Fulfilling today's promise...
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Former spy arrested on return to Britain
By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press
LONDON (August 21, 2000 9:36 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A former British spy who insists he was right to leak intelligence information to the press returned home Monday after nearly three years on the run in France. David Shayler was arrested immediately.
Police confronted Shayler as he stepped off a ferry at the southeastern English port of Dover after making a high-profile crossing from the French port of Calais accompanied by reporters, TV crews and his girlfriend, Annie Machon. The unrepentant former spy was expected to be questioned at a London police station, then released on bail.
"He feels that he needs to come back and vindicate himself," an emotional Machon told reporters after saying goodbye to Shayler. She said it was "scandalous" that he should be arrested, because he had committed no crime.
News reports said Shayler, 34, likely will face two charges of leaking information to the press in breach of the Official Secrets Act, which could earn him a jail sentence of up to four years.
Before leaving Calais, Shayler said he does not believe he will be tried for the allegations he made to the press, including his claim that two officers from Britain's external intelligence service, MI6, were involved in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The government denies his claim.
"The government has always misled and lied to the British people in my case, and I will be seeking disclosure of documents to prove that in any trial," Shayler said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "In those circumstances, I think the government will drop the prosecution," he added.
Shayler, who worked for MI5, Britain's internal security agency, from 1994 until 1997, fled to France after selling stories to a British newspaper. He also had claimed that the agency kept files on a number of politicians, including the current home secretary, Jack Straw, and the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson.
While living in exile, Shayler wrote a novel, "The Organisation," which he described as "a gritty thriller about spies, sex and football."
He was required to submit a manuscript to the government to comply with a 1997 injunction barring him from disclosing any information he obtained while working for MI5. Last month, government censors accepted the manuscript unchanged, officials said.
Awaiting his arrival in Dover, Shayler's mother Anne, of Beaconsfield, northwest of London, said she was "quite emotional about the whole thing at the moment, just having him back in the country with his family."
"I'm very proud of him. My first reaction was, 'Someone had to do this but why does it have to be my son?'" she said.
Shayler spent four months in Paris' La Sante prison in 1998 after he was arrested on a British warrant for breaking the Official Secrets Act. A French appeals court rejected an extradition bid.
In a separate civil suit filed last December by the British government, Shayler is accused of breach of copyright and breach of contract for releasing secret documents.
At a news conference in Calais on Sunday, Shayler said his decision to return home "should send a very strong signal to people that I have nothing to fear. I have done nothing wrong."
Shayler said Monday he hopes to use European human-rights laws to challenge any charges against him.
"It's an absolute nonsense that in this day and age in Britain we have a law which makes it a crime to report a crime," he said.
[/quote]
I don't know anything of this case, but I couldn't help but notice that last sentence.
I think thats where we're headed with all these friggin' useless laws around here.
This story can be found HERE.
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God, Guns and Guts made this country a great country!
[This message has been edited by KaMaKaZe (edited August 21, 2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Former spy arrested on return to Britain
By SUE LEEMAN, Associated Press
LONDON (August 21, 2000 9:36 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A former British spy who insists he was right to leak intelligence information to the press returned home Monday after nearly three years on the run in France. David Shayler was arrested immediately.
Police confronted Shayler as he stepped off a ferry at the southeastern English port of Dover after making a high-profile crossing from the French port of Calais accompanied by reporters, TV crews and his girlfriend, Annie Machon. The unrepentant former spy was expected to be questioned at a London police station, then released on bail.
"He feels that he needs to come back and vindicate himself," an emotional Machon told reporters after saying goodbye to Shayler. She said it was "scandalous" that he should be arrested, because he had committed no crime.
News reports said Shayler, 34, likely will face two charges of leaking information to the press in breach of the Official Secrets Act, which could earn him a jail sentence of up to four years.
Before leaving Calais, Shayler said he does not believe he will be tried for the allegations he made to the press, including his claim that two officers from Britain's external intelligence service, MI6, were involved in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The government denies his claim.
"The government has always misled and lied to the British people in my case, and I will be seeking disclosure of documents to prove that in any trial," Shayler said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "In those circumstances, I think the government will drop the prosecution," he added.
Shayler, who worked for MI5, Britain's internal security agency, from 1994 until 1997, fled to France after selling stories to a British newspaper. He also had claimed that the agency kept files on a number of politicians, including the current home secretary, Jack Straw, and the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson.
While living in exile, Shayler wrote a novel, "The Organisation," which he described as "a gritty thriller about spies, sex and football."
He was required to submit a manuscript to the government to comply with a 1997 injunction barring him from disclosing any information he obtained while working for MI5. Last month, government censors accepted the manuscript unchanged, officials said.
Awaiting his arrival in Dover, Shayler's mother Anne, of Beaconsfield, northwest of London, said she was "quite emotional about the whole thing at the moment, just having him back in the country with his family."
"I'm very proud of him. My first reaction was, 'Someone had to do this but why does it have to be my son?'" she said.
Shayler spent four months in Paris' La Sante prison in 1998 after he was arrested on a British warrant for breaking the Official Secrets Act. A French appeals court rejected an extradition bid.
In a separate civil suit filed last December by the British government, Shayler is accused of breach of copyright and breach of contract for releasing secret documents.
At a news conference in Calais on Sunday, Shayler said his decision to return home "should send a very strong signal to people that I have nothing to fear. I have done nothing wrong."
Shayler said Monday he hopes to use European human-rights laws to challenge any charges against him.
"It's an absolute nonsense that in this day and age in Britain we have a law which makes it a crime to report a crime," he said.
[/quote]
I don't know anything of this case, but I couldn't help but notice that last sentence.
I think thats where we're headed with all these friggin' useless laws around here.
This story can be found HERE.
------------------
God, Guns and Guts made this country a great country!
[This message has been edited by KaMaKaZe (edited August 21, 2000).]