The SKWAWKBOX’s articles on events at the ‘Battle of Orgreave’ during the 1984 miners’ strike have been among the most read in the history of this blog, especially the new evidence uncovered and presented on the involvement of army personnel, dressed in police uniforms, who were among the most aggressive toward picketing miners, including the use of iron bars, pipes and ‘knuckle-dusters’.
As a result of that article, a former ‘highly-placed source’ contacted this blog, on condition of anonymity, to provide further information that underscores the authenticity of accounts of armed forces personnel impersonating police officers during the miners’ strike – and shows that this practice continued for many years afterward. In the exchange below, ‘S’ is the SKWAWKBOX and ‘X’ is the anonymous whistleblower:
S: Thank you for coming forward. Why have you done so?
X: I’m by no means what people would consider a natural ally of the miners – or of your blog, for that matter. But I have this awkward thing about preferring the truth to spin and the government’s spin on these matters is so far from the truth that I had to speak out.
S: I appreciate it and I’m sure many others will, too. What is it that you want to contribute?
X: I have no personal knowledge of Orgreave, but in the late 1990s it was my job for a number of years to assign military personnel in support of the police in operations.
S: Operations against whom?
X: Against any group considered ‘extremist’ by both Major and Blair governments.
S: So not just potential terrorists?
X: No. Any group considered to have ‘extreme’ views according to the government.
S: What kind of ‘military personnel’?
X: The SAS. Also, bomb disposal units, intelligence corps personnel. Often there were signals specialists to set up eavesdropping as well.
S: And they carried out their tasks in police uniform?
X: Absolutely. It was common practice for them to dress as policemen to disguise the fact that they were military personnel.
This source – which is not the only one to have contacted this writer – is preparing a more detailed account of the operations in question, but this information is already enough to make a mockery of the government’s rationale for denying a full inquiry into Orgreave.
Not only that, but it shows that successive governments have routinely used the UK’s armed forces against its own citizens – and to falsely present them as police officers who ‘police by consent’.
Regardless of your political persuasion, this should be of serious concern to you if you value civic freedoms and the integrity of our public institutions.
Are you really surprised!! Ask any old time member of the CPGB about their telephone clicks years ago.
With so much to hide, we’ll never get the public inquiry into Orgreave without a massive unrelenting campaign. We must not give up.
Reblogged this on The SKWAWKBOX and commented:
I first posted this article for its relevance to Orgreave and the need for a full, public inquiry.
However, in light of former PM Tony Blair’s team trailing that he intends to make a return to UK politics, it’s even more urgently relevant, as it shows that Blair used UK troops, disguised as police, against UK citizens, in the UK – simply because he considered their politics dangerous.
Blair supposedly plans his comeback because he sees a ‘gap’ in the political ‘market’ (that word tells you everything) between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.
Since Mrs May’s introduction of the ‘snooper’s charter’, that gap, if it exists, is almost exactly overlaid on the position of the Tory party – except that at least the Tory Prime Minister is going to the trouble of legalising it first.
If you prefer your war criminals to be as keen on acting against their own citizens as those abroad, then just maybe you have a ‘gap’ for Blair. Thankfully, I think few do – so spread this information and let’s see off this narcissist before he can do even more harm.
Soldiers masquerading as policemen makes sense under Thatcher. It’s just astonishing Blair took his admiration for her to this level. In any event, the perceived ‘gap’ is already occupied by the ghastly back-stabbers on the right of the Labour Party (Benn jr, Kinnock jr, Eagle etc), so hopefully Blair’s ‘comeback’ is a pipedream. Blairism is dead.
Reblogged this on L8in.
The SAS were at Orgreave. My friend’s father was at Orgreave and saw his nephew there who was a young SAS trooper. He told him to keep his mouth shut. He told his direct family, but nobody else seemed interested at the time. After the 1980 embassy siege, Thatcher developed a taste for dispatching “her boys” in domestic situations. Another example is the riot at Peterhead prison in 1987.