Security - new material (8)
01 June 2000
DSL: serving states and multinationals, Yves Goulet. Jane's Intelligence Review, June 2000 pp46-47. Defence Systems Limited is a private security company that offers services such as "crisis management, threat assessment, specialist manpower, de-mining, oilfield and mining security, guard-force management, military training, communications security, technical security equipment and human resources". It has over 3,000 employees with former soldiers from the SAS, Special Boat Squadron and Gurkhas as supervisors.
Ustica, "I general) non pagheranno" (Ustica, "The generals won't pay"), Paolo Pentimella Testa. Avvenimenti, 11.6.00, p 17. Maybe no one will be sentenced for a cover-up by the Italian military following the shooting down of a DC-9 in Ustica on 27 June 1980. Many of those involved have already been acquitted due to the statute of limitations after a 19-year investigation in which judge Rosario Priore ruled that the DC-9 was shot down in an "act of wart' by NATO forces, breaching Italian sovereignty
(Statewatch, vol 9 no 5). Failure to decide on a suitable courthouse, and the logistical problems of moving the huge amount of documentation may result in the acquittal, on statute of limitation grounds, for the nine indicted members of the armed forces. Four are generals, who are facing charges including high treason.
Free Samar and Jawad, Daniel Guedalla. Socialist Lawyer no 32 (Summer) 2000, pp22-25. Overview of the case of Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh, two Palestinians convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions in London during 1994. It shows how the court approved the failure by the prosecution to make full disclosure of vital evidence on the grounds of public interest immunity created another miscarriage of justice. The Freedom for Samar and Jawad campaign can be contacted at Box BM FOSA, London WCIN 3XX.
Stragi e terrorismo: strumenti di lotta politica. Dossier dei DS dal dopoguerra al 1974 (Killings and terrorism: instruments for political struggle. The Democratic Left dossier from the postwar period to 1974). Analysis submitted to the Italian Massacres Commission (Commissione Stragi) which looks at the CIA-inspired network linking far-right extremist groups, political parties, the Ministry of the Interior's Reserve Affairs Bureau, the secret services, armed forces and NATO elements. Analyses the roles of groups and individuals, the development of a "dependable" network of anti-communists selected from the armed forces and far right groups, and the protection which they were granted. The roles of organisations such as Gladio and the P2 masonic lodge are also examined.
"A most extraordinary case". Jane Affleck. Lobster Summer 2000, ppl7-19. On Christmas eve 1990 two men were arrested and placed in a cell at Hammersmith police station. Patrick Quinn was later found dead and the second prisoner, Malcolm Kennedy, who maintained that Quinn had been killed by the police, was charged with murder. Kennedy was jailed for life his case, described by Labour MP Chris Mullin as "a serious miscarriage of justice", was the subject of a book - Who killed Patrick Quinn? The framing of Malcolm Kennedy - by the Hackney Community Defence Association. Now out on parole Kennedy claims that his removal business is subject to constant interference and disruption, and he suggests that Special Branch and/or MI5 are involved, working on the basis of an interception warrant established during his case.