BBC Director-General Mark Thompson and Deputy Director-General and Head of BBC Journalism Mark Byford today sent an email to all BBC staff following the death of two journalists who worked for the BBC.

The email reads:

“You may well have heard the shocking and sad news that two journalists who worked for the BBC were killed at the weekend in separate incidents.

“On Saturday, Nasteh Dahir Faraah, who worked for the BBC Somali Service and news agencies, was shot dead in the southern Somali city of Kismayo.

“Yesterday, Sunday, Abdul Samad Rohani, BBC Pashto reporter and fixer of the BBC’s News bureau in Kabul in the southern Helmand Province in Afghanistan, was abducted and then shot dead.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with both their families at this terrible time.

“The killings are a stark reminder of the courage and commitment shown by those who work for the BBC’s journalism around the world and especially those who work in the most dangerous and difficult areas in order to report for our audiences.

“At 1200 BST midday today, we would ask everyone who works across BBC Journalism, where they can, to hold a minute’s silence in remembrance and solidarity with our two colleagues and their families.

“Of course, others across the BBC, who may want to also demonstrate this act of support and respect, are encouraged to do so.

“Clearly, as well as with the families, our thoughts today are also with their devastated colleagues in the BBC’s Somali and Pashto services and the BBC’s Newsgathering team in Kabul. We’ve got teams on the ground in both countries doing everything they can to help.”

Connate Entries

• April 22, 2008 — Age Of Terror – 10 Days Of Terror
• June 7, 2008 — Bilderberg 2008 Conference - Attendee List
• May 21, 2008 — Steven Moffat to helm Doctor Who
• May 11, 2008 — Create your own Doctor Who trailer
• April 17, 2008 — BBC launches online ethical magazine - Thread

They say that Northern Command knew about the Enniskillen bombing in advance and did nothing to stop it. Eleven civilians died and not a single member of the security forces.

In the course of making Age Of Terror – 10 Days Of Terror (Tuesday 22 April, 9.00pm, BBC Two) award-winning journalist Peter Taylor carried out an interview with Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter who led the investigation into the Enniskillen bombing.

DCS Baxter revealed the Enniskillen attack was not an unauthorised, one-off operation by a local IRA unit, but was carefully coordinated by three IRA units – two from the South and one from the North. He says that prior to the bombing there were deliberations at a very senior level within the IRA.

“The calculation was taken as to the number of casualties they could inflict on the civilian population against the number of casualties they could inflict on members of the security forces. And they decided that the risk was worth taking,” he said.

“The civilians were collateral to the bomb but they were prepared to accept the number of casualties.”

DCS Baxter also revealed that the IRA planned a simultaneous attack on a Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade parade at the border village of Tullyhommon a few miles away but the bomb failed to go off.

What’s more, British and Irish intelligence sources told Peter Taylor that Martin McGuinness, who is now Northern Ireland ’s deputy First Minister, was the leading figure on Northern Command at the time.

Intelligence reports indicate three days before the attack McGuinness was stopped by Irish police on the Donegal border. Three southern members of the IRA were in the car with him. The subsequent intelligence assessment was that McGuinness was going to be briefed on the Remembrance Day attacks.

In the hours after the Sunday bombing, the reports record McGuinness leaving Belfast to travel to Fermanagh to meet members of the local IRA to find out what went wrong.

Intelligence reports further indicate that on Monday, the day after the bombing, McGuinness crossed the border to see the officer commanding the IRA’s Donegal unit – and that subsequently Gerry Adams and a senior figure from the IRA’s General Headquarters’ Staff discussed declaring an IRA ceasefire at the beginning of December.

Adams and McGuinness are reported to have fallen out over the proposal with McGuinness saying that on no account should the IRA go for a ceasefire.

Peter Taylor asked Martin McGuinness if he was on Northern Command at the time and had advance knowledge of Enniskillen. He said he was not and knew nothing about the attack. He did not deny going down to Fermanagh after the bombing but implied that it would have been in his Sinn Fein capacity. He declined to be interviewed.

Significantly, many of those who were victims of the bombing now praise the journey McGuinness has made from “war” to peace.

Joan Wilson, whose daughter Marie died in the attack, said: “I regard him as a good politician.

“I’m sure he has to learn a lot. We all learn from experience. But it was a big step for him too and I wish him well.”

Stephen Gault saw his father lying dead in the rubble has now reluctantly come to terms with McGuinness’s transformation.

“It’s hard to stomach him being the deputy first minister, but I think having peace in Northern Ireland is the best thing that ever happened.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I’d rather be where we are now than back in the Troubles.”

In this, the second programme in his chronicle of the Age Of Terror, Peter Taylor looks at the dramatic events of 10 Days Of Terror, in 1987.

A cargo of Libyan arms bound for Ireland is intercepted in French waters and, in the same week, IRA plans to bomb a Remembrance Day service in the border town of Enniskillen are approaching completion.

These two extraordinary events would lead to a transformation of the political landscape in Northern Ireland.

Connate Entries

• June 9, 2008 — Journalists’ deaths - BBC
• June 7, 2008 — Bilderberg 2008 Conference - Attendee List
• May 21, 2008 — Steven Moffat to helm Doctor Who
• May 11, 2008 — Create your own Doctor Who trailer
• April 17, 2008 — BBC launches online ethical magazine - Thread

While meeting the dictates of the law, I want to make it clear that this declassification was neither my choice nor my preference. Two Directors of National Intelligence have supported the agency’s position against release.

The long, grueling fight against terrorism, which depends in very real part on the quality of our intelligence, demands that we keep our focus on the present and the future. We must draw lessons from our past—and we have—without becoming captive to it. I thought the release of this report would distract officers serving their country on the frontlines of a global conflict. It will, at a minimum, consume time and attention revisiting ground that is already well plowed. I also remain deeply concerned about the chilling effect that may follow publication of the previously classified work, findings, and recommendations of the Office of Inspector General. The important work of that unit depends on candor and confidentiality.

In keeping with the letter and spirit of the law, CIA has in its declassification process removed relatively little from the report’s executive summary. We focused chiefly on the protection of essential sources and methods. I also thought it unnecessary and unwise to permit identification of officers below the level of Center Chief, even if only by title, and those passages have been deleted, as well.

There is some background that I believe you need to know. In 2002, the Joint Inquiry Committee of Congress instructed our Office of Inspector General to determine if any agency officers should be rewarded for outstanding service in the run-up to 9/11 or held accountable for the unsatisfactory discharge of their duties. In June 2005, the Inspector General presented my predecessor, Porter Goss, with a final report answering that specific mandate. The summary, like the complete report, is a very human document. In it, one group of agency officers—dedicated to their task—looks back to examine and judge the actions of another group of agency officers—dedicated to their task, the task of understanding and combating al-Qai’da.

You should also know that there are very different perspectives on this report. It was important for us to conduct our own review—that is something on which most, if not all of us, can agree. But our colleagues referred to in the document, and others who have read it, took strong exception to its focus, methodology, and conclusions. In October 2005, Director Goss declined to accept its primary recommendation—the creation of an Accountability Board to consider disciplinary action against a handful of individuals at different levels of command. I have re-read the report, carefully evaluated what it says, and have found no reason to revisit his decision.

Director Goss noted at the time that the officers cited include some of our finest. With inadequate resources, they and those they led worked flat out against a tough, secretive foe. As the executive summary points out, there was never a question of misconduct. While they, and our government as a whole, were unable despite their best efforts to shield our nation from attack, their skill, wisdom, energy, and leadership were key elements in the agency’s victories over al-Qai’da before and after 9/11. They have made powerful contributions to our national security. They have prevented other acts of terrorism, and they have saved innocent lives, in our country and overseas.

This is not about avoiding responsibility. In fact, the opposite is true. CIA has for years spoken publicly, openly, and explicitly about shortcomings in its counter-terror programs before 9/11. Those shortcomings have been the subject of hearings, studies, panels, press reports, books, and critiques of all kinds, some fair, some not. As you will see, the Inspector General found no “silver bullet” that would have prevented the terror attacks of September 11^th. There was, in the words of the summary, “no single point of failure.”

Nor did CIA wait for this formal review to begin identifying and correcting the systemic flaws discussed in the report. This is an organization that is self-aware, self-critical, and, to a great degree, self-improving. The Inspector General’s report, like others before it, found areas in which CIA could do better, and, in the intervening years, we have worked hard to do just that.

Counter-terrorism is an exceptionally difficult challenge. The risks, and the stakes, are extremely high. The enemy is adaptive, resilient, and determined to strike us again here at home. There are limits to what intelligence can accomplish, and there can be no guarantee of perfect security. But the talented, motivated officers who work against this threat day and night give our nation a strong advantage. Together, we recognize that the finest tribute we can pay to the victims of terrorism is a redoubled effort to rip that scourge out by the roots. We can, and should, be proud of the many great things CIA has done, and will do, to defend the United States in a very dangerous world.

Mike Hayden

To access the declassified Executive Summary of the Office of Inspector General report, click here. [PDF Only 989KB*]

Connate Entries

• June 9, 2008 — Journalists’ deaths - BBC
• June 7, 2008 — Bilderberg 2008 Conference - Attendee List
• April 22, 2008 — Age Of Terror – 10 Days Of Terror

(Alan Turnbull has run the very important site, Secret Bases, which is “the end-result of countless hours of research by Alan Turnbull, a man for whom the words “out of bounds” don’t really mean too much.

Dotted all over the UK are hundreds of secret Government and military installations. Some of them are quite obvious – MI6’s Vauxhall HQ for instance – but other’s you’d never know were there.” - quoted from Pocket Lint - Website of the Day)

Alan Turnbull (www.secret-bases.co.uk) writes:

I hope you can publish this urgently:-

UK Secret Bases website is deleted by host company Virgin Media (formerly NTL)

I started experiencing intermittent access problems on Monday 6th August 2007 and assumed just a temporary local network fault.

However, a regular reader emailed me today reporting same.

I complained to Virgin Media technical helpdesk tonight, Tuesday 7th August 2007 at 10pm and they then promptly deleted my whole webspace!

NTL hosted my webspace with no problems since August 2003.

Virgin Media acquired NTL only a matter of months ago in 2007.

More to follow …

I have a full backup and will act accordingly very soon.

Would appreciate you publicising worldwide ASAP.

Regards,

Alan Turnbull

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