<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16890" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <STRONG><FONT size=3>Three
items.</FONT></STRONG>
<DIV>------------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>----</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A
href="http://baltimorechronicle.com/2009/092409Floyd.shtml">http://baltimorechr<WBR>onicle.com/<WBR>2009/092409Floyd<WBR>.shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<H1><FONT size=4>Curtain Call: Grim Glimpses of the World's True
Workings</FONT></H1>
<DIV>
<DIV class=author><STRONG>by Chris Floyd........</STRONG>First published in <A
href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1"
target=external>Empire Burlesque</A> yesterday, 23 September 2009</DIV>
<DIV class=author> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV>A war of aggression in Iraq -- avidly sought by the profiteers and
propagandists in the network revealed by Edmonds -- kills more than a million
innocent people while engendering perhaps the most gargantuan corruption scams
in world history: loot which sloshes back into the coffers of America's elite,
enabling them to tighten their grip on the nation's politics even further,
buying candidates -- even the most "progressive" ones -- who will ensure that
any "bailouts" or "reforms" will serve the privileged first, and that the
militarist agenda of endless conflict, burgeoning arms sales, and bottomless
expenditures for the war machine will continue unhindered.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P><SPAN class=firstchar>I</SPAN>t is all too easy to get dazzled by the facades
of high politics and state policy, to be taken up with tactics, metrics,
movements, trends, with ideologies and philosophies, as if the life of the world
was actually conducted on this elevated plane. But sometimes a glimpse of
reality shows through the increasingly threadbare curtain, and we can see the
grubby, petty, deadly truth of how the world really works. Two particularly
telling glimpses came through this week, throwing harsh, glaring light on the
all-pervasive corruption of American political system – and on the collusion of
governments, business and the underworld in killing the poor and poisoning the
planet to maintain the comfort and privilege of the "developed" world.</P>
<DIV class=subhead>I.</DIV>
<P>First we have <A title=""
href="http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/nov/01/00006/" target=external>a new
interview with Sibel Edmonds</A>, the former FBI translator turned whistleblower
who has been the target of the most draconian "state secrets" campaign in
American history. A few weeks ago, Edmonds was allowed to tell part of her
remarkable story in public, under oath, for the first time.</P>
<P>It should have been the mother of all media blockbusters: a scandal
encompassing Congressional corruption, executive branch bribery, international
espionage, warmongering skullduggery, nuclear proliferation – even bisexual
honey traps! The headlines practically write themselves, in one-word tabloid
screamers: "Sex! War! Bribes! Spies! Treason!" What journalist could resist such
a feast? Alas, there are no more journalists in the editorial offices and
corporate boardrooms of America's media conglomerates. And so Edmonds' testimony
was buried many fathoms deep.</P>
<P>But Philip Giraldi at The American Conservative has kept the waters stirring
with an article that draws out some of the essentials of Edmond's journey
through the heart of American darkness. It's a tale worth reading in full --
there are plenty of devils in the details -- but here are a few excerpts:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>PHILIP GIRALDI: We were very interested to learn of your four-hour
deposition in the case involving allegations that Congresswoman Jean Schmidt
accepted money from the Turkish government in return for political favors. You
provided many names and details for the first time on the record and swore an
oath confirming that the deposition was true.</P>
<P>Basically, you map out a corruption scheme involving U.S. government
employees and members of Congress and agents of foreign governments. These
agents were able to obtain information that was either used directly by those
foreign governments or sold to third parties, with the proceeds often used as
bribes to breed further corruption. Let’s start with the first government
official you identified, Marc Grossman, then the third highest-ranking
official at the State Department..<WBR>.and he allegedly uses this position to
do favors for “Turkish interests”—both for the Turkish government and for
possible criminal interests. ... So the network starts with a person
like Grossman in the State Department providing information that enables
Turkish and Israeli intelligence officers to have access to people in
Congress, who then provide classified information that winds up in the foreign
embassies?</P>
<P>EDMONDS: Absolutely. And we also had Pentagon officials doing the same
thing. We were looking at Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. They had a list of
individuals in the Pentagon broken down by access to certain types of
information. Some of them would be policy related, some of them would be
weapons-technology related, some of them would be nuclear-related. Perle and
Feith would provide the names of those Americans, officials in the Pentagon,
to Grossman, together with highly sensitive personal information: this person
is a closet gay; this person has a chronic gambling issue; this person is an
alcoholic. The files on the American targets would contain things like the
size of their mortgages or whether they were going through divorces. One Air
Force major I remember was going through a really nasty divorce and a child
custody fight. They detailed all different kinds of vulnerabilities. ... Some
of those individuals on the list were also working for the RAND Corporation.
RAND ended up becoming one of the prime targets for these foreign agents.
...</P>
<P>GIRALDI: We know Grossman was receiving money for services.</P>
<P>EDMONDS: Yes. Sometimes he would give money to the people who were working
with him, identified in phone calls on a first-name basis, whether it’s a John
or a Joe. He also took care of some other people, including his contact at the
New York Times. Grossman would brag, “We just fax to our people at the New
York Times. They print it under their names.” ... </P>
<P>GIRALDI: ... Both Feith and Perle were lobbyists for Turkey and also were
involved with Israel on defense contracts, including some for Northrop
Grumman, which Feith represented in Israel.</P>
<P>EDMONDS: They had arrangements with various companies, some of them members
of the American Turkish Council. They had arrangements with Kissinger’s group,
with Northrop Grumman, with former secretary of state James Baker’s group, and
also with former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft.</P>
<P>The monitoring of the Turks picked up contacts with Feith, Wolfowitz, and
Perle in the summer of 2001, four months before 9/11. They were discussing
with the Turkish ambassador in Washington an arrangement whereby the U.S.
would invade Iraq and divide the country. The UK would take the south, the
rest would go to the U.S. They were negotiating what Turkey required in
exchange for allowing an attack from Turkish soil. The Turks were very
supportive, but wanted a three-part division of Iraq to include their own
occupation of the Kurdish region. The three Defense Department officials said
that would be more than they could agree to, but they continued daily
communications to the ambassador and his defense attaché in an attempt to
convince them to help.</P>
<P>Meanwhile Scowcroft, who was also the chairman of the American Turkish
Council, Baker, Richard Armitage, and Grossman began negotiating separately
for a possible Turkish protectorate. ... Scowcroft was all for invading Iraq
in 2001 and even wrote a paper for the Pentagon explaining why the Turkish
northern front would be essential. I know Scowcroft came off as a hero to some
for saying he was against the war, but he was very much for it until his
client’s conditions were not met by the Bush administration. ...</P>
<P>GIRALDI: This corruption wasn’t confined to the State Department and the
Pentagon—it infected Congress as well. You’ve named people like former House
Speaker Dennis Hastert, now a registered agent of the Turkish government. In
your deposition, you describe the process of breaking foreign-originated
contributions into small units, $200 or less, so that the source didn’t have
to be reported. Was this the primary means of influencing congressmen, or did
foreign agents exploit vulnerabilities to get what they wanted using something
like blackmail?</P>
<P>EDMONDS: In early 1997, because of the information that the FBI was getting
on the Turkish diplomatic community, the Justice Department had already
started to investigate several Republican congressmen. The number-one
congressman involved with the Turkish community, both in terms of providing
information and doing favors, was Bob Livingston. Number-two after him was Dan
Burton, and then he became number-one until Hastert became the speaker of the
House...as the FBI developed more information, [Democrat] Tom Lantos was added
to this list....</P>
<P>And in 2000, another representative was added to the list, Jan Schakowsky,
the Democratic congresswoman from Illinois. Turkish agents started gathering
information on her, and they found out that she was bisexual. So a Turkish
agent struck up a relationship with her. When Jan Schakowsky’s mother died,
the Turkish woman went to the funeral, hoping to exploit her vulnerability.
They later were intimate in Schakowsky’s townhouse, which had been set up with
recording devices and hidden cameras. They needed Schakowsky and her husband
Robert Creamer to perform certain illegal operational facilitations for them
in Illinois. They already had Hastert, the mayor, and several other Illinois
state senators involved. I don’t know if Congresswoman Schakowsky ever was
actually blackmailed or did anything for the Turkish woman.</P>
<P>GIRALDI: So we have a pattern of corruption starting with government
officials providing information to foreigners and helping them make contact
with other Americans who had valuable information. Some of these officials,
like Marc Grossman, were receiving money directly. Others were receiving
business favors: Pentagon associates like Doug Feith and Richard Perle had
interests in Israel and Turkey. The stolen information was being sold, and the
money that was being generated was used to corrupt certain congressmen to
influence policy and provide still more information—in many cases information
related to nuclear technology.</P>
<P>EDMONDS: As well as weapons technology, conventional weapons technology,
and Pentagon policy-related information. ...</P>
<P>GIRALDI: You also have information on al-Qaeda, specifically al-Qaeda in
Central Asia and Bosnia. You were privy to conversations that suggested the
CIA was supporting al-Qaeda in central Asia and the Balkans, training people
to get money, get weapons, and this contact continued until 9/11...</P>
<P>EDMONDS: ... So these conversations, between 1997 and 2001, had to do with
a Central Asia operation that involved bin Laden. Not once did anybody use the
word “al-Qaeda.” It was always “mujahideen,” always “bin Laden” and, in fact,
not “bin Laden” but “bin Ladens” plural. There were several bin Ladens who
were going on private jets to Azerbaijan and Tajikistan. The Turkish
ambassador in Azerbaijan worked with them.</P>
<P>There were bin Ladens, with the help of Pakistanis or Saudis, under our
management. Marc Grossman was leading it, 100 percent, bringing people from
East Turkestan into Kyrgyzstan, from Kyrgyzstan to Azerbaijan, from Azerbaijan
some of them were being channeled to Chechnya, some of them were being
channeled to Bosnia. From Turkey, they were putting all these bin Ladens on
NATO planes. People and weapons went one way, drugs came back.</P>
<P>GIRALDI: Was the U.S. government aware of this circular deal?</P>
<P>EDMONDS: 100 percent. A lot of the drugs were going to Belgium with NATO
planes. After that, they went to the UK, and a lot came to the U.S. via
military planes to distribution centers in Chicago and Paterson, New Jersey.
Turkish diplomats who would never be searched were coming with suitcases of
heroin.</P>
<P>GIRALDI: And, of course, none of this has been investigated. What do you
think the chances are that the Obama administration will try to end this
criminal activity?</P>
<P>EDMONDS: ... As soon as Obama became president, he showed us that the
State Secrets Privilege was going to continue to be a tool of choice. It’s an
arcane executive privilege to cover up wrongdoing—in many cases, criminal
activities. And the Obama administration has not only defended using the State
Secrets Privilege, it has been trying to take it even further than the
previous terrible administration by maintaining that the U.S. government has
sovereign immunity. This is Obama’s change: his administration seems to think
it doesn’t even have to invoke state secrets as our leaders are emperors who
possess this sovereign immunity. This is not the kind of language that anybody
in a democracy would use.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Get the picture? It's play for pay. Nukes, drugs, guns, war, terror -- our
Establishment paladins will peddle them all, if the price is right, if there's a
slice in it for them, if it suits their personal agenda.</P>
<P>And Giraldi points out the very crux of the matter: "of course, none of this
has been investigated.<WBR>" Why should it be? It's the just the way things are
done. The Turks and Israelis certainly aren't the first foreign interests to buy
congressfolk and government officials like so many cheap suits off the rack. The
Nazis and Brits did a wholesale business in bribery and influence-peddling in
the years before America's entry into World War II. Gore Vidal has been a prime
chronicler of the vast British espionage operation in the pre-war United States,
especially in his last novel, <A title=""
href="http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-Novel-Gore-Vidal/dp/0375724818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253740981&sr=1-1"
target=external>The Golden Age</A>. He's also touched upon <A title=""
href="http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0501/vidal/essay_us.html"
target=external>the similar Nazi effort as well</A>, writing of</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>...the corrupt Senator William Borah, the so-called lion of Idaho, who had
once roared, "I'd rather be right than president," causing my grandfather
[Sen. T.P. Gore] to murmur, "Of course, he was neither." In 1940, when the
poor and supposedly virtuous Borah died, several hundred thousand dollars were
found in his safety deposit box. Where had the money come from? asked the
press. "He was my friend," said Senator Gore, for public consumption, "I do
not speculate." But when I asked him who had paid off Borah, the answer was
blunt. "The Nazis. To keep us out of the war."</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>William Borah, Dennis Hastert, Brits and Nazis, al Qaeda, Turks and Israelis:
the players change, but the game goes on -- with ever-higher and more
destructive stakes.</P>
<DIV class=subhead>II.</DIV>
<P>The second curtain-tearing glimpse this week was provided by <A title=""
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/sep/21/global-fly-tipping-toxic-waste"
target=external>George Monbiot in the Guardian</A>, writing about the Trafigura
scandal: a well-connected oil trading company -- hard-wired to the Tories who
will almost certainly take power in the UK next year -- dumping toxic slops in
the Ivory Coast, striking down tens of thousands of people with disease, and
killing fifteen people. As Monbiot points out, this horror story is just
business as usual for governments and corporations -- including the most
"enlightened" and "progressive" ones:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>On the day that the Guardian [broke the Trafigura story], it also carried a
story about a shipwreck discovered in 480 metres of water off the Italian
coast. Detectives found the ship after a tip-off from a mafioso. It appears to
have been carrying drums of nuclear waste when the mafia used explosives to
scuttle it. The informant, Francesco Fonti, said his clan had been paid
#100,000 to get rid of it. What makes this story interesting is that the waste
appears to be Norwegian. Norway is famous for its tough environmental laws,
but a shipload of nuclear waste doesn't go missing without someone high-up
looking the other way.</P>
<P>Italian prosecutors are investigating the scuttling of a further 41 ships.
But most of them weren't sunk, like Fonti's vessel, off the coast of Italy;
they were lost off the coast of Somalia. When the great tsunami of 2004 struck
the Somali coast, it dumped and smashed open thousands of barrels on the
beaches and in villages up to 10km inland. According to the United Nations,
they contained clinical waste from western hospitals, heavy metals, other
chemical junk and nuclear waste. People started suffering from unusual skin
infections, bleeding at the mouth, acute respiratory infections and abdominal
hemorrhages. The barrels had been dumped in the sea, a UN spokesman said, for
one obvious reason: it cost European companies around $2.50 a tonne to dispose
of the waste this way, while dealing with them properly would have cost
"something like $1,000 a tonne." On the seabed off Somalia lies Europe's
picture of Dorian Gray: the skeleton in the closet of the languid new world we
have made.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Well, that's just Somalia, of course. In the past few years, the enlightened
world <A title=""
href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1813-tons-of-imperial-fun-hellfire-hillary-pours-oil-on-somalias-fire.html"
target=external>has amply demonstrated</A> just what it thinks of Somalia.
Monbiot points out the fact that at least some of the infamous Somali pirates
took to the water to stop the dumping of the developed world's poisons on their
shores:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Most of them take to the seas only for blood and booty; but some have
formed coastal patrols to prevent over-fishing and illegal dumping by foreign
fleets. Some of the vessels being protected from pirates by Combined Task
Force 151, the rich world's policing operation in the Gulf of Aden, have come
to fish illegally or dump toxic waste. The warships make no attempt to stop
them.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>As Monbiot notes, there are strict laws against such toxic dumping: laws
passed with much fanfare, to make politicians look good -- and the folks back
home feel good about themselves. But there is a neat trick that our elites like
to use when it comes to laws that inconvenience their power and profits: they
just don't enforce them. Simple, eh? Don't you wish <EM>you </EM>could do
that?</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>The law couldn't be clearer: the Basel convention, supported by European
directives, forbids European Union or OECD nations from dumping hazardous
wastes in poorer countries. But without enforcement, the law is useless. So,
for instance, while all our dead electronic equipment is supposed to be
recycled by licensed companies at home, according to Consumers International
around 6.6m tonnes of it leaves the European Union illegally every year.</P>
<P>Much of it lands in West Africa. An investigation by the Mail on Sunday
found computers which once belonged to the NHS being broken up and burnt by
children on Ghanaian rubbish dumps. They were trying to extract copper and
aluminum by burning off the plastics, with the result that they were inhaling
lead, cadmium, dioxins, furans and brominated flame retardants. Tests in
another of the world's great fly-tips, Guiyu in China, show that 80% of the
children of that city have dangerous levels of lead in their blood...</P>
<P>A black market run by criminal gangs is dumping our electronic waste on the
poor, but since the European directive banning this practice was incorporated
into British law in January 2007, the Environment Agency hasn't made a single
prosecution. Dump your telly over a hedge and you can expect big trouble. Dump
10,000 in Nigeria and you can expect to get away with it.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Or <A title="" href="http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/sweetheart-you"
target=external>as the man said</A>: "Steal a little and they throw you in jail;
steal a lot and they make you king." Monbiot zeroes in on the underworld
connections to the elite's dirty business:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>All over the world the cosa nostra, yakuza, triads, bratva and the rest
make much of their fortune by disposing of our uncomfortable truths. It suits
all the rich nations – even, it seems, the government of Norway – not to ask
too many questions, so long as the waste goes to far away countries of which
we know nothing. Only when the mobs make the mistake of dumping it off their
own coasts does the state start to get huffy.</P>
<P>The Trafigura story is a metaphor for corporate capitalism. The effort of
all enterprises is to keep the profits and dump the costs on someone else.
Price risks are dumped on farmers, health and safety risks are dumped on
subcontractors, insolvency risks are dumped on creditors, social and economic
risks are dumped on the state, toxic waste is dumped on the poor, greenhouse
gases are dumped on everyone.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>This too is nothing new, of course. I've often written here and elsewhere of
the shadowlands where state power, terrorism, Big Money and criminal
organizations mix, mingle, squabble and conspire. Indeed, modern American
history cannot be understood without an inkling of the essential role played by
the underworld, <A title=""
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd07222004.html" target=external>as I noted
back in 2004</A>:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Anyone who wants to understand the reality of modern America should pick up
Gus Russo's latest book, "The Outfit." With diligent research and relentless
candor, Russo strips away the façade of America's pious national myths,
showing in great detail how the criminal underworld ? and the even more
criminal "upperworld" of big business and politics ? have fused in a deadly
symbiosis that underlies the nation's power structure.</P>
<P>You could begin unraveling this dirty skein at almost any point in the last
century, but let's join the story at a critical juncture: 1960, when Democrats
Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson battled for the right to face Republican
Richard Nixon in the presidential election. Of course, bribery, corruption,
violence and vote-rigging have long been an integral part of America's
glorious electoral heritage ?- a shining example to all the world ?- but the
1960 election was the first time that the country's mobsters had intervened so
directly, and so decisively, in the national ballot.</P>
<P>They'd seen one of their creations in the White House before, of course:
Harry Truman, the Missouri haberdasher who was plucked from obscurity by Tom
Pendergast, boss of the Kansas City mob. Pendergast, whose iron grip on local
politics was augmented by the judicious use of murder, eventually propelled
Truman to the U.S. Senate. From there, having won a well-deserved reputation
as a zealous scourge of corporate war profiteering (the mob steered clear of
that particular racket, which was dominated by bluebloods like the Bushes),
Truman was chosen as vice president in 1944. A few months later, Franklin
Roosevelt died -? and Pendergast's boy was suddenly president of the United
States.</P>
<P>Although Truman kept his own hands clean of bribes (except the usual ones
known as "campaign contributions"<WBR>), he retained a fierce tribal loyalty
to the Kansas City gang and their overlords: "The Outfit," the Chicago-based
heirs of Al Capone, and the nation's most powerful underworld organization. In
one of the major scandals of Truman's administration, his Attorney General,
Tom Clark, approved early paroles for three of the Outfit's most notorious
figures. A second scandal followed when Truman rewarded Clark for these
gangland services rendered with a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.</P>
<P>...In 1960, all three major candidates were mobbed up. JFK's father, the
ex-bootlegger Joe Kennedy, dealt directly with his former associates in the
Outfit, tapping them for untraceable vote-buying cash and their unrivaled
vote-rigging muscle. Nixon, then vice president, had long worked his mob
contacts ?- chiefly the Los Angeles gang of Mickey Cohen and New York's Meyer
Lansky -? for secret campaign funds. Meanwhile, the Chicago Outfit ?- playing
both sides as always -? sought Nixon's favor by agreeing to a CIA request for
help in assassinating Fidel Castro.</P>
<P>Johnson was backed by the Carlos Marcello gang out of New Orleans, who paid
the all-powerful Texas senator $100,000 a year to keep the legislative heat
off their gambling and racing interests. Of course, this mob dime was small
beer to Lyndon, whose career had been bankrolled by massive cash infusions
(some of them legal) from the construction and military servicing firm Brown
& Root ?- now more famous as the chief cash cow in the Halliburton empire.
(Like the Outfit, Halliburton always plays both sides.)</P>
<P>The rest, as they say, is history. Kennedy's Outfit connections trumped
Johnson's Marcello play for the nomination, then Joe's vote-riggers outmuscled
Nixon's vote-riggers in the election ?- the closest in American history. Nixon
felt, rightly, that he'd been robbed of a presidency he'd bought fair and
square. Thus he went on to even greater illegality ?- including outright
treason in his secret negotiations with Vietnamese officials to scuttle peace
talks before the 1968 election -? to ensure his perch atop the greasy pole.
Millions of people would die from his expansion of a war that U.S. officials
had already privately conceded was a disastrous mistake. As Russo points out,
gangland's rap sheet looks like a hymnbook next to the genocidal record of the
upperworld.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>And on it goes. A war of aggression in Iraq -- avidly sought by the
profiteers and propagandists in the network revealed by Edmonds -- kills more
than a million innocent people while engendering perhaps the most gargantuan
corruption scams in world history: loot which sloshes back into the coffers of
America's elite, enabling them to tighten their grip on the nation's politics
even further, buying candidates -- even the most "progressive" ones -- who will
ensure that any "bailouts" or "reforms" will serve the privileged first, and
that the militarist agenda of endless conflict, burgeoning arms sales, and
bottomless expenditures for the war machine will continue unhindered.</P>
<HR align=left width="50%" SIZE=2>
<DIV class=close>Chris Floyd has been a writer and editor for more than 25
years, working in the United States, Great Britain and Russia for various
newspapers, magazines, the U.S. government and Oxford University. Floyd
co-founded the blog <A
href="http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1"
target=external>Empire Burlesque</A>, and is also chief editor of <A
href="http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/" target=external>Atlantic Free
Press</A>. He can be reached at <A
href="mailto:cfloyd72@gmail.com">cfloyd72@gmail.<WBR>com</A>. his column is
republished here with the permission of the author.</DIV>
<DIV class=close> </DIV>
<DIV>------------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>-</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Prince Harry's former commander in Afghanistan quits over
Govt's poor treatment of British troops</FONT><BR>By <A class=author
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Matthew+Hickley"
rel=nofollow><FONT color=#003580>Matthew Hickley</FONT></A><BR>Last updated at
11:57 AM on 25th September 2009</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Prince Harry's former commander in Afghanistan has resigned after clashing
with ministers over strategy in the country and policy towards the military.
</DIV>
<DIV>Major General Andrew Mackay, who was awarded the CBE for his frontline
service in Helmand, will take early retirement next month. </DIV>
<DIV>Prince Harry spent ten weeks in Afghanistan from December 2007 under
Maj-Gen Mackay's command.<BR>However the Ministry of Defence spokesman insisted
last night that he was standing down for personal reasons and would not make a
statement. </DIV>
<DIV>But Army sources told the Mail that the resignation was linked to the
general's growing unhappiness over the treatment of the forces. </DIV>
<DIV>He is understood to have clashed repeatedly with Government ministers over
the strategy and resources for the Afghan campaign. <BR>Insiders said he has
also raised concerns over the planned restructuring of Army divisions. </DIV>
<DIV>General Mackay heads Army units in Scotland, northern England and Northern
Ireland and is governor of Edinburgh Castle. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>His departure is an embarrassment for the Government, which has faced
months of criticism over its handling of the Afghan conflict. </DIV>
<DIV>British forces have been taking heavy losses and this week saw the death of
a soldier who had earned the Military Cross for bravery. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Sergeant Michael Lockett, 29, a veteran of Northern Ireland and Bosnia, was
killed on Monday by a roadside bomb while on foot patrol in the town of Gereshk,
Helmand. It took the British death toll in Afghanistan to 217. </DIV>
<DIV>There has been widespread concern that British forces lack sufficient
helicopters in Helmand. </DIV>
<DIV>This exposes them to the province's roads and the Taliban bombs which have
cost so many lives. </DIV>
<DIV>It is understood that General Mackay spoke to the head of the army, General
Sir David Richards, earlier this month about his concerns, and was given formal
leave to retire. </DIV>
<DIV>As a brigadier, Andrew Mackay spent six months leading British forces in
Helmand province until April 2008 and oversaw the operation to capture the key
Taliban stronghold of Musa Qaleh. </DIV>
<DIV class=clear></DIV>
<DIV>He insisted on commanding from the front and was caught up in the fighting
when his position came under mortar fire and his staff were forced to fight off
Taliban gunmen. His outstanding role in the operation earned him the
CBE. <BR> </DIV>
<DIV>As commander of the army's 2nd Division he was installed as governor of
Edinburgh Castle, making him a member of the Queen's household north of the
border. </DIV>
<DIV>He began his career with the Royal Hong Kong Police before being
commissioned into the King's Own Scottish Borderers in 1982, serving in Northern
Ireland, Bosnia and Cyprus. </DIV>
<DIV>Last year, another former Afghanistan commander, Brigadier Ed Butler of 16
Air Assault Brigade, quit voicing concerns over 'constraints' on UK forces
fighting the Taliban. He had been seen as a possible head of the army. </DIV>
<DIV>Army insiders claim the succession of high-profile resignations is
unprecedented in modern times. </DIV>
<DIV>Last month General Sir Richard Dannatt stepped down as head of the army
having repeatedly spoken out in public to highlight what he saw as equipment
shortages and poor pay and conditions. </DIV>
<DIV>Ministers, who are nervously awaiting the publication of his memoirs, faced
angry criticism when it emerged that Government figures had tried to smear the
general by asking questions about his expenses. </DIV>
<DIV>The tactic backfired spectacularly because he had in fact been very frugal.
<BR><BR>Read more: <A
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215977/Prince-Harrys-commander-Afghanistan-quits-clashing-ministers-strategy.html#ixzz0S7SGXdTU"><FONT
color=#003580>http://www.dailymai<WBR>l.co.uk/news/<WBR>article-1215977/<WBR>Prince-Harrys-<WBR>commander-<WBR>Afghanistan-<WBR>quits-clashing-<WBR>ministers-<WBR>strategy.<WBR>html#ixzz0S7SGXd<WBR>TU</FONT></A><BR>------------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>-------</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>One in 10 inmates in Britain's jails is an ex-soldier, shock
figures reveal</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class="float-r hidden" id=digg-button>By <A class=author
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Daily+Mail+Reporter"
rel=nofollow><FONT color=#003580>Daily Mail Reporter</FONT></A><BR>Last updated
at 11:49 AM on 25th September 2009<BR></DIV>
<DIV>The Government was under fire for failing to support British troops
returning from war today after figures revealed nearly one in 10 prisoners is an
Armed Forces veteran.</DIV>
<DIV>Shocking research by the probation officers' union Napo shows some 8,500
former soldiers are currently in prison in England and Wales.</DIV>
<DIV>Another 12,000 have criminal convictions and are on the books of the
Probation Service.</DIV>
<DIV>This means there are more than twice as many veterans in jail, on probation
or on parole in the UK than the number of troops currently serving in
Afghanistan. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Veterans in Scotland and Northern Ireland are not included, meaning the
true figure is likely to be much higher.</DIV>
<DIV>The data was branded a 'disgrace' today as it reignited the debate over the
level of protection and support offered to former military personnel.</DIV>
<DIV class=clear></DIV>
<DIV class=thinCenter> Napo said the situation was of 'grave concern' and
added to 'overwhelming evidence' that support for ex-soldiers simply was not
good enough.</DIV>
<DIV>Assitant general secretary Harry Fletcher said: 'There must be a duty of
care with the state to offer proper support, advice and counselling to soldiers,
when they are putting their lives on the line.</DIV>
<DIV>'At the moment, many seem to cope by using alcohol and drugs, which leads
them to depression, violence and offending.'</DIV>
<DIV>He added: 'If it's good enough for soldiers to risk their lives on the
frontline then surely it must be good enough to offer them support and
counselling on their return.' </DIV>
<DIV class=relatedItemsTopBorder><FONT color=#003580></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>The figures will only fuel growing concern about the overall treatment of
the forces after a summer of rows over lack of equipment amid mounting deaths
and injuries.</DIV>
<DIV>Just today, a senior general who had clashed with ministers over the Afghan
conflict and policy towards the military revealed he is quitting.</DIV>
<DIV>Army sources told the Mail that Major General Andrew Mackay's decision to
take early retirement was linked to his growing unhappiness over the treatment
of troops.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Napo said its members reported that the 'vast majority' of veterans were
not getting the support or counselling they need when they return to civilian
life.</DIV>
<DIV>According to a sample analysis of 90 people on probation or parole, one in
three had chronic alcohol abuse and one in 10 was on drugs.</DIV>
<DIV>Domestic violence was by far the most likely conviction for a veteran,
accounting for one in three cases. Other violent crimes accounted for around one
in five convictions.</DIV>
<DIV>One in four said they had post-traumatic stress disorder, but many went
undiagnosed. Others cited depression and behavioural problems.</DIV>
<DIV>The group who took part included veterans from the conflicts in Northern
Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.</DIV>
<DIV>Although the sample was small, the figures give the best indication yet
about the sheer scale of the struggle faced by ex-soldiers when they come
home.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>Neither the Ministry of Defence nor the Ministry of Justice currently
publish figures on veterans in custody or on probation.</DIV>
<DIV>Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'It is a disgrace that so
many who have served their country are languishing in our prisons. No-one is
above the law, but this Government has failed to provide proper support to our
troops on return home.'</DIV>
<DIV>David Hill, chief executive of charity Combat Stress, said he was 'not
surprised' by the findings and urged ministers to look again at the services
provided.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>'Both the increase in demand for services and the severe and complex
presentations we are seeing indicate to us that the six NHS Veterans' Mental
Health Pilots are not adequate to deal with the scale and size of the problem,'
he said.</DIV>
<DIV>The Ministry of Defence insisted the vast majority of former service
personnel make a 'successful return' to civilian life.</DIV>
<DIV>'A small minority can face serious difficulties and we provide a wide range
of support, before, during and after leaving the services, including the MoD's
Prison In-Reach initiative,' a spokesman said.</DIV>
<DIV>A Ministry of Justice spokesman added: 'People entering the criminal
justice system are from a range of backgrounds and present a variety of issues
which have contributed to their offending behaviour. Staff support individuals
in addressing these issues, working towards their rehabilitation.<WBR>'</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Read more: <A
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1216015/More-British-soldiers-prison-serving-Afghanistan-shock-study-finds.html#ixzz0S7ReKgKR"><FONT
color=#003580>http://www.dailymai<WBR>l.co.uk/news/<WBR>article-1216015/<WBR>More-British-<WBR>soldiers-<WBR>prison-serving-<WBR>Afghanistan-<WBR>shock-study-<WBR>finds.html#<WBR>ixzz0S7ReKgKR</FONT></A><BR>------------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>---------<WBR>------</DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>