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LYS a Ay EWN? PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES AGAINST TERRORISTS? UK PRESS GAGGED OVER MI5'S £100,000 BIN LADEN PAYOFF Or way to invigorate US intelligence would be to "develop an entirely new capability to proactively, pre-emptively evoke responses from adversary/terrorist groups," according to the Defense Science Board, a Pentagon advisory group. Such an approach would "improve information collection by stimulating reactions" from the tareat n the evening of October 7, British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered a D-Notice on the UK media's reporting of govern- ment officials signing court gag orders. This regards the case of former MIS officer David Shayler, who claims evidence to prove MI6 gave £100,000 to Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida, sent arms to Iraq and had prior knowledge o several terrorist attacks on London in the 1990s. The original articles stated that top Labour MPs had signed gag orders whereby, upon mention of this evidence in court, media immediately have to leave the trial. Newspapers all over the country, including the Guardian, the London Evening Standard and the Scotsman, either com- pletely removed or amended their articles. Shayler, 36, faces two charges under section one of the Official Secrets Act, for disclosing documents and information about the work of M15, and another under section four, for disclosing information about telephone taps. He has failed so far to win his argument that his revelations were in the public interest. "I aim to persist in my argument that the Official Secrets Act as it currently stands is totally incompatible with the Human Rights Act," he told a newspaper. Some of the hearing is expected to be taken up by an application by newspapers objecting to plans to hold parts of the trial in secret. The prosecution applied for hearings to be held in camera after its concerns that Shayler will make fresh allegations to the jury to back up his public-interest defence. Shayler's decision to defend himself, against the advice of his legal team, for part of the trial was prompted by the belief that he will be freer to argue his case than his barrister, Geoffrey Robertson, QC, whose hands are tied by earlier court rulings. For an overview of the background of the Shayler case, visit David Shayler's official website, http://www.Shayler.com. (Source: By Paul Joseph Watson, October 9, 2002, via http://www. propagandamatrix. com/shayler_gate.html) target. In what may well be the largest expansion of covert action by the armed forces since the Vietnam War era, the Bush administration has turned to what the Pentagon calls the "black world" to press the "War on Terrorism" and weapons of mass destruction. The Defense Department is building up an elite secret army with resources stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities. New organisations are being created. The missions of existing units are being revised. Spy planes and ships are being assigned to new missions in anti- terror and monitoring of the "Axis of Evil". Even with all this, the Pentagon wants to expand covert capabilities. Donald Rumsfeld's influential board recommends creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organisation it dubs the Proactive, Pre-emptive Operations Group, (P20G), to bring together CIA and mili- tary covert action, information warfare, intelligence, and cover and deception. Among other things, this body would launch secret operations aimed at "stimu- lating reactions" among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruc- tion—that is, for instance, prodding terror- ist cells into action and exposing them- selves to "quick-response" attacks by US forces. Such tactics, the briefing paper declares, would hold "states/sub-state actors accountable" and "signal to harboring states that their sovereignty will be at risk". (Sources: LA Times, October 27, 2002; Secrecy News, October 28, 2002) empeyorl, AFE Tro $e iT SEEMS THE FoDoer It SEEME THE LivifG Ate To BE FOCpet For THE EmBRYOHIC, IT SEEMS THE LivivG ALE To Be Poppers fot THE EMG YORic, —_— 6 = NEXUS Senta www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2002 — JANUARY 2003