, urged was the anodyne incorporation of 'modern British cultural and social history into the citizenship curriculum'. What he should have demanded is a vigorous exploration of our democratic heritage in schools and communities alike.

Democracy has many fathers, but in its modern, Western variety, the British contribution is marked. From the Magna Carta to the Levellers' 'Agreement of the People' to the Chartists and Pan-African Conference, the British experience went on to influence democracy around the world. The US Declaration of Independence was partly born from the democratic ideals of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. (Observer)

Fair Deal over at Slugger O'Toole has started a thread in response to this piece. I have extracted my two comments below:

Bout link to Iraq arms shipments mystery

I've just received an email from Free Stater to bring me belatedly up to speed with the latest Viktor Bout developments. Apparently, a company liked to the merchant of death has been involved in some extraordinary arms shipments between the Balkans and Iraq:

The Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years, using a web of private companies, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by Washington and the UN.

According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient.

Senior western officials in the Balkans fear that some of the guns may have fallen into the wrong hands. (Guardian, 11 May)

For the full story and its implications, check out the Amnesty international Report, and the posts by Doug Farah and the Yorkshire Ranter.

Basra analysis roundup

Tim Spicer claimed to be an admirer of Lawrence of Arabia in his Guardian interview today. It's a pity he didn't take this remark by Lawrence to heart:

The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster.

This was quoted in the Asia Times by Sami Moubayed, who argues that it applies as much today as it did in the 1920s.

Some of the stories in the British press in the past week suggest he's on to something:

McBride family meet US consul over Aegis contract

The mother of Peter McBride will today meet the US consul in Belfast to protest against the Iraq security contract awarded to Aegis Defence Services by the US Government.

Aegis is run by Tim Spicer, who was the commanding officer of the soldiers who murdered McBride in 1992.

Coincidentally, Spicer is the subject of an interview in today's Guardian. My attempt to leave a comment below the article has got a bit chewed up because I tried to use html. Fortunately, Dr Von Paleske has got in there as well.

subversion in the UDR: document published

From the Pat Finucane Centre:

The secret British intelligence report into Subversion in the UDR which featured in a major Irish News series recently is now available on the PFC website as a pdf file. Annex E is also attached and details fatal and non-fatal attacks carried out with a weapon stolen from a UDR/TA base in Lurgan. These and other highly significant documents were discovered by staff from the Pat Finucane Centre and Justice for the Forgotten (JFTF) at the Public Records Office in London. The files had recently been declassified by the Ministry of Defence. 

'British values' for England only

Classic line in this BBC report today:

The government is to review whether "core British values" should become a compulsory part of the curriculum for 11 to 16-year-olds in England. (BBC News)

I guess Britishness is a devolved issue. The fact that this proposal is only being mooted in England will strengthen the case of those of us who believe a lot of this is about finessing New Labour's vulnerability on the West Lothian Question.

By a glorious coincidence that scale of that vulnerability was highlighted only yesterday, with the publication of an ICM poll showing the majority of people in the UK  now think it would be wrong for a Scot to become Prime Minister.

Check out politicalbetting.com and UK Polling Report for more details.