Mr Damian Green made it clear where he felt the responsibility lay
"I believe in the old Italian phrase that the fish rots from the head
down."
He said Miss Smith was "a poor Home Secretary" who had shown poor
judgement.
mark, learn and inwardly digest it because it gives a good picture of
how appalling the (mis)governance of our country has become.
Day by day the scandals mount. And day by day the same names are
either totally lacking in any moral sense (the prime minister), or
blind to what is right (Jacqui Smith, and all the others fiddling the
books), or behaving arrogantly and without natural justice (Jacqui
Smith, The Speaker, Gus O'Donell, police chief Bob Quick). lying
(prime minister, and alkl the rest of them) . Incompetence is on;y
to be expected so I don't list them.
As the old record on wind-up gramphones used to sing "The Music goes
round and around, (Ooh Ah, Ooh Ah) And it comes out here"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
===============================
TELEGRAPH 16.4.09
Damian Green cleared: Jacqui Smith under pressure over Home Office
leaks investigation
Jacqui Smith is under renewed pressure after the announcement that
Damian Green, the Tory frontbench MP arrested over the controversial
Home Office leaks inquiry, will not face charges.
By Andrew Porter, Richard Edwards and Tom Whitehead
The Director of Public Prosecutions said that the case against Mr
Green and Home Office official Christopher Galley, which caused a
major political row and raised questions over heavy-handed policing,
has been dropped.
Gordon Brown and Miss Smith, the Home Secretary, have both previously
defended the police inquiry. Both will now have to react to the
devastating statement from the CPS.
Mr Green said that responsibility "lies with ministers all the way up
to the Prime Minister."
Keir Starmer, the DPP, announced no charges would be brought against
Mr Green or Mr Galley. He said the documents leaked were not secret
and not a threat to national security.
He said: "It did not relate to military, policing or intelligence
matters. It did not expose anyone to a risk of injury or death. Nor,
in many respects, was it highly confidential.
"Much of it was known to others outside the civil service. For
example, in the security industry or the Labour Party or Parliament.
"Moreover, some of the information leaked undoubtedly touched on
matters of legitimate public interest, which were reported in the
press."
Mr Green said: "This illustrates a lot about this Government. The
first is that they are deeply embarrassed by the failures of their
immigration policy.
"They were legitimate stories that exposed that our borders were not
safe and secure. That is the job of the opposition."
Mr Green made it clear where he felt the responsibility lay. He said:
"I believe in the old Italian phrase that the fish rots from the head
down."
He said Miss Smith was "a poor Home Secretary" who had shown poor
judgement.
Mr Green and Mr Galley were arrested in November in connection with a
series of embarrassing leaks of confidential Government papers. Raids
on Mr Green's House of Commons office and home caused outrage in
Westminster.
Mr Starmer concluded that there was insufficient evidence to
prosecute Mr Galley for misconduct in public office, [watch this one
- They'll try and get revenge on HIM-cs] and Mr Green for aiding and
abetting him and conspiring to cause misconduct in a public office.
A solicitor for Mr Green said that he was "delighted" and urged
police to "to learn lessons" from the affair.
Mr Green had said he found his arrest and nine-hour questioning
"astonishing" and had always "emphatically" denied any wrongdoing,
insisting he was just doing his job.
Miss Smith insisted she had no prior knowledge that Mr Green was
about to be arrested in connection with the inquiry.
She said that, in the face of sustained leaks, it had been necessary
to prevent further sensitive material being made public.
"I have always been clear that the investigation was the
responsibility of the police," said the Home Secretary.
"My priority and the Home Office priority in this is to make sure
that we maintain the protection of some of the most sensitive
information in government. That is what we set out to do at the
beginning of this."
Scotland Yard launched the inquiry last summer after being contacted
by the Cabinet Office.
A report by the Home Affairs Committee said that civil servants
exaggerated the damage and threat to national security caused by the
leaks as they urged police to launch an investigation.
Mandarins were accused of using "hyperbolic" language in a letter to
Scotland Yard which claimed "considerable" damage had already
occurred because of some of the leaks.
The Metropolitan Police started an inquiry which led to the arrests,
led by the former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, who quit last
week over a security blunder, and sanctioned by Sir Paul Stephenson,
when he was Acting Commisioner. The report was sympathetic to the
Met's handling of the affair.
It said Mr Quick acted correctly in searching the MP's Commons office
without a warrant - having being given written permission to do so by
the Serjeant at Arms. However it criticised a "Keystone Kops" muddle
when officers could not locate Mr Green on the day of his arrest and
had to ask David Cameron for help in finding him.
The report also leaves Speaker Michael Martin facing criticism for
failing to prevent the police search of Mr Green's office and
computers. His officials gave detectives permission when they could
have insisted on a warrant.
The police were called in after Sir David Normington, the Home Office
permanent secretary, widened an original leak inquiry and gave
permission for the Cabinet Office to write to Scotland Yard after an
initial leak inquiry.
The letter, to Mr Bob Quick, even informed him that a copy had been
sent to Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5.
But the report, by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, found
there was a "clear mismatch" between the sort of material Sir David
suspected had been leaked from his department and the claims in the
letter to police over the threat to national security.
Sir David told the committee that he had been investigating at least
20 suspected leaks from the Home Office when he decided to refer the
matter to the Cabinet Office, which in turn advised the matter be
referred to the police, to which he agreed.
The letter to Mr Quick, from Cabinet Office director of security and
intelligence Chris Wright, said: "We are in no doubt that there has
been considerable damage to national security already as a result of
some of these leaks and we are concerned that the potential for
future damage is significant."
But in questioning by the committee, Sir David admitted only one of
the 20 leaks related to national security and, the report said, that
information was known elsewhere in Government, not just the Home Office.
The report said "frustration" by officials may have led them to give
"an exaggerated impression of the damage done" and appeared to
question whether the police would still have investigated in other
circumstances.
It raises fresh questions over the motive for calling in the police,
as critics last night accused officials of doing it to "hide their
embarrassment" rather than on national security grounds.
The report concluded: "We are concerned that growing frustration in
both the Home Office and Cabinet Office may have led officials to
give an exaggerated impression of the damage done by the leaks."
It added: "We think it was unhelpful to give the police the
impression the Home Office leaker(s) had already caused considerable
damage to national security."
A report is expected to be published soon into how the police
conducted the inquiry.
Mr Green is demanding officers return items of property such as bank
statements that are still being held. He also wants his DNA record
destroyed by the Metropolitan Police Service now that he has been
cleared of any wrong doing.
Alicia, Mr Green's wife, was shaken and in tears by the raid on the
family's Kent home last November. Officers looked at private love
letters and other personal effects while searching the house to find
evidence linking Mr Green to Mr Galley and the leaked information.
Mr Green said that it had been "hugely distressing for her and our
daughter" and the threat had been hanging over the family for several
months until today's decision by the CPS.
Mr Galley has been on paid leave for six months. There is anger among
some civil servants that he has admitted leaking documents and has
not yet faced censure.
The Home Office is now likely to take disciplinary action against
him. [See what I warned above !!! The DPP has said that there was
NO 'misconduct in public office' so if they try dosciplinary action
he'll have grounds to sue them! -cs]
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