It is a major news story...all over the
world...except, of course, here where the Stepfordized
"US mainstream news media" keeps everyone distracted
from the ugly truth...Clare Short had her name
scrawled on the John O'Neill Wall of Heroes when she
resigned in protest of the capitulation of the
shell-of-a-man-formerly-known-as-Tony-Blair...
Independent/UK: Asked whether British agencies had
been involved in spying activities against Mr Annan,
Ms Short said: "I know, I have seen transcripts of
Kofi Annan's conversations. Indeed, I have had
conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war thinking
'Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and
people will see what he and I are saying'."
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0226-01.htm
Published on Thursday, February 26, 2004 by the
lndependent/UK
UK Spies Bugged UN Chief, Claims Short
by John Deane
British agents spied on the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraqi war, the former International Development Secretary Clare Short claimed today.
Ms Short - who quit the Cabinet in protest against the
war - made the claim while being interviewed on BBC
Radio 4's Today program about the implications of the
collapse of the case against GCHQ whistleblower
Katharine Gun.
Asked whether British agencies had been involved in
spying activities against Mr Annan, Ms Short said: "I
know, I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan's
conversations. Indeed, I have had conversations with
Kofi in the run-up to war thinking 'Oh dear, there
will be a transcript of this and people will see what
he and I are saying'."
A file photograph shows then International Development
Secretary Clare Short (L) being greeted by UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the United Nations in
New York on March 19, 2003. Short said on Thursday
that Britain conducted spying operations on United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the run-up to
last year's war on Iraq. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine-Files
Ms Short was asked whether she believed that British
spies had been instructed to carry out operations
within the United Nations on people such as Kofi
Annan.
She replied: "Yes, absolutely."
Ms Short was asked whether she knew about such
operations when she was in Government.
She said: "Absolutely, I read some of the transcripts
of the accounts of his conversations."
Asked whether she believed that was legal, she said:
"I don't know, I presume so. It is odd, but I don't
know about the legalities."
Asked about the Gun case, Ms Short said on the Today
program: "This centers on the Attorney General's (Lord
Goldsmith) advice that war was legal under resolution
1441, which was published, but was very very odd.
"The more I think about it, the more fishy I think it
was. It came very, very late. He came to the Cabinet
the day Robin Cook resigned, sat in Robin's seat, two
sides of A4, no discussion permitted.
"We know already that the Foreign Office legal
advisers had disagreed and one of them had said there
was no authority for war."
Ms Short went on: "My own suspicion is that the
Attorney General has stopped this prosecution because
part of her (Mrs Gun's) defense was to question the
legality and that would have brought his advice into
the public domain again and there was something fishy
about the way in which he said war was legal."
She added: "The major issue here is the legal
authority and whether the Attorney General had to be
persuaded at the last minute, against the advice of
one of the Foreign Office legal advisers who then
resigned, that he could give legal authority for war
and whether there had to be an exaggeration of the
threat of the use of chemical and biological weapons
to persuade him that there was legal authority.
"I think the good old British democracy should keep
scrutinizing and pressing to get the truth out.
"The tragedy is that Iraq is a disastrous mess. Ten
thousand Iraqis have died, American troops are dying,
some of our troops have died, the Middle East is more
angry than ever.
"I'm afraid that the sort of deceit on the route to
war was linked to the lack of preparation for
afterwards and the chaos and suffering that continues,
so it won't go away, will it?"
© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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