Clive Mitchell re-surfaces in McCann Mystery Tour in Portugal

Well Mystery Man Mitchell the tax payer's PR Man for the McCann Circus is back on the road in Pria da Luz.....


Bloomberg Portugal Police to Identify McCann Parents as Suspects, AP Says
By Camilla Hall and Robin Stringer

"Family friend Clarence Mitchell said the couple had been told they would both be named as suspects, AP said. The McCanns ``continue to deny absolutely they had anything to do'' with their daughter's disappearance, Mitchell said."

AP Quotes 7/9/07 HD News

"It's very intense but she's remaining strong and determined to prove that they had nothing to do with their daughter's disappearance and they are innocent victims of the crime." --
Clarence Mitchell, family friend to Kate and Gerry McCann who Portuguese police will formally name as suspects in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter.

York Dispatch - Parents now suspects

"The couple had been told they would both be named as suspects, family friend and former spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

Mitchell said Kate McCann found the police questioning "grueling."(sic)

Who is Clarence Mitchell ?

Clarence is a UK Government employee, he is in charge of Press liason at Downing Street and has been at times "seconded" to the Foreign office and worked in conjunction with the UK Embassies in Lisbon - Vatican / Rome to arrange visit with the Pope etc.,

For all posts about the mysterious Mitchell go here

The Mccann's also have a PR person, Justine McGuinness whom they employ directly through their Limited Company which is funded by public donations.

Pic at top is of Clarence Mitchell with Kate Mccann in Germany at the moment when Sabina Muller of Hessian Radio ( Hessischen Rundfunk ) put the McCann publicity circus on the back foot on June 1oth when she asked: "How do you feel about the fact that more and more people seem to be pointing the finger at you, saying the way you behave is not the way people would normally behave when their child is abducted and they seem to imply that you might have something to do with it?''

Kate is carrying the ever present "cuddle cat" of Madeleine's which the Portuguese Press describe as a "peluche" - a teddy bear, on which cadaver dogs are claimed to have found traces of a corpse. It can be seen here to have collected a crucifix at some stage in the story.

It accompanied Kate to the Police Station yesterday (Thursday) - but when she left today (Friday) it was not in evidence...see frame grab from SKY news item below.

Clarence Mitchell - busy spokesman ... but who for .. and why ?

Gerry (R) and Kate McCann, parents of the missing girl Madeleine McCann, listen to the family spokesman Clarence Mitchell during a walk near the beach resort of Lagos May 24, 2007. REUTERS/Hugo Correia (PORTUGAL)


The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “Today has been profoundly moving for them. The support has been overwhelming and they wanted some quiet contemplation. They know the days ahead will be hard. Kate now is keen to get back to Praia da Luz. She doesn’t like leaving there.

“She believes that is where the heart of the campaign is and feels close to Maddie there.”

He added: “Every single prayer is important to them. They draw strength from every prayer in their search for Madeleine. They want everybody to continue praying.”

The Sun Online

Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the parents, said: "Their faith is very important to them. This was a profoundly moving and spiritual visit. Every single prayer is important to them - they draw strength from each one."

Daily Telegraph

Foreign Office spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: ``(Mr McCann) is here for a number of reasons - to attend to a few personal matters, to meet police and of course to thank everybody once again for the overwhelming support they have had from around the world.

``Gerry will be establishing where the police investigation is going and talk to people with the fund.

``He will not be making any statements while in the UK. That's because he will talk to his wife about this when he gets to Portugal and they could make a statement there.''

Lexis Nexis AP News Story

Today was extremely busy and tiring. We met with our press officer Clarence Mitchell, to discuss strategy for the fortcoming interviews. Kate attended a luncheon in aid of International Missing Child day and John, my brother, attended a similar event in London. After this John and Brian Kennedy, Kate’s uncle, who are both directors of Madeleine’s fund appointed an interim fund manager. .....

Gerry's Blog/Diary 25-26 May 2007
Fund website http://www.findmadeleine.com/

UPDATE 27th May 8.30 pm

The BBC1 News has a report in which it is stated that the McCanns (who are Roman Catholics) are about to depart this week for Italy for an audience with the Pope and have support at the "highest political level" .. the Prime Minister ? (Unconfirmed Web gossip claims PM in-waiting Gordon Brown, has had telephone conversations with the McCanns in recent days and has been instrumental in putting pressure on the Portuguese Police to release information) .Pictures of the Pope are used to familiarise those in the TV audience who may be unacquainted with him or his role or indeed his range of exceptional headgear. There are also pictures ofthe local Church and the McCans, she with her 2 tone green/yellow dangling hair ribbons and clutching a cuddly toy, which are fast becoming the icons/image of the Mc Cann brand.

Clarence Mitchell is interviewed and the screen caption describes him as Family Liason Manager . he explains that Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has been active in arranging the papal audience due on Wednesday. Apparently the UK Ambassador to the Holy See has also been involved in making arrangements with with Pope Benedict XVI's staff.

Nowhere (except in the alert blogosphere) is Clarence Mitchell correctly described as a Civil Servant who is also the director of the Media Monitoring Unit within the Central Office of Information(COI) and is based in Downing Street.

The current Account balance of the Fund displayed on the official website stays stubbornly at £313,091.17.

If you are at all interested a barmy woman has composed an Astrological Birth Chart for Madeleine and an immense essay explaining Love, Truth, Beauty etc., and what happened to Madeleine and why. Click here. Scoff not, it probably works as well as a visit to the Holy City.

For cheap laughs consult ...Here

Adrian Mitchell (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) wordsmith RIP

Scholars of Christ Church College, Oxford , the richest and oldest, endowed when Heny VIIIth was raping the monasteries, call themselves members of the House. The principal Quadrangle is dominated by Tom Tower whose clock maintains "Tom Time" pre dating Greenwich Mean Time and by which all college events are timed 5 minutes behind the rest of the world.

Tom Quad also has a door which leads to a mediaeval room in which new students "matriculate" by simply signing in a a ledger whose lists contain that of 24 Prime Ministers and outstanding people in every field of human endeavour over several centuries - inlcuding of course Wystan Hugh Auden and briefly, Auberon Waugh.

This elect crew develop a distinctive and apparently effortless superiority and an hauteur , of which Adrian Mitchell who died this week was a prime example.

Darling of the London literary glitterati, whose Hampstead drawing rooms echoed to his curious chanting and foot stamping , the self elected figurehead of the pacifists, peacemongers and as he saw it iconoclastic poet, he was a man of slight talent, but of considerable industry.

The Guradian obit yesterday by Michael Kustow ( in which he failed to mention his marriage to Maureen Bush, the mother of three of his children) provides the quote from his first collection "Poems" published in 1964 , an unsigned copy of which is a bibliographical rarity. "Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people."

Mitchell was a moderately competent wordsmith , had he applied his energies properly, he could have been a half decent advertising copywriter - take the above often repeated quote - with a little tweak it could be a strapline on an ad for any product ranging from fence paint to intimate female sanitary hygeine products.

He tried journalism with little success, famous only for the subjects interviewed but not the resultant pieces - unlie say Ken Tynan. His nemesis came when the Sunday Times fired him for reviewing Peter Watkins' embargoed anti-nuclear film The War Game.

We now realise of course that such films were in fact Government organiased propaganda, and that the faux hysteria about their cemsorship only sevred to widen the audience when eventually shown. Richard Crossman the head of British Psy Ops during WWII was a Minister in the Labour Governmen who had secretly built the British nuclear weapons. One of his triumphs was when he lost his trousers on London Glasgow sleeper, The press brouha ha on the eve of the announcement that prescription charges were to be introduced and free NH glasses would be withdrawn removed discussion from the Press and TV news.

Mitchell fanced himself as a voice of the masses and was one of the leading lights in the booming poetry reading circuit. It was through this that Lord Patel had arranged for him to read inside a prison (or Youth detention centre).

His late arrival on the train from London meant the day started badly as he missed his lunch. This delay was copounded by getting lost and arriving late at ther grey forbidding venue on the outskirts of Wigan.

First time prisoners up to the age of 21 were to be gien one of the ever changing schmes for a "short sharp shock" and had compulsorty education.

The teacher had left and the 20 whey faced, spotty, youths had been detained over an hour and were missing their tea - as were the beefy ex Military Police who were managing to maintain a stony silence.

Launching Mitchell on the working or even criminal classes was , evidently a novel experience to him. Totally unprepared, he launched into a loud wailing repetive hymn of spitting hate with the repetition of some spittle flecked line such as "Tell me lies" and sketching a picture of a post nuclear holocaustic winter.

Curiously there was a paradoxical mirror image - the feckless bored youths were arrayed in denims with loose ill fitting jackets and wearing large scuffed boots.

Mitchell was arrayed in a perfectly tailored cutaway light blue denim jacket with beautifully pressed jeans - the uniform of the louche troubadour finished off with prfectly polished stacked heel Cuban boots at one end and a cute Greek sailors hat at a jaunty angle.

He tried another.

Flailing, he asked the beefy gaulieter for some chalk, to illustrate a point on the blackboard. It was explained that chalk for the use of writing of was locked up . After a delay, searching for and jangling of many keys, a single piece was found. Did they have some red chalk ?

The sullen youths bcame more sullen, the blank faced guard became catatonic.

We fled.

In the uneasy silence in the car he said he wanted something to eat , which was tricky. We had to meet a train for him to travel on to Walney island to meet the poetry loving masses of Barrow where unknown to us they were already secretly laying down the keels of Polaris submarines.

On the outskirts of Preston we found a chip shop and Lord Patel could raise enough for a single bag of fish and chips. In the stony silence Mitchell scoffed the lot and was decamped outside Blackburn station.

Skilled in self promotion, unswerving in his belief in his role as a voice for the working class he was eclipsed by many. More poetry , and better was being written and performed - consider "She's leaving Home" from the Beatles Sgt Pepper album, troubadours like Leon Rosselson ,( Don't get married Girls, The man who puffs the big Cigar) Roy Bailey, (TONY BENN: "...the greatest socialist folksinger of his generation") and see Monday, September 11, 2006 Roy Bailey. Ex MBE and Working Class Hero and nor forgetting Andy Roberts, Viv Stanshall , John Fox, Lol Coxhill.

Clarence Mitchell the journo with the right CV

Tony Hatfield has been worrying away about the role of Clarence Mitchell in acting on the behalf of the McCann family (quite where the brothers and sisters uncles and aunts begin and end is a little unclear) and e-mailed the Central Office of Information, to try and find out more about the former BBC employee who is so much in the limelight.

Having received a reply which is described as confidential and copyright etc., he is happy to divulge what they had to say - Clarence Mitchell is on secondment to the Foreign Office (from the COI) for the specific purpose of "handling media relations related to the Madeleine McCann "disappearance" [ note not abduction - points out Tony] in Portugal".

Any further enquiries must be directed to the FCO - a not unfamiliar Sir Humphrey style exercise in not answering the question whilst at the same time elegantly passing the buck and closing off further enquiries.... and adding the merest soupcon of delay.

So (says Tony) this is the upshot. The British taxpayer seems to be paying for a media consultant to a private company with no charitable status and over £300,000 quid in the bank.

Meanwhile in the unreal world the circus will move on , flying to Rome this afternoon from Faro on a 12-seater Gulfstream jet owned by the businessman Sir Philip Green .

The current account balance on the McCann fund displayed on the "official" website still resolutely stays at £313,091.17.

Digging through BBC archives it was interesting to note that after Michael Hutchance died by apparently committing suicide in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Sydney, Australia ten years ago - who was on hand to deal with his grieving widow and child ... ?

"Paula Yates, his partner and mother of his 16-month-old child is now in Sydney, finalising details of the funeral. From there, Clarence Mitchell reports: "

Just the man for the job, evidently.

UPDATE 30th May 2007

Tony Hatfield has further observations on the McCann Caravanserai and the mysterious role of Clarence "CIO/FCO Mr Fixit for the Press" Mitchell and who is picking up the tab for the "use" of Sir Philip Green's Lear Jet to whisk everyone from Faro to take a picture of Madeleine for the Holy Father - one wonders whether he will ask them to sign it.

The "official website" now records that the "balance on 30/05/07, the fund account current (sic) stands at £374,352.75." with 142 million hits as of 2.00 am.

To remind you of the listed objects of the fund ;

3. The objects of the Foundation are:
3.1.1 To secure the safe return to her family of Madeleine McCann who was abducted in Praia da Luz, Portugal on Thursday 3rd May 2007;
3.1.2 To procure that Madeleine’s abduction is thoroughly investigated and that her abductors, as well as those who played or play any part in assisting them, are identified and brought to justice; and
3.1.3 To provide support, including financial assistance, to Madeleine’s family.
3.2 If the above objects are fulfilled then the objects of the Foundation shall be to pursue such purposes in similar cases arising in the United Kingdom, Portugal or elsewhere.

It may seem churlish but the definitions of "the Foundation" and "Madeleine's family" seem gloriously imprecise - of course the whole thing is predicated on the belief that Madeleine has been abducted - which whilst a working hypothesis, may not necessarily be correct.

Meanwhile read the extraordinary case of a man who walked free from court yesterday in Swindon after admitting attempting to abduct a 7 month old baby whilst drunk.

Performance enhancing drugs used and suspensions follow .. Mitchell report due Thursday

George J Mitchell is mentioned in the last post reporting all those years ago on Israeli settlements .. now he is causing concerns in his report on drug abuse in Baseball ..the report is expected next week.

2 players were suspended yesterday - Jay Gibbons of the Orioles and José Guillén, who played for the Mariners last season and is now with the Royals — they will serve 15-day suspensions at the start of the 2008 season.(Sports Illustrated report)

Neither Gibbons nor Guillén has tested positive for a banned substance. But each was linked, through documentary evidence, to having received human growth hormone and steroids.

Mitchell, who was appointed to conduct his investigation by Commissioner Bud Selig in March 2006, has documentary evidence, but no test results, that ties dozens of players to purchases of drugs from 1995 through 2005.

Mitchell received information from Kirk Radomski, a former Mets clubhouse attendant who pleaded guilty in April to federal charges of steroid distribution.

Between October 2003 and July 2005, Gibbons received six shipments of H.G.H. and two shipments of steroids, SI.com reported in September.

Gibbons said yesterday in a written statement."I am deeply sorry for the mistakes that I have made. I have no excuses and bare sole responsibility for my decisions," the Baltimore outfielder said. "Years ago, I relied on the advice of a doctor, filled a prescription, charged the HGH, (Human Growth Hormone) which is a medication, to my credit card and had only intended to help speed my recovery from my injuries and surgeries."

Michael Weiner, the general counsel for the players union, said Gibbons did not plan to appeal his suspension.

Guillén, according to a report in The San Francisco Chronicle, ordered more than $19,000 worth of H.G.H. and steroids from May 2002 to June 2005. Weiner said Guillén would appeal.

Mr Clarence Mitchell - a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma

One can only assume that the collective settlement of Mr Murat's claims against the UK Press will not help the future (but let us hope succccessful) career of Mr Clarence Mitchell the Cabinet Press guru ,who turned up so rapidly at the scene of Miss McCann's disappearance in Pria da Luz last year.

His ever helpful, entertaining and detailed briefings to the Press must have helped them greatly in pursuing aspects of the case which may perhaps led the Press into by-ways and blind alleys that they might perhaps not have imagined.

Saturday, May 26, 2007 Clarence Mitchell - busy spokesman ... but who for .. and why ? is a good place to start and Monday, June 11, 2007 Madeleine's parents face tough questions from Hessischen Rundfunk's Sabina Muller a more interesting tale of PR wizardry.

This was a fascinating (hagi)biography produced at the BBC Online last September by Laurie Margolis, which makes interesting reading to anyone unfamiliar with Clarence's stellar career.

Government funding of over £840,000 written off to charity which contributed £7,500 twice to Labour Party

Charity Commissioners - Regulatory Case report - Catz Club Reg. Charity No 1112772 5/9/2008. ( Beware Catzclub.uk.org is an adults only site)


1. Catz club (a a non profit organisation Ho.Ho.Ho.) was registered in 2004 by Amanda and Stephen Argent and operates as Schoolfriends etc. and runs about 150 breakfast clubs in schools nationwide (case study) for some 25,000 children. Ending September 2006 (last Accounts available) they received £853 K (including £200,000 of lottery funding ) and and expenditure was £4.257 Mn. 2008 accounts are overdue.


2. An MP unnamed in the report but it was Greg Clark, then the shadow charities minister, on Friday 29th August 2008 disclosed that the Charity had donated £7,500 cash donation to the Labour Party in breach of Commmission's guidance.


3. The payment was initially explained as an "administrative error" by trading subsidiary Catz Club Care Services Ltd.,


4. A further and identical sum had been paid to the Labour Party to cover the costs of attending an even to lobby senor politicians for funds for after school care. It has relied on the generosity of Tony Mitchell, its chairman, who is based in Florida and had outstanding loans to the charity of £13.1m in the year to September 2007.

At the Wembley event in 2007, Mitchell chatted with Ed Balls, the children’s secretary. He said Catz Club paid £15,000 for just three people to attend the function.

Mitchell runs the Warburg Investment Corporation, (No connection with UBS Warburg bankers) a factoring company which buys invoices from organisations at less than their face value, then collects the full sum.


5. The "misapplied" funds have been repaid by the Labour Party.


More information (and if you have any more pease let us know) ;


Catz Club has revealed that it failed to pay back approximately £570,000 out of £1.3m it borrowed from Futurebuilders. Futurebuilders has written off part of the £1.8m loan it made to the after-school childcare charity Catz Club. (Now known to be £840,000).


New Cabinet Office minister Liam Byrne has agreed to make inquiries about the roles played by two people with Labour Party connections in the funding of childcare charity Catz Club by Futurebuilders England.


Margaret McDonagh, former general secretary of the Labour Party , is a former trustee of the childcare charity, which trades under the name Schoolfriendetc . Amanda Delew, who fundraises for the charity (and of course has worked hand in glove with cash for coronets crook Lord Levy) , is an ex-Labour fundraiser. Futurebuilders , is a £215m government fund to help charities deliver public services.


Curiously ,Futurebuilders England has deleted from its website , references to its £1.8m loan and £200,000 grant to Catz Club.

PS : Man to watch - ex Christ Church, Oxford . Stephen Bubb is Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) – a dynamic and high profile UK body - where his work on leadership, sector funding and public service reform has radically shifted attitudes and policies. In 2007 he became Secretary General of EUCLID, the European Third Sector Leaders Network.

Clive Mitchell, the BBC, and their fulsome, flowing praise for the shy retiring modest Michael Caplan QC - legal shysters to Pinochet and the McCanns

Does one detect the immaculately manicured hand of Clive Mitchell , the top Press liason man at Downing Street, in the timely production by the BBC of the BBC4 "Profile" this week when Clive Coleman profiles Michael Caplan QC (Kingsley Napley - Our reputation as a 'safe pair of hands' ) . The quiet unassuming but well regarded and extraordinarily well paid lawyer, who visited the Mccan's immediately they arrived back in the UK a week ago, and who is acting as their legal adviser ? (More on C Mitchell here)

Caplan of course is famous for having acted for General Pinochet when he failed to prevent his extradition on a warrant from Spain for murder. The first House of Lords judgement 3-2 for sending the bastard to Spain to meet his fate, but was re-heard when Lord Hoffman's tenuous connnections with Amnesty were revealed.

Re-heard the poor old murderer lost again despite the activities of the industrious Mr Caplan.

It was of course the then Home Secretary Jack Straw lolling at ease on his vermilion chaise longue who determined that the vile torturer was too ill to stand trial.

On his return to Chile, he boarded the aircraft in a wheelchair and then delighted his elderly crowd of fellow murderers and hangers on by walking off the aircraft like Lazarus.

At the time in a 13 page explanation Jack Straw finally relied on the Extradition Act 1989 section 'Order for return':

s.12(1) ... the Secretary of State may by warrant order [the accused] to be returned unless ... the Secretary of State decides under this section to make no such order in his case.

s.12(2) Without prejudice to his general discretion as to the making of an order for the return of a person...

Ignoring the provisions of Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 s.4(4) - reiterated in the Criminal Procedure (Insanity and Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991 in a General Note - which states,
The question of fitness to be tried shall be determined by a jury.

Anyway it now appears that Geoffrey Bindman, Labour's favourite solicitor (chairman of the Society for Labour Lawyers) and acting on behalf of Amnesty in the case had a polite (and private) chinwag with his chum Jack and made it clear that Amnesty would not be pursuing the matter further. On 17 July 2002, Geoffrey Bindman did respond to queries from Anti Pinochet protestors and agreed, most likely, Jack Straw "took the view that the statutory requirement for a hearing before a jury to determine fitness to be tried did not apply in this case."

In December 2001, Geoffrey Bindman was fined £12,000 at a disciplinary hearing of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors over two charges of conflict of interest and one of "improperly passing on confidential information to which he pleaded guilty.

Geoffrey (Knighted in the 2007 Honours List) is now 74 so, probably is a bit too old to take on the McCanns case - although he migh have had more influence on the final result for Pinchet than the much famed Michael Caplan.

Whatever the outcome, it is looking like a beanfeast for the gents in pin stripes. Or as one might now say, in wigs and gowns now that "Solicitor Advocates" can at the insistence of Michael Caplan wear this tokenist and mediaeval garb to demonstrate their equivalence to m'learned friends in court. Pic of Jeremy Thorpe MP gay Liberal , ex Etonian, who was saved from a murder rap by (Sir) David Napley.

You can listen to the program live (Sunday 16 September 2007 17:40-17:54 (Radio 4 FM)) or go to the Profile site and listen at any time in the next 7 days.

The BBC have thoughtfully provided what is almost a verbatim transcript of the program as " Safe pair of hands for McCanns " at BBC Online. (Ooops isn't that the tag line for Kingsley Naply -- " Our reputation as a 'safe pair of hands" - the BBC would NEVER advertise... well, for anybody. It is written by Mr Coleman ofBBC's excellent "Law in Action" who delivered the Profile advertisement broadcast

Apparently Richard Branson is chipping in £100K for the McCann's legal defense fund and encouraging others to do so - the Sunday Times reports that You Gov poll on the McCann's responsibility for the death / disapperance of their eldest daughter in the UK shows
Entirely inoccent - 20%
Responsible for Madeleine's death - 48%
Unsure / Don't know - 32%
McCanns’ high-profile campaign had made them suspicious - 40%
McCanns’ high-profile campaign had not made them suspicious - 50%

The Question does arise - Are the McCanns interests best served by having the same legal representative ?

The European Court of Human Rights says UK breached HUman Rights of victims of terrorist attacks by RUC officers.

When Michael McGrath was leaving the Rock Bar, just after closing time at about 10.40 p.m., , on 6 June 1976, a man drove a car up , and shot him twice in the stomach twice in the stomach.

The man then placed a 10lb gelignite bomb ( no peroxide based DIY bombs in Northern ireland) against the door of the pub. The detonator exploded but the bomb failed to explode. That man was RUC Reserve Constable Laurence McClure.

This was just one of the attacks by the Glennane gang - the facts known today show that the gang members included staff of the RUC,UDR and security service agents were directly involved in murders and bombings.

State agents such as Robin Jackson, the Jackal, played ( d.1998 of cancer) a central role in this gang and their activities were known of and tolerated at a senior level within security and NIO circles. A number of the gun and bomb attacks carried out by this group were directed by agents working to Special Branch and Army Intelligence. The former British Intelligence officer, Captain Fred Holroyd, who was himself based in Portadown between 1973 and 1975 has no doubt that Robin Jackson was a "licensed killer" for the "security services." Ken Livingstone detailed his revelations in his maiden speech when first elected as an MP.

At least 120 people died as result of the activities of this wider group.

This week The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg gave judgment in favour of the families of eight men who were murdered by a Loyalist murder gang in the South Armagh area in the mid 1970’s.In each case the Court unanimously found that .. "Holds that there has been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention due to the lack of independence of the RUC during the initial stages of the investigation begun in 1999;

Article 2 states ;
"1. Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law.

2. Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:
(a) in defence of any person from unlawful violence;
(b) in order to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained;
(c) in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection.".

It is worth recalling that on 30 June 1980 three RUC officers, McCaughey, McClure and Mitchell, faced charges of attempted murder of the applicant, wounding the applicant with intent contrary to section 18 of the Offences against the Persons Act 1961, attempted murder of the persons inside the bar, causing an explosion contrary to section 2 of the Explosives Substances Act 1883, possession of explosive substances with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury and possession of firearms and ammunition with intent. The three officers pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempted murder; McClure and Mitchell pleaded not guilty to wounding the applicant. The Director of Public Prosecutions ("the DPP") entered a nolle prosequi in respect of those charges which accordingly were not proceeded with. No reasons were given for this decision. The only person facing a charge concerning the applicant was McCaughey, who received a term of 7 years for wounding him. McClure was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for causing an explosion, possession of an explosive substance with intent and possession of firearms and ammunition with intent, all sentences suspended for three years.

Another RUC officer, David Wilson, was charged with withholding information contrary to section 5(1) of the Criminal Law (Northern Ireland) Act 1967, based on the fact that he had been aware of the attack beforehand and had not taken any steps to prevent it.

With the exception of McCaughey, the other officers received suspended prison terms.

In sentencing, Lord Lowry (Lord Chief Justice in Northern Ireland) stated inter alia:

"... It does not seem realistic to believe that after all that they have endured – some with their careers in ruins, others with their careers in jeopardy- that they require much by way of deterrent or by way of reform, and no proper sentence which I pass will make an impression on terrorists while other members of the police force are no doubt already embarrassed, sufficiently embarrassed and shocked by what has happened in these cases and been seen to happen to their colleagues. ... I must remember that whatever sentence is just it would follow that it would be imposed on a different and lower scale from that appropriate to terrorists, no matter whichever side, whose aim is to achieve their political ends by violence and to attack the very fabric of society."

McGrath was contacted by the Police in April 1980 and summoned to appear in Belfast Crown Court on 23 April 1980. He was subsequently advised of various date changes and then that the case was postponed and that he would be contacted. In fact the hearing took place on 30 June 1980. The applicant had not been informed and learned about the outcome on the radio.

Read more at Tom Griffin's Green Ribbon

The IRA attempted to assassinate Lord Lowry in 1982 , (he had freed Gerry Adams in 1978 - he ruled there was insufficient evidence that he was a member of the IRA) they broke into a house and it appears in firing through a plate glass window the shot was deflected and saved him - fascinating story abour it here - http://www.neilcraigan.com/brokenbonds_loosedchains/2007/11/a-story-from-be.html - he went on to give a public lecture he was planned to make. He died of natural causes in London on 15th January 1999. (Obituary)

First Lady Laura Bush to meet Gerry McCann - McCannonization appears overdue

Lord Patel first brought your attention to the Petition to Leicester Social Services set up by Ms Marilyn Baker (marilynbaker1955@hotmail.com) in a post on June 11th "Madeleine's parents face tough questions from Hessischen Rundfunk's Sabina Muller" when there were only 1,211 signatories.

There are now 13,809 signatories who ask ...

To: Leicestershire Social Services

"We the undersigned request that Leicestershire Social Services fulfil their statutory obligation to investigate the circumstances which led to 3 year old Madeleine McCann and her younger siblings being left unattended in an unlocked, ground floor hotel room....etc.,
Visit the site to sign and read more

Meanwhile Gerry McCann peripatetic and restless father of the lost girl, Madeleine, is in the US where he will visit the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children tomorrow and is also scheduled to meet the First Lady, Laura Bush.

"We want to work closely with the police and child welfare agencies in maintaining the profile of Madeleine's and other children's disappearances." says Gerry, a man whose behaviour increasingly puzzles many people... there are active forums on the Mirror site here and here.

We wait to see if the US Press treat him with the softly, softly line of the UK Press, which has been so expertly manipulated by No 10 Downing Street/ Foreign Office Press Chief ,Clarence Mitchell, whose 24/7 presence in the early days was so effective in stifling comment... and whose presence has never been fully explained ...even when Mr & Mrs McCann met the Pope.

Of course the McCanns have already had conversation with Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor ... as explained in a very strange report in the Scotsman on Sunday 27th May..

Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for the family, said: "I can confirm thattelephone conversations have taken place between Gerry McCann and Chancellor Gordon Brown.

"During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine, although details of the conversations will remain private.

"The conversations took place against the background of the Chancellor's earlier offer to help when he met and spoke to other members of the McCann family in the UK."

A Treasury spokesman refused to confirm that Brown had personally intervened to get the Portuguese police to change their minds.

Very,very odd.

Government blog "monitoring" - first step to regulation, censorship ...

The Public Servant daily online had an interesting item on Thursday 16th August 2007 ..

Unit to monitor anti-government weblogs

The Media Monitoring Unit (MMU), part of the Cabinet Office's Central Office of Information (COI), is considering how to add blogs and forum entries into its regular summaries of public policy coverage that are distributed to government ministers.

The summaries are designed to give ministers and departmental communications teams an early warning to issues that are rising up the public's agenda.

It is also seen as a safeguard to prevent departments being caught unawares by debates that are already in full swing on the internet.

The director of the MMU, Clarence Mitchell, admitted that there were several bloggers out there that the government took increasingly seriously.

"There's a whole level of debate taking place online which simply didn?t exist before and departments feel they need to be fully engaged in that," he said.

Mitchell said that the service would not try and intervene in monitored blogs, (Perish the thought says the Lady Dame Jane Pauline Neville Jones Fan Club) but merely give the government more chance to respond to comments, like they do through other methods, like media statements.

Enough government departments would need to be signed up for the cost of the unit to be covered, and, if successful, a service could be operational by the end of 2007.

Clarence Mitchell has of course been heavily involved in providing free Government media services to the McCann family in their heartbreaking collection of funds, to keep them in the manner to which they have become accustomed whilst somebody looks for a daughter they appear to have mislaid - which has probably precipitated the most vigorous debate on UK blogs ever. (See Lord patel's post on the subject)

Linda of Birmingham has commented acutely on this at the PS Online report.

This seems to confirm the view, held by many that blogs and their authors, are subject to monitoring already... it was certainly the case when Foot and Mouth erupted mysteriously at Pirbright as we experienced intense interest from all sorts of Government departments and Agencies, Press, and TV.

Call us old fashioned but this seems a sinister (but not unexpected) turn in the relationship of the Government to their electorate.

Prison Law points out that the FT covered this here on 15th August.

Prison Law also has this interesting extract from The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin April, 2001by Wayne D. Lord, Monique C. Boudreaux, Kenneth V. Lanning . A Developmental Perspective relating to Child Abduction cases.

FALSE REPORTS

Investigators also encounter cases involving false allegations of abduction. Typically, a parent or primary caregiver perpetrates these cases. They report a child as missing or abducted to hide their involvement in the child's death or conceal their knowledge of the child's location. Such was the case of Susan Smith, who fastened her two sons into their car seats and watched the car coast into a lake. Subsequently, Smith told police that an armed (black) carjacker had taken both her car and her children. A timely and thorough investigation conducted by experienced law enforcement personnel ultimately proved the fallacy of this allegation. In another case, a mother reported her teenage daughter missing and claimed to have received a telephone ransom demand. An intensive 3-day investigation located the daughter at a friend's house where she had been staying with her mother's knowledge and approval. An overwhelming need for attention appeared to motivate the mother's false report.

Read more about Susan Smith here.

Clarence Mitchell returns to lying for the Government.

The Daily Express report that "Foreign Office staff" will no longer work with the McCann's after their return from Rabat. The Find Madeleine "official" website reports that the current account balance of the fund on 08/06/07, stands at £713,927.81.

Extraordinary how there has not been a single mention in any Press/TV reports of the name of Clarence Mitchell or his / function / official employment - which must be known to every journo / editor / sub editor anywhere for the 5 weeks he has been involved at public expense. He has of course done a superb job in establishing the brand - probably deserves a holiday but no doubt the deceit and dishonesty will be flying thickly with the new PM, the departing PM, the planned Race Riot in Whitehall this week, and the astonishing revelations due about the role of Lord Levy.

The Daily Mail today report that the McCann's will be looking to purchase a property in the Algarve to rent on their imminent return from Rabat.

UK Housing Prices soaring ...and ...er ... plunging ..er simultaneously

The "World's Greatest Newspaper " disagrees.

All this is based on the Land Registry report figures for April which was published yesterday and Lord Patel remarked on here. Lies ... damn lies ....

...the McCann circus continues ("an effective campaign" gushes aged new born father John Humphries on BBC 4 "Today Programme" today) to roll on in a wave of overly sensitive kitsch taking in the Holy Father "blessing" a picture on camera, for the salivating world press - including the "World's Greatest newspaper" owned and very much edited and run by slimy pornographer Labour Party funder, Richard Desmond. Read Simon Jenkins Guradian March 18th 2007 and the first rate Steph's Blog.

The uncropped Associated Press Pool photo .... see comments ... well spotted ..good old Clarence Mitchell hard at work on the left slightly obscured by the Holy Father



Comment from Anonymous

"See that photo of the McCanns - Google Image Mccann & Pope & check the non-cropped photos. Who is the person thrusting the photo in front of his Popeness?

You've guessed it - Clarence Mitchell"

This is the gravestone in Rochdale Cemetery of John Thomas Whitehead Mitchell J.P. who was born in Rochdale on October 18th 1826. His mother was a domestic servant and he started work in a cotton mill aged 10.

A lifelong devout Christian and believer in the Bible he became a member of Rochdale Pioneers in 1853, nine years after it was formed. he served on the Library committee and promoted the Rochdale Co-operative Manufacturing Society . He was elected to the Board of the Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1869, he became its chairman in 1874, an office he held until his death in 1895.

His ideas of consumers' Co-operation preceded the early Labour movement and his ideas commanded great respect and largely shaped the policy and course of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.

He attended the Co-operative Congress of 1869 and all succeeding ones to 1894. He was a protagonist of the great debates on the control of co-operative production and profit-sharing during the 1870s and 1880s, opposing such redoubtable debaters as Hughes and Neale, and standing up to a keen examination of his consumer theory by Professor Alfred Marshall when giving evidence before the Royal Commission on Labour (1892).

He presided at the Rochdale Co-operative Congress, 1892, and his presidential address expressed his ideals and outlined his ideas of a consumer theory - his gravestone bears the quotation from a speech he made on that occasion and much repeated.

"The three great forces for the improvement of mankind are religion, temperance, and Co-operation, and as a commercial force, supported and sustained by the other two, Co-operation is the grandest, noblest, and most likely to be successful in the redemption of the industrial classes."

He was active in temperance worker and a Sunday School superintendant until his death. Traits that did not endear him to the swelling ranks of the industrial parvenus of Rochdale. He was a member of the Radical Reform Association and stood as a Liberal candidate in the Rochdale municipal elections in 1893 and 1894. His defeat on both occasions was largely due to the opposition of private traders who were opposed to his views on educating the working ("industrial") classes. His programme would have been agreeable to the future Labour Party, advocating direct employment by the corporation on work for the corporation, a living wage for all, and the abolition of the aldermanic bench.

Mitchell was a co-operator and he could not accommodate himself to either of the big parties of the day. In 1891 he had declared to Congress that it was absolutely necessary for co-operators as such to be represented in Parliament, the representatives to be sent, regardless of politics or religion.

His die hard opponents were happy to name him "Baron Wholesale", and widely claimed he had feathered his own nest during his 21 years as chairman of the Co-operative Wholesale Society. A sort of eraly george Lansbury he lived simply in a Rochdale terraced house at 12 JohnStreet - not to far from that in which Gracie Fiedls was born - in his will he left £350 17s 8d.

His grave which lies in the shade of the largest Wych Elm left in Rochdale, is of solid granite , simple, and bears a curious pediment in a late Victorian ersatz Egyptian relief popular at the time of his death.

The distinctive gritstone carving of a wheatsheaf is an early icon of the CWS and the name persists in the new and hideous shopping centre.

The gravestone was installed by his colleagues and the Directors of the CWS.

The GOI should freeze all settlement activity, including the "natural growth" of existing settlements - Fuck that says Olmerde and extends Har Homa

sam and Nur points us to the post Annapolis ceaseless expansion of settlements as Israel's housing ministry plans 307 new homes in East Jerusalem.

Tenders have been invited for housing units in Har Homa, (Chomat shmuel - a loose translation is Rampart Mountain) an illegal settlement to the south-east of the city on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed and first built on by the Natanyahus Gubment in 1997. East Jerusalem now houses around 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers.

"The battle for Jerusalem has begun," declared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days before construction began on the new settlement community of Har Homa in the southeast corner of annexed East Jerusalem. "We are now in the thick of it, and I do not intend to lose."

Fuck the US road map for peace is the GOI attitude and the heirs of Netanyahu ... which leaders from both sides had just agreed at Annapolis would again be the basis of talks.

Oh! but the road map, says Mark Regev )Olmerde's mouthpiece) applies to the West Bank, Jerusalem is different. Jerusalem is our capital. It is Israeli sovereign territory."

However, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, doesn't agree and has pointlessly protested, in writing, to the Quartet. State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said on Wednesday that he could not respond to the specific case of Israeli housing construction in Har Homa, but he reiterated that Washington expects both Israel and the Palestinians to fulfill their road map obligations.

The U.S. Embassy in Israel here could not give a definitive answer on whether it considers Har Homa to fall into the "construction-forbidden" settlement category.

What does the Blessed Tony have to say about the settlements ? Nothing apparently.

The road map ( full text here ) calls on Israel to dismantle its furthest settlements and to freeze all settlement activity. .... "Israel also freezes all settlement activity, consistent with the Mitchell report."

The report was led by former US Senator George J. Mitchell and was published on April 30, 2001 by the US department of State ... and says inter alia

"In addition to the Interim Agreement, customary international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, prohibits Israel (as an occupying power) from establishing settlements in occupied territory pending an end to the conflict."...."The GOI should freeze all settlement activity, including the "natural growth" of existing settlements."

Repeat after me ...(ad fucking nauseum) Jerusalem is different. Jerusalem is our capital. It is Israeli sovereign territory." ... you are going to here this novel theory of sovereign territory time and again.

UN sanctions anyone ? ... at least in 1997 , Concluding a two-day meeting this afternoon, speakers in the Security Council called upon the Government of Israel to rescind its 26 February decision to build a new settlement in the Jabal Abu Ghneim (The Arabic name for Shar Shoma) area of East Jerusalem. (UN Press release) Har Homa has its own website

HISTORICAL POSITION OF U.S. GOVERNMENT

The U.S. vetoed two different UN Security Council resolutions that called on Israel to stop construction at Har Homa. The U.S. was the only country of the 15 members on the council to vote against the resolution (Jerusalem Post, 3/9/97).

In a vote of 134 to 3, the United States, along with Israel and Micronesia, were the only countries among the 185 members in the UN General Assembly to vote against an April 1997 resolution demanding an immediate halt to construction at Har Homa. The previous month, a similar resolution condemning Israeli activity at Har Homa was passed 130 to 2, with only the U.S. and Israel voting against it (The Times, 4/26/97).

PS : Since the Annapolis "peace conference" last week, 27 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, 24 of them Hamas militants. 15 of them were killed in aerial attacks and six were killed in artillery shelling and three were shot.

Porter Goss to spend more time with his money ?

Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia.

You are going to hear more of them , a company favoured by Brent Wilkes, founder of ADCS who bribed Randall Cunningham along with Mitchell J Wade of MZM Inc. Not to mention some lissom ladies from the CIS states with short skirts and shorter memories.

The CEO of Shirlington Christopher D Baker, has a 62-page rap sheet from 1979 through 1989 , petty larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously—or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections—Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to Wapo last yearit obtained a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support...including limo service for senior officials.

Watergate Hotel and Westin Grand are said to be the realms of Hookergate, poker parties and general frat house baccanalia... that is according to Mitchell J. Wade, who told prosecutors that Wilkes had an arrangement with Shirlington Limousine, which in turn had an arrangement with at least one escort service, one source said. Wade said limos would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and bring them to suites Wilkes maintained at the Watergate Hotel and the Westin Grand in Washington, the source said.... and other senior people.

Former Congressman Bob Barr (R-GA) was on CNN today and hinted at further revelations ...

Reporter: So why is President Bush accepting Porter Goss's resignation? What do you make of the timing of it?

Bob Barr: I think there's going to be more coming out. We don't know the whole story...

We've seen brewing out of the congressman Duke Cunningham scandal, probably now for several months. It's starting to reach into the CIA and that come very... well... like a sore that's been festering, that could very well burst out and maybe that's a reach into the top levels of the agency.

Then he went on to deny personal involvement by Porter but perhaps re-inforced the story that Goss refused to discipline some junior staff (Kyle "Dusty" Foggo ) at the insistence of the White House.

Foggo oversaw contracts involving at least one of the companies accused of paying Cunningham. He is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, referred to as co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.

Of course if photographs from Silverstein are circulating ....

Of course given the capcity of Hill insiders to spout bollocks at times like this ...

1. Porter Goss was upset over Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, grabbing what used to be the CIA director’s role and responsibilities.See excellent TIME magazine story. They say Negroponte's assistant Air Force General Michael Hayden will be announced as Goss's successor on Monday 7th May 2006.

2.Porter Goss used to be a 14th District Florida Congressman, Goss is going to run for the US Senate against Katherine Harris in the GOP primary and Bill Nelson in the general. FL filing deadline is next week and FL GOP has been looking for alternative to Harris.

Pic ? Foggo ... looking mighty pleased... that smile like the Cheshire cat's will fade pretty quickly.

McCanns - Nemesis ?

Through cynicism , boredom, or mischief, the McCann's are now reaping the whirlwind of a disenchanted media. 100 days relentless and restless publicity in a tornado of endless travel, faultless make-up, carefully selected wardrobes, and even more carefully selected words .

From the Pope to the presposterous and dishonest Alberto Gonzalez, they have enlisted help, and received a million pounds as they have fed the sun -drenched press pack and paparazzi . Led skilfully, initially (for 4 unpaid weeks) by the senior Press Manager , Clarence Mitchell ,from No 10 Downing Street and the ever present family - and this includes the vocal relatives and their fellow travellers .

All this has now resulted in a rapid, nasty and brutal reversal in public sentiment and Police policy.

The Sunday Telegraph today repeats a story from the Portuguese newspaper, Sol, who allege that British sniffer dogs have picked up traces of the girl's corpse in the holiday apartment from where she disappeared on May 3. This, says the Telegraph means the McCanns face new distressing claims that their daughter may have been dead before they went to dinner on the evening of her disappearance.

An unnamed expert is quoted saying : "In order for the dogs to detect a body, this would have to stay in place where it died for a minimum of two hours." which they calculate means Madeleine died "some time between being collected from a creche at 6.30pm and when the couple left the flat for dinner at 8.30pm"

It also claimed that police sources believe Madeleine's body could have been hidden for two months before being moved.

Speculating about where the youngster's body might now be, an unnamed source said: "Perhaps dumped in the sea or buried."

Friends of the McCanns said the speculation was "ludicrous and utterly untrue". One friend said: "No one could seriously suggest that Kate or Gerry had anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance."

This speculation is also reported by This is London who also explain that the Mundo Real another Portuguese newspaper claimed yesterday that the couple may have moved a dead body five weeks later in their hired Renault Scenic car , hired five weeks after the disappearance, which they explained was being examined for , "traces of a corpse".

Could the Portuguese Police (the inheritors of the feared PIDE of Salazar) portrayed in a truly xenophobic fashion by the UK press as a bunch of stumbling, bumbling Inspector Cloiseau's be playing games ? Short of damning clues, possessors of unusable telephone traces, e- mails, could they be trying to flush out their quarry ?

Has the love affair with a pliant and supportive press come to an end? Have the Police, who in the UK have had remarkable success in using the media to pressurise liars, been playing a brutal, calculated and very public endgame ?

The results of the tests on what is evidently blood, found on the wall of Madeleine's room may now form the evidence to frame a deadly tale ... and they are due this week.

For all posts on this subject go here.

UPDATE Monday 13/8/07

Daily Telegraph reports today that the Jornal de Noticias reported that blood traces had also been found on the curtains of Mr and Mrs McCann's bedroom. This is also remarked on in an article in the Daily Mail. The Times reports that Robert Murat was / is to be dropped as the only official suspect .

UPDATE Tuesday 14/8/07

Daily Telegraph says the Mccann's hire car ws stripped down over 2 days by the police.

UPDATE Sunday 19th August 2007

The phrase "Could the Portuguese Police (the inheritors of the feared PIDE of Salazar)" used above has been queried ,with the distinction being made between the PIDE and the PJ. The PIDE officers did not disappear - nor their methods, both were inherited and subsumed into the new forces.

Remember that Lisbon was, during WWII the meeting ground for spies / agents from both the Allied forces and the Axis forces... there is a lengthy history of covert policing, with many, many connections. President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, President Aznar, and Prime Minister Barroso of Portugal (now EU President) met in the Azores on March 16th 2003 to declare (effectively) war on Iraq. " ....and a declarative statement on Iraq." said the White House press statement.... which of course re-inforces the tantalising question of what Clarence Mitchell was up to and why Gordon Brown found it necessary to talk to the Portuguese Police.

e.g Northern Ireland. MI5 now have swanky new £20Mn barracks and no doubt they will still be funding members of the republicans and the loyalists, whilst liasing with the Northern Ireland Police Force . Some of the senior members - Sir Ronnie Flanagan's cronies have advanced stages of very selective memory loss and have been retired but their ethos lives on.

q.v. the PIDE. and see here re MI5 / NI

To see all posts on this site on the Madeleine saga go here

The No 10 YouTube propaganda service - In the Kingdom of the Blind the one eyed man is King.

No 10 Downing Street joined You Tube on April 17th (probably Clarence Mitchell's last bright idea) this year and they have to date uploaded 77 videos which so far have been seen in total 213,481times ... "Welcome to the 10 Downing Street YouTube channel" they say, " This is where you'll find exclusive films and features from No10 and the British Prime Minister. "



5,384 folks have watched this one, entitled ..."The PM and Jacqui Smith attend a Citizens' Jury on crime". Watch ,Listen , learn ... and remember that Gordy is not a PR spin type of guy .... well I guess he's a "straight kinda guy" .What's the budget for this raw party propaganda , where does it come from, who authorises it ?

Democracy at work .. now tell me Mr Prime Minister how do I get put on Jury Service .. perhaps they need some alternative voices ?

McCanns arrive in Rome Madrid

Daily Telegraph today : The McCanns .... plan to make trips to Berlin, Amsterdam and Morocco in the next week. Since the McCanns started visiting cities in Europe, the Find Madeleine fund has received a significant boost, the Madeleine website shows £581,813.01. is the balance on the current account i.e > US$1 Million

UPDATE

Someone at the BBC spent 15 minutes 27 seconds from 4.52 this afternoon rootling around here looking at all reports on Clarence Mitchell ... is a message finally getting through ?

Guradian typos at work ... most of article is unreadable

The Guradian has a top of the fold story anout a World Bank report prepared by Don Mitchell, a senior economist at the Bank who has undertaken a detailed, month-by-month analysis of the surge in food prices.... screams the sensational headline .."Biofuels are prime cause of food crisis, says leaked report" ...ahem ... well up to a point Lord Copper.

Biofuels production distorts food markets in three ways they report that the report says ;

1. It diverts grain away from food for fuel, it claims ( and this is wrong - see graph right) over a third of US corn is now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU are used for biodiesel. e.g US corn plantings were down this year BEFORE the floods , but soya planting was increased in almost equivalent acreage as crops rotated.
2. Farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production.
3. It has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher - there was no speculation before biofuels ?

Curiously there appears to be no mention of whacking big Federal grants , local tax cuts for building refineries etc., etc.,

A panel of government experts, chaired by Professor Ed Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency are due to report snippets were pre-released by the Guradian last week. THis news sory repeats the claim " Over a third of US corn is used to produce ethanol, while about half of EU vegetable oils go towards the production of biodiesel." which is simply not correct. See post 1st July US Corn / ethanol industry - a quick overview

Perhaps it will be better to wait for the reports to be published before forming any judgements. Evidently if you use food for fuel you reduce food supplies but there is more at work ...see Friday, May 30, 2008 Norwegian Yara International makes record sales/profits by selling fertilisers at record prices set by global fertiliser industry cartel
Saturday, May 10, 2008 US corn plantings down, futures prices at record levels Sunday, December 23, 2007 Wheat , corn, soya prices at record levels - demand exceeds world supply, fertiliser, farm and fuel costs rise - food costs jump and inflation follows
Friday, November 23, 2007 ABF / British Sugar's Wissington sugar beet / bioethanol plant on stream and opened by Lord Rooker
even earlier Sunday, September 16, 2007 Australian drought - poor spring rains - higher world wheat prices in prospect - low stocks and heavy demand
Saturday, July 14, 2007 Biofuels plc - all that is green is not golden

Dontcha just love it when the mainstream Liberal press really, really do their homework ?... but hey ... it's a headlineworthy of George Monbiot and his Calculus.

UPDATE : BBC4 PM program at 5.30(ish) pm BST had a discussion (which curiously extracted and highlighted the 3 points raised above in virtually the same words ) between a doughty lady and an eco frenzied Monbiotist whose names escaped us. The lady made most of the points above.... we wait for the full report, rather than highlighted leaks promoted by very partial publicists.