Nexus - 1306 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

anyone his name, and whose identity in fact has been suppressed although I think not highly likely, that someone signalled to him by the DPP, even to the point that Bugg referred to an "Asian from the carpark that the café, rather than the Isle of the Dead, gentleman" rather than a "Taiwanese gentleman".’ It appears that was to become the massacre scene. (As you'll already have read, planning for the massacre drew upon the expertise of intelligence my view is that what he observed was, rather, the delivery of agents from around the world. Martin Bryant's Volvo to the carpark, and that the presence of the The most plausible explanation for the presence of so many real Bryant vehicle was the signal for the massacre to begin.) agents in the Broad Arrow Café at the same time is that their work I part ways with most other PAM conspiracy researchers, had brought them there: their job was to pose as members of the therefore, when I reject the theory of the Homer Simpson-like public and help manage the aftermath of the slaughter. Some of — gunman so daft as to forget to check the ferry timetable ahead of them may have been tasked with scooping up evidence time (doh!) and argue that the eventual outcome was far from afterwards; others may have been coached to talk to the press, being an accident: the gunman was a skilled professional who did perhaps to offer detailed descriptions of a gunman who would, at exactly what he had been trained to do. The view that the least in their accounts, bear an uncanny resemblance to Martin massacre went off according to plan is buttressed by the footage Bryant and to provide other sundry pieces of disinformation. that was released to the media of faked images of the gunman's Other operatives may have been present only because they wanted blue sports bag sitting on top of a table inside the entirely pristine to see for themselves how everything went down, perhaps out of café. Referring to a frame taken from the footage that appears on idle curiosity or perhaps out of "career development" motives. his website, Ian McNiven writes that since it is "inconceivable" Obviously, they cannot have expected the massacre to take that the police "would have cleaned up the crime scene to take this place inside the café. The expectation seems to have been that it —_ picture", it must have been taken before the massacre—perhaps, I would be carried out a short distance would suggest, before the café opened away, on the Isle of the Dead. At least for business that day.'' This seems four people—Rob Atkins, Michael strong evidence that the massacre Beekman, Gaye Lynd and Rebecca unfolded in the café exactly as planned. McKenna—claimed to have heard the The most plausible explanation The key to understanding the gunman make remarks about going to for th i n f man massacre is thus that it contained at its the Isle of the Dead to kill wasps." Ol t ep esence o so a y heart a "double-cross" mechanism After the shootings, the idea that the intelligence agents in the enabling it to eliminate a substantial gunman's original destination was the Broad Arrow Café at the same part of the personnel who had actually Isle of the Dead was expressed by been involved in planning it. It is several people including PAHS time is that their work had certainly hard not to believe that employee Ian Kingston and Assistant Anthony Nightingale was involved in Police Commissioner Lupo Prins. brought them there. the plot: as soon as the shooting Prins told the Hobart Mercury (31 started, he leapt up from his seat to cry December 1996): "At one stage we out, "No, no, not here!" Clearly, thought he was trying to get on a boat Nightingale knew, or thought he knew, which a lot of people were on, to go to where the massacre was supposed to the Isle of the Dead. Had he got on the vessel he could have shot _ take place. Yet the gunman fired on regardless. everybody on board, so the potential was there for it to be a lot The best answer, therefore, to the question of why no survivors worse than it was." have come forward is that many, if not most, were intelligence I have always been highly sceptical about the idea that the operatives. Those who knew about the massacre were expecting police were able to read the gunman's mind—to claim to know to be able to observe it from a safe distance. Those at the highest what he intended to do—when there are no indications, other than _ levels of the plot had in mind a quite different development: the a few vague references to the island, that he planned to do massacre would lead to the elimination of most of the people who anything other than what he finally did do. What we are supposed knew anything about it. This was easily done—only a handful to believe, apparently, is that the gunman only entered the Broad _ needed to know that the carnage would really take place inside the Arrow Café after he had learned that the Bundeena ferry service café—and would ensure that afterwards there were very few left was taking tourists out to the Isle of the Dead at 2.00 pm that day, who actually knew what had happened and so there could be few not at 1.30 pm as he had supposed. (The ferry timetable had been leaks. The survivors, having been tricked in this way, would have changed two weeks earlier.) This theory has the advantage of been left in an extremely awkward position. They could hardly explaining why a café brimming with intelligence agents became _ have gone public with what they knew, for to do so would oblige the target. Unfortunately, the theory also asks us to accept two them to admit that they had been involved in a plot to murder the highly unlikely things: (1) that the gunman (or anyone working tourists on the Isle of the Dead. with him) never bothered to check the ferry timetable carefully If my theory is correct, there is a silver lining to the horrendous before he came up with his plan; and (2) that at more or less the dark cloud that was the Port Arthur Massacre. At least some of last minute the gunman, on his own initiative, made a radical the dead had themselves been party to a conspiracy to murder change of plan and fixed on the café as the location, even though dozens of innocent people. Maybe there is some justice in their it was "chockers" with agents involved in the exact same plot. becoming victims of their own planning. oo Yet according to Rebecca McKenna's witness statement, the gunman went from chatting idly about European wasps to Author's note: entering the café in the space of a few minutes. As far asI can Some transcript extracts used in this article have been slightly tell, nothing significant happened in the interval—although the — modified in the interests of readability. gunman was watching the carpark anxiously and must have had a Continued on page 80 reason for being fixated on that area. It is possible, therefore, Author's note: Some transcript extracts used in this article have been slightly modified in the interests of readability. NEXUS + 17 time is that their work had brought them there. Continued on page 80 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2006 www.nexusmagazine.com