CLIMATEGATE BBC TERROR ALERT

CLIMATEGATE BBC TERROR ALERT

>> TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2010

Fishy. Some days ago, the excellent Bishop Hill site broke the news that - rather bizzarely - the police National Domestic Extremism Unit is involved in investigating the ClimateGate leak at the University of East Anglia. The BBC has finally woken up to the story, and there are worrying signs that it is somehow part of the saga. First of all, it adamantly describes the leak as a "hack" even though this has not yet been established. Second, they have this extremely odd quote from the police:

"At present we have two police officers assisting Norfolk with their investigation, and we have also provided computer forensic expertise. While this is not strictly a domestic extremism matter, as a national police unit we had the expertise and resource to assist with this investigation, as well as good background knowledge of climate change issues in relation to criminal investigations."

If I had been the journalist covering this story, I'd be asking first of all what the hell a terrorist unit is doing involved in 'climate change'and what "expertise" in this field they claim to have. Second, with the world still on terrorist alert after the latest attempt to blow up a plane, how can a terrorist unit spare resources to investigate file hacking (if indeed, that is what it was) when the only 'victim' of this alleged crime is academic internal mail - and the leak was in any case in the public interest?

But not the BBC. It's creepy beyond words that Climategate should be bracketed by the police as a terrorism incident, and equally so that the BBC should broadcast this chilling quote without asking such basic questions. My guess is that the police asked the BBC to carry the story as damage limitation because they suddenly realised that linking Climategate to terrorism was extremely questionable. In overall terms, the BBC has dismissed the importance of Climategate, but if it will provide material to attack 'deniers', they are on the case like a rat up a drain pipe.

Unbelievable

Here’s something that deserves to be aired on B-BBC.

Guantanamo Guard reunited with ex-inmates.

“But what were the pair doing in Afghanistan in 2001?
They explain that, being in their late teens and early twenties at the time, they had made a naïve, spontaneous decision to travel for free with an aid convoy weeks before a friend’s wedding, due to take place in Pakistan.”

If you believe that you’ll believe anything. The BBC seems to.
Harry’s Place shows the BBC sanitising radical Islam, and yet again meddling in an area that it shouldn’t.
An update includes a transcript of part of an interview on R5 where Victoria Derbyshire asks some questions, but eventually seems to give the Tipton Three the benefit of the doubt.

Another Labour Luvvie

The BBC began election year with a new topical comedy show hosted by aTory-hating Labour supporter. What next, Labour luvvie Dermot O'Leary presenting election coverage? Actually, yes:

X Factor host Dermot O'Leary told of his "excitement" at the prospect of fronting a political show in the run-up to the general election.
The 36-year-old told the Radio Times he is obsessed with politics - but said the show would not be "particularly serious".
The magazine said O'Leary is in talks with the BBC about presenting a political programme.
O'Leary said: "I won't be the man with the swingometer, but politics is a huge obsession with me, so I'm incredibly excited about it.

Here's O'Leary talking to the Guardian in 2003:

Labour, Tory, Liberal or Socialist Workers?

I suspect that these days I'm politically closest to the Socialist Workers, but they'd take all my money so it's still Labour.

And from an article in the Independent in May 2005:

Shortly before the general election, O'Leary was branded a Labour luvvie after inadvertently suggesting at a Make Poverty History rally that Tony Blair should become head of state.

That rally, which took place during the 2005 election campaign, was covered by Ben MacIntyre in The Times:

OH, LUVVIE, I can’t tell you how marvellous it was; truly, darling, an unforgettable performance. There we were at the Old Vic Theatre — just twelve hundred of Labour’s closest friends — waiting for Tony and Gordon to do their matinee double act, when the whispered word went round the audience that the greatest political performer of our times would be making a cameo appearance — none other than old blue eyes, schmoozer in chief, the trouser president: Bill Clinton himself, via live satellite link.

The occasion was a rally — the biggest of the campaign so far — to mark World Poverty Day and held by the Make Poverty History coalition. Everybody who was anybody was there, le tout Labour: there was Dermot O’Leary, Big Brother presenter, and Alastair Campbell, Big Brother enforcer, and June Sarpong, the Channel 4 presenter.

The announcement of Ms Sarpong's addition to the BBC election team can only be a matter of time.