Hammond egg on his face

Follow @JohnPlatinumG The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention after due consideration reached the conclusion that Julian Assange was being 'arbitrarily detained', that he should be released, compensated and given back his passport. Our Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, did not agree with the decision - though when earlier given an opportunity to appeal against the courts findings declined. Instead he waited for their conclusion  and lambasted the international lawyers who had made the advice. This is most improper and childish of someone without a legal background yet so high-ranking in the UK government.

"I reject the decision of this working group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers. Julian Assange is a fugitive from justice. He is hiding from justice in the Ecuadorian embassy.

He can come out any time he chooses.. . . But he will have to face justice in Sweden if he chooses to do so. This is frankly a ridiculous finding by the working group and we reject it."

First let us see if he is right. Are they lay people? I think not. Click on this link which gives the credentials of the five international lawyers. These are biographies of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. The only person commenting adversely on these experts' credentials and opinions is someone least qualified to do so: Philip Hammond.

Can the UK reject the findings of the Working Group? Yes. One of the problems with international law is that findings can be rejected by a nation state. The UN Working Group is a higher authority than a nation state and the UK has a lot to lose by not applying the advice. You expect countries like Israel and Saudi Arabia not to abide by international law but traditionally, before the turn of the century, not countries like the UK.

All that changed with Tony Blair's illegal war on Iraq and since then human rights in the UK have gone decidedly downhill. There are all kinds of Acts to hold people in prison without trial, to hold courts in secret so that evidence cannot be tested, to prevent coroners from conducting inquests by replacing the inquest with an Inquiry, as in the recent Robert Owen Inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko. Human rights, going right back to the Magna Carta (1215), are being dumped in the twenty first century. This, I believe, is part of a last-ditch attempt by failing empires to enslave the planet.

I am working on a draft to petition parliament, the European Court of Human Rights, Philip Hammond himself, and Jeremy Corbyn to compel Hammond to obey international law. The UK is a permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations and Hammond is trying to make a mockery of that body. The reason the League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) failed was because certain countries did not abide by League of Nations' findings.

The powerlessness of the League of Nations was demonstrated most conspicuously in the Lytton Inquiry which investigated the false-flag Mukden Incident (1931), in which the Japanese blew up a railway siding, blamed it on the Chinese, and used it as an excuse to invade Manchuria. Despite Japan being culpable according to the League of Nations, Japan ignored the findings and withdrew from the League of Nations in spring 1933. Three years later Haile Selassie petitioned the League of Nations to intervene to stop Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia (Abyssinia). Again it proved to be powerless to help. Finally Hitler's planned invasion of the Sudetenland, in what may have been a genuine attempt to avoid war by the UK and France a quadrilateral agreement between Italy, Germany, UK and France, allowed Germany to march into Czechoslovakia. The League of Nations stayed silent. Some may be old enough to recall that Japan, Germany and Italy were enemies of the allied forces in World War II.

With the case of Julian Assange the UK and Swedish governments are proposing to disobey international law in order to perpetrate the same kind of nation-state criminality the League of Nations was unable to prevent. Even if Julian Assange took advantage of a woman he had earlier that night had consensual sex with, he has been incarcerated for five years, in prison, house arrest and where he is now at the Ecuadorian Embassy. For a first offence it would be more than a severe punishment. Thinking people know that this is an attempt to get him extradited to the United States because of his revelations through Wikileaks of war crimes by that country. We really need to oppose these breaches before we end up being called fascists ourselves.

Death barons

Follow @JohnPlatinumG Wars today have nearly always have NATO's name on them. None of them is moral and most of them illegal. Ordinary people do not normally profit from war. Soldiers, who put their lives on the line do not profit and may even pay the ultimate price. Those labelled as enemies do not profit either. Town and city infrastructures are turned into ruins. The victors in war today are those with the superior weapons, and all the stories about David and Goliath, and the weak triumphing over the strong in today's world are myths. Those with the most powerful weapons are always the victors. If this behaviour happened in a school playground teachers would hopefully stamp it out. But there are no teachers, or policemen and policewomen to curb the actions of NATO. Thus it charges all over the world like a many-headed hydra destroying everything it confronts and leaving in its wake a bloodbath of misery and death. There is an old couplet.

The spoils of war, I'll tell you plain,
are a wooden leg, or a silver chain.

Some people do profit from war. Multi-millionaire, Tony Blair, is one unworthy example of how the world is rewarding war-criminals instead of putting them on trial. There are others who benefit while the bereaved bury the dead such people's policies have showered upon them. My latest article looks at some of these rich profiteers from death and speculates about what is happening today in the failed state of Libya, which was paradise when Gaddafi ran it, to what it is today.

If you agree with the article please comment and share it with others. Thanks.

Bilderberg Fringe and other things

Follow @JohnPlatinumG I've been experiencing difficulties with computers and my mobile all together, all causing prolonged periods of wasted time trying to sort out the problems. Whether they are solved or not I need to wait and see to find out. Despite the difficulties I have managed to get myself onto the platform for the Bilderberg Fringe Festival. This is being staged at Watford and coinciding with the Bilderberg gathering of global murderers and banksters. It is the first time, as far as is known, that these 0.001% of the population who choose to try and dominate world opinion have come to the UK. In the past people like Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger and people of that ilk have been in attendance, allegedly sacrificing children and worshipping the false idol, Moloch, a kind of 30ft statue of an owl.

As well as having the honour of appearing at the first ever UK Bilderberg Fringe Festival, at which I intend to recite The Devil's Coach Horse, I've been protesting again against drones, this time at a largely Israeli-owned factory that produces drone engines. Naturally I wrote about it for News Junkie Post.

Good Friday, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning

Follow @JohnPlatinumG Some 2000 years ago a man was crucified who only did good throughout his life. Christians world-wide choose a Friday (different every year) to remember the suffering of Jesus, who was crucified; a very nasty, painful, torturous and lengthy death. Although innocent of any crime he was persecuted for the influence he had on others simply by teaching some basic truths. It was at a time when the Roman Empire occupied Judaea. Jerusalem had become a city of shame, where usurious money-changers were desecrating the temple with shady transactions that further impoverished the poor. Jesus overturned their tables banning them from the temple because they had transformed God's house into a 'den of thieves'. This act was brought to people's attention and gained Jesus many more followers but it was also brought to the attention of Jewish leaders: Scribes and Pharisees, who plotted secretly to have him slain.

As well as being popular for teaching honesty, integrity and non-violence it was a time when the Jewish nation was looking for a Messiah, whose coming was foretold by numerous old testament prophets. By large numbers of people Jesus was seen to be that Messiah, but the Jewish hierarchy saw his popularity and honesty and straight-talking as a threat, and they were looking for a military king to liberate them from the Roman yoke. The judiciary could find no wrong in Jesus. Nonetheless the Jewish leaders preferred to have a  murderer released than a good man. For an easy life Pontius Pilate, governor of the region, allowed the Jewish nation to crucify an innocent man.

Today there is a parallel in the way Jesus was treated to the way Julian Assange and Bradley Manning are being treated. That is not to say that Julian Assange or Bradley Manning is a new Messiah, though God knows the world could do with one. Assange is nevertheless seen as a threat to the Israeli-influenced US-empire, which occupies most of the world in one way or another. Like Jesus he tells the truth. He releases accurate information while the government prefers to brainwash the majority with lies and misinformation, at the same time as it denigrates people like Assange and Manning.

The money-lenders today are bankers. Again when banks are in difficulty because of the shady deals they have done in the past it is the poor taxpayer who picks up the bill. Bankers are rewarded with bonuses like those in the temple. The big money-lenders are the Rothschilds and Rockefellers and they are in control. They are worried by people like Assange, because, if the truth gets out about bad banking practices they will not have the same influence they have now and their house-of-cards money-empires are in danger of collapse. They are so worried about Assange and his influence that they have already stopped money transactions to Wikileaks. Can you see the parallel? What is more, a large number of people, like Professor Tom Flanagan, of Manitoba university, have called for the assassination of Julian Assange. Can you see the parallel? Today they do not just release a murderer like, Barabbas, but mass-murderers like Tony Blair, Jack Straw, George W. Bush and whole host of others who freely walk the globe and, even worse, are lauded as pillars of society.

2000 years ago a calendar was created which gave mankind a new chance. What has changed? I warn you, do not continue to follow the wrong leaders. They are damned by their own actions. Stand up for people like Julian Assange and Bradley Manning. Anyone who opposes good people is part of the global imperialist plot. Anyone who supports bad people is part of that same imperialist plot. Do not be like Pontius Pilate, Professor Tom Flanagan, Tony Blair or George W. Bush calling for the death of anyone just to pursue their greedy aims. Do not be like the moneylenders: the Rothschilds and Rockefellers whose wicked practices filter through the whole banking system. Pick the people you support wisely.

DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE.

What the W stands for

Follow @JohnPlatinumG For this article in today's News Junkie Post I finish with the paragraph:

Keen observers will have been watching the large letter W which God, in his wisdom, has etched into Tony Blair’s forehead. It is becoming more evident as the years progress. For all his money there is little that can be done short of a “forehead job” to hide this branding. But in fairness, when you are a warmonger your forehead ought to be etched with the letter “W” so that everyone knows how you made your riches on earth. George W. Bush’s branding is in his name. Well, this is my interpretation of what the “W” stands for, although I am aware that others might have different ideas about its meaning. 

For those who missed Blair's 'confession' on BBC Newsnight last night, here is a photograph of the former prime minister being interviewed by Kirsty Wark.

Of course we cannot help how we look but we can help how we act. Nearly all heads of state in their university days belonged to clubs, sometimes dining-clubs sometimes more sinister and secret organisations. David Cameron belonged to the infamous Bullingdon Club (dining) to which George Osborne and Boris Johnson also belonged, George W. Bush belonged to the Skull and Bones (sinister) and Tony Blair belonged to the Oxford University Archery Dining Club. As to youthful indiscretions we probably all did silly things when young, though not many of us have matured into taking a country, which once had a passable reputation abroad, into an illegal war. There is one photograph Tony Blair has reportedly said he would not care if he never saw again. But that is not fair to those who have never seen it. So here it is. It was taken at a gathering of Oxford University Archery Dining Club undergraduates. Blair is the long-haired student centre back making a rude gesture.

Enough said!

English justice reeks like the cesspool it is − the poet Talha Ahsan

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A man has been imprisoned for more than six years without being charged with any crime. His name is Talha Ahsan. He suffers from Asperger syndrome. Despite that he has become something of a celebrity as a recognised poet. The significance of this will soon be apparent. His imprisonment is all due to Tony Blair having removed a piece of English law that has formed one of the mainstays of our legal system for more than 300 years: habeas corpus. My layman's understanding of what habeas corpus means is that a person imprisoned should be brought before the court within a short or reasonable period of time after his, or her, arrest and charged with a crime, or released. It is protection against perpetual imprisonment. The last time habeas corpus was suspended was in the late eighteenth century, partly out of fear of the French Revolution spreading to England and partly in response to social unrest at home. The intellectual corresponding societies were targeted and, like today, many spies and agents provocateurs were deployed to try and trap people into saying or doing something for which they might be taken into custody. This included the interception of mail. The suspension of habeas corpus came on 7 May 1794.

Interestingly, like Talha Ahsan, many of the people targeted in what became known as the Treason Trials were poets and writers who belonged to corresponding societies, and as the name suggests, wrote to one another on radical issues of the day. However this was interpreted by the attorney general, Sir John Scott, as being seditious libel and treason, crimes which carried a rather horrific death penalty. Thomas Holcroft, one who was arrested and imprisoned, was well-known for his then popular plays and novels. Another was the poet and political writer, John Thelwall, and even the novelist William Godwin, father of Mary Shelley, was fortunate not to have been imprisoned under the suspension of this legal protection. Over thirty men were arrested and imprisoned and could have been held until February 1795 without being charged or brought before a court. As it happened all the cases were dropped before that time due to the defence of Thomas Erskine who argued that it was not a violent revolution these intellectuals sought but a revolution of ideas. Erskine was a powerful orator and had previously defended Thomas Paine over his Rights of Man publication in 1792. On that occasion the defence was unsuccessful, leading Paine to seek refuge abroad.

Reading the above it will be noticed that although habeas corpus had been suspended in 1794 these thirty men were not in prison for even a year, though they were still in prison for longer than they should have been. Today, in this enlightened age, the poet Talha Ahsan has been imprisoned for more than six years. Another person arrested under war-crime terrorist Tony Blair’s so-called anti-terrorism laws is Babar Ahmad whose case I blogged about earlier this year. Babar Ahmad has been in prison for more than eight years. This is disgusting. Even a High Court judge has said so.

Arguing the case of these neglected men, like Thomas Erskine, is a very talented defence lawyer, Gareth Peirce, a descendent of the Fabians, Beatrice and Sydney Webb. She puts a very strong case against the USA and in favour of those imprisoned without charge, and includes in her arguments the lack of balance in US and UK extradition laws. I quote from her extremely well-argued article for the London Review of Books entitled America’s Non-Compliance published two years ago, in which she asks two very pertinent questions about the country to which Theresa May wants to extradite UK citizens.

“We read, year after year, obscene details of executions in the US: most are successful, but there are also descriptions of frustrated attempts, hour after hour, to find a vein to inject. For a long time, the UK had no cause for complacency. Capital punishment was abolished here in 1965, but Britain continued to extradite to countries that retained the death penalty, and would have continued to do so had not the European Court determined in 1989 in the case of Soering v. UK that the ‘death row’ phenomenon, in which a person might spend years awaiting execution while the legal process was exhausted, constituted inhuman and degrading treatment according to Article 3 of the Convention. Since then no European state has been permitted to extradite in the absence of an assurance that conviction would not bring the death penalty.

But what of extradition to a future of total isolation? Can we comfortably, and within the law, contemplate sending men to that fate? . .”

Following the attempt to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden on trumped up charges, from a Supreme Court decision presided over by another High Court judge on the point of retirement, my concern is that the legal system in this country has simply become an extension of central government which is in hock to big business party donors. I have therefore set up a Facebook group for poets, writers and artists to oppose extradition for UK citizens. Please show your support.

Adnan Latif - rest in peace

Follow @JohnPlatinumG Six days ago Adnan Latif became the eighth prisoner to die in Guantanamo Bay, a torture camp of the United States of America, where people are held without charge, with very little hope of freedom, and no hope whatsoever if they come, as Latif did, from the Republic of Yemen. Until this week any person, including US citizens, could be held indefinitely without trial in any US penal institution, not just Guantanamo Bay for which excuses have been found due to it not being on US soil. Thanks to a number of major writers, including Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges, and philosopher and historian, Noam Chomsky, the permanent detention act signed off 'reluctantly' by Barack Obama has been judged to contravene the first amendment by district judge Katherine B. Forrest. This, however, will not bring Latif back to life.

It is doubtful that the US government will try again to establish this in law since the statute was condemned by judge Forrest for its vagueness. In other words they cannot find any justifiable words to describe the grounds for indefinite detention: thank God. Nevertheless they will still find measures, delaying measures like those which have failed to bring Bradley Manning to trial since his arrest and detention in May, 2010, and now postponed till February or March 2013. And all that time these young lives are wasted in prison while war-criminals like Tony Blair and George Bush are free to wallow in the oil riches stolen from the Middle-Eastern and North African countries they invaded for that purpose. These same countries are among those from which some of the US detainees were arrested before being subjected to rendition and torture in complicit outposts around the world. Then as a final insult to humanity they were banged up with no hope of release in Guantanamo Bay. Welcome to the United States.

Five years ago Marc Falcoff, Adnan's lawyer, wrote about Latif and other poets in Guantanamo Bay and included a few lines from his poem about the hunger strikers, of which he was one.

They are artists of torture,
They are artists of pain and fatigue,
They are artists of insults
and humiliation.
Where is the world to save us
from torture?
Where is the world to save us
from the fire and sadness?
Where is the world to save
the hunger strikers?

Adnan Latif was in his thirties, a young man, who should have had a bright future. Instead he has been abused and tortured, until death released him, by a country that thinks of itself as the greatest democracy in the world. He spent one third of his short life in Guantanamo Bay. Theresa May has fought relentlessly to send UK citizens, Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan, another poet who happens to suffer from Asperger's Syndrome, to this 'greatest democracy in the world'.

"Get thee hence Satan!" says Desmond Tutu

Follow @JohnPlatinumG As a Christian, not a very good one, I have to question why in one of the most boring of debates the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who I quite like, recently shared a platform with Tony Blair? After nearly 30 minutes of viewing I tried to get somebody with more stamina than me to watch this tedium ad infinitum and precis it for me. She was bored out of her mind and could not rescue me by providing a more enthusiastic impression of the 'debate' than I had already formed. What I would really like to know about this event, and I think I can answer it, is would the Prince of Peace have shared a platform with the Prince of War? No. He would have said "Get thee hence Satan".

This is exactly, well not quite exactly, what Desmond Tutu said to Blair last week and what Rowan Williams ought to have told him previously. Yesterday Desmond Tutu wrote in the Observer that Blair and Bush should be tried at the Hague for war crimes. In response to Tutu's criticism Blair came out with the same old pathological lies. What 'independent analysis', I ask myself, can exonerate Blair from guilt for his crimes in Iraq? Is it the Hutton Inquiry he set up to prevent due process of coronial law taking place after Dr David Kelly was found dead in the countryside? Was it the 'dodgy dossier' that Blair fabricated to take us into an illegal war? I should like to know to what 'independent analysis' he alludes. Because if it does clear his name, and that of Jack Straw, believe me it will not be independent. It will be heavily biased.

You never know with Blair whether the lie is going to slip off the end of the right fork or the left fork of his duplicitous tongue! But you know it will slip out one way or the other.

Here is another piece of 'non-independent' news, that is real news, but you will not see it reported or broadcast anywhere in mainstream media outlets. In comments to The Guardian/Observer on the article linked above the sixth one down sorting by Oldest first was removed by moderators. Though I did not see it myself I have been reliably informed that it claimed Tony Blair should also be tried for not allowing an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly. There was nothing as far as I can gather offensive about the comment. Before it was removed early yesterday it was taking a massive number of recommendations (more than 2000) in a matter of hours. Nobody at the Guardian has explained to its readers why this comment was removed. You have to ask yourself what kind of independence there is at the Guardian. About as much as one of Blair's independent analyses, I conjecture.

JackStrawrdinary Rendition

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Jack Straw was, and is, the faithful servant of Tony Blair. When Tony gave Gaddafi the Blair-hug it was a new phase in British politics.

A missile had been fired into the back garden of 10 Downing Street and Blair had learnt something, although not a lot, about being on the receiving end of the attacks of which he had been so proud to inflict on others. The semtex had come from Libya via Ireland and it was getting too close to home. There was a change in foreign policy. Before his war on Iraq Blair had explained his position.

“Let me just deal with this oil thing because…the oil conspiracy theory is honestly one of the most absurd when you analyse it. The fact is that, if the oil that Iraq has were our concern, I mean we could probably cut a deal with Saddam tomorrow in relation to the oil. It’s not the oil that is the issue, it is the weapons…”

After the Iraq adventure much of the population had come to realise what a liar Blair was, though there were still people who had craniums too thick to penetrate. Blair was not thick. While he did not mind how many Iraqi children died abroad, semtex going off in the back garden was not cricket. So he quickly went to ‘cut a deal’ with Gaddafi. Part of that deal involved the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, rendering people wanted by Gaddafi to Libya to be tortured and imprisoned.

Over the years the position changed with Libya. The oil deals cut by Blair were not lucrative enough. So another war became inevitable to get oil at a more preferential rate, that is, free. This change in policy meant that NATO countries colluded to create a Libyan Spring which meant supporting rebels who had been former enemies of Muammur Gaddafi. One of these, who is now trying to prove that Jack Straw signed the illegal rendition papers for him and others is Abdel Hakim Belhadj.

Jack Straw, known by some in Lancashire as ‘Bungalow Jack’ because he’s ‘now’t up top’ denies having signed any such papers and is currently under investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Of course those of us who know how British justice in the 21^st century works are under no delusions that justice will be seen to be done. 21^st century justice is the kind administered by the Hutton Inquiry over the death of Dr David Kelly. Last year an inquiry was set up into torture and extraordinary rendition: the Gibson Inquiry. Former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, was due to give evidence. However, all allegations were going to be investigated in secret and the chances of the general public getting to know more than the basics were slim. In the end the Gibson Inquiry was cancelled. That is how British justice works today. The same with ‘Bungalow Jack’. There will be an out-of-court settlement. Abdel Hakim Belhadj will be bought off by blood-money, Jack Straw will walk free, and that will be the end of it. But it ought to be the start of it.

Nine years of neft-theft

Follow @JohnPlatinumG Neft (нефть) is the Russian word for oil. Nine years ago the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was hell-bent on a war with Iraq at the behest of his transatlantic partner in crime, George W Bush. By that time many of us had realised the nature of Blair's politics, which had nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with his own feelings of self-aggrandisement, which were borne out when he posed with a big cheesy grin on his smarmy face, photographing himself in front of some incendiary event. In the run up to that war I wrote a weekly magazine on behalf of Small Heath 'Stop the War' campaign to try and raise funds. It was called Chimps and ran to 5 issues, by which time the war was already underway, and trying to stop it seemed even more futile than in the run-up. I am proud of my humble effort to change the world, though it was a rather forlorn hope with Blair at the helm of UK politics.

As regards neft-theft Blair lied through his Cheshire Cat grin when he said if the war was about oil he could have 'cut a deal' with Saddam. But the truth was there were oil companies waiting in the wings of his theatre of war, so that when the battle-scene was over, BP, Tony Buckingham and a whole host of other western oil companies could tap into the mineral wells, and make rich people even richer. As Malthus reiterated 'the poor are always with us'. And Blair showed no concern for them. In his book they were expendable. It did not take a genius to know what was going to happen to poor civilians when the NATO pirates went in, all guns blazing.

The last issue of Chimps was written after the bombing had started. One of the first civilian victims was a little boy called Ali Ismail Abbas. In the bomb which killed his parents and other members of his family Ali lost both arms, had severe burns to his body and it was touch-and-go whether he would survive. I wrote a poem called Tony's Child which I published in Chimps. It finished:

Tony's child liked volleyball but now he has no arms
he cannot show the skills he learnt, all those magic charms.
No arms to touch, to love, to feel, he has no arms to kill.
It might be better if he died, and who knows perhaps he will;
he lies all day in bed and cries, for Tony's child is very ill.

The bomb that killed his family and took his arms away,
scorched his growing torso and God I only pray
this kind of thing will soon become a feature of the past
when men were seen as savages who used to maim and blast
little children with their bombs, and Tony's child's the last.

Again it was a forlorn hope. Tony Blair believed that history would judge whether his decision to go to war in Iraq was the right decision. I have news for him. As far as Iraq is concerned he is already part of history. As far as oil is concerned he has proved himself to be a liar and a thief. Let's hope there is a higher judge than history to try him for his neft-theft, because all the perfumes of Arabia could not wash away the stench of thousands of deaths on his blood-soaked hands.

Why Dominic Grieve should resign over the death of David Kelly

Follow @JohnPlatinumG Even if you do not get time to read the following post please sign the epetition (UK residents only) and distribute it widely. Liberty is at stake.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/26133

Over the last decade there has been an erosion of civil liberties and a breach of civil and human rights in the UK. These range from the abandonment of habeas corpus to the creation of foreign prisons where interrogation and torture can be committed without due scrutiny or legal representation. Habeas corpus is a long-established legal tenet to ensure that anyone imprisoned, should be brought before the court. Prior to Tony Blair’s second term as prime minister habeas corpus had only notably been suspended during the Treason Trials of 1790s, at a time when Britain was at war with France, and when it was feared that revolution might spread across the channel. Now President Obama has just signed off a bill to imprison “American citizens without charge or trial”.

A lack of human rights, and the overriding of legal procedures, is even worse today. The Attorney General is advisor to the government and the highest legal authority in England and Wales. The last three Attorney Generals, Peter Goldsmith, Patricia Scotland and the current one, Dominic Grieve, have each exceeded their authority. In an email to the Attorney General’s office on 18 May 2011, Christopher Stephen Frost, a specialist in diagnostic radiology, sought reassurance that due process would take place in establishing an inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly. In his email he pointed out that due process had not ensued with both Grieve’s predecessors, “Lord Goldsmith over his twice changed Iraq War legal advice and Baroness Scotland over the twice cancelled Serious Fraud Office investigation of British Aerospace”.

On 19 December 2011 Justice Nicol effectively brought to an end any chance of an inquest into the death of Dr Kelly, which is alarming since there never was a proper inquest. Instead the Hutton Inquiry dealt with this unnatural event clumsily and without properly cross-examining unsworn witnesses, as former MP Norman Baker, ably argues in his searching account The Strange Death of David Kelly. To add to the lack of justice from what was more correctly labelled “a whitewash” Hutton prohibited papers and photographs related to Kelly’s death from public scrutiny for 70 years, upheld by Dominic Grieve. If this stands when the documents are released it will be tantamount to the Clintons apologising for the United States’ experiments into the effects of syphilis on blacks and Guatemalans. A glib apology is hardly going to help anyone some sixty years from now when most people will have forgotten that Dr Kelly died because he told the truth that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction and that there was no forty-five minute capability for Iraq to deploy long-range missiles which threatened the United Kingdom. These were prime ministerial lies.

Suspending habeas corpus has led to the imprisonment of a British subject, Babar Ahmad, for more than seven years without charge. Another former prisoner, Algerian-born Hider Hanani, was held for more than seven years without charge and on his eventual release from Long Lartin prison was effectively put under house arrest. Long Lartin, Belmarsh and Woodhill are our Guantanamos, except they are on UK soil, whereas Guantanamo Bay is not in the US, so in that respect, before Obama’s latest deplorable contravention of the Bill of Rights, we were more culpable in our disregard for habeas corpus and the rule of law. Tony Blair labelled Guantanamo Bay an ‘anomaly’ and the Attorney General, William Goldsmith, called for its closure in 2006, without either addressing our own anomalies. Our reputation worldwide is probably as low as it has ever been in the last hundred years. I would like to see that reputation restored. That is another reason why I am calling for Dominic Grieve to resign.