My New Blog..

Hello everyone!  This is a new venture for me, which I hope will become more popular after the publication of my intelligence history, Spyhunter, due out in the States in mid-November.


First the legal stuff:  I am not and never have been a QC.   Although there is a link to the video of the on-the-record intelligence briefing I gave to the Marlborough Research Group in 2010 describing me as a 'QC' that video was not uploaded by me and I did not authorise the use of 'QC.'  I have asked for it to be amended.



Before anyone points out that the bio of me on this blog is out of date, I know!  It was taken from an intelligence conference I spoke at a few years ago and I will be updating it.  I am now emeritus adjunct faculty at AMU, eg.  It was accurate when it was issued however.    


My Wiki page is also broadly accurate, although a little out of date.  Other than removing a misleading reference to me as a silk, I have made a point of NOT editing my entry, which is not 'mine' in any event.  Wiki is an objective online encyclopaedia, which strives to be accurate and is rather better than some of its detractors are prepared to admit.  It is difficult to be objective about oneself, the idea of a Wiki page about me wasn't mine anyway and I leave it to others to edit the page.


That's the boring stuff out of the way.


I am grateful to Gordon Duff of Veterans Today for permission to use my online articles for VT, which are reprinted with his permission.  August will be a busy month for me, as I work with my editor Dr. David Ciampi to ready Spyhunter for publication, so please forgive the irregular blogging.  Once Spyhunter is published I intend to do a weekly blog.  


You are free to post comments in the usual way, but please, no abuse.   There are far too many abusive posts online.  The left in particular like to resort to abuse as a method of shouting conservatives down, but it does not impress.  Perhaps it's one reason why left-wing arguments tend to lack intellectual rigour - shouting insults is no substitute for intelligent debate.  


This really is me by the way.   Several people, one of whom, an unstable indvidual named Mike Smith, sadly later committed suicide, took to rubbishing my professional reputation by posting fake posts in my name on the Internet.  Not everything you may see online in my name will have come from me.


The Informal Intelligence Assessment for the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee on the kidnap by the covert German DVD of the British child Madeleine McCann was drafted by me.  I had nothing whatsoever to do with its disgraceful leaking to the Daily Mirror and I condemn the Mirror for publishing it on its website.  It was condensed, ie not in the format it was submitted to the Prime Minister, the JIC and the Pentagon.   Very possibly not everyone involved in leaking it believed it, but they should have known better.  It has been substantially confirmed within the Intelligence Community (INTELCOM) since it was prepared, not long after the kidnap.  The distribution list by the way was real - if I say I am sending a report to the Pentagon then I am sending a report to the Pentagon.  


One invincible idiot recently asked me 'how I could speak to the Pentagon.'   I hope I was not too withering in my reply, which was to the effect that I just pick up the phone and ring them, usually by direct dialling.    I tend to deal at a fairly senior level and frankly have got a bit tired of people who don't questioning that, because they don't like a particular piece of intelligence analysis I have come up with.  Tough.   


It was good to see a safe Olympic Opening Ceremony, although it leant to the left and gave scant mention of this country's noble achievements in helping to defeat Germany in the two world wars she started last century.   There WAS a threat, in my analysis, but it was averted in April, by a team of intelligence professionals and Mensa-level intellects I was proud to lead.  I have just joined British Mensa by the way - very nice people.  Well worth joining, if you don't believe in global warming, ie have an intellect.


Let's hope the Games continue to be enjoyed safely by the hundreds of thousands who have turned out to support them.  They are a credit to LOCOG.   There should be no further threat, although there have been two odd incidents - the police 'losing' (ie handing over to someone - you don't lose the keys to Wembley Stadium, like it was a house) the keys to Wembley, after which the locks were very properly changed, and a Belgian aircraft losing all electrical power near the main site and being forced to make an emergency landing.


It is very difficult to lose all electrical power - aircraft carry back-up batteries for just such a contingency.   That incident needs to be thoroughly investigated.  Sadly the investigation will probably be done by the AAIB, not noted for their thoroughness, with respect.   






  

















  



Should anyone be puzzled, English barristers are divided into silks (QCs), who are very grand, and humble juniors (like me!).   I am of course very humble, as anyone who knows me will confirm.  Without any encouragement from me the media, showing their usual regard for the facts, promoted me to QC back in the 90s, and some people, entirely in good faith, have been misled.   It's a pain, as I have to go around getting mis-statements corrected, for sound professional reasons.