John Simkin

According to Vogue magazine, Tony Blair is godfather to Rupert Murdoch's nine-year-old daughter, Grace, the second youngest of his six children. Blair was present at the d baptism of the child on the banks of the Jordan, at the spot where Jesus is said to have undergone the same ceremony. This well-kept secret was revealed in a rare interview by Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, in a forthcoming edition of Vogue.

In July it was reported that Blair rang Gordon Brown to ask him to tell his friend and ally, the Labour MP Tom Watson, to lay off attacking News Corporation over the phone-hacking issue. Brown is thought to have refused the request, although neither Blair nor Brown has confirmed such a conversation took place.

Blair's relationship with Murdoch dates back to July 1995, when the leader of the opposition provoked a political row by accepting an invitation to address a News Corporation conference on Hayman Island, Australia. Labour benefited from the loyal support of Murdoch newspapers, with the Sun switching from Conservative to Labour in the run-up to the 1997 election, and the Times dropping the Conservatives in 1997 and endorsing Labour in 2001. Meanwhile, Labour placed few restrictions on the operation of either News Corp's newspapers or BSkyB, in which News Corp owned a 39.1% stake, during its time in office.

Support from the Murdoch titles intensified at the time of the Iraq war, and Murdoch and Blair were in close contact through Blair's premiership, speaking, for example, on the phone three times in the nine days before the Iraq war. Information released by No 10 under freedom of information rules also showed the pair spoke on the day the Hutton report into the death of Dr David Kelly was published.

According to Vogue magazine, Tony Blair is godfather to Rupert Murdoch's nine-year-old daughter, Grace, the second youngest of his six children. Blair was present at the d baptism of the child on the banks of the Jordan, at the spot where Jesus is said to have undergone the same ceremony. This well-kept secret was revealed in a rare interview by Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, in a forthcoming edition of Vogue.

In July it was reported that Blair rang Gordon Brown to ask him to tell his friend and ally, the Labour MP Tom Watson, to lay off attacking News Corporation over the phone-hacking issue. Brown is thought to have refused the request, although neither Blair nor Brown has confirmed such a conversation took place.

Blair's relationship with Murdoch dates back to July 1995, when the leader of the opposition provoked a political row by accepting an invitation to address a News Corporation conference on Hayman Island, Australia. Labour benefited from the loyal support of Murdoch newspapers, with the Sun switching from Conservative to Labour in the run-up to the 1997 election, and the Times dropping the Conservatives in 1997 and endorsing Labour in 2001. Meanwhile, Labour placed few restrictions on the operation of either News Corp's newspapers or BSkyB, in which News Corp owned a 39.1% stake, during its time in office.

Support from the Murdoch titles intensified at the time of the Iraq war, and Murdoch and Blair were in close contact through Blair's premiership, speaking, for example, on the phone three times in the nine days before the Iraq war. Information released by No 10 under freedom of information rules also showed the pair spoke on the day the Hutton report into the death of Dr David Kelly was published.

I think France and UK were took the lead in supporting the rebels in Libya because they were so embarrassed by their previous associations with Gaddafi. Revolutionary Program

Although I am no supporter of David Cameron, I think he was genuinely keen to get rid of Gaddafi. However, it has also given him the opportunity to attack the previous Labour government's relationship with Gaddafi. He also compares the Libya operation with Blair's policy towards Iraq.

You gotta laugh

The political opponents of Gaddafi who were living in London are not laughing. It has now become clear that as a favour to Gaddafi, MI6 provided false information on them that resulted in them being imprisoned as terrorists.

I watched a DVD of Inside Job (2010) a documentary film about the late-2000s financial crisis directed by Charles H. Ferguson. It is a film that I would recommend everyone to see. Ferguson has described the film as being about "the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption."

I knew most of the story but the interviews were fascinating. Most of the main conspirators were unwilling to be interviewed by Ferguson. However, the film does include clips from the testimony given before Congress. Ferguson was able to interview some of the academics who played a vital role in the scam. To my surprise they did not seem to be aware of the immorality of taking large sums of money to write reports that provided cover for the conspirators to rob innocent people of their pension funds.

Ferguson shows the role that Clinton and Bush played in this financial scandal. He also showed how Obama is under the control of the Wall Street Mafia and the same group of people are still in control of the US economy. This is why the people behind the scandal have not been punished for their crimes. Nor have there been any attempt by the authorities to get back the large sums of money the bank executives and their political placemen have stolen from the people (via their pension funds).

I found one statement in the film very significant. Apparently, for the first time in history, the majority of the American public, are financially worse off than their parents. According to Marx, that places us in a revolutionary situation.

Article from the Guardian website:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/03/secret-libyan-files-mi6-cia

British and US intelligence agencies built up close links with Muammar Gaddafi and handed over detailed information to assist his regime, according to secret files found in Libyan government offices.

The documents claim that MI6 supplied its counterparts in Libya with details on exiled opponents living in the UK, and chart how the CIA abducted several suspected militants before handing them over to Tripoli.

They also contain communications between British and Libyan security officials ahead of Tony Blair's visit in 2004, and show that British officials helped write a draft speech for Gaddafi when he was being encouraged to give up his weapons programme.

The discovery was made by reporters and members of Human Rights Watch in the private offices of Moussa Koussa, the former foreign minister and head of Libyan intelligence, who defected to Britain in February. He is now believed to be in Qatar.

According to the documents, Libya's relationship with MI6 and the CIA was especially close between 2002 and 2004, at the height of the war on terror. The papers give details of how No 10 insisted that the 2004 meeting between Blair and Gaddafi took place in his bedouin tent, with a letter from an MI6 official saying: "I don't know why the English are fascinated by tents. The plain fact is that the journalists would love it."

They also show how a statement made by Gaddafi during the time in which he pledged to give up his nuclear programme and destroy his stock of chemical and biological weapons was put together with the help of British officials. A covering letter states: "For the sake of clarity, please find attached a tidied-up version of the language we agreed on Tuesday. I wanted to ensure that you had the same script."

Other letters seem to reveal that British intelligence gave Tripoli details of a Libyan dissident who had been freed from jail in Britain. One US document stated the CIA was in a position to deliver a prisoner into the custody of Libyan authorities.

The papers, which have not been independently verified, also suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 who were subsequently handed over to Tripoli. Human Rights Watch has accused the CIA of condoning torture.

"It wasn't just abducting suspected Islamic militants and handing them over to the Libyan intelligence," said Peter Bouckaert, director of Human Rights Watch's emergencies division. "The CIA also sent the questions they wanted Libyan intelligence to ask and, from the files, it's very clear they were present in some of the interrogations themselves."

Foreign secretary, William Hague, said he could not comment on security matters. Further documents found at the British ambassador's residence in Tripoli, and obtained by a Sunday newspaper, concerned the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi. A memo written in January 2009 by Robert Dixon, head of the North Africa team at the Foreign Office, and sent to then foreign secretary David Miliband, warned that Gaddafi's ministers said there would be "dire consequences" for the UK-Libya relationship in the event of Megrahi's death in custody.

I'm not sure whether this ground has been covered but, I came accross a small bit of information while looking at Ron Pataky's profile on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3N6S...1157309-1677722

In it he describes one of his books "HELP! I'M BEING HELD A PRISONER IN A RANSOM NOTE FACTORY!" as having received a great review from William F Buckley junior. Is it possible that Pataky was friendly with Buckley, who trained with the CIA in 1951 and was sent to mexico city under howard hunt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Buckley,_Jr.

It is believed that Ron Pataky was involved in the murder of Dorothy Kilgallen.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKpataky.htm

I'm very interested in learning more about Carl Elmer Jenkins. Are there any other photographs of him available besides his passport?

The photocopy of his passport photograph is all I could get from my usual source. Maybe Wikileaks could provide me with a better picture.

Hi John, I also live in the UK and I assume that you recorded this from from the TCM Channel from a couple of weeks ago as I did.

I watched the film last week and one of the most interesting scenes, from my point of view, is the sequence at around the hour mark in the movie where the assassination team visit Dealey Plaza. They appear in the film to be given access to a number of locations including the Book Depository, the County Records building and the Dal Tex building.

There is a fascianting overhead helicopter shot which pans around Dealey Plaza from above and provides an excellent perspective on the scale of the area for someone who has never been there. I found this whole sequence to be fascinating given that the film was made just 10 years or so after the actual event.

One other sequence which stood out was the shooting sequence which portrayed 4 or 5 hits, with rear shots coming from both the Book Depository and the County Records building.

Yes, I recorded it on TCM. I was also interested in the helicopter shots of Dealey Plaza. I was lucky enough to get to Dealey Plaza a couple of years ago. You don't have to be a military expert to realize it was an ideal spot for an ambush.

I went to see this movie in the theater when it opened in 1973. I remember that we were given a "newspaper"-type publication that accompanied the movie. To me, I still consider it better than Stone's "JFK" because of its from-the-conspirators viewpoint. Plus, some of the early WC critics ( i.e. Mark Lane and Penn Jones ) were consultants on the film.

The only part that bogged me down was the necessity for the conspirators to have the support of the Will Geer character, "Harold". Without it, they could not proceed. They made him out to be reluctant at first, then being "forced" to go along with the plot because of Kennedy's disagreeable actions.

I'm not so sure that anyone reluctant to kill the President would have done so without first exhausting every other option available to him.

But it is a good story and I recommend it. What it does is show you how a conspiracy COULD have existed and been successful.

This is very much my view of the film. I suppose you could argue that once Harold had been approached, it was dangerous to go ahead with the assassination. However, Harold changes his mind after seeing an item on television news about JFK's decision to withdraw from Vietnam. Maybe they were trying to show that Vietnam was the main reason for the assassination.

The film also has some great clips from JFK's speeches, including the quotation from George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." The same quote, this time uncredited, was used by Ted Kennedy at Bobby's funeral.

In a 1974 essay published in Jump Cut, a "reviewer of contemporary media," Fred Kaplan writes:

The most blatant manifestation of this milieu can be seen in the film, EXECUTIVE ACTION. Not a disguised fiction hidden behind veils of pseudonyms, this is a scenario of the JFK assassination itself. On paper, it’s a heavyweight project, written by Dalton Trumbo from a book by conspiracy freaks Mark Lane (Rush to Judgment) and Donald Freed (The Glasshouse Tapes), directed by David Miller, who helped out Trumbo in his blacklisted days.

There are whoppers all through this movie. Perhaps the biggest begins to strike us ten minutes through the plot. Namely, these businessmen (squintingly sinister and coldly unidentified) have many connections and great power, enough to pull together a grand conspiracy and an equally magnificent cover-up, stealing civil defense code books and disconnecting the D.C. phone lines to get the gunmen out of the country, and knocking off 18 witnesses to keep it hushed up. Thus one would think that they'd also be able to bargain for group-interest privileges, as they have throughout modern history, without having to resort to such risky dealings.

A review of Shane O'Sullivan's latest film:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/aug/26/baader-meinhof-gang-children-revolution

Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, delivered a withering attack on the invasion of Iraq, decried the term "war on terror", and held out the prospect of talks with al-Qaida.

Recording her first BBC Reith lecture on the theme, Securing Freedom, she made clear she believed the UK and US governments had not sufficiently understood the resentment that had been building up among Arab people, which was only compounded by the war against Iraq.

Before an audience which included Theresa May, the home secretary, she also said the 9/11 attacks were "a crime, not an act of war". "So I never felt it helpful to refer to a war on terror".

Young Arabs, she said, had no opportunity to choose their own rulers. "For them an external enemy was a unifying way to address some of their frustrations."They were also united by the plight of Palestinians, a view that the west was exploiting their oil and supporting dictators. "It was wrong to say all terrorists belonged to al-Qaida," added Manningham-Buller.

Pursuing a theme which some in the audience may have been astounded to hear from a former boss of MI5, she said terrorist campaigns – she mentioned Northern Ireland as an example – could not be solved militarily. She described the invasion of Iraq as a "distraction in the pursuit of al-Qaida". She added: "Saddam Hussein was a ruthless dictator but neither he nor his regime had anything to do with 9/11." The invasion, she said, "provided an arena for jihad", spurring on UK citizens to resort to terror.

September 11 was a "monstrous crime" but it needed a considered response, an appreciation of the causes and roots of terrorism, she said later in answers to questions. She said she hoped there were those – she implied in western governments – who were considering having "talks with al-Qaida".

Some way must be found of approaching them, she suggested, though she said she did not know how, at the moment, that could be done.

Manningham-Buller, who retired in 2007, attacked the invasion of Iraq in an interview with the Guardian in 2009. However, she has never before expressed such antipathy towards the prevailing policies and rhetoric of the government which she had to endure when she was in office. The lecture is to be broadcast on Radio 4 on 6 September, and entitled Terror.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/02/mi5-war-on-terror-criticism

I watched Executive Action for the first time last night. For those who don't know it is a 1973 movie about the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. I think it is an impressive film. It was produced by Edward Lewis, who made Spartacus, another film with a strong left-wing message. Spartacus also broke the McCarthy blacklist of Hollywood by employing Dalton Trumbo, as the screenwriter. Trumbo also wrote Executive Action. The story for the film came from Donald Freed and Mark Lane. Advisors on the film included David Lifton and Penn Jones.

The film is shown from the conspirators point of view. The main sponsor is Robert Foster (Robert Ryan) a Texas oil baron, who has been upset by JFK proposal on 17th January, 1963, to do away with the oil depletion allowance. It is estimated that the proposed removal of the oil depletion allowance would result in a loss of around $300 million a year to Texas oilmen. Foster is probably based on Clinton Murchison.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKoildepletion.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmurchison.htm

Reference is also made by Foster about JFK's move to the left (civil rights, Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, nuclear disarmament, desire to bring an end to the Cold War, removing troops from South Vietnam).

The assassination is organised by James Farrington (Burt Lancaster), a black operations specialist who used to work with the CIA. I imagine that Farrington is based on David Morales. Ed Lauter (Carl Elmer Jenkins) is the man who trains the assassination team. This part of the film is very convincing.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmorales.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKjenkinsC.htm

After the assassination, Foster arranges for Farrington to have a heart attack. At the end of the film a photo collage is shown of 18 witnesses: all but two of whom died from unnatural causes within three years of the assassination. A voice-over says that an actuary of the British newspaper The Sunday Times calculated the probability that all these people who witnessed the assassination would die within that period of time to be 1000 trillion to one. For some reason, the names and the photos are not of the people who actually died. Other names are also changed during the film.

The film opened on 7th November, 1973, to a storm of controversy. Several television stations refused to show trailers for the film. Very few cinemas showed the film and it was completly pulled by December 1973. It was not shown on television until the mid 1990s when Ted Turner bought the rights to the movie.

James Robinson guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 30 August 2011 19.29

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/30/news-of-world-journalists

The names of several News of the World journalists who ordered a private detective to hack into mobile phones belonging to six public figures will not be publicly disclosed after Scotland Yard intervened to prevent their publication.

The names were passed to Steve Coogan on Friday by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the paper, in compliance with a high court order the actor obtained earlier this year.

The names are critical to the phone-hacking investigation because they could show how far the practice was widespread at the paper, which was closed down by Rupert Murdoch last month, despite consistent denials from its owner News Group Newspapers. Coogan is one of several celebrities suing the paper for breach of privacy.

The high court order instructed Mulcaire to reveal who at the paper asked him to illegally intercept messages left on mobile belonging to former model Elle Macpherson, publicist Max Clifford and four others.

Mulcaire, who was employed exclusively by the News of the World, was also told to reveal who at the paper ordered him to target Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor, his colleague Jo Armstrong and football agent Sky Andrew.

He was refused leave to appeal against the order earlier this month and handed over the names on Friday, the deadline set by the high court for making the information available.

Law firm Schillings was contacted by Mulcaire's solicitor Sarah Webb of Payne Hicks Beach on Friday and asked not to make the names public. Webb said: "The issues of confidentiality are of concern to the Metropolitan police and we asked Coogan's solicitors not to disclose the information until the Met could consider the matter."

She added: "The issue is not that my client requires to keep matters confidential but rather that the police require him to. We were concerned that our [client] did not breach orders of the court in this respect. The Met are now dealing [with this] and there is nothing more I can add."

Similar high court orders have contained restrictions on publishing the names of News of the World journalists on the grounds that doing so could compromise Operation Wheeting, Scotland Yard's ongoing investigation into phone hacking, by tipping off potential suspects.

Scotland Yard had not responded to requests for a comment by the time of publication.

There is some confusion over whether the order obtained by Coogan allows the names to be released, however. Sources close to the actor insisted they can be identified. News Group's parent company News International refused to comment.

Mulcaire is also taking legal action against News International after it stopped paying his legal fees in July, claiming the company is contractually obliged to do so.

Meanwhile, Coogan has also won a separate high court order to force Mulcaire to name the News of the World executives who ordered Mulcaire to hack into his own phone.

Mulcaire is appealing against that order on the grounds that he would incriminate himself by complying with it because he would be confessing to a crime he has not been charged with or admitted to.

Crucially, that defence is not available to him as regards Max Clifford, Elle Macpherson and the others, because Mulcaire already pleaded guilty to illegally intercepting messages left on their mobiles in the original 2007 phone-hacking court case, which resulted in his imprisonment.

Mulcaire was jailed in January of that year along with the News of the World's former royal editor Clive Goodman.

LOBSTER GETS PINCHED

I wish to thank the author who wrote the review of my book “Watergate Exposed” even though he or she is a coward, - that is to not even sign their name to the article!

You seem to be unaware that virtually the whole magazine is written by Robin Ramsey. Far from being a coward, he is the bravest journalist in the UK.

"Caddy writes a foreword and an afterword trying to contextualise these rambling memories of Merritt’s. In some ways these are the best bits of the book. Not only has Caddy had a small speaking part in two of the seminal political dramas of post-war America, for many years he was a deeply closeted gay man in Republican circles in Washington. He should write a memoir." (Robin Ramsey)

Any chance of a memoir Doug?

How has history judged the pronouncements of Goldwater during his presidential candidacy in 1964?

Thank you for posting that. I did not know that Goldwater used the cases of Bobby Baker and Billie Sol Estes against LBJ in 1964.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAgoldwater.htm

Herbert Kretzmer, was asked to write a song about the assassination of John Kennedy within hours of it taking place, for a BBC news programme. The result was "In the Summer of His Years". It was originally performed by Millicent Martin. This is a version by Mahalia Jackson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVwHPzuK294

The following year Kretzmer wrote the lyrics for that great song, Yesterday, When I was Young. Maybe he was thinking about JFK when he wrote that song. Here is Glen Campbell’s version. I have chosen this one because it also includes the lyrics.

I see that the Greek government has banned the export of Taramosalata and Tzatziki because they fear a double-dip recession.

A man was asked for a 8 character password before he could access a website. He typed in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

Voted as two of the best jokes at the Edinburgh Festival.

Alexander Irwin Rorke, the son of Alexander Rorke, a Manhattan district attorney, was born on 9th August 1926. After graduating from St. John's University he attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

During the Second World War Rorke served as a military intelligence specialist in the U.S. Army. He was responsible for the security of five German provinces and participated in the first postwar roundup of Communist agents in the Allied military zones of Germany.

After the war Rorke married Jacqueline Billingsley, the daughter of Sherman Billingsley, the owner of the New York Stork Club. Rorke became a freelance newsman.

According to a declassified FBI document, Rorke began working for the CIA in 1960. His contact officer was Commander Anderson of the United States Navy who was assigned to the CIA office in New York City. Rorke later joined Frank Sturgis, in attempts to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba.

On 19th December 1961, Rorke and Sturgis, who was known as Frank Fiorini at the time, were involved in a CIA operation that included dropping over 250,000 anti-Castro leaflets on Cuba. Rorke was later interviewed by the FBI about these anti-Castro activities. The FBI report on this interview stated: "Rorke advised that in the event Fiorini would be arrested for his anti-Castro activities, he, Rorke, having good connections with a well-known newspaper chain, will make plenty of trouble for those involved. For the information of the Bureau, the newspaper chain, will make plenty of trouble for those involved."

Rorke and Geoffrey Sullivan made several flights over Cuba, including a bombing raid on a refinery area near Havana on 25th April 1963. Later that year Rorke began working for Luis Somoza, former president of Nicaragua. Jacqueline Rorke said her husband told her he was going to Mangua to see Somoza about opening an export-import business, but that he and Sullivan filed a flight plan in Fort Lauderdale for Panama. After refueling at Cozumel, they changed the flight plan to make Tegucigalpa, Honduras, their destination.

Rorke and Sullivan and a passenger identified as Enrique Molina Garcia, took off from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on 24th September, 1963. Later that day their aircraft disappeared while flying over Cuba. According to a statement released by Sherman Billingsley: "They were last seen when they were kidnapped or captured and are being held by the agents of an unfriendly government or, possibly, by that government itself."

Alexander Irwin Rorke was declared legally dead in 1968.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrorkeA.htm

For more on Rorke see this discussion on the Forum:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14295

When the Labour Party was elected in the 1964 General Election, Harold Wilson, the new prime minister, appointed Denis Healey as his Secretary of State for Defence. Wilson later commented: "He (Healey) is a strange person. When he was at Oxford he was a communist. Then friends took him in hand, sent him to the Rand Corporation of America, where he was brainwashed and came back very right wing. But his method of thinking was still what it had been: in other words, the absolute certainty that he was right and everybody else was wrong, and not merely wrong through not knowing the proper answers, but wrong through malice. I had very little trouble with him on his own subject, but he has a very good quick brain and can be very rough. He probably intervened in Cabinet with absolute certainty about other departments more than any minister I have ever known, but he was a strong colleague and much respected."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRhealeyD.htm

I don't believe Wilson was a KGB agent but he did suspect some of his Labour colleagues were working for the CIA. When the Labour Party was elected in the 1964 General Election, Wilson, the new prime minister, appointed Denis Healey as his Secretary of State for Defence. Wilson later commented: "He (Healey) is a strange person. When he was at Oxford he was a communist. Then friends took him in hand, sent him to the Rand Corporation of America, where he was brainwashed and came back very right wing. But his method of thinking was still what it had been: in other words, the absolute certainty that he was right and everybody else was wrong, and not merely wrong through not knowing the proper answers, but wrong through malice. I had very little trouble with him on his own subject, but he has a very good quick brain and can be very rough. He probably intervened in Cabinet with absolute certainty about other departments more than any minister I have ever known, but he was a strong colleague and much respected."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRhealeyD.htm

James Robinson and Polly Curtis The Guardian, Tuesday 23 August 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/23/andy-coulson-news-international-tories

David Cameron is facing fresh questions about his decision to hire Andy Coulson in 2007 after it was reported that his former communications director received several hundred thousand pounds from his former employer News International after he was hired by the Conservative party.

The BBC's Robert Peston said that Coulson received cash payments from the company until the end of 2007 after his resignation as editor of the News of the World in January of that year.

Coulson resigned after Clive Goodman, the former royal editor at the paper, which was closed last month, was jailed for illegally intercepting voicemail messages.

The title's owner News International allegedly agreed to honour the remainder of Coulson's two-year contract, and the money was paid in instalments. Coulson also continued to receive other benefits, including private health insurance and a company car, for several years.

He took up his post as director of communications at the Conservative party in July 2007.

The alleged payments ended before Cameron became prime minister but the fact one of Cameron's closest advisers was receiving money from News International after he started work for the Tories will cast doubt over Coulson's impartiality. The spotlight will again fall on Cameron's close ties with the Murdoch media empire because of the revelations.

Conservative party sources insisted on Monday night they had no knowledge of any News International payments made to Coulson, after checks were made with every senior party official who might have been involved in hiring him in 2007.

Rumours of a financial relationship between Coulson and News International have circulated for some time. It is understood that, prior to him standing down as director of communications in January this year, party officials had asked Coulson directly whether he had received payments from News International during the period he had worked for them. They were seemingly confident enough to give the "categorical" assurances that he hadn't as recently as last month.

On 12 July, when asked by the Guardian, a senior Conservative party official said: "We can give categorical assurances that he wasn't paid by any other source. Andy Coulson's only salary, his only form of income, came from the party during the years he worked for the party and in government."

Coulson was asked by the Commons culture, media and sport committee in 2009 whether he had received a payment from the company. He told MPs it was a private matter but added he would be prepared to discuss it privately with John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP who chairs it.

In February, the Conservative party spokesman, Henry MacRory, told the Guardian: "I'm 100% satisfied that there is no truth in the suggestion that Andy was bankrolled by News International or by anybody else."

And Michael Spencer who was party, treasurer said: "I have no knowledge of it and would think it is highly unlikely that there was any such arrangement."

Labour MP Tom Watson, who sits on the culture, media and sport committee, said the money could be classed as a donation to the Tory party which should have been declared to the Electoral Commission.

"This is a remarkable revelation" Watson said. "Not only was Coulson being paid when he gave evidence to the committee, he failed to declare it. I will be writing to the electoral commission to invite them to look into this."

Under electoral law both the donor and recipient are obligated to report donations, meaning that if the payments are interpreted as donations in kind to the party, both News International and the party could face sanctions.

On Monday night Watson, who has vigorously pursued the hacking affair and emerged as one of Rupert Murdoch's most trenchant critics, also said: "We need to be certain that everyone involved in hiring Andy Coulson was not aware of these additional payments from NI. We need a cast iron guarantee nobody knew."

The allegations raise more questions about how closely Coulson was scrutinised by Cameron and his team before he was offered the role as one of the future prime minister's most senior advisors and whether he was subjected to the appropriate checks.

It emerged earlier this year that Coulson did not receive the same security clearance as officials of similar seniority after he entered Downing Street.

A Labour spokesman said: "David Cameron now faces allegations that one of his top advisers was also in the pay of News International. The prime minister needs to immediately make clear whether these allegations are true.

"There are serious questions to answer about Mr Coulson's employment in Downing Street and the country should not have to wait for full transparency."

News International paid off Clive Goodman, who received in £242,000, after he threatened to sue the company in 2007. Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the company, also received a payment. Both men are believed to have received their settlements in instalments.

A spokesman for News International said on Monday night: "News International consistently does not comment on the financial arrangements of any individual."

Thomas Spence, a schoolteacher from Newcastle arrived in London in December 1792. Over the next twenty-two years Spence developed a reputation as an important radical figure in Britain. He wrote books, pamphlets and produced a journal, Pigs Meat, where he argued for the radical transformation of society. The publication of this material resulted in him enduring several periods of imprisonment.

Spence did not believe in a centralized radical body and instead encouraged the formation of small groups that could meet in local public houses. At these meetings Thomas Spence argued that "if all the land in Britain was shared out equally, there would be enough to give every man, woman and child seven acres each". At night the men walked the streets and chalked on the walls slogans such as "Spence's Plan and Full Bellies" and "The Land is the People's Farm". In 1800 and 1801 the authorities believed that Spence and his followers were responsible for bread riots in London. However, they did not have enough evidence to arrest them for this offence.

Thomas Spence died in September 1814. He was buried by "forty disciples" who pledged that they would keep his ideas alive. They did this by forming the Society of Spencean Philanthropists. The men met in small groups all over London. These meetings mainly took place in public houses and they discussed the best way of achieving an equal society. Places used included the Mulberry Tree in Moorfields, the Carlisle in Shoreditch, the Cock in Soho, the Pineapple in Lambeth, the White Lion in Camden, the Horse and Groom in Marylebone and the Nag's Head in Carnaby Market.

The government became very concerned about this group that they employed a spy, John Castle, to join the Spenceans and report on their activities. In October 1816 Castle reported to John Stafford, supervisor of Home Office spies, that the Spenceans were planning to overthrow the British government.

On 2nd December 1816, the Spencean group organised a mass meeting at Spa Fields, Islington. The speakers at the meeting included Henry 'Orator' Hunt and James Watson. The magistrates decided to disperse the meeting and while Stafford and eighty police officers were doing this, one of the men, Joseph Rhodes, was stabbed. The four leaders of the Spenceans, James Watson, Arthur Thistlewood, Thomas Preston and John Hopper were arrested and charged with high treason.

James Watson was the first to be tried. However, the main prosecution witness was the government spy, John Castle. The defence council was able to show that Castle had a criminal record and that his testimony was unreliable. The jury concluded that Castle was an agent provocateur (a person employed to incite suspected people to some open action that will make them liable to punishment) and refused to convict Watson. As the case against Watson had failed, it was decided to release the other three men who were due to be tried for the same offence.

The Spenceans continued to meet after the trial but the members now disagreed about the future strategy of the group. Arthur Thistlewood was convinced a successful violent revolution was possible. James Watson now doubted the wisdom of this strategy and although he still attended meetings, he gradually lost control of the group to the more militant ideas of Thistlewood.

The government remained concerned about the Spenceans and in January, 1817 John Stafford asked a police officer, George Ruthven, to join the group. Ruthven discovered that the Spenceans were planning an armed rising. Arthur Thistlewood, claimed at one meeting that he could raise 15,000 armed men in just half an hour. As a result of this information, John Williamson, John Shegoe, James Hanley, George Edwards and Thomas Dwyer were also recruited by Stafford to spy on the Spenceans.

The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester increased the amount of anger the Spenceans felt towards the government. At one meeting a spy reported that Arthur Thistlewood said: "High Treason was committed against the people at Manchester. I resolved that the lives of the instigators of massacre should atone for the souls of murdered innocents."

On 22nd February 1820, George Edwards pointed out to Arthur Thistlewood an item in the New Times that said several members of the British government were going to have dinner at Lord Harrowby's house at 39 Grosvenor Square the following night. Thistlewood argued that this was the opportunity they had been waiting for. It was decided that a group of Spenceans would gain entry to the house and kill all the government ministers. The heads of Lord Castlereagh and Lord Sidmouth would be placed on poles and taken around the slums of London. Thistlewood was convinced that this would incite an armed uprising that would overthrow the government. This would be followed by the creation of a new government committed to creating a society based on the ideas of Thomas Spence.

Over the next few hours Thistlewood attempted to recruit as many people as possible to take part in the plot. Many people refused and according to the police spy, George Edwards, only twenty-seven people agreed to participate. This included William Davidson, James Ings, Richard Tidd, John Brunt, John Harrison, James Wilson, Richard Bradburn, John Strange, Charles Copper, Robert Adams and John Monument.

William Davidson had worked for Lord Harrowby in the past and knew some of the staff at Grosvenor Square. He was instructed to find out more details about the cabinet meeting. However, when he spoke to one of the servants he was told that the Earl of Harrowby was not in London. When Davidson reported this news back to Arthur Thistlewood, he insisted that the servant was lying and that the assassinations should proceed as planned.

One member of the gang, John Harrison, knew of a small, two-story building in Cato Street that was available for rent. The ground-floor was a stable and above that was a hayloft. As it was only a short distance from Grosvenor Square, it was decided to rent the building as a base for the operation. Edwards told Stafford of the plan and Richard Birnie, a magistrate at Bow Street, was put in charge of the operation. Lord Sidmouth instructed Birnie to use men from the Second Battalion Coldstream Guards as well as police officers from Bow Street to arrest the Cato Street Conspirators.

Birnie decided to send George Ruthven, a police officer and former spy who knew most of the Spenceans, to the Horse and Groom, a public house that overlooked the stable in Cato Street. On 23rd February, Ruthven took up his position at two o'clock in the afternoon. Soon afterwards Thistlewood's gang began arriving at the stable. By seven thirty Richard Birnie and twelve police officers joined Ruthven at Cato Street.

The Coldstream Guards had not arrived and Birnie decided he had enough men to capture the Cato Street gang. Birnie gave orders for Ruthven to carry out the task while he waited outside. Inside the stable the police found James Ings on guard. He was quickly overcome and George Ruthven led his men up the ladder into the hayloft where the gang were having their meeting. As he entered the loft Ruthven shouted, "We are peace officers. Lay down your arms." Arthur Thistlewood and William Davidson raised their swords while some of the other men attempted to load their pistols. One of the police officers, Richard Smithers, moved forward to make the arrests but Thistlewood stabbed him with his sword. Smithers gasped, "Oh God, I am..." and lost consciousness. Smithers died soon afterwards.

Some of the gang surrendered but others like William Davidson were only taken after a struggle. Four of the conspirators, Thistlewood, John Brunt, Robert Adams and John Harrison escaped out of a back window. However, George Edwards had given the police a detailed list of all those involved and the men were soon arrested.

Eleven men were eventually charged with being involved in the Cato Street Conspiracy. After the experience of the previous trial of the Spenceans, Lord Sidmouth was unwilling to use the evidence of his spies in court. George Edwards, the person with a great deal of information about the conspiracy, was never called. Instead the police offered to drop charges against certain members of the gang if they were willing to give evidence against the rest of the conspirators. Two of these men, Robert Adams and John Monument, agreed and they provided the evidence needed to convict the rest of the gang.

William Davidson said in court: "It is an ancient custom to resist tyranny... And our history goes on further to say, that when another of their Majesties the Kings of England tried to infringe upon those rights, the people armed, and told him that if he did not give them the privileges of Englishmen, they would compel him by the point of the sword... Would you not rather govern a country of spirited men, than cowards? I can die but once in this world, and the only regret left is, that I have a large family of small children, and when I think of that, it unmans me." Davidson was born in Jamaica in 1781. The illegitimate son of the Jamaican Attorney General and a local black woman, William was sent to Glasgow at the age of fourteen to study law. While in Scotland he became involved in the demand for parliamentary reform.

On 28th April 1820, Arthur Thistlewood, William Davidson, James Ings, Richard Tidd, and John Brunt were found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. John Harrison, James Wilson, Richard Bradburn, John Strange and Charles Copper were also found guilty but their original sentence of execution was subsequently commuted to transportation for life. Thistlewood, Davidson, Ings, Tidd and Brunt were executed at Newgate Prison on the 1st May, 1820.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRcato.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRthistlewood.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRdavidson.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRings.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRbrunt.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRtidd.htm

Interestingly, Zach Sklar who co-wrote the script wanted Jon Voight as Garrison.

He would have been good I think.

I think Jeff Bridges would make a good Jim Garrison.

Glenn Mulcaire ordered to reveal who told him to hack phones

Steve Coogan leads battle to reveal whether News of the World ordered hacking of Elle MacPherson and five other public figures

By Lisa O'Carroll

guardian.co.uk,

Friday 19 August 2011 11.43 BST

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone hacking, has been ordered by a court to reveal who instructed him to access the voicemails of model Elle MacPherson and five other public figures including Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes.

Mulcaire is due to reveal these details by the end of next week in a move that will throw further light on the scale of phone hacking at the now defunct News International tabloid.

The Guardian has learned that Mulcaire has lost an attempt to appeal against a court order obliging him to identify who instructed him to hack the phones, something he has resisted since February.

Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to hacking the phones of members of the royal household for the News of the World, has been forced into making the disclosure following legal action by the comedian and actor Steve Coogan.

A very significant development.