British troops again in action at Garmser.

On Sunday, in Operation Glacier, Afghan artillery was used for the first time in an ISAF operation, as coalition forces attacked a Taliban stronghold near Garmser (Garmisir), Helmand, the scene of fierce fighting in the autumn. After consulting the local elders, over 150 British troops attacked and destroyed three terrorist compounds and a series of linking tunnels. No British or Afghan casualties were reported. No enemy casualty figures were given.

Lieutenant Colonel Rory Bruce, spokesman for the UKTF, said: “Op GLACIER marks the continuation of our recent operations in and around Garmsir to strike at Taliban extremist targets and command centres.

“With the first use of Afghan artillery, it also marks a significant step towards enabling full combat capability for the ANA and, ultimately, to Afghans being able to provide security for themselves,” he said.

Source: ISAF News Release

As far as I can discover, so far only the Bulgarian Focus News thinks the incident worth reporting. A damning indictment on the British mainstream media.

Tags: Afghanistan, Garmser, Helmand.

Cameron and drugs, again.

Today's Times picks up a story from yesterday's Independent which links Conservative leader David Cameron with cocaine. For good measure, the Times throws in a reference to a similar, but very old, story on reprinted by the Mail/Standard stable.

Make of it what you will. I suppose innuendo and speculation sells newspapers. However, until Cameron flatly denies snorting coke his enemies in the press will carry on. If he does deny it, they will only find another stick to beat him with.

Previously on Crumbling Spires: Cameron the dope.

Tags: David Cameron, Conservative Party.

Sir Ian Blair: foot in mouth, again.

The Daily Mail accuses Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, of pre-empting the cash for honours investigation by telling ministers that his namesake, Prime Minister Tony Blair, is in the clear over the matter and that the investigation will be over within weeks.

Unlike his predecessor at the Met, John Stevens, who for all his faults was an old fashioned copper, Ian Blair is a New Labour apparatchik. Wikipedia has a convenient set of links of some of the nonsense Ian Blair has been involved in during only two years in the job. Blair's sociological ramblings (for example, see here and here) give some insight as to why this PC PC was given his present job by none other than Tony Blair.

Tags: Cash for honours, Ian Blair

Des Smith talks to the News of the World.

Des Smith, of cash for honours fame, has been telling the News of the World (text and video) that he contemplated suicide after being "hung out to dry" by Tony Blair during the cash for honours investigation.

Smith created the scandal by getting pissed and bragging to a potential donor about being able to fix him up with an honour in return for a donation to the city academies programme. The donor was, in fact, an undercover Sunday Times reporter. Oops! What did he expect Blair to do?

Tags: Cash for honours, Des Smith

L'affaire Goldsmith.

How do you get to be a QC? Shagging the Attorney General must be a help. The Mail on Sunday claims an exclusive on Goldsmith's adultery.

The obvious questions are: when did Tony Blair know of the affair; and did he use that knowledge to exert pressure on Goldsmith over either his controversial about face on the "legality" of invading Iraq, or over the al Yamamah investigation? Moreover, would Blair have used the affair to exert pressure over decisions on any cash for honours charges? The Sunday Telegraph alludes to these questions online but asked them explicitly in an article in today's print edition.

Some may say it is private matter for Goldsmith and his family. Let us have no sympathy for the individual directly responsible for the Mendonca show trail. Enjoy the poetic justice.

Tags: Lord Goldsmith

Olympic terror.

According to the Sunday Telegraph plans by the Tablighi Jamaat Islamic group,to build a London "super mosque" in connection with the Olympic Games, will be vetoed by the government. Understandable.

As the Telegraph report says, the French security services suspect Tablighi Jammat is a terrorist group. The FBI and MI5 also have an interest in them. Quite rightly: as the Guardian has summarised, they have connections to the 7 July London bombers, the transatlantic aeroplane plot and Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. The clear implication of these connections is that Tablighi Jamaat has close, even systemic, links with the Taliban - al Qaeda axis in western Pakistan.

Still they are allowed to operate in the United Kingdom.

Tags: Islam, Olympics, Tablighi Jamaat, War on Terror

Blair in the frame for cash for honours.

According to the Daily Mail, the Scotland Yard team led by the intrepid Assistant Commissioner Yates is nearly ready to submit a file on the cash for honours case to the Crown Prosecution Service. "Insiders" have told the Mail that Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell (Blair's chief press officer), Lord Levy and Ruth Turner (Blair's advisor on something or other) are the four people the Yard will recommend bringing charges against.

The police are being optimistic. The final decision will rest with the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who received both his job and his peerage from Tony Blair. I fancy Blair will be calling in a marker or two.

Meanwhile, the world's few surviving socialists are enjoying the case and even the Iranian press is taking an interest.

Tags: Tony Blair, Cash for honours.

First Sea Lord fires broadside at government.

Admiral Sir Jonathan Band, the First Sea Lord (head of the navy) has said that the Royal Navy needs £1 billion to sustain naval capabilities; otherwise Britain would be at risk of "turning into Belgium". The BBC and the Times have more.

Sir Jonathan's remarks follow criticisms of UK defence policy by senior army figures. As a reader comments on the Times site,

Will the Chief of the Air Staff now speak up, and have the government slammed by all 3 services?

In what is becoming one of the UK's major military traditions, having attacked the government, a senior military commander then goes on the MoD site to deny everything and does it without denying anything. Sir Jonathan played the game brilliantly. "Today’s Royal Navy is funded to do what is asked of it." In plain English that means: ministers ask if it can be done, their Lordships say no, so ministers do not ask the navy to do it.

Update:

Both the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail say that Admiral Band said he would resign if excessive cuts were forced upon the Royal Navy. Neither the BBC nor the Times reported such a threat in the Admiral's remarks, made at a lunch with defence journalists, so perhaps the DT and Mail were reporting off-the-record remarks.

Previously on Crumbling Spires:

Britannia used to rule the waves.

Britannia used to rule the waves 2.

Royal Navy scuttled.

Tags: Admiral Sir Jonathan Band, Defence, Royal Navy

Human rights for terrorists.

Earlier this week the Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer, delivered a major policy speech on human rights and terrorism in which he said that the fight against terrorism must be policy led, not dominated by human rights lawyers.

The judiciary was not listening.

Link: European Convention on Human rights.

Tags: Human Rights, War on Terror

Lance Corporal Matty Hull video.

The Lance Corporal Matty Hull inquest has descended in a legalistic farce. The BBC reports that the coroner has agreed not to show the friendly fire video as part of the official inquest proceedings.

Addressing a pre-inquest hearing on Friday, he said: "I can say quite categorically that if it were not for the potential delay and distress this would cause the family, I would not be willing to be bound by an agreement with the US as to use of evidence that I consider crucial to this inquest.

"I would be wrong to accept that the US are correct in seeking to bind the hands of the coroner's court in this way but in these circumstances I feel that in order to make progress and provide the family with closure, it seems to me that I must act in this way as far as the copy of that video is concerned."

Meanwhile, the rest of the world can watch the full video on the Sun's website and shorter versions on YouTube and various other places including, hopefully, Crumbling Spires.

YouTube Video via BestOfYT.com

Tags: Matty Hull, Iraq

Budd VC killed by friendly fire?

The Sun says it has been told by military sources that Corporal Bryan Budd, VC was "probably" killed by friendly fire.

An examination of his bullet-ridden body revealed that the ammunition used was of the calibre employed by British forces.

Pathologists who conducted a forensic examination of his wounds also concluded that they were inflicted by British bullets.

The only explanation other than friendly fire was that Taliban forces stole British weapons or bought Nato kit on the black market.

The 3 Para source added: “Although we’ve been told about the other possibilities, these seem highly unlikely. The fact the family have been told there is a possibility of a ‘blue on blue’ means that this is the conclusion to which the investigation is leading.”

The MoD have said the investigation will not affect the award.

The Daily Telegraph also picks up the story,

Nothing is yet proven either way, but it looks as though tragedy has been piled on tragedy in the confusion of battle. It does not detract from Corporal Budd's selfless actions.

Tags: Afghanistan, Corporal Bryan Budd VC.

Robert Cottage trial 2.

The trial of former BNP activist Robert Cottage on offences under the Explosives Acts has been continuing at Manchester Crown Court. Lawyers and experts have been arguing over whether Cottage had the correct ingredients to make a worthwhile bomb or if he only had sufficient household materials to scare intruders away with thunderflashes. The Lancashire Telegraph reports that Cottage's defence lawyer, Andrew Nuttall, told the court that

...key ingredients for making explosives were not found at Cottage's house, including charcoal to make gunpowder and sulphuric acid.

The solicitor said: "If someone had it in their mind to make an explosive they would order sulphuric acid - that is one of the key ones they would really go for."

Some forensic expert countered that it was possible to make weaker bombs using other acids.

Talk about counting angels on pinheads.

Tags: BNP, Robert Cottage