Iranian Embassy SAS hero John McAleese was 'being investigated over alleged child porn offences'

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Created on Sunday, 30 September 2012 00:00

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26 September 2012

Iranian Embassy SAS hero John McAleese was 'being investigated over alleged child porn offences'

Iranian Embassy SAS hero John McAleese was locked in a secret extradition battle to bring him back to the UK to face child porn allegations before his death last month, it has been claimed.

McAleese, the SAS man who Margaret Thatcher later said made her 'proud to be British', became a national hero in 1980 after blasting open a window so his elite unit could storm the Iranian Embassy building in West London.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}Five terrorist gunmen were killed during the 17-minute raid and all 26 hostages saved as millions watched the dramatic raid on television.

The former decorated soldier, who guarded three Prime Ministers during a distinguished career, spent the last year of his life refusing to return to the UK to answer allegations that he had downloaded child pornography.

McAleese was photographed fighting back tears at his son's funeral at Hereford Cathedral on September 14, 2009.

Just four days later he was arrested and questioned by West Mercia Police officers on suspicion of downloading indecent images of children to his home computer in 2007.

He was released and bailed until a later date. McAleese is understood to have attended the police station by appointment.

Sources who knew McAleese say he had been previously contacted by British police as early as 2007, and had promised to speak to them when he returned to the UK.

After the questioning, McAleese returned to Greece where he was living with his second wife.

But he failed to answer his next bail appointment and when police contacted him in Greece he is said to have refused to return to the UK.

The authorities then began formal proceedings aimed at trying to bring McAleese back to Britain.

A hearing to obtain an international warrant for his arrest took place at Hereford Magistrates Court on March 17, 2010.

Magistrates approved the move and it is believed the warrant was sent to the Greek authorities around last November.

Senior legal sources have confirmed that extradition papers in McAleese's name were prepared. However, they would not normally have been issued until such time as the former SAS man had been arrested in Greece.

It is not known why, but it is believed Greek police never arrested the 61-year-old. And at the time of his death the outstanding international arrest warrant remained in place.

McAleese spent 23 years in the Army, 16 of them in the SAS. He joined the elite unit in 1975 and moved to Hereford.

During the height of his action-packed days in the Army, the veteran was said to 'know no pain and feel no fear'.

But it was his breathtaking bravery in the final moments of the six-day siege at the Iranian Embassy in West London in May 1980 that shot him to international acclaim.

Millions of people around the world watched the rescue live on TV as McAleese, dressed in black overalls, balaclava and gas mask - and carrying a sub-machine gun - abseiled down ropes on the balcony.

Commercial aircraft had been asked to fly much lower than usual to mask the noise caused by drills used by troops to insert listening and viewing devices in the walls.

Perched on a ledge, he then placed explosive charges to blow out the Embassy's front window.

The explosion caused half the balcony to collapse but McAleese, known to colleagues as John Mac, seemed to effortlessly dodge falling masonry before firing CS canisters into the blown-out window.

His tall, macho figure was then seen leaping into the building through a hail of gunfire. He led more than 30 masked troops to storm the building.

The five-storey embassy had been taken over by six armed Iranian dissidents who had 26 hostages, most of them staff, but also including a number of visitors.

Their 'cause' was to demand freedom for a small oil-rich area of West Iran. During the 17-minute raid, five of the gunmen were killed and one was arrested.

All the hostages were saved. The daring rescue raid was the first time an SAS operation had ever been filmed.

The live broadcast catapulted the previously shadowy regiment to one with international status. It also made a national hero of McAleese, who was dubbed The Man On The Balcony.

The veteran later told a 2008 documentary: 'We knew what those guys were like. They kill people. They'd killed others. They're baddies. They were on our home soil and it was like they were the invaders.

'My only job at this point was to get on the balcony, place the charge, get back, blow it, turn around and go back in through the window.'

Describing how he had killed one terrorist brandishing a grenade, he added: 'I could tell by the look on his face that he knew he was dead.'

On the night of the raid, the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited some of the SAS team who had taken part in the raid.

But when she walked in front of a TV screen replaying the rescue footage, McAleese reportedly yelled 'F***ing sit down, Maggie, I can't see!'

Mrs Thatcher later said the SAS made her feel 'proud to be British'.

McAleese also worked as a bodyguard to three prime ministers during his distinguished career.

After the siege he went on to serve in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and was awarded the Military Medal for his work there.

He was discharged from the Army in 1992. McAleese later worked as a private security consultant in Iraq and Afghanistan and as an instructor in Airsoft, an outdoor war game using realistic weapons but non-lethal ammunition.

He hosted the 2003 BBC series SAS: Are You Tough Enough and also ran a pub in Hereford for a while.

Two years ago McAleese was devastated by the death of his 29-year-old son Paul, a sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, the Rifles, who was killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan while trying to rescue a colleague.

John McAleese's funeral will take place at Hereford Cathedral on Thursday. It is thought he will be buried alongside other fallen SAS comrades. Hereford Magistrates Court would not comment on the case.

A Ministry of Justice, spokeswoman said she was also unable to make any comment because she was unable to check the relevant court records.

West Mercia Police was also unable to comment on the matter.

Source: The Mail, 19 September 2011

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Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai expelled from Communist party

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Category: The World

Created on Friday, 28 September 2012 00:00

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28 September 2012

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai expelled from Communist party

Bo faces multiple criminal charges and is accused of bearing 'major responsibility' in relation to murder of Neil Heywood

Tania Branigan in Beijing

The disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been expelled from the Communist party and faces multiple criminal charges, including abusing power and taking massive bribes.

{sidebar id=11 align=right}He is also accused of bearing "major responsibility" in relation to his wife's murder of a British businessman and maintaining improper sexual relationships with several women.

The decision by the 25-member Politburo, to which Bo once belonged, means he is all but certain to face the biggest political court case since the show trial of the Gang of Four in 1981, following the cultural revolution.

The scandal surrounding his family, which led to his wife Gu Kailai's conviction last month for the murder of Neil Heywood, has overshadowed this year's transition of power to a new generation of leaders – now set for early November.

The 18th party congress will start on 8 November, the state news agency Xinhua said in a separate dispatch; a few weeks later than had been anticipated. That could allow sufficient time for Bo, the former party secretary of Chongqing, to be charged and tried before the meeting opens. The Xinhua report gave no indication of where or when he would stand trial.

The 63-year-old was once tipped for higher office in this autumn's handover. Many in China are privately sceptical about the true causes of his fall, suggesting corruption and power abuses alone are not sufficient to unseat senior leaders. He is known to have alienated many in the party with his obvious ambition.

Chongqing's former police chief, Wang Lijun, precipitated his former patron's fall by fleeing to a US consulate after telling Bo he believed Gu had killed Heywood, and repeating his claims to diplomats.

Wang was convicted of defection, helping to cover up Heywood's murder and other crimes earlier this month. Xinhua said Bo "bore major responsibility in the Wang Lijun incident and the intentional homicide case of Bogu Kailai", but did not specify how.

The allegation may relate to a claim aired in Wang's trial, that Bo slapped Wang and turned on him after learning of his suspicions. Xinhua added: "He took advantage of his office to seek profits for others and received huge bribes personally and through his family.

"His position was also abused by his wife, Bogu Kailai, to seek profits for others and his family thereby accepted a huge amount of money and property from others.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}"Bo had affairs and maintained improper sexual relationships with a number of women."

It said he had made wrong choices in promoting people "leading to serious consequences" and added that the party investigation "found clues to his suspected involvement in other crimes". The news agency said Bo had seriously violated party discipline as mayor of Dalian, a position he held more than a decade ago, as well as in his roles as minister of commerce and then party secretary of Chongqing.

His actions had "badly undermined the reputation of the party and the country, created very negative impact at home and abroad and significantly damaged the cause of the party and people", it added.

The twin announcements were made on Friday evening, while millions of Chinese citizens were getting away for the start of the week-long October holiday.

The long silence over Bo's case – there had been no word on him since officials announced in spring he was facing an internal party investigation – allied with the long wait for the announcement of the congress and the mysterious absence of heir apparent Xi Jinping earlier this month had led to extensive speculation about disagreements at the top of the party.

Steve Tsang, an expert on Chinese politics at Nottingham University, said: "The fact they can agree on a solution over Bo Xilai suggests they have come to some sort of general agreement … It actually looks better than a few weeks or months ago in the sense that the leadership being able to reach some kind of agreement on the details of the succession."

Analysts initially believed that leaders would be reluctant to try Bo because of his connections as the "princeling" son of a revered revolutionary leader, Bo Yibo, his enduring popularity in some quarters of society, particularly among neo-Maoists and in his former strongholds of Dalian and Chongqing, and because it would raise so many questions about the behaviour of China leaders in general.

Some also suggested that Bo might attempt to use a trial to fight back. That could still be the case, said Tsang, suggesting authorities might hold the hearings in private if they worried about his reaction.

"The difference with Wang Lijun and Gu Kailai is that there was no point for them to use the trial as political theatre which could only bring a harsher sentence," said Tsang. "The chances of [Bo] having a comeback are practically zero and he's not going to get a bullet through the head. How much difference can it make whether he gets 15 years or zero? He might well decide he didn't want to play ball."

The Gang of Four tried in 1981 consisted of Mao Zedong's last wife, Jiang Qing, and her associates Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen.

The Guardian UK

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A love affair that didn't last the summer

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Category: The World

Created on Friday, 28 September 2012 00:00

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A love affair that didn't last the summer

France: A love affair that didn't last the summer

With unemployment nosing past 3 million and growth flat-lining, bad news has surrounded still-fresh President Francois Hollande since the French got back from their long, paid summer holidays.

Opinion polls say 68 percent of the French feel pessimistic about their future - a highest-ever figure for the first months of a presidential term of office. With his personal approval rating dropping 11 points since his May election victory, the new French leader - despite his gay and affable nature - may be on his way to joining them.

It is true that it is early days. Nobody can turn a country around in four months. This week, the president said he would need two years. But, as the French well remember, his election campaign slogan was: "Le Changement - c'est maintenant!" [Change - it's now!], not "Le Changement dans deux ans" [Change in two years].

"The French have the impression that he has been wasting time," says Marie-Eve Malouines, head of the political service at France Info radio and author of a biography of the new president. "There was a lot of bad news during the summer and the president seemed inactive."

For his opponents, there's only one thing worse than Hollande inaction: Hollande action.

Cyrille Darrigade of the association of self-employed entrepreneurs - a status created by Hollande's predecessor and which is now enjoyed by a million people - says "he looks more and more like someone who does not keep his promises."

Hollande has pledged to un-do Sarkozy's cost-saving retirement pension reform and junk his predecessor's policy of not replacing one out of two public servants when they reach retirement age.

At the same time he has promised to hire 10,000 more police and 40,000 more teachers. While promising to reduce the deficit and France's massive debt.

Lopsided partnership

So how's he going to do it?

Perhaps he should have had a different election slogan: "Read my lips. More taxes!"

"For us self-employed entrepreneurs he is increasing taxes on our earnings," says Darrigade.

“The new government has also announced it is raising obligatory employers' national insurance and other contributions which will make employing people more expensive and he is re-introducing tax on overtime” (which Sarkozy abolished).

The growing opposition to Hollande says that all of these measures are making France less competitive. And yet the new president promised to defend French industry, creating a new ministry for "productive recovery."

One of its first challenges was the announcement by car maker Peugeot that it was closing its plant at Aulnay, laying off 8,000 workers.

Hollande first said this was “unacceptable” before admitting that it was "inevitable."

As the economy falters, the gap between France and Germany has been getting wider. The “Franco-German motor” looking like a Mercedes on one side and a Renault 5 on the other.

Germany has long been re-emerging as a major political power. Thanks to its economic strength, re-unification and Germany's Nazi past slipping, year by year, further into history.

That shift inside the Franco-German partnership was masked to some degree during the Sarkozy years because of the Frenchman's outstanding dynamism and leadership skills.

Enough Mr. Normal

Now it is likely to become more apparent.

Because Hollande has made a virtue of not being outstanding - he is at last the self-proclaimed “normal” president.

The French, Hollande perceived, had had 5 years of “hyper-presidency” with Nicolas Sarkozy and were heartily sick of it. They wanted a change from the hyper-activity and media omnipresence.

In reaction to Sarkozy, they chose a very different sort of leader from the kind they usually elect. Hollande is a compromise man. A committee man. A consensus politician of the sort you might find in Scandinavia. Very unlike the creator of France's very presidential Fifth Republic, Charles De Gaulle.

The French, though, have already had enough of Mister Normal, says his biographer Marie-Eve Malouines. “All this taking the train,” she says, “it looks too stagey.” People see through it.

And now that Sarkozy is away from the limelight, looking relaxed, tanned and stubbly in the occasional photo that crops up in the Sarkozy-worshipping Figaro newspaper, Hollande's normality is, in any case, far less appealing.

Sarkozy a much-needed adversary?

What seemed balanced and normal while Sarkozy was around now looks more like absence and insufficiency. What seemed moderate and reasonable now looks more like indecision even impotence.

And then there was the killer tweet.

Nicolas Sarkozy spent all of his five years in office trying to shake off the bad impression he gave on the very night of his election.

Instead of going straight to join the crowds massing to celebrate his victory on the Place de la Concorde, Sarkozy chose to receive the congratulations of his business tycoon friends in the chic Champs-Elysées ‘brasserie' Fouquet's.

But early on in his presidency, Hollande also had a Fouquet's moment.

During the legislative elections that followed the presidential poll, Hollande's partner, the Paris Match journalist Valerie Trierweiler tweeted her support to a dissident Socialist Party candidate who was standing against the former PS presidential candidate Segolene Royal, Hollande's ex and mother of his four children.

This incident did not reflect well on Hollande's authority and dented his carefully created public image.

“Perhaps Hollande still seemed normal,” says Marie-Eve Malouines, “his girlfriend definitely didn't seem to be.”

It was, says Malouines, the end of Hollande's honeymoon with French public opinion.

Date 28.09.2012

Author John Laurenson, Paris

Editor Gabriel Borrud

Source: Deutsche Welle

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Megan: Teacher's Parents Make Emotional Appeal

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Category: Current Issues

Created on Thursday, 27 September 2012 00:00

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27 September 2012

Megan: Teacher's Parents Make Emotional Appeal

{sidebar id=11 align=right}Jeremy Forrest's father has urged him to get in touch and return home with schoolgirl Megan Stammers.

Jim Forrest made the appeal during a press conference at Sussex Police headquarters after a European warrant was issued for his 30-year-old son's arrest.

"Hi Megan, hi Jeremy, I hope this message reaches you and you're both okay. There are a lot of people back who home are desperate to hear from you," he said.

"All I'm asking is for one of you to send an email to let us know you're both safe. Please, please get in contact".

Mr Forrest, from Petts Wood, south east London, appeared alongside his tearful wife Julie to make the appeal a week after the pair boarded a ferry to France.

Sussex Police, who are leading the inquiry, still have no confirmed sightings of them.

The officer in charge, Chief Inspector Jason Tingley, said: "We are working closely with an enquiry team in Paris.

"Efforts abroad have been specifically focussed on information gathering. We are in a position to act swiftly to any information concerning their whereabouts".

"Locating the pair to ensure their safe return remains our top priority. This has probably not gone the way that Megan or Jeremy expected.

"Jeremy will be aware that he has questions to answer, and making contact with us is the best way he can do this.

"As part of the process of working with the French authorities, we have secured an international letter of request and a European Arrest Warrant.

"These orders, which have been obtained with the help of the Crown Prosecution Service, enable us to work with the European authorities, and are in relation to an offence of child abduction. This means taking Megan without the consent of her parents.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}"The full details of this warrant have been circulated to every EU country. When the pair are found in an EU country, Jeremy can be arrested and Megan will be taken into protection."

Chief Inspector Tingley said an officer from the Sussex force had gone to Paris to work with French police searching for the pair.

He added their tickets to France were bought in advance and that they believed Megan, 15, went willingly with Mr Forrest and was not coerced.

But he refused to comment on whether Mr Forrest was being investigated before she and Mr Forrest set off to France.

"That is part of the investigation which I'm not willing to speak about," he said. "There was clearly a line of inquiry in regards to that and we'll be following that through."

Megan's step-father has made a fresh appeal for police and the public abroad not to give up trying to find her and Mr Forrest, who taught maths at Bishop Bell C of E School in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Mr Stammers tweeted : "Please continue your efforts, if I could thank you all individually I would, your help is invaluable I implore you to RT #findmeganstammers."

The case is set to feature on the BBC's Crimewatch TV programme tonight.

Meanwhile, girl group The Saturdays have appealed for Megan to come home.

Writing on Twitter, the band's Frankie Sandford said: "Megan, on behalf of myself Mollie, Vanessa, Una and Roch, please come home or call your mum. Everyone is so worried about you! Lots of love x."

The Sun newspaper has produced missing posters in English and French to help the search for the teenager.

Megan is 5ft 6ins, slim, with long, straight, dark brown hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a white vest top and silver chain.

Mr Forrest is 6ft, slim, with fuzzy facial hair and mousy brown hair. He wears square glasses, tends to dress casually and has a black star tattoo on his upper left arm.

Anyone with information is asked to call Sussex Police on 101, quoting Operation Oakwood.

A dedicated telephone number and text number which can be used from abroad have also been set up. They are 00 44 1273 475432 or text +447786 208090.

Source: Sky NewsSky News

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