Talking of Marks at the BBC (as we were in the post now bumped up above this one!)...
One I trust vastly more than slippery Mark Easton - namely Newsnight's Mark Urban - has been digging into the 'Corbyn=Czechoslovak spy' story.
And, yes, as I result of what I've read from Mark (on Twitter) this afternoon, I'm going to go out on a blogger's limb and firmly predict (with no other evidence yet to to support it other than knowing what the BBC is like) that...
...yes, Newsnight is finally going to report the story tonight - and, even more, is actually 'go big' with it.
...drum roll please!...
...yes, Newsnight is finally going to report the story tonight - and, even more, is actually 'go big' with it.
And why do I think that? Because Mark has sounded the 'All Clear' for the far-left Labour leader.
Yes, from his digging, all's apparently coming up smelling of Bohemian, Moravian and Slovakian roses for Agent Cob...
- 1/3 spoke to some fmr British spooks about the Corbyn 'Czech spy' claim. They consider it nonsense, 'he had no secrets to give away' says one, E. Bloc officers in London 'had a pattern of exaggerating the importance of their contacts' says another
- 2/3 most intelligence agencies define an agent as 'under control', or 'taskable', say former spooks, & having had full access to Czech StB files post cold war, MI6 evidently do not consider Corbyn met that definition
- 3/3 one former case officer jokes Corbyn 'may have been naive in his contacts [with a Czech spook] but I'm not looking for any more evidence of his naivety'.
- p.s. British intelligence officers had the run of Czech & Stasi files at the end of the Cold War + Mitrokhin gave them the KGB's crown jewels. For many years they've had the evidence who betrayed what and to whom.
After its most respected reporter has now found the Labour leader innocent of being a Soviet bloc agent, shall we take bets on how long Newsnight will spend on the story tonight, having spent no time whatsoever on it up till now?
What do you reckon? No time at all? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 15 minutes? More?
Guido Fawkes, however, isn't sounding the 'all clear' and is continuing to do its own digging.
If Newsnight takes the impartial high ground and doesn't much a lot of Mark Urban's researches today, after ignoring the story for nigh on two weeks, I'll give them credit tomorrow.
I really doubt they'll be able to contain themselves though.
We'll soon know.
Update: And the answer is: They didn't cover it. I'm about as 'mystic' as 'Mystic Meg' herself!
Update: And the answer is: They didn't cover it. I'm about as 'mystic' as 'Mystic Meg' herself!
Mark Urban might be the best of a bad bunch, but he's flattered by the "competition".
ReplyDeleteRegarding his relaying of viewpoints (not news):
1. Corbyn might not have had "secrets" as in "government secrets" but he could well have been feeding useful information about the nuclear disarmament campaign and the Labour Party's internal debate on that to Communist regimes. Referencing "exaggeration" by E bloc operatives in the UK, that cannot be assessed in this particular case without further investigation.
2. So what. Maybe he wasn't 'under control', or 'taskable'. That doesn't mean he wasn't a source of useful insider information on the nuclear disarmament campaign.
3. The naivety comment is meaningless. What's are we supposed to conclude from that? A naive person can easily pass on useful information to one's adversaries.
PS. Do we really think our intelligence services are all seeing and all knowing after the dodgy dossier, counter-terrorism failures and numerous other episodes of incompetence.
Well if Mark/Newsnight have swung into crisis management action with a winner, not sure their client has helped much.
ReplyDeletePulling a Colonel Nathan Jessup and muttering darkly about the press getting their comeuppance may not go down well with the 4th estate.
It is odd that one man should meet with everyone that I’d consider to be an eneamy of my country even if there’s no spying envolved.
ReplyDeleteSoviets during the Cold War, IRA, Muslim Terror organisations etc etc.