Secrets and lies

How often do we hear complaints from the police investigating some crime that they are facing a "wall of silence", that "someone out there" has vital evidence which out of fear or a misplaced sense of loyalty they are refusing to report? Have the courage to come forward is the message: your public duty comes before your personal concerns.

Here is a list of some honourable citizens who took the right course and came forward, and also a note of what happened to them -

• Sarah Tisdall. In 1983 Ms Tisdall, then a clerical officer at the FCO, leaked information about the proposed deployment of US cruise missiles in the UK to the Guardian. Although it was accepted that there was no threat to national security in the information, she was sentenced to six months in prison, and served four
• Clive Ponting. As a senior civil servant at the MoD, Ponting learned that the government's account of the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was untrue, that it had been sighted a day earlier than stated and was steaming away from the Falklands Islands "exclusion zone" when sunk with the loss of 368 lives. He passed this information to Tam Dalyell MP, who brought it to public notice. In 1984 Ponting was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, stood trial, expected a lengthy prison sentence ... and was unexpectedly acquitted by that occasionally magnificent institution a British jury
• Craig Murray.  A career diplomat, Murray was appointed British amabassador to Uzbekistan in 2002. There he pursued UK human rights policy with vigour and courage, including making forthright criticisms of Uzbek repression and torture. Under pressure from its US ally, the Foreign Office under Jack Straw took steps to remove Murray from his post. He was bullied and professionally undermined to the point where is health suffered, and effectively forced into resignation in 2004 (see our blog of 28th August 2006)
• Elizabeth Wilmshurst. Her opinion as deputy legal advisor at the FCO that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal without a second UN resolution was rejected by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith. She resigned three days later
• Katharine Gun. In early 2003 Ms Gun, a translator at GCHQ,  passed to the Observer information that in violation of the Vienna conventions the US was seeking British assistance in bugging the UN offices of Angola, Cameroon, Guinea, Pakistan, Mexico and Chile as part of an attempt to induce them to support the above-mentioned "second resolution". She was dismissed and prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act; but the case was dropped at the last minute when it became clear the defence would demand to see Goldsmith's advice on the legality of the Iraq war
• Derek Pasquill. As a senior FCO official, Pasquill had access to documents revealing both the complicity of the UK with the US practice of "extraordinary rendition" and associated torture, and also the unhelpfully narrow range of government contacts with the British Muslim community. He passed these to the New Statesman. Last week the Official Secrets Act prosecution against him was dropped, again at the last moment, when it became clear that many of his colleagues believed he had performed a public service. He still faces possible disciplinary action

Fear of reprisals is what protects knife and gun gangs on housing estates from unwelcome revelations of wrongdoing. Our government uses pretty much the same approach.

Comments

[Louis Vuitton Bags]

How often do we hear complaints from the police investigating some crime that they are facing a "wall of silence", that "someone out there" has vital evidence which out of fear or a misplaced sense of loyalty they are refusing to report? Have the courage to come forward is the message: your public duty comes before your personal concerns.

[Louis Vuitton Bags]

Are these reasonable demands to make of scientists? Should the public funding of basic science be tied to potential beneficial outcomes for society, or are we closing down possibilities by asking science to deliver prematurely? What barriers does science face in the 21st century and what can we do to challenge them? Is a more open ended approach to the pursuit of knowledge possible, and if so is it desirable?"