Mar 2008: Chief Constable Michael Todd Probed Rendition Dead

[uselesseater]

[Mark Gobell]

BBC

Last Updated: Thursday, 13 March 2008, 17:23 GMT

Todd inquest hears of drink level

Manchester police chief Michael Todd did not have a "huge" amount of alcohol in his blood when he died on Snowdon, the coroner said as his inquest began.

The body of Mr Todd, 50, contained 105 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood - above the legal limit for driving of 80 milligrams.

The coroner said he heard the medical evidence to dispel misleading reports.

Meanwhile, Mr Todd's widow Carolyn paid tribute to "a caring and loving father and husband".

The findings on alcohol were made public by consultant pathologist Dr Anthony Caslin, who conducted the post-mortem examination on Wednesday at Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital in North Wales.

There was no evidence this man had jumped from height or sustained any significant injuries

After the details of blood tests were revealed, the coroner, Dewi Pritchard-Jones, asked him: "So, not a huge amount of alcohol then?"

Dr Caslin answered: "No, sir."

There were no injuries on the body, and Mr Todd was fully, although lightly, clothed when found on Snowdon, the inquest at Llangefni, Anglesey, heard.

As questions remained over his death, Manchester's Chamber of Commerce said it supported its boss Angie Robinson, following reports that she had been having an affair with Mr Todd.

Mr Todd's widow said she and their three children were "struggling to come to terms" with his death.

Her statement said: "I loved Michael very much and the last time I spoke to him he told me he loved me too."

The inquest, which has yet to establish the cause of Mr Todd's death, was opened and adjourned on Thursday.

No date was set for the full inquest.

Mr Pritchard-Jones was told that Mr Todd fully clothed but the garments were only light. There were no external or internal injuries.

The coroner said: "There was no evidence this man had jumped from height or sustained any significant injuries."

He said releasing the medical information about Mr Todd was necessary to "allay suspicion and fears".

"We are hearing this evidence today to get rid of some of the ridiculous stories I have read in the papers and had put to me over the last day," he said.

Mr Todd had been married for more than 27 years and had three children - a 16-year-old daughter and twin boys aged 13.

The chief executive of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Angie Robinson, was offered the support of the organisation's chairman after reports relating to her alleged relationship with Mr Todd.

In a statement, Peter Heginbotham offered Mrs Robinson ''our full support'' after details of the alleged affair emerged.

The statement said: "Angie Robinson is unavailable for comment today.

"However, she has the full support of the chamber in her role as chief executive."

State of mind

Mr Todd lived in a flat in Manchester city centre and returned to his wife and family at their house in Nottinghamshire at weekends.

The BBC has learned he suffered from bouts of depression and had previously threatened suicide.

In the hours before he died, he sent a series of "worrying" text messages to various people, which caused concern for their safety and his own.

BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said the investigation may focus on Mr Todd's distressed state of mind and what support he had been given by Greater Manchester Police.

Books of condolence have been opened at Manchester Cathedral and online at the Greater Manchester Police website.

[TonyGosling]

Long way away from the bright lights of Manchester this inquest isn't it?
Inquiry ordered into Welsh child homes abuse scandal
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950214/ai_n14866953

[TonyGosling]

'Suicide' police chief inquiry investigating FIVE alleged affairs with colleagues

Did 'suicide' police chief have FIVE affairs in one force alone?
By JAYA NARAIN
25/03/08 - News section

Claims that the chief constable found dead two weeks ago had affairs with at least five members of his staff are to be examined by the inquiry into the death.

If confirmed, it would mean Michael Todd may have had intimate relationships with up to a dozen women in the past five years.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_artic le_id=544750&in_page_id=1770

Mr Todd, who headed Greater Manchester Police and was married with three children, had a three-year affair with Angie Robinson, 50, the chief executive of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

He has also been linked to Julia Wortley, a police superintendent based in Hertfordshire, Anne Neild, his personal assistant at Greater Manchester Police, investigative journalist Andrea Perry and Laura Nagulapalli, a policewoman who has since left the force and denies an affair.

Last weekend it also emerged that he had a close relationship with 42-year-old married spiritual poet Sheryl Sleigh.

Sources claim Mrs Sleigh last saw Mr Todd on March 8, which was her birthday. He died three days later.





The investigation will also look at hundreds of text messages and emails the 50-year-old police chief exchanged with women and will scrutinise his expenses and use of his force car.

.............

The inquiry, led by Sir Paul Scott-Lee, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, will look at claims Mr Todd had inappropriate relationships with female members of his staff, including police and civilian workers.

A senior police source said: "Because of his important role in counter terrorism there is a potential security risk if Mr Todd had affairs - that is why those allegations will be looked into - because of the risk of blackmail.

"Women who he is believed to have been involved with will be asked to give information voluntarily - they cannot be made to give evidence."

The source added: "The inquiry will look at texts, emails and the use of his computer going back weeks, months and even longer.

"Checking logs and messages will be an integral part of it.

"Sir Paul's remit is very specific. He is looking at Mr Todd and his actions. There could well be other possible disciplinary issues arising from this for Greater Manchester Police."

Mr Todd would spend the week in his Manchester city centre flat and return to his wife Carolyn at their family home in Nottingham at weekends.

The inquiry will also look at intimate relationships he may have had with women outside the police force.

It is expected to examine whether his tangled private life had any impact on his duties as chief constable.

A senior police source said officers feared his behaviour could tarnish the force's reputation or expose him to the risk of blackmail.

The investigation will examine his BlackBerry handheld computer, his mobile phone and his desktop computer.

As part of his job Mr Todd had an unmarked car with tinted windows and a driver.

The inquiry will try to establish whether there was any inappropriate use of the vehicle. His driver is expected to be interviewed.

Mr Todd's expenses claims will also be scrutinised to ensure he did not claim bills for which he was not eligible.

A separate inquiry into Mr Todd's death is being carried out by North Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones.

Sir Paul's inquiry is expected to take three to six months, although no decision has yet been made over whether to publish the findings.

[jomper]

[TonyGosling]

Meanwhile Greater Manchester Police are now arresting those who they should be collaberating with!! How do they get pervert judges to sign these warrants???
what shysters

Greater Manchester Police get heavy with New Statesman writer
http://www.newstatesman.com/200803190057

[conspiracy analyst]

[Shoestring]

'Suicide' police chief: Why didn't they call us earlier ask rescue services?

By ALAN RIMMER and ANDREW CHAPMAN
Mail on Sunday, March 29, 2008

• Mountain rescue chief says they could have saved top policeman on Snowdon
• Mystery of dark suited 'spooks' waiting at bottom of mountain
• Chinook helicopter appeared above body - but could not land
• 'Champagne was in police chief's rucksack'

The police chief who died on a blizzard-swept mountain might have survived if rescue services had been alerted earlier, according to the expert who masterminded the recovery of his body.

Peter Walker has provided the first detailed account of the hunt on Snowdon for Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd.

His claims raise a series of disturbing questions about the death of Mr Todd, who was tipped as a future Scotland Yard Commissioner.

Mr Walker, 52, a veteran of hundreds of rescue operations, alleges that mountain rescue services were not called in to search for the police chief, who had been linked with a number of women, until hours after he was first reported missing.

He also claims that a mysterious group of dark-suited men were seen at the bottom of Mount Snowdon after Mr Todd's body was found. He believes the group, who did not identify themselves, were from the Security Services.

Mr Walker also reveals that a Chinook helicopter attempted to land close to where Mr Todd's body was found - an apparent breach of normal rescue procedure. And he says that a bottle of champagne was found in Mr Todd's rucksack.

Inquiries suggest that officers from Greater Manchester Police were also involved in the hunt for the missing chief constable.

Mr Walker, a co-ordinator at Ogwen and Llanberis Mountain Rescue team, said: "The fact is we were called in too late. Normal mountain rescue procedures were not followed. If we had been alerted earlier I believe we might have saved his life."

Concern for the father of three's safety was reportedly raised during the afternoon of Monday, March 10 when Mr Todd is said to have rung and sent text messages to his close friends and family. Among those alerted was Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair, who was contacted by a female officer who had received a message from Mr Todd.

Initially the hunt - based upon mobile phone tracking - focused on an area close to the Menai Straits, ten miles from where Mr Todd actually was.

Mr Walker said: "I have been told that when Mr Todd went missing, Greater Manchester Police decided they could find him through his mobile phone signals. I heard quite a large contingent was sent up. I don't know when North Wales Police were brought in.

"But I understand flawed information was given which sent them out to the coast near Port Dinorwic."

It was, said Mr Walker, "well after midnight" when the mountain rescue team was brought in, and at the insistence of the police that was a very small team.

"They used only three men and a dog, which is totally against normal practice," he said. "Thirty-six people and all the dogs are normally called out to any incident. The three men have been sworn to secrecy by police."

In pitch darkness, and with a storm brewing, the search proved to be a hopeless task and was eventually called off until daybreak on Tuesday.

Later that morning a pair of hikers found a rucksack containing personal items linked to Mr Todd, 300ft from the summit of Snowdon in a spot known as Bwlch Glas.

They made a 999 call to North Wales Police and it was that which led to the hunt being switched to Snowdon at 1pm.

Mr Walker was sent to co-ordinate the 36-man search and was dispatched to a small mountain rescue centre, where a helicopter was due to arrive with the two hikers who had found the rucksack.

"I knew then that something out of the ordinary was happening," said Mr Walker. "We don't normally send helicopters to pick up witnesses. I knew then that whoever was missing must be a VIP. There were police everywhere.

"After the couple were dropped off, a local police officer and a member of our team flew back up the mountain in the helicopter to Bwlch Glas where the rucksack had been found. They found Mr Todd's body almost immediately.

"Mr Todd was found face-down covered in snow. A half-empty bottle of gin was found by his side. His winter jacket was also found discarded in the snow a few yards away.

"Someone told me that they also found a bottle of champagne in Mr Todd's rucksack, a strange thing to take up a mountain. I don't know whether it was full or empty."

Mr Walker added: "I picked up the two hikers in my Land Rover. They were a youngish man and woman and they had just been dropped off by the helicopter and were bemused by all the activity.

"I took them to a mountain rescue station a couple of hundred yards away where they were questioned about where they had found the rucksack. But before long they were whisked away by a squad of police. I don't know where they went to, but I did know the young woman was from Brighton."

Mr Walker then told how he started ferrying the rescue team in his Land Rover up a treacherous mountain path to a summer house called Hafoty. It was the furthest the team could reach by road - and they still faced a hazardous hike of two hours to where the body lay.

Mr Walker said: "I stayed at Hafoty to co-ordinate the operation by radio. The rescuers reached the body at about 3pm. By that time the weather was really closing in.

"To make matters worse, a huge Chinook helicopter suddenly appeared and tried to make a landing. It made two attempts, but it was impossible and it soon pulled off. No one had a clue where it came from.

"Six men at a time were used to carry the stretcher in relays with Mr Todd's body strapped to it down the mountainside.

"It was touch and go, we were operating in failing light at this stage due to the blizzard. Conditions underfoot were treacherous."

The rescue party eventually reached the bottom of Snowdon by 7pm on the Tuesday.

Mr Walker added: "Men in dark suits were swarming all over the place. They were not in uniform. We took it they were spooks, Government agents. They weren't normal plainclothes detectives, and they didn't introduce themselves to us."

The body of Mr Todd - who last year investigated claims that the CIA had used British airports to fly terrorist suspects for torture in other countries but found no evidence to support the allegation - was stretchered into an ambulance and taken away. It was only then, said Mr Walker, that he was told the 'VIP' was the chief constable.

"When I was told who it was it all made sense. We had only been told it was a VIP missing, no more than that. It was typical of the secrecy that has surrounded the whole operation ever since, and explained why we hadn't been called in earlier.

"If we had known who we were looking for from the onset, and been given his vehicle details, I honestly think we could have found him alive."

Later Mr Walker was astonished to learn that Mr Todd's Range Rover had been found outside the mountain rescue expert's own home in Llanberis, parked next to Mr Walker's Land Rover. Mr Todd had left it there before setting off on his fateful journey.

"If I had been told what vehicle he had been in I would have found it just by popping my head out of the door," Mr Walker said.

"If we had been told the night before that a man was missing we would have automatically launched full mountain rescue procedure.

"The first thing we would have done was to look for the vehicle. It is routine to look for a missing person's vehicle. Once we had found that, we would have forced the door, sent in a sniffer dog to pick up the scent and take us directly to where the missing man was."

Since his death Mr Todd, 50, has been linked with at least six women. These include several female police officers, a business chief and a newspaper journalist.

Mr Todd would spend the week in his Manchester city centre flat and return to his wife Carolyn at their family home in Nottingham at weekends.

An independent police inquiry is being held to establish whether Mr Todd's complex personal life affected his duties.

Villagers in Llanberis have claimed that they were questioned by detectives from Greater Manchester Police.

Janice Hughes said she was visited by two plain-clothed officers on the afternoon Mr Todd's body was found.

She said: "There was all this activity from police around the black Range Rover that was parked opposite. Soon after, it would have been about four or five o'clock, two plain-clothed detectives came to interview me. They showed me their warrant cards and said that they were from Greater Manchester Police.

"They asked me all sorts of questions about the Range Rover, but I don't think I was much help. I told them what time I had seen it, but I never saw who was driving it. The detectives interviewed me for about half an hour.

"A couple of days later North Wales Police also came to interview me and asked me the same questions. They said it was necessary to dot all the i's and cross the t's."

Last night Greater Manchester Police said: "As an inquest is to be held and an investigation by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary is under way, it would be inappropriate for us to comment."

North Wales Police said: "We will not be making any comment at this time. The matter is under investigation and the coroner may wish to respond when he is receipt of the investigation report."

Source

[conspiracy analyst]

It appears the use of helicopters may be the preferred method of transport just prior to them bumping you off?

What is the cause of death, what does the post-mortem say?

He committed suicide by going walking cos he had too many birds?

[scienceplease]

What do you think of this?

http://www.grough.co.uk/content/view/861/2/

[conspiracy analyst]

We have a chief of police dead and we have no actual cause of death.
So this must be a unique case of the man dying without the coroner being able to assert how. Toxins exist which bump you off.
Arafat and Milosevic were terminated in such a manner.
Unless you know what toxin you are looking for you cannot find the cause of death. Its funny how the Police Federation is keeping silent on this.

Is this the response to the first police protest over low pay?

[marky 54]

[scienceplease]

[conspiracy analyst]

[Mark Gobell]

Possible Counterterrorist Suspects in Mike Todd Killing

by Trowbridge H. Ford

For viewers who have trouble grasping what I mean by covert operations by hodge-podge governments, especially the United Kingdom and the United States, I shall offer a general explanation of what goes on, and examples to illustrate my claims from the great powers on both side of the Atlantic Ocean.

By hodge-podge government, I mean states which have an informal, covert network of institutions, agencies, social and economic connections, strategically located individuals, agents in the media, etc., which allow them to carry on much more coherent actions than their legal framework, institutional arrangements, and accepted practices would seem to allow. Of course, the basis of this covert network is still the state - i. e., in Britain the Crown, and in the USA the Presidency - but as it has grown in size, and been democratized and decentralized to a degree - what has made coherently running it more complicated - the respective executives have developed connections behind the scenes to keep informed of what is developing, taking action by indirect and informal means when conditions apparently call for it, and pumping out stories in the media to justify or explain away what has been done.

In this context, traditional ways of describing what official institutions there are, and how they work has been seriously superceded by what goes on behind the public view. Instead of talking about republics and monarchies, federations and unitary states, parliamentary versus presidential government, written versus unwritten constitutions, professional versus more politicized bureaucracies, the established media, and the like, we should look at much more relevant arrangements - the institutionalized military-industrial complex, the intelligence community, policing, national security, the internet, NATO, the wars on terror, drugs and HIV, the G8, etc. - to understand what is being done in our name. We have moved too away from the precepts of democratic, representative government to think that it still has much relevance in what our governments actually do, say, and why.

To give just a most obvious example of the vast gap between our societies and our states, just reflect upon the ludicrous solution that the former British Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, suggested for bridging it in the UK. Blair Cabinet Minister Goldsmith was the legal authority for Britain joining America in the pre-emptive ouster of Iraq's Saddam Hussein for allegedly having WMD - perhaps the most politicized ruling in history - and he is trying to limit the fallout from the disastrous decision by calling for the adoption of a pledge of allegiance by Britain's increasingly alienated citizenry. As usual, Goldsmith has been influenced by America's neocons where they have bamboozled their subjects to go along with whatever they dream up, thanks to Americans' reverence for the flag, and its trappings, especially its oath of allegiance:

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands:
One Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all."

While I have not seen what Goldsmith actually proposed for Britons to pledge, I suggest this doggerel, though I am sure more enlightened minds can come up with something more fitting:

"I pledge allegiance to the Union Jack of our old Mom,
and to the treasure-trove She has amassed,
One Kingdom under God, indivisible,
With Bits and Pieces for all."

But it will still be difficult to avoid some raillery as the proposal is riddled with absurdity unless Britain is going directly into some form of fascism, with its charismatic fuhrer. We no longer live in an age where one can expect oaths of fealty to do as if we still live in a monarchical age. Some states still have monarchs as their heads of state, but no one can seriously entertain pledges of allegiances now to such lineages. PM Gordon Brown has now attempted to stop the hemorrhaging over the matter by having a serious article in The Daily Telegraph about the need of saving the Union - an effort to bolster the substance of his claims to revitalize the constitution when he first took office - but Justice Minister Jack Straw has shown it to be merely symbolic by what he actually proposed yesterday in the Commons, starting with not changing the political role of any Attorney General.

On a more serious level, the dichotomy between what Britain is essentially trying to achieve in the international arena, especially as a covert, junior partner of the USA, and what it is costing at home is demonstrated almost daily. The Labour government is seeing its hold on the kingdom eroded constantly. Using Scotland as a staging base, whether on land or at sea, for the wars Washington has planned for the past 30 years has been devastating. Scots are no longer streaming to the colors; they increasingly just want to throw the English out, though they seem most unlikely of getting rid of their covert bits, especially their listening stations, and the stationing of their nuclear submarines. London did too much of this too in securing Northern Ireland during The Troubles. In sum, London is fighting above its weight, relying too much on surreptitious means to maintain some kind of order.

The best current example of this is the killing of Manchester's Chief Constable Michael Todd - what the relevant police immediately dismissed as a tragic act of suicide, and the established media have chimed in with all kinds of crazy stories to justify - e. g., he jumped off the 300-foot Bwlch Glas in Snowdonia, drank himself so silly that he ultimately collapsed unconscious on the snow, stripped off enough clothes to die of hypothermia - the most telling rumour coming from celebrity columnist Max Clifford, claiming that someone with a northern accent that told him over the phone that some credible newspaper was about "to bring down a top copper", what was immediately assumed to be a reference to Todd's affair with Angie Robinson, CEO of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and another one with Anne Neild, Todd's personal assistant. The thrust of all these stories was that the stress of police work made him do it all, ultimately taking his own life.

While the stories were being dismissed as essentially untrue, except for Todd's current relationship with Neild, and his apparent plans to divorce his wife, and marry her, the rumours had their desired effect upon almost all authorities, implying that he had killed himself. The icing on the cover up, it seems, was completed when Duncan Campbell, The Guardian's long-time expert on policing, and apparently the intelligence services' deepest agent in the media, wrote "Nowadays there is nowhere to hide" for the March 13th issue of the London daily. Instead of talking about real facts relating to the killing, though, Campbell used the Clifford rumour, and an analysis of the stresses of police work on various types of chief constables, concluding that Todd would not be the last senior police officer to take his or her own life because of the problems it created with their private life.

Outside of Todd's killing, there was little substance to support Campbell's dire conclusion. There was the Chief Constable of Warwickshire Andrew Timpson who retired in 2000 because of a severe depressive disorder, and Maria Wallis gave up being Chief Constable for Devon and Cornwall in 2006 because of the pressure of the position. A predecessor of Todd's at the GMP was Sir John Anderton aka 'God's copper' who served until 1991 despite his strong religious views, and his belief that Aids was caused by people inhabiting a cesspoll. "Anderton survived," Campbell explained, "in what was perhaps a gentler climate."

Then Campbell acted as if Hugh Orde's bas-tarding a child while previously off-duty as the chief of Police Service of Northern Ireland had somehow been caused by, and had hurt his professional career. The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair had had to deal with all the blowback after his forces killed that unarmed Brazilian John Charles de Menezes in the wake of the July bombs in July 2005. Campbell threw in the blowback that gay Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat running to replace Red Ken Livingstone as London's Mayor, had received while he was a former top police officer.

All this seemed to be expected, given the character of modern life, and would only become worrying if Campbell had added what had happened to two police officers just when Todd was killed. The day before, the Duchess of Cornwall's chief of security at her country estate Ray Mill near Lacock in Wiltshire, Sergeant Richard Fuller, apparently committed suicide. Two years ago, Camilla had built a new guard house for her team protecting the 27-acre property worth well over £1,000,000 in value, and Fuller had recently added an extention to his cottage near Calne. Could Fuller have been Clifford's top copper about to be brought down?

Then the day after Todd died, police inspector Neil Munro just down the road in Dorset on the South Coast disappeared after he took the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg, his body being discovered a few days after it washed up on the Sandbanks near Portmouth Football Club manager Harry Redknapp's mansion. Almost everyone assumed that Munro too had committed suicide but his death could just as easily been caused from a mishap, or murder.

As if these assumptions by Campbell about the three deaths weren't unjustified enough, he then went on to discuss Todd's career as a police officer in a most predictable, prosaic way - leaving out all its most controversial aspects, what could easily have created disgruntled officers seeking revenge against him, or others seeking to change Todd's agenda. Despite all the public accolades after he was killed, there are plenty of people, most happy to see him dead.

The most obvious ones are those eleven police officers who were forced to resign when Todd started cleaning up the corruption and racism plaguing the GMP after he took over as Chief Constable.

Then there are the officers - especially Bernard Postles, its former detective chief superintendant - who so mishandled a raid for an asylum seeker on the run in the Crumpsall area of North Manchester on January 14, 2003, resulting in the murder of Manchester Special Branch officer Stephen Oake, and wounding of three others. The Manchester SB people were working with SO19 anti-terrorist people from Scotland Yard, and MI5 agents, all hoping to find more evidence of a ricin plot threatening the whole kingdom - what had started with an earlier, successful raid of a flat above a chemist's shop in North London's Wood Green. About the only thing that the raiding party had relevant to the operation was an arrest warrant for the suspect.

When he was not apparently found, though three others of also North African origin were, the scene became one of utter confusion, resulting 30 minutes later in the frenzied knife attack by psychopath Kamel Bourgass. The SB detective chief inspector in charge of the utter fiasco (Operation Salt), "Simon", pled guilty to all the failures before a disciplinary panel the Chief Constable had ordered

Todd, having relied upon what the security forces had told Postles about the low risks of the operation, and what little, consequently, he had planned for it, dumbfounded the press when he so explained, and forced Postles's retirement and the sanctioning of others when he learned otherwise. In sending Postles to the sidelines, though, Todd gained a most bitter opponent because he too had been a high-flying officer up until then. Postles had been the leading officer in the capture of serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman. Todd had gotten the Queen's Police Medal in June 2001 for his "media grabbing" police work, according to some of his fellow Chief Constables, while Postles had gotten his for finally stopping the growing national menace.

Campbell also did not mention the fallout from Todd's unsuccessful inquiry into British assistance of the CIA's rendition program, and what its possible blowback might be. Todd had been the hatchet-man in the resignation of Postles - what was caused by the incompetence of SO19 and MI5 - and he was most apt to behave similarly in light of the security services' failures to learn anything about the risks involved in allowing Washington to use Britain airspace and airports for illegal purposes.

The new director of MI5, Jonathan 'Bob' Evans aka William Perkins, and the Mets' SO19, led by Assistant Deputy Commissioner Peter Clarke - the same people really responsible for the Manchester c***-up - could have at least limited the fallout from the exposure of the Agency's use of UK airports by discovering a few fellows being rendered by inspecting a few parked airliners on the tarmac in the name of counterterrorism, but they did nothing.

As did Sir John Scarlett's MI6 whose agents, especially Robert Andrew Fulton, had done so much to help cover up CIA fiascoes, particularly the Olof Palme assassination, and the Lockerbie tragedy. Instead of getting the Agency's disclosure of its use of Diego Garcia in rendering two suspected terrorists, and passing it on to Todd for his admission of the minor, unsuspected infraction so as to limit his embarrassment, Scarlett let DCI General Michael Hayden do the damage by informing the FO of the matter - what Foreign Secretary David Miliband made a meal of at the Chief Constable's expense.

In sum, there were all kinds of people in policing who wanted to destroy Todd, and it seems that one or more of them did when he went on his hurried mission to Snowden two weeks ago, apparently to meet someone who was to inform him of the growning dangers, only to learn when he got there that the alleged whistleblower was his nemesis. Little wonder that the police almost universally assumed the killing a suicide, and Chief Inspector of HM's Constabulary Sir Ronnie Flanagan has ordered Sir Paul Scott-Lee to investigate the possible personal causes of his suicide for good measure, not who might have killed him. At least in the murder of Dr. David Kelly, the Thames Valley Police went through the motions of something more being involved than just another suicide.

Finally, a footnote should be added about Duncan Campbell's dedicated service to the security services, especially in light of the most undeserved reputation he has. Campbell has been covering up for their activities ever since Sweden's statsminister was assassinated in Stockholm on February 28, 1986.

When the false trail of set-up fallguys finally started to unravel, and the apparent real assassin, Captain Simon Hayward, had been locked up there on a false charge of drug-trafficking for insurance, Campbell used the June 17, 1988 issue of the New Statesman & Society to make sure that nothing positive occurred on any front. While siding with the permanently removed John Stalker from the inquiry into the Shoot-to-Kill murders in Northern Ireland in light of the SAS cull of the three unarmed volunteers on The Rock on March 6, 1988 (p. 1), he gave MI6, the Met's Special Branch officers Detective Chief Inspector David Palmer-Hall and SB commander Rollo Watts, and Major David Walker's security firms, especially KMS Ltd.- all key players in the conspiracy - not only clean bills of health but also directed any new inquiry towards South African security service BOSS' involvement.
("MI6, Whistleblowers in Baltic Battle," p. 7)

And if anyone thinks that Campbell has charged his tune since then, just think about what he just said about Todd's predecessor Sir John Anderton at the GMP, what he did to get Scarlett out of trouble for going after Tony Geraghty, and how he defused the ricin c***-up when Bourgass was given 17 more, concurrent years in prison for the alleged manufacture of deadly poisons and explosives. Anderton did not resign because of his religious and homophobic views but because of his helping make Kevin Taylor a criminal during the Stalker affair - what cost the GMP a $1,000,000 in damages after a civil action in 1991. Geraghty was suspected by MI6 security that he was in the process of telling tales about Hayward. It turned out that he wasn't, and what Campbell finally defused in court by explaining that Geraghty had really disclosed nothing secret.

Also, those viewers who think I have lost sight of America's transgressions in this regard - engaging in an invidious comparison at the UK's expense - should be assured that I haven't. This article has just gone on longer than I anticipated, and I shall have to save its own hodge-podge practices in the name of constitutional government for another piece.

Posted at: 12:52 PM

1 comments

Topics: Trowbridge H. Ford
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Why Full Inquest into Mike Todd Killing Is Required

by Trowbridge H. Ford

The United KIngdom is neither united nor divided but a hodge-podge somewhere in between. While the Parliament of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and its respective, responsible governments exist, it still has the trappings of a federal state with regional governments in Wales, Northern Ireland, and most clearly in Scotland. Without a written consitution guaranteeing that such arrangements are permanent unless changed officially by some public referenda, and a mechanism for making sure that it is observed, London can still change whatever exists by its own fiat. It has done so in the past, and could certainly do it again if it wants. The whole arrangement seems to be intended for achieving the best of all possible worlds where regions can arrange what they want while the central government still has the power to do whatever it sees fit, especially in times like now when the United Kingdom is on a war footing.

Just glance at all the anomalies which exist now in British constitutional arrangements. While Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, killing its 259 passengers, and eleven Scots on the ground, London still has maintained control over what resulted after a most convoluted, complicated process to bring the alleged bombers to court - thanks to Washington's indictment of two Libyan intelligence agents - and see that they were tried on neutral ground by Scottish judges, using Scottish criminal procedure, resulting in the conviction of one of them. When the result was shown apparently to be the greatest miscarriage of justice, with the culprit calling either for a retrial or the quashing of his conviction by Scottish authorities, London has stymied the review by refusing to release information in the name of national security regarding the intervention by a foreign state, apparently Libya itself, which would help the defense in overturning his conviction.

The same use of covert authority to help the cause of the London government is well illustrated in how the MoD handles the inquests for UK troops killed in the highly unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, these troops come from all over the UK and beyond, but the MoD conducts all the inquests within the confines of Oxfordshire's RAF Brize Norton airbase where all the corpses are returned to the UK, using additional coroners from the county to handle the large flow of business.

In doing so, though, it has employed the services of a most critical deputy coroner, QC Andrew Walker, who had been most wide-ranging in establishing their cause of death, and those responsible, even including former SoD Geoff Hoon. Contrary to Rule 42 of the 1984 Coroner's Rules, established by delegated legislation, Walker has often charged the MoD of "serious failure" in allowing troopers to die unnecessarily from things like intense heat, friendly-fire incidents, and improper equipment - what the MoD contends would cause it to lose civil actions against it. The current SoD Des Browne has been so angered by Walker's inquests that he has refused to renew his contract, and now has gone to the High Court for a permanent injunction to muzzle any others tempted to do so.

In the Northern Ireland, the most analagous situation that comes to mind is the unsatisfactory inquiry that former Deputy Chief Constable of the Greater Manchester Police John Stalker conducted in the mid-1980s into the deaths of six IRA voluteers in three separate incidents during the fall of 1982 in Northern Ireland. The reason for the controversies over them was primarily because inquests into their deaths were either never completed or seriously compromised in the name of national security to protect the personnel involved. There were strong suspicions that the unarmed men, especially Eugene Toman, were killed as a matter of state-endorsed policy aka 'shoot to kill' one since the judge, Lord Justice Gibson, hearing the case, complimented the suspects for killing not only him but also his associates, Sean Burns and Gervaise McKerr.

Stalker's task was to determine if there was enough evidence, especially from the Security Service aka MI5, to show that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Special Branch should be prosecuted, particularly for murder. On September 18, 1985, Stalker delivered his interim report on the shootings, stating that murder had quite possibly been committed in each incident, and that resuming adjourned coroner's hearings, and further investigation, especially of an alleged MI5 tape of the killing of Michael Tighe, after the conclusion of the trial of his associate, Martin McCauley, would determine the matters for sure.

After an inexplicable delay of five months, the Crown's covert government went into high gear to stymie any further action on the killings by Stalker when he tried to complete his investigation. Pressured by an increasingly embattled RUC Chief Constable Sir John Herman - who claimed that Stalker was connected to criminals, thanks to what its dead informer David Burton aka Bertelstein had claimed about him - Sir Philip Myers, Regional Inspector of Constabulary (Northwest), finally acted on a mainland inquiry into Stalker's relationship with Manchester businessman Kevin Taylor when he could not stop Stalker from going to Belfast to settle the last remaining difficulties of his inquiry. The Manchester investigation claimed that Stalker had become completely beholdened as a policeman to the criminally-connected Taylor who was an associate of at least one operator involved in the Shoot-to-Kill murders, Captain Simon Hayward.

Hayward had been one of the Horse Guards, going to ceremonial duties in Whitehall on July 20, 1982, when attacked in Hyde Park by a remote-controlled, IRA nail bomb, killing four of his colleagues, and he had volunteered to go to Northern Ireland during the following emergency in South Armagh where the Shoot-to-Kill murders occurred. While there, he, it seems, was the driver of undercover Army cars involved in the RUC shootouts by reinforced Headquarters Mobile Support Units (HMSU), and Eugene Toman was the first victim of Hayward's campaign. Toman had been fingered by the RUC's so-called Mole, apparently Burton, as one of the culprits who had planted the 1,000 lbs. of explosive which killed three RUC officers at a Kinnego roundabout in September 1982, kicking off the revenge killings for sure in South Armagh.

Hayward was connected to Stalker through his friendship with Taylor. In 1981, Stalker had taken a nine-day holiday with the Manchester businessman, staying on a sailing yacht he owned in Florida,
apparently with all expenses paid one. Then the Stalkers saw the Taylors occasionally at various social functions in Manchester. The boat had later been sold to a man in Spain, suspected "...of using it to ship cannibis." (John Stalker, The Stalker Affair, p. 173) The man was suspected of being part of the Quality Street Gang which carried on drug-trafficking from its villas on the Costa Blanca, especially in Benidorm, and with whom Taylor was connected.

The mere mention of the boat, apparently a catamaran called 'The True Love', and its shipping cannibis set off alarm bells in Britain's security services, as MI6 was using it in an attempt to assassinate Libya's dictator Gaddafi, and it was captained by Simon's brother, Christopher. A few times the two Haywards had visited Ibiza in the hope of getting a line on how to get Gaddafi by following the travels of a leader of the Provisional IRA known as DUKE who also had a villa there. MI6's great fear was that Stalker's continued inquiries into what had happened in Nothern Ireland in 1982 would uncover Hayward's role there, and now here in Sweden, it seems, with the Palme assassination while he was reassessing the role of his bodyguards for Major David Walker's KMS.Ltd. security agency.

Just as Stalker was preparing to leave for Belfast for his showdown with Herman, he was told by Colin Sampson, Chief Constable for West Yorkshire, that he had been "removed forever" from the investigation because of his personal problems, and told to stay at home. The basis of the removal had been what the Manchester police had been able to cook up about Stalker's dealing with Taylor, his alleged criminal activities, and what Philip Myers had persuaded authories in London, especially the Attorney General Sir Patrick Mayhew and Sir Lawrence Byford, HM's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, to do about it. It turned out that they had acted on Herman's statutory request to remove Stalker from the inquiry - what had originally been ordered by Northern Ireland's Director of Public Prosecution Sir Barry Shaw.

It's quite likely that Stalker would have been disposed of by more forceful means if the Crown had not been able to by seemingly legal means - ones given such publicity by a rampaging press that Stalker has never been able to recover his rightful reputation. The Daily Mail, for example, claimed that the criminal Burton, the dead RUC informer, had the goods on Stalker. The Daily Telegraph claimed that Stalker's inquiry had not turned up any evidence of RUC misconduct. The Sunday Telegraph claimed that Stalker's boss at Manchester, the conniving Chief Constable John Anderton, was the fallguy for Stalker's fiasco. The Observer and The Sunday Times had similar false stories at Stalker's expense. Rarely has the truth been more perverted.

At least, it seems, until this time - the killing of Chief Constable Mike Todd. The press has been working around the clock, cranking out stories about how - e. g., jumping off a cliff, filling himself with gin, taking his clothes off so he could die of hypothermia, etc. - and why he committed suicide,
especially because of his allegedly uncontrollable libido. Almost nothing that has been reported is true, and one can only wonder why the media want to destroy him after he has died.

The way it hopes to achieve this is through the inquiry that the current Chief Inspector of Her Majesty's Constabulary, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has ordered Sir Paul Scott-Lee, Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police, to carry out: whether Todd's personal life effected the performance of his professional duties. In doing so, Flanagan has stressed that Scott-Lee's inquiry has nothing to do with the inquest that Dewi Pritchard-Jones in carrying out in North Wales - just like Byford's removal of Stalker had nothing to do with his inquiry into the Shoot-to-Kill murders.

And remember that Flanagan is under the darkest cloud because of his failure to prevent the Omagh bombing back in 1998, and his failure to achieve any satisfaction for the victims and their survivors by the failed prosecution of a mere fallguy recently for the tragedy. One can only wonder if the Real IRA was allowed to commit this barbaric act so that the parties in The Troubles would get down to serious business, and finally agree to the Good Friday Agreement.

If this is the case, Flanagan is merely a tool of Britain's covert government, and no wonder Gordon Brown has no intention of getting rid of him.

Something similar must be said about Des Browne finally getting an injunction preventing coroners from making any ex parte statements about how a deceased died. Of course, he would claim that it has nothing to do with the Todd inquest, but only a most naive person would believe it.The problem with coroners in Oxfordshire, especially Andrew Walker, speaking out has been going on for five years now; yet, Browne is only acting in the wake of Todd's killing and when Walker is heading for the termination of his employment.

In sum, the British government is stacking the cards against any real inquest into Mike Todd's death, and only can only wonder why since all the interested parties are making out that he killed himself, like Dr. David Kelly. Only answers to the questions I am raising, and others yet to be disclosed will really determine what happened to the Manchester policemen on that terrible night on Snowdonia.

Source: http://codshit.blogspot.com/

Via The Postman

[scienceplease]

Have you seen this?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7290524.stm

[scienceplease]

I just wanted to register this link to this post:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3559498.ece

This has the the fantastic news:

[TonyGosling]

Police chief had affairs with at least five women employees

Jan 23 2009 WalesOnline

Cheating police chief Michael Todd had affairs with at least five women employees, it emerged today.

However, according to leaked details of an inquiry into his death, the double life of the married father-of-three did not affect his job.

All of the five women he had affairs with refused to be interviewed by investigators, the report showed.

Mr Todd, 50, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, was able to carry on with his duties as head of one of Britain’s biggest forces despite his secret liaisons, kept from his wife and colleagues.

He became depressed and suicidal over his tangled love life, and was found dead on a Welsh mountainside last March after downing gin and sleeping pills.

He had sent final text messages asking for forgiveness in “another life”.

He was found face down in the snow, frozen to death, the next day, March 11, at Bwlch Glas, near the summit of Mount Snowdon.

Just five days earlier he had been confronted by his wife Carolyn after she found out about his infidelity.

Angie Robinson, the married chief executive of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, was immediately linked to the police chief following his death, but she was just one in a series of women involved with Mr Todd.

Another had spent the night at his flat days before his death.

An investigation was launched into whether his affairs affected his job.

A report by Sir Paul Scott-Lee, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, will be passed to Greater Manchester Police Authority later this month.

However details of the inquiry have been leaked to the Manchester Evening News.

All of the women within GMP with whom Mr Todd had affairs, declined to be interviewed by investigators, according to the leaked report.

But it is alleged his force had been made aware of one of Mr Todd’s relationships with an employee.

It is understood senior officers at GMP were interviewed and said they were unaware of his affairs with staff.

However rumours of Mr Todd’s affairs were an “open secret” among many.

Once tipped as a potential candidate for Britain’s top police job as head of Scotland Yard, Mr Todd landed the GMP job in October 2002, moving from a high profile post at the Met.

But his wife and family stayed living in Nottinghamshire.

The inquest into his death last October heard that in the hours and days before his death, he exchanged intimate text messages with his wife and at least seven other people, known only as A to G.

The texts also involved two fellow police employees, one in Manchester and one at the Met.

Coroner Mr Dewi Pritchard Jones said the identities of the women who received text messages from Mr Todd were “not relevant” and instead witnesses were referred to by letters.

The coroner concluded Mr Todd died of exposure when his state of mind was affected by alcohol, a drug and confusion due to his personal situation.

Neither the Greater Manchester Police Authority (GMPA) nor West Midlands Police would comment today about the leaked report.

Russell Bernstein from the GMPA said: “It is inappropriate to pass comment about the report contents at this time as we are not in possession of the report findings.

“We anticipate receipt of the report on January 30.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/01/23/police-chief-h ad-affairs-with-at-least-five-women-employees-91466-22762074/

[scienceplease 2]

I'm sure we've mentioned this before but...

Three senior Police Officers committed suicide in one weekend...

=====================================

Neil Munro

http://www.dorset.police.uk/default.aspx?page=1774

12/13th March 2008

"Apparently had fallen off a ferry" - so maybe suspicious then?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3549361.ece

======================================

Richard Fuller

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581337/Senior-Camilla-bodyguar d-shoots-himself.html

Shot? Happy family man coming up to retirement (at 55 - he should be happy) - sounds suspicious....

10/11th March 2008

======================================

Michael Todd

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581401/Manchester-police-chief -Michael-Todd-found-dead-at-bottom-of-cliff.html

11th March 2008

See posts above - really, really suspicious!

Sounds like a death squad had a weekend killing spree!

[scienceplease 2]

Blog site that analyses Michael Todd's death in great detail...

http://theoneeyelies.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/belated-thoughts-on-michae l-todd.html

[scienceplease 2]

With Extraordinary Rendition in the news and the fact the POLICE have the files while apparently MPs and Lawyers do not, then make sure the link back to Martin Todd's death is examined rather than blantantly erased (cf David Kelly, Robin Cook, Jimmy Saville accomplices etc).

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/12/uk-cia-torture-flights-re ndition-programme

[TonyGosling]

ta SP

fascinating - I've copied the whole article on the MH370 thread for obvious reasons.
http://www.911forum.org.uk/board/viewtopic.php?p=167581#167581

almost certain this poor policeman was killed by our own secret services trying to cover up their own war crimes
I bet they think they're soooooo smart :-/

[TonyGosling]

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Could the same foreign (CIA/Mossad?) hit squad have done all three assassinations?
Other stuff in the news?
A good weekend to bury bad news?

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Following publication of the flight details, the human rights group Liberty demanded a full investigation into the evidence. The organisation has threatened to sue the government if it fails to act.
Liberty wrote to the chief constables of 10 regions asking them to seek assurances from the US that it was not using UK airports to transport suspects.
So far, only the Greater Manchester police chief constable Michael Todd has agreed to meet the organisation to decide whether there were grounds for a criminal investigation
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/12/usa.immigrationpolicy