SHAYLERGATE: British Press Gagged on Reporting MI6's £100,000 bin Laden
Payoff. Tony Blair has tonight ordered a D-Notice on British media reporting
government officials signing court gag orders. This regards the case of former
MI5 officer David Shayler, who has evidence to prove MI6 gave £100,000 to bin
Laden and Al-Qaeda, arms to Iraq and had prior knowledge of several terrorist
attacks on London in the 1990's.

Date: Sat, Jan 31, 2004, 2:49 am

Tony Blair has tonight ordered a D-Notice on British media reporting
government officials signing court gag orders. This regards the case of former
MI5 officer David Shayler, who has evidence to prove MI6 gave £100,000 to bin
Laden and Al-Qaeda, arms to Iraq and had prior knowledge of several terrorist
attacks on London in the 1990's. The original articles stated that top Labour
MP's had signed gag orders, whereby upon mention of this evidence in court,
media have to immediately leave the trial. Newspapers all over the country,
including the Guardian, the London Evening Standard and the Scotsman have
either completely removed or amended their articles. This evidence is damning.
The British government is trying to bury the story before it buries them. I
first noticed that the Guardian article I had earlier posted on my website had
disappeared. Already aware that Blair may well have ordered a D-Notice to
eliminate these reports, I immediately started searching on Google for some
more. In Britain, a D-Notice is where the government order a gag on a
particular breaking story. I came across a very similar London Evening
Standard report and immediately put it on my web site. Low and behold, five
minutes later the link was dead! Amazingly, I still had the article up on my
screen on a different browser window. I tried to archive the page to my
desktop but to no avail. I did manage to print out a copy which I have scanned
and linked below.

This story is massive because Shayler has them on the wracks on a number of
different issues, from colluding with bin Laden, to arms deals with
questionable characters. This could be particularly embarrasing for Jack
Straw, who I, using mainstream reports, have identified as a key placeman in
hawking arms to Pakistan, India and even Iran. Bilderberg member Peter
Mandelson is also trying to cover his dirt by gagging these reports. The
London Times reported how his new 'think tank' was being bankrolled by the
Rothschilds two weeks ago. The Rothschilds control the BBC, who haven't even
mentioned that the trial has started, never mind the accusations Shayler
raises.

The original London Guardian report was entitled 'Ministers issue gag orders
for MI5 trial' and was located at http://www.guardian.co.uk/shayler/article/0,
2763,806009,00.html - as you will see if you click on the link, it's
disappeared down the memory hole. The text I extracted from the report for my
original link to it is as follows...

"Ministers issue gag orders for MI5 trial: They appear to be worried that he
will make further allegations about MI5 and MI6 knowledge of a plot to
assassinate the Libyan leader, Muammar Gadafy, in 1996. A book, Forbidden
Truth, published this summer claims that British intelligence was in contact
with "Osama bin Laden's main allies" who were opposed to Colonel Gadafy."

The London Evening Standard article was entitled 'Calls for secret Shayler
trial' and was at http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1488303 - again,
it has now been removed. Luckily I saved the text to a Word file and printed
the article: UPDATE - After pressure, this article is now back online! But for
how long? Save it to your hard drive.

Before you read this, it is important to understand the issue at hand. We're
talking about MI6 cooperation with bin Laden, arms to Iraq and, as reported
today in the Scotsman, claims that, 'secret services ignored warnings that
might have prevented bombings in London in 1993 and 1994.' Shayler has
evidence that MI5 wilfully failed to stop the bomb attack on Israel's London
embassy in 1994 and the IRA's 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, which killed one
person. Here it is in Shayler's own words plus the actual MI6 Gaddafi plot
document - MI6 Plot to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi: Police enquiry confirms
Plot is not "fantasy" - http://cryptome.org/shayler-gaddafi.htm

Here is the London Evening Standard report I managed to rescue.

Update! Take a look at the scans of the article I printed off - why was it
removed? Judge for yourself...

Calls for secret Shayler trial

By Patrick McGowan, Evening Standard

The Government has been accused by lawyers of trying to interfere in the trial
of former MI5 officer David Shayler by insisting that part of the proceedings
are held in private.

Ministers are demanding that trial judge Mr Justice Alan Moses agree in
advance that the case go into private session without saying why and without
hearing arguments to the contrary from the defence.

Shayler's trial, on charges under the Official Secrets Act, was beginning at
the Old Bailey today. He is being prosecuted following newspaper interviews he
gave five years ago and the trial is expected to last for at least four weeks.

On Friday Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
signed identical public interest immunity certificates under which the press
and the public will have to leave court if sensitive security issues are
raised.

The certificates do not specify what information they are trying to keep
secret on the grounds that to do so would cause the very damage the Government
is seeking to avoid.

They claim: "Publication of information of the kinds referred to would be
likely to assist those whose purpose it is to injure the security of the
United Kingdom and whose actions in the past show that they are willing to
kill innocent civilians, both inside and outside the UK, in pursuance of their
aims."

Mr Blunkett and Mr Straw also claim present and future intelligence operations
would be compromised.

PII certificates signed by Conservative ministers were controversially used
during the arms-to-Iraq trials in the Nineties.

Normally the judge in a trial would read documents in the case and, after
hearing arguments from both sides, decide whether they should be disclosed.
Now he is being asked to make his decision in advance.

Shayler, 36, faces three charges. They allege he disclosed information,
disclosed information obtained by interception of communications and disclosed
documents. The Crown Prosecution Service has already given notice that it will
apply for some parts of the trial to be held in camera. This will apply to
evidence on "sensitive operational techniques of the Security and Intelligence
Services".

It is expected that the court will also be asked to keep the identities of MI5
agents secret and allow them to give evidence from behind screens.

Today Geoffrey Robertson QC, representing civil rights group Liberty, will
oppose the Government's move. Michael Tugendhat QC, appearing for various
national newspapers, is expected to argue that the Government has provided no
evidence that national security will be threatened by the trial and will
underline the importance of open justice.

During the arms-to-Iraq cases Mr Justice Moses was prosecuting counsel and Mr
Robertson was counsel for the defence when three directors of the machine tool
company Matrix Churchill were accused of selling equipment to the Iraqi
regime.

Shayler will be defending himself during the trial. He is expected to claim
that British secret service agents paid up to £100,000 to al Qaeda terrorists
for an assassination attempt on Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffy in 1996. He is
seeking permission to plead a defence of "necessity" - that he acted for the
greater good by revealing wrongdoing by the security service.

Although much of the trial may end up being held in camera, the arguments
about which parts should be kept secret will be held in public. Only after
they are concluded is the jury expected to be sworn in so the trial proper can
begin.

UPDATE: The London Evening Standard have published a shorter, watered down,
version of this story. It does not mention MI5's £100,000 transfer to
Al-Qaeda. Yet more evidence of a top down cover-up - read the new whitewashed
piece here and compare it to my scanned original that was pulled along with
all the others!

------------------------------------

The Scotsman also released a report which remains online but both the title
and the article has been amended!!! The new article talks about new MI5 head
Eliza Manningham-Buller, only mentioning the Shayler case in passing. It
certainly does not include information concerning the Labour MP's involved and
government prior knowledge of terrorist bombings in London.

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1113312002 is the amended version -
I archived the original at

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/renegade_mi5_agent_to_face_jury.htm. The
report was originally entitled 'Renegade MI5 agent ready to face jury' it is
now called 'Has MI5 really emerged from shadows?' This is the report with the
most damning information (the one they erased).

Here is the text of the original - again archived at http://www.propagandamatri
x.com/renegade_mi5_agent_to_face_jury.htm

Renegade MI5 agent ready to face jury

KAREN MCVEIGH

DAVID Shayler, the former M15 officer branded a traitor by the government, is
due to take on the legal establishment today, as his trial opens at the Old
Bailey in London.

The renegade agent, who faces six years imprisonment for breaching the
Official Secrets Act after making a number of sensational revelations about
M15 to a national newspaper in 1997, will represent himself for part of the
landmark case. The trial will centre around a number of allegations made by
Shayler about M15 holding files on prominent politicians, including former
cabinet minister Peter Mandelson and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. He
also claimed the secret services ignored warnings that might have prevented
bombings in the London in 1993 and 1994.

Shayler, 36, faces two charges under section one of the Official Secrets Act
for disclosing documents and information about the work of M15 and another
under section four, for disclosing information about telephone taps.

He has failed so far to win his argument that his revelations were in the
public interest. The High Court, Court of Appeal and the House of Lords, have
all ruled that he cannot claim he disclosed information in the public interest
or out of necessity. They also ruled out the main plank of Shayler's defence -
that the Officials Secrets Act is incompatible with the Human Rights Act.

Shayler, who made other allegations for which he was not charged, including a
claim that M16 was involved in a plot to assassinate the Libyan leader,
Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, will argue that he is only guilty of "exposing
wrongdoing".

"I aim to persist in my argument that the Official Secrets Act as it currently
stands is totally incompatible with the Human Rights Act," he told a newspaper
yesterday.

Some of the hearing is expected to be taken up by an application by newspapers
objecting to plans to hold parts of the trial in secret.

The prosecution applied for hearings to be held in camera after its concerns
that Shayler will make fresh allegations to the jury to back up his public
interest defence.

Shayler's decision to defend himself, against the advice of his legal team,
for part of the trial was prompted by the belief that he will be freer to
argue his case than his barrister, Geoffrey Robertson, QC, whose hands are
tied by earlier court rulings.

UPDATE: It is now confirmed that all details relating to the Shayler case
cannot be reported. The UK government have successfully gagged the mainstream
media, but I will continue to track this story.

The Guardian reports - 'Shayler hearing'

'An Old Bailey court yesterday heard legal arguments relating to the trial of
David Shayler, the former MI5 officer charged with breaking the Official
Secrets Act. The judge ruled that they cannot be reported. Mr Shayler's trial
is now expected to be heard before a jury next week.' Richard Norton-Taylor