Jail for truther and hero David Keogh

[TonyGosling]

British Official Convicted of Leaking Bush Memo on Iraq War
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=awStfha1atVs&refer =uk

By Megan Murphy

May 9 (Bloomberg) -- A British civil servant has been convicted of leaking a secret memo about a 2004 meeting between U.S. President George Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair about the war in Iraq.

David Keogh, 50, a former Cabinet communications officer, was found guilty today of one count of breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act by a London jury on their second day of deliberations. The jury is still considering its verdict on a similar charge against former political researcher Leo O'Connor and another count against Keogh.

Prosecutors claimed the two men put troops' lives at risk by attempting to leak the document, which contained sensitive military and political information.

Both Keogh and O'Connor denied the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison. Rex Tedd QC, Keogh's lawyer, last week said that his client intercepted the memo because he felt its contents were ``utterly wrong'' and would cause embarrassment for Bush. The men intended to put the document in the hands of John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, Tedd said.

Instead, O'Connor slipped the document into the papers of his boss, former Labour Member of Parliament Anthony Clarke, who alerted authorities.

Large segments of the three-week trial have been conducted in private, to preserve the confidentiality of the contents of the memo. Prosecutors said it records key details from an April 16, 2004, meeting between Bush, Blair and other senior officials, just two months before coalition forces relinquished governing authority in Iraq.

Keogh admitted making a copy of the memo while working alone in the government's ``Pindar'' communications center, which frequently receives sensitive intelligence documents. He passed it to O'Connor, in a bid to push it into the public domain.

Both men claim that its disclosure wouldn't have increased the risks for coalition troops, who were already facing backlash in Iraq. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal, involving the abuse of detainees by U.S. military police at a Baghdad correctional facility, also first broke into the news in April 2004.

To contact the reporters on this story: Megan Murphy in London at mmurphy41@bloomberg.net ;
Last Updated: May 9, 2007 09:49 EDT

[fish5133]

www.orange.co.uk/news/topstories/32199.htm?linkfrom=hp4&link=ticker_po s_1_link_3&article=index

just read on Orange news. Like the bit about "the memo exposed Bush as a madman".. Thats not top secret it is in the public domain!!

Hope the link works dont know how to post them properly. If someone can oblige. (it seems ok now)

[karlos]

does anyone know what the document actually said
it must be damaging
and we should make sure it gets plastered wall to wall

[TonyGosling]

British secrets-leaker handed 6-month prison term
10 May 2007 10:55:15 GMT
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10330895.htm

LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - A British civil servant was jailed for six months on Thursday for breaching the Official Secrets Act by leaking a memo of a top-secret meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush.

David Keogh, 50, a government communications specialist, was found guilty on two counts of making a "damaging disclosure" by revealing the memo, which recorded details of a private meeting on Iraq at the White House in April 2004.

He was also ordered to pay 5,000 pounds ($10,000) in costs to the prosecution.

Co-defendant Leo O'Connor, 44, a political researcher to whom Keogh passed the four-page memo marked secret and confidential, was sentenced to three months in jail.

The three-week trial at London's Old Bailey attracted widespread attention because of the sensitive nature of the document in question. Much of the proceedings took place behind closed doors to maintain secrecy.

The judge ruled that no details of the document could be reported by the media, apart from those referred to in open court, fuelling speculation that the conversation between Bush and Blair may have been candid to the point of damaging.

The secrecy, and the push to prosecute Keogh and O'Connor, led to accusations that the government was trying to suppress information. The prosecution maintained the case was not about censorship but a disregard for national interests.

"Diplomacy is a delicate and sensitive act and it cannot be properly carried out in our interest when what one government says to another can't be kept secret or confidential," the chief prosecutor, David Perry, said during the trial.

While the memo's precise contents are not known, high-level government witnesses said it was "extremely sensitive" to U.S and British foreign policy. It referred to operations by Britain's foreign secret service, MI6, in Iraq.

Keogh, who opposed the war in Iraq, said during the trial the memo alarmed him because it suggested Bush was a "madman" and he felt it should be disclosed to the British parliament.

As a senior government communications specialist, the memo crossed Keogh's desk in mid-April 2004 because he was charged with distributing it to the very select group of people who had permission to see it.

He made a copy and passed it to O'Connor, who he knew through a dining society in central England, where they both live. O'Connor, a researcher for an anti-war Labour politician, slipped it into his boss's papers. But when the politician saw it, he immediately called the police.

[TonyGosling]

just got this from Jimmy Walter

"Jimmy Walter" <jwalter@walden3.org>

Blair walks, innocents are tried and jailed, the world burns
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_re_eu/britain_iraq_memo_2