Far right on rise in Europe

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POLITICS: ‘As anti-Semitism was a unifying factor for far-right parties in the 1910s, ’20s and ’30s, Islamophobia has become the unifying factor [now]’

BY KAREN KISSANE IN PARIS, ATHENS

WHEN France’s far-right National Front was newly minted in the 1970s, the people who backed it were stereotyped as working-class roughs with shaved heads and ugly tempers, sometimes photographed at street demonstrations with their fists punching the air. That was then. This is now.
Thibault, 22, lives in Paris and has just graduated from university with a commerce degree. He has studied overseas and he and his sister Camille, 18, who is studying art history, speak fluent English. Their mother is a school teacher and their father a retired businessman.
On a mild summer evening, they mill on the pavement with a couple of dozen other young people waiting to join a meeting of the youth wing of the National Front, the nationalist party led by Marine Le Pen, daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. Jean-Marie once called the Nazi gas chambers “a detail of history”. Marine Le Pen has been accused of being Islamophobic.
Thibault has followed the party since 2002, when Jean-Marie caused a stunning upset by making it to the second round of the French presidential election.
“I couldn’t comprehend why there was so much hatred towards him and why he was being persecuted,” Thibault says. “I was aware that he had made homophobic and anti-Semitic comments and I’m happy now that such positions are no longer part of the Front National. It must be understood that he is obviously not the same age as Marine Le Pen and that he belongs to another generation . . . The party now truly reflects all of my opinions, whereas 10 years ago it would have troubled me.”
Thibault and Camille are part of the new face of the right in France, which has seen a surge of support among the young and those living in the provinces, many of whom are economic refugees fleeing the struggling banlieues (suburbs) that ring Paris.
The right is on the rise not just in France but across western Europe. There has been a similar spike in support in Greece where, at the June election, hardship and anti-immigrant feeling catapulted Golden Dawn — a more extreme right-wing party often described as neo-Nazi — into an unprecedented 18 seats in the Greek parliament.
Parties pushing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim ideas now have significant parliamentary blocs in eight countries, including Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands, where politician Geert Wilders has compared the Koran to Mein Kampf.
They feed unapologetically on growing resentment that foreigners are taking local jobs and welfare benefits. France’s anti-Muslim Bloc Identitaire serves a pork-based “identity soup” to homeless people; Greece’s Golden Dawn hands out food parcels only to people carrying Greek identity papers.
“As anti-Semitism was a unifying factor for far-right parties in the 1910s, ’20s and ’30s, Islamophobia has become the unifying factor [now],” says Thomas Klau, of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
British think tank Demos last year used Facebook to recruit more than 10,000 young supporters of 14 parties and organisations in 11 countries to answer questionnaires. The findings revealed a powerful swell in hardline nationalist sentiment in the young across the continent, particularly among men.
Demos used Facebook’s own advertising tool to extract data about 450,000 supporters of the organisations. Almost two-thirds were aged under 30, and three-quarters were male and more likely than average to be unemployed.
The resentment about outsiders is peculiarly spread. At this meeting of the youth wing of the National Front in Paris, several members are the children or grandchildren of migrants. Karime, 20, is a railway worker whose grandparents emigrated from North Africa. He, too, complains about migrants edging the French out of jobs and welfare but, for him, the main attraction to the party is Marine Le Pen; his face lights up as he talks about what a warm leader she is, and how she truly understands the problems facing the nation.
For Thibault, those problems can be summed up thus: “Past governments have failed to assimilate the incoming flux of immigrants and we are now faced with a tremendous challenge with the third generation of people from North Africa and Africa.
“They have no respect for France’s tradition and culture and seek to impose their own customs and values, which is intolerable. France is probably the most welcoming country in the world — free education and social security — but we cannot welcome all of the world’s misery. For that reason, we need to critically reduce the number of migrants.”
He has come to this view partly because of his mother’s experience teaching, he says: “She is also witnessing this change; numerous children with absent, unemployed fathers, violent and troubled. When you have 70 per cent of the class that isn’t French native and who don’t speak French, how are you supposed to pass on French culture and its heritage?”
He is also sceptical about the European Union and favours protectionism for French products. His sister, Camille, likes the Front’s zero tolerance approach to law and order issues. “There is an increasing sense of insecurity in the big cities,” she adds.
While they feel perfectly comfortable with their views, they are aware that not everyone regards the party in the same light. They chose not to use their surnames for this article in case potential employers should find them on the internet.
Le Pen ranked No. 1 of 10 candidates among young voters in the first presidential ballot earlier this year. She has softened the party’s stance in ways that appeal to a younger electorate.
French political analyst Nonna Meyer of Sciences Po says she has shifted the party away from her father’s image and rhetoric. “She’s younger, she’s a woman, she condemns anti-Semitism . . . She says she is tolerant, it is Islam that is intolerant . . . she up-ends the discourse,” Meyer says.
The opposite is the case with Golden Dawn in Greece, where the rhetoric is increasingly savage. Just before the Greek election in June, MP Ilias Panagiotaros promised that if his party were elected, “It will carry out raids on hospitals and kindergartens and it will throw immigrants and children out on the street so that Greeks can take their place.”
Kostis Papaioannou, former chairman of Greece’s National Commission for Human Rights, links Golden Dawn to rising racist violence. “This is not the rise of the extreme right,” he told The Saturday Age. “We have had the extreme right in parliament for a period; they are mainly ultra-conservatives, who pay attention to values like safety and tradition and illegal immigrants. That was as far as they went.
“But Golden Dawn — this is neo-Nazis. They openly use violence and hate speech, deny the Holocaust, and their internal structure is like an army.”
He says the party’s success at a first election in May was followed by a big rise in race attacks, such as one in Piraeus where 25 people entered a house in which Egyptian immigrants were sleeping: three managed to escape but one was badly beaten. “These people were arrested and they were members of this neo-Nazi party,” Papaioannou says.
In the last quarter of 2011, there were 70 such incidents in just two neighbourhoods of Athens. Groups attacked people who were walking or waiting for a bus, or unleashed dogs to terrify them.
“This is organised,” he says. “In many attacks there are juveniles taking part. Golden Dawn is doing very systematic work in recruiting teenagers in high schools in Athens.”
This is not an image of the party that is recognised by many of those who vote for it. Kostas Fasianis, 39, used to own a mini-market in the Athens suburbs before the economy went bad; now he is unemployed. Politically, he describes himself as a nationalist and a Golden Dawn voter. “The core of the party is people like me and you, the common people,” he says. “Its highest value is that we love our country and are patriotic.”
He wants Greece to guard its borders and deport illegal immigrants, who he believes bring diseases into the country and contribute to rising crime: “In Athens it’s become more violent and it’s uncontrollable. People nowadays, they could kill you for five euros.”
Fasianis says it is a lie to say that Golden Dawn activists have ever attacked leftists or immigrants: “There’s no truth at all to that, and it’s proved by the fact that no member of Golden Dawn was ever convicted in court,” he says.
Kostas Papadakis, 35, is the owner of an Athens mini-market and voted for Golden Dawn for the first time in June. He, too, wants a crackdown on illegal immigration, as well as a renegotiation of the sovereign debt repayment deal that is crippling the Greek economy.
“The country has changed dramatically since the first wave of immigrants,” he says. “It started with Albania, and now there are people from Africa and Afghanistan, and large parts of Athens have become ghettoes.”
For Papadakis, Golden Dawn is an alternative to the corruption of the conservatives and socialists whose economic mismanagement has brought the country to its knees. Of its more extreme elements, he says: “Yes, I also believe that there are members in Golden Dawn that act as neo-Nazis. Personally, I have nothing to do with that. I am not a neo-Nazi and not a strong supporter.
“I want Golden Dawn in the parliament to shake up the system. It’s so unjust that 10 million Greeks have to pay and suffer for the money that was embezzled by the 300 members of the Parliament.”
A World Economic Forum report on Global Risks 2012 warned that Europe’s financial crisis, with resulting 50 per cent unemployment in countries such as Spain and Greece, was sowing “the seeds of dystopia”.
Those seeds have begun to sprout.

First published in The Age.

Hacking trial will keep PM’s judgment in spotlight

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LONDON

The leadership of the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, will be rocked by the phone hacking scandal right into next year now that his friend Rebekah Brooks and his former media adviser Andy Coulson have been charged and face trial.
The pair face possible jail terms on charges they conspired to hack the phones of more than 600 people, and their trials next year may reveal new emails or evidence relating to dealings with Mr Cameron, who is up for election in 2015.
Mr Cameron has faced serious questions about his judgment in hiring Mr Coulson, who was appointed to Downing Street after resigning from News of the World over phone hacking.
Mr Cameron has also been criticised for his friendship with Mrs Brooks, a former chief executive of News International.
A lecturer in politics and media at Nottingham Trent University, Matthew Ashton, told the Herald last night: “The criminal charges make things potentially very difficult for Cameron. Obviously they are innocent until proven guilty but, in terms of public perception and media perception, this is going to hang over them and over him for up to the next two years.
“It calls into question again his judgment in being such close personal friends of Brooks and employing Coulson. There will be more questions asked about Coulson’s vetting.”
Mr Coulson, who like Mrs Brooks strongly denies all charges, has said he knew nothing of phone hacking but resigned because the practice took place on his watch.
Dr Ashton said the charges will force Mr Cameron to distance himself further from them.
“I’m sure if they could be erased from official photos without anyone noticing they would be,” he said. It would further strain Mr Cameron’s relationship with the Murdoch empire before an election, he said.
After Rupert Murdoch and his son James appeared before a committee of MPs inquiring into the phone-hacking allegations, coverage in The Times and The Sun gave Mr Cameron “a rougher ride”, Dr Ashton said.
Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson are among eight people formerly employed by News of the World who are charged with 19 counts of conspiracy over phone hacking. Their targets allegedly included Labour cabinet ministers and celebrities.
Mr Coulson faces five counts of conspiring to unlawfully intercept communications, including the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler. Mrs Brooks faces three similar counts.
Dr Ashton said the Prime Minister’s links with News International, revealed in the Leveson inquiry into the media, have also reinforced a view the Conservative Party looks after “its friends” rather than the people.
The Barclays banking scandal and the phone-hacking revelations have intertwined to create “a feeling that in what is supposed to be a meritocracy, the very top people in the country are out only for themselves and their friends and the fact that in the Leveson inquiry text messages between Mr Cameron and Mrs Brooks were revealed … did help create that mood about an old boys’ network in smoke-filled rooms”.First published in The Age.

Brits return to Blitz mentality

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The Olympics security contractor had no hope of meeting the requirement, writes Karen Kissane in London.

For those trying to organise security for the London Olympics, the blame games are already up and running.
Gloomier Londoners already viewed the Games as an ordeal to be endured with the kind of British stoicism displayed during the Blitz. The chaos around security, however, is of an entirely different order. It opens the way to catastrophe.
In the past 10 days, Britain and the world have learnt that the Games has a shortfall of 3500 security guards as well as problems notifying existing guards when and where they are to report for work. Only 30 of an expected 300 officers turned up to guard cyclists. Only 10 of 58 arrived to guard footballers; 20 of 58 were at the main Olympic hotel; and none turned up for an induction day at Coventry Stadium (70 expected).
“It’s a lottery as to how many staff are going to turn up,” Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, told The Guardian. “It’s a fiasco, an absolute debacle.”
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, at the centre of a political firestorm over the mess, claims the government knew nothing of the crisis until told last week by G4S, the company hired to provide Games security. She has called in 3500 emergency personnel, including sailors, airmen and police, to fill the shortfall.
Another 2000 might be needed, but the government is fending off that embarrassment, despite warnings from defence chiefs that notice is required if troops are wanted at the opening ceremony next Friday. This would bring the total military involved in the Games, planned and unplanned, to 19,000.
GS4’s chief executive, Nick Buckles, copped a grilling by MPs this week in which he admitted he couldn’t guarantee he could supply even the 7000 guards now required at his tattered end of the bargain. He said he could not predict the scale of “no-shows” until recruits failed to respond to an email. He also could not promise that all the guards would speak fluent English: “I don’t know what fluent English is.”
Asked by an MP whether the debacle was a “humiliating shambles”, Buckles admitted, “I would have to agree with you.”
G4S has had £400 million ($600 million) wiped off its market value and is predicting it will make a £50 million loss on the Games contract. But it is insisting on its £57 million “management fee”.
How did it come to this?
It appears computer glitches at G4S sent recruits to the wrong venues or supplied them with incorrect schedules.
There also seems to be a larger than expected number of casual employees who have lost interest or found another job.
However, May said the company had been assuring ministers it would “overshoot” the recruitment targets in its £284 million contract. This is at odds with an internal Home Office memo, revealed this week by The Sunday Times, that warned in April, “We will very soon start to see big shortfalls against planned numbers.”
Part of the problem is governmental dithering.
Last December, fully six years after London won the Games, the government had a last-minute rush of blood to the head over security issues and dramatically amped up the brief to G4S from 2000 guards (in a contract signed in December 2010) to 13,700 guards.
The tardiness was despite the fact that London was hit by the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks the day after winning the race for the Olympics in 2005. Defence chiefs had offered to provide Games security but the government decided outsourcing to a private company would be better.
Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: “It is outrageous. [The organisers] knew in 2005 that security was going to be a major challenge but they left it too late.”
There also have been concerns about the quality of recruits. G4S, which won the contract partly because it had provided security for the Olympics site during construction, has also protected the Wimbledon tennis championships.
A security consultant who went undercover for the company at Wimbledon last year wrote a report listing alarming lapses.
These included some staff lacking even “the most basic security knowledge” needed to guard a significant terrorism target; staff routinely leaving premises unprotected by sleeping on the job; and some recruits being allowed to skip hearing and smell tests designed to check that they were able to notice fires or explosions.
The security consultant who wrote the report, Peter Bleksley, is a former Scotland Yard detective. He warned that the problems could “eventually prove catastrophic for G4S” and some were so serious they could have “fatal consequences” if they were not fixed before the Games.
Buckles claims those concerns were taken on board and dealt with, but one whistleblower has claimed the company has been forced to resort to a “no-fail policy” for recruits in the current crisis.
Despite the torrent of bad publicity, Games chief Sebastian Coe has promised safety will not be compromised: “My responsibility is to make sure that we get a Games that is safe and secure. We will do that, and it is to make sure that our teams, the Home Office and the military sit alongside G4S and mobilise and deploy exactly who we need to.”
It will certainly be one of the most militarised Olympics ever, with missiles poised and jets on hand and the Royal Navy’s largest warship deployed to launch military helicopters.
All that might prove of little use if a terrorist slips through the net at Heathrow Airport. The Observer reported that suspects had been able to enter Britain in the run-up to the Games without being picked up by security checks. A senior border officer said inexperienced recruits were repeatedly failing to refer passengers on a watch list to counter-terrorism officers.

First published in The Age.

Security lapses cast dark cloud over London Olympics

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Poor weather and London’s notorious traffic snarls could be the least of the problems when the 2012 Olympics begin next week, reports Karen Kissane.

FIRST there is the weather. London has had its wettest summer on record. In a recent newspaper column, the city’s irrepressible mayor, Boris Johnson, mused on how that might be turned around in time for the Olympics: ”Perhaps we could stage a pagan ritual at Stonehenge, involving either the sacrifice of maidens [if there are any these days], or a goat, or a rabbit, or maybe just a worm – whatever the RSPCA would allow.”

The sun god Ra could be implored to ”vaporise the thunderheads ? before the entire country dissolves like a sugar cube and sinks into the sea”, he wrote.

Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, has warned spectators of rowing and equestrian events that their viewing areas are a sea of mud, and advised raincoats. One of his officials – presumably one of little faith regarding Ra – went a step further: ”Bring wellies.”

Then there is travel, or lack thereof. London’s road traffic moves like molasses on a normal day. Its underground train system is already so jammed at peak hour that fuming commuters must let trains go without boarding because there simply isn’t room to squeeze on. Some stations close for a while on exceptionally bad days, keeping commuters from even getting onto a platform. But the system will have to cope with about a million extra trips per day during the Olympics. Londoners are being asked to work from home or find other ways to stay off the system for the duration.

This week, road traffic into London slowed to a crawl as parts of the 48 kilometres of dedicated Games Lanes – to be used only by members of the ”Olympic family” – came into operation. An accident and a suicide caused two separate bottlenecks, with traffic not moving at all for about 45 minutes. Other jams were caused by last-minute braking as drivers fearing fines in the Olympic lane suddenly swerved to change lanes.

All these difficulties are tiresome, particularly for the gloomier Londoners who already viewed the Games as an ordeal to be endured with the kind of British stoicism displayed during the Blitz. But they are minor and predictable problems.

The chaos around Olympics security, however, is of an entirely different order. It opens the way to catastrophe.

Over the past 10 days, Britain and the world have learnt that the Games has a shortfall of 3500 security guards, as well as problems notifying the guards who do exist about when and where they are to report for work. Only 30 out of an expected 300 security officers turned up to guard cyclists. Only 10 out of 58 arrived to guard footballers; only 20 out of 58 at the main Olympic hotel; and no guards at all turned up for an induction day at Coventry Stadium (70 had been expected).

”On a daily basis it’s a lottery as to how many staff are going to turn up,” Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, told The Guardian. ”It’s a fiasco, an absolute debacle.”

Home Secretary Theresa May, at the centre of a political firestorm over the mess, claims the government knew nothing of the crisis until it was told last week by G4S, the company hired to provide Games security. She has called in 3500 emergency troops, including sailors and airmen, and police from eight forces around the nation to fill the shortfall.

Another 2000 might be needed but the government is fending off that further embarrassment, despite warnings from defence chiefs that notice is required if their troops are to be in action by the opening ceremony next Friday. This would bring the total numbers of military staff involved in the Games, both planned and unplanned, to 19,000.

GS4 chief executive Nick Buckles endured a grilling by MPs this week in which he admitted that he couldn’t guarantee he could supply even the 7000 guards now required by his tattered end of the bargain. He said he could not predict the scale of ”no shows” until recruits failed to respond to an email. He also could not promise that all the guards would speak fluent English: ”I don’t know what fluent English is.” Asked by an MP whether the debacle was a ”humiliating shambles” for his company, Buckles admitted, ”I would have to agree with you.” G4S has seen £400 million ($A600 million) wiped off its market value and is predicting it will make a £50 million loss on the Games contract. But it is still insisting on claiming its £57 million ”management fee”.

How did it come to this? It appears computer glitches at G4S sent recruits to wrong venues or supplied them with incorrect schedules. There also seems to be a larger than expected number of casual employees who lost interest or found another job. But May claimed the company had been assuring ministers it would ”overshoot” the recruitment targets in its £284 million contract. This is at odds with an internal Home Office memo revealed by The Sunday Times that warned in April, ”We will very soon start to see big shortfalls against planned numbers.”

Part of the problem is due to governmental dithering. Last December, a full six years after London won the Games, the government had a last-minute rush of blood to the head over security issues and dramatically amped up the brief to G4S from 2000 guards (in a contract signed in December 2010) to 13,700 guards. The tardiness was despite the fact that London was hit by the July 7 suicide bomb attacks the day after winning the race for the Olympics in 2005. Defence chiefs had offered to provide Games security but the government decided outsourcing to a private company would be better.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said, ”It is outrageous. [The organisers] knew in 2005 that security was going to be a major challenge but they left it too late.”

There have also been concerns about the quality of recruits. G4S, which won the contract partly because it has previously provided security for the Olympics site during construction, has also protected the Wimbledon tennis championships.

A security consultant who went undercover for the company at Wimbledon last year reported alarming lapses. These included some staff lacking even ”the most basic security knowledge” needed to guard a significant terrorism target; staff routinely leaving premises unprotected by sleeping on the job; and some recruits being allowed to skip hearing and smell tests designed to check that they were able to notice fires or explosions. The security consultant who wrote the report, Peter Bleksley, is a former Scotland Yard detective. He warned that the problems could ”eventually prove catastrophic for G4S” and some were so serious they could have ”fatal consequences” if they were not fixed before the Games.

Buckles claims those concerns were taken on board and dealt with, but one whistleblower has claimed the company has been forced to resort to a ”no-fail policy” for recruits in the current crisis.

G4S made headlines in the 1990s over security breaches with its prisoner-escort service. This week, prosecutors decided not to bring charges against three of its guards who, at Heathrow, restrained an Angolan man who became ill and died of cardio-respiratory failure following the incident in October 2010.

Despite the torrent of bad publicity, Games chief Coe has promised that safety is not compromised: ”My responsibility is to make sure that we get a Games that is safe and secure. We will do that, and it is to make sure that our teams, the Home Office and the military sit alongside G4S and mobilise and deploy exactly who we need to.”

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the national Olympic security co-ordinator, has also denied that security is falling over: ”The plan is exactly the same as it was. It is just being delivered by different people. I went through the search regime at Olympic Park ? and it was everything you could possibly want.”

It will certainly be one of the most militarised Olympics ever, with missiles poised and jets on hand and the Royal Navy’s largest warship deployed to launch military helicopters.

All that might prove of little use if a would-be terrorist slips through the net at Heathrow Airport. The Observer reported that terror suspects were able to enter Britain in the run-up to the Games without being picked up by security checks. A senior border officer claimed inexperienced recruits were repeatedly failing to refer passengers on a watch list to counter-terrorism officers.

With less than a week to go before the London Olympics begin, the blame games are already up and running.

First published on theage.com.au

WikiLeaks exposes Syria files

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London
WIKILEAKS last night began publishing a vast database of 2.4 million emails it says involve the Syrian government and associated companies, spokeswoman Sarah Harrison told a London press conference. Ms Harrison said the Syria files ”shine a light on the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy, but they also reveal how the West and Western companies say one thing and do another”.She said the emails had been set up in a multilingual data-mining system with languages including English, Arabic and Russian that can be analysed in many different ways.

The emails derived from 680 Syria-related entities or domain names, ”including those of the ministries of Presidential Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Information, Transport and Culture ?

”The range of information extends from the intimate correspondence of the most senior Baath party figures to records of financial transfers sent from Syrian ministries to other nations.”

This leak dwarfed ”cablegate”, the release by WikiLeaks of previously confidential cable exchanges between American embassies and Washington. ”The data is more than eight times the size of ”cablegate” in terms of number of documents and more than 100 times the size in terms of data,” Ms Harrison said.

The first story would be about emails demonstrating that a Western defence company had been selling as late as this year technology to Syria, which has been enduring a bloody government crackdown on rebellion.

She said that SELEX, which belonged to the multinational defence leader Finmeccanica, had sold Syria a technology called TETRA, which allows police forces to communicate in a secure and reliable way. ”The selling, assistance and training by Selex continued through to this year,” she alleged.

A website for SELEX Communications said it sells an emergency services communication system called TETRA, an acronym for Terrestrial Trunked Radio.

Ms Harrison said she could not comment further on individual stories or headlines until they were published via seven media partners over the next two months. Publishers would include Associated Press in the US, OWNI in France and Publico.es in Spain.

Ms Harrison also declined to comment on the situation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who remains holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he has applied for asylum.

She read a comment from him that said: ”The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents. It helps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it.”

Assange has been inside the embassy since June 19 seeking political asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over sex allegations.

He denies the claims and says the sex was consensual and the claims against him politically motivated. He fears that extradition to Sweden could be followed by extradition to the United States where he could be charged over ”cablegate”.

First published at theage.com.au on 6 July 2012<

Lawyer back with family, awaits ICC questions

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THE HAGUE

AUSTRALIAN lawyer Melinda Taylor has been reunited with her husband and put her two-year-old daughter, Yasmina, to bed for the first time since she was released from 3½ weeks of captivity in Libya on spying allegations.
“We need to just sleep in and try and get back to normal,” Ms Taylor’s husband, Geoffrey Roberts, told the Herald in a text message yesterday.
However, Ms Taylor’s ordeal may not be over. The International Criminal Court has said it will investigate Libyan claims about Ms Taylor’s conduct.
Ms Taylor’s mother, Janelle Taylor, told the ABC’s 7.30 last night her daughter was coping very well but was surprised at the level of media attention.
“She said, ‘Why would they be interested in me?’ ” Mrs Taylor said.
She said her daughter spoke about how happy she was to be home, but did not discuss any of the details of her captivity.
John Taylor added that he thought his daughter was “unwinding”.
“It was an unpleasant experience, I’m sure. She’ll keep that within herself for a while, I’d say,” Mr Taylor said.
Mrs Taylor said she believed her daughter would be undergoing counselling and a medical examination.
The family thanked those who had provided support during her captivity, including the Foreign Minister, Bob Carr.
“Melinda’s only just realising what sort of work Bob Carr has done for her and she intends … to thank him personally,” Mrs Taylor said.
Mr Carr, who had been involved in negotiations for Ms Taylor’s release, said at times he had feared Ms Taylor might not be released quickly. There were points at which the process was taking too long and he feared the worst, he said.
Ms Taylor, a lawyer with the ICC based at The Hague, arrived on a private chartered jet at a small secondary terminal at Rotterdam airport about 9am yesterday, Australian time.
She and three colleagues who had been with her in Libya spent about 45 minutes with officials before leaving in a convoy that included the ICC president, Song Sang-Hyun.
The Libyans allege Ms Taylor had been caught carrying “spying devices” and documents that breached national security.
They allege she had carried coded documents for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. Saif is the son of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi and is a prisoner in jail in the town of Zintan, which is held by a rebel militia.
The ICC wants to try him for crimes against humanity during his father’s rule. Ms Taylor was assigned to speak with him about his legal representation.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council obtained by The Guardian, Libya claimed she tried to pass Saif a secret letter from Mohammad Ismail, Saif’s “main aide” and an associate of Gaddafi’s intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi.
They allege Ms Taylor also took to the consultation with Saif a miniature “video camera pen” and a watch “that functions for the same purpose”.
Ms Taylor’s supporters have said she is highly professional and would never have behaved improperly. They speculated some of the claims might be the result of failure to understand the normal lawyer-client relationship, which involves exchanging documents and recording evidence.
Senator Carr said yesterday: “Talking to [Ms Taylor’s parents] John and Janelle, I had to tell them the evidence was ambiguous.”

First published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Lukewarm reception for ride, but a win’s a win for world-beater

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LONDON

THE British press is having a field day in the aftermath of Black Caviar’s close-run win at Ascot on Saturday.
The headlines about “the Wonder from Down Under” — the horse — are now accompanied by sharp criticism of “the Blunder from Down Under”: the way jockey Luke Nolen made a rookie’s mistake and stopped riding close to the finish of the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, almost losing it. In one of racing’s most heart-stopping wins, Black Caviar put on a final burst of speed and put down her head in the last few strides after she had been overtaken by her closest rival, Midnight Cloud. The photo showed she won by a nostril.
Nolen later admitted he had lost the plot part-way through. “I let her idle through the last 200 [metres],” he said, “and I underestimated just how stiff a track this straight six furlongs is, and also the opposition.
“And I shit myself duly. And I’m afraid my brain fade might be talked about more than this mare’s fantastic effort.”
But Nolen also said Black Caviar had not raced to her best.
“She wasn’t taking me to the line. I had to ask her to find it. Yes, I was at fault, but when I relaxed on her — I thought I’d done enough, and that’s an error every apprentice is taught not to do, and I got away with it — that big engine seemed to shut right down,” he said.
“I tried to get her going again in the last strides and it was only her determination when the other horses came to her that kept her in front. She just didn’t bring to the races today what she usually can, and I’m just disappointed that you over here didn’t get to see just how good she is.”
Nolen became the man of the hour for all the wrong reasons. The Times called his misjudgment “calamitous”; the Daily Mail used both “calamitous” and “schoolboy howler”.
The Telegraph suggested the jockey “may well have had to ask for political asylum” had the photo gone the other way. One commentator suggested there might have been a one-off return to the gallows had Australia’s darling been beaten.
There had been great expectations of Black Caviar, who had received an unusually affectionate welcome at Ascot. Many of the estimated 7000 Australians in the 70,000-strong crowd had been issued with “Go Black Caviar” placards and wore ties or caps in her colours.
When Black Caviar first appeared in the pre-parade ring, even trainers not linked to her jostled for positions that would give them a good view and snapped her on their cameras.
While Australia’s national pride might have been dented a little by the fact that she did not sweep grandly to victory, the roar of the crowd at the excitement of the finish — and again at the photo replay — suggested exhilaration rather than disappointment.
Graham Sharpe, of the bookmakers William Hill, told The Independent: “We may have lost a bit on Black Caviar, because at that price [1/6] it is not a horse that many punters would have bet on. [But] it was a great race for horse racing. There may be some people who are keeping their bet slips as souvenirs rather than cashing them in.”
The Independent also had the kindest headline: “Still unbeaten, just. Still a heroine, justly.”
Black Caviar’s trainer, Peter Moody, said the race was always going to be the greatest risk of her career as it came at the end of a long season and a long overseas trip, but “whether she wins by a quarter of an inch or a quarter of a furlong it’s still a win, and they’re not going to give us any more prizemoney . . . She didn’t let us down. She’s done Australia proud, and she’s still undefeated.”First published in The Age.

Heart-stopping Caviar may have raced her last

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LONDON

THE racing world is coming to terms with a moment of madness that almost cost the super mare Black Caviar victory on her biggest stage, England’s Royal Ascot.
A rookie’s mistake by jockey Luke Nolen, in which he stopped riding close to the finish, almost denied her the trophy.
In one of racing’s most heart-stopping wins, Black Caviar put in a final burst and put her head down in the last few strides after she had been challenged by Midnight Cloud. A photo-finish showed she won by a nostril.
Nolen admitted he had lost the plot. “I let her idle through the last 200 [metres],” he said, “and I underestimated just how stiff a track this straight six furlongs is, and also the opposition. And I shit myself duly. And I’m afraid my brain-fade might be talked about more than this mare’s fantastic effort.”
But Nolen felt that Black Caviar had not raced to her best either. “She wasn’t taking me to the line. I had to ask her to find it. Yes, I was at fault, but when I relaxed on her – I thought I’d done enough, and that’s an error every apprentice is taught not to do, and I got away with it – that big engine seemed to shut right down.
“I tried to get her going again in the last strides and it was only her determination when the other horses came to her that kept her in front. She just didn’t bring to the races today what she usually can.”
As she recovered from her exertions, many fans were left asking what was next for the six year-old. Plans to race again in England were quickly abandoned and trainer Peter Moody also raised the possibility that Saturday’s race may have been her last.
Does it matter that she didn’t dominate the field with her usual vigour?
It has left Nolen man of the hour for all the wrong reasons. The Times called Nolan’s misjudgment “calamitous”; the Daily Mail used both “calamitous” and “schoolboy howler”.
Apparently stewards did speak to Nolen after the race to remind him of his responsibilities but he broke no rules.
There had been great expectations of Black Caviar, who had received an unusually affectionate welcome at Ascot. Many of the estimated 7000 Australians in the 70,000-strong crowd had been issued with “Go Black Caviar” placards and wore ties or caps in her colours; one baby held up at the racetrack fence was dressed entirely in salmon pink with black spots.
When she appeared in the pre-parade ring, even trainers not linked to her jostled for a look.
Moody said the race was always going to be the greatest risk of her career as it came at the end of a long season and a long overseas trip but “whether she wins by a quarter of an inch or a quarter of a furlong it’s still a win, and they’re not going to give us any more prizemoney.
“She didn’t let us down. She’s done Australia proud, and she’s still undefeated.”First published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Ex-Murdoch chief in court

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SHE has tamed that wild mane of red hair. The former chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, yesterday appeared in a London court over charges of perverting the course of justice — with newly reshaped princess-style tresses.
The court was told that Brooks, who faces three counts of conspiring to hide evidence from the Metropolitan Police, would probably learn by the end of August whether she would also face new charges arising from Operation Weeting, the police investigation into phone hacking.
Brooks faces three charges of having conspired to pervert the course of justice by hiding material from the Metropolitan Police Service.
Her barrister, Hugo Keith, QC, said that prosecutors had been passed more Operation Weeting files relating to 11 journalists. “No one is sure whether it will result in charges one way or another,” he said.
He said any further charges would have an impact on this trial and asked that prosecutors say by the end of August whether Brooks could expect more counts. Mr Justice Fulford declined to make an order but said he encouraged the prosecution to do this if possible.
Brooks, who resigned as chief executive of News International last July, is also a former editor of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.
She and her husband sat in the dock with four other defendants: Cheryl Carter, Brooks’ former personal assistant; Paul Edwards, Brooks’ former chauffeur; Mark Hanna, the head of security at News International; and Daryl Jorsling, who was a security consultant for Brooks provided by News International. Brooks, 44, is charged on count one that between July 6 and July 19, 2011 she conspired with Charles Brooks, Hanna, Edwards, Jorsling and persons unknown to conceal material from Metropolitan police officers.
On count two she is charged with Carter of conspiring between July 6 and July 9, 2011 to permanently remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International.
In the third count Brooks is charged with her husband, Hanna, Edwards and Jorsling and persons unknown of conspiring between July 15 and 19 July 19, 2011 to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from Metropolitan officers. The other five defendants face one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice each.
Charlie Brooks faces a charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice with his wife.
All six defendants will face court again on September 26 for a plea and case management hearing. No trial date was set.

First published in The Age.

Brooks will find out soon about further phone-hacking charges

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LONDON

She has finally tamed that wild mane of red hair. The former chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, yesterday appeared in a London court over charges of perverting the course of justice – wearing her trademark Christian Louboutin spike heels, a slinky black designer dress and newly reshaped princess-style tresses.
The court was told that Brooks, who faces three counts of conspiring to hide evidence from the Metropolitan Police, would probably learn by the end of August whether she would also face new charges arising from Operation Weeting, the police investigation into phone hacking.
Her barrister, Hugo Keith, QC, said that prosecutors had been passed more Operation Weeting files relating to 11 journalists: ‘‘No one is sure whether it will result in charges one way or another.’’ He said any further charges would have an impact on this trial and asked that prosecutors say by the end of August whether Brooks could expect more counts.
Mr Justice Fulford declined to make an order but said he strongly encouraged the prosecution to do this if possible.
Mr Keith had also given the judge a file of press clippings that he said contained evidence of websites and blogs with offensive commentary that could prejudice Brooks’ right to a fair trial: ‘‘I don’t make any application today but I do wish to put down a very gentle marker as to the responsibility of everybody as to the strictures of the Contempt of Court Act.’’ Brooks, who resigned as chief executive of News International last July, is also a former editor of the tabloid Sun and the nowdefunct News of the World.
At times she glanced across the courtroom and studied the reporters taking notes on her case.
She and her husband, Charlie, sat in the glass-caged dock with four other defendants. They are Cheryl Carter, Mrs Brooks’s former personal assistant; Paul Edwards, Mrs Brooks’s former chauffeur; Mark Hanna, the head of security at News International; and Daryl Jorsling, who was a security consultant for Mrs Brooks provided by News International.
Mr Jorsling’s lawyer told the court he had lost his licence to work in the security industry because of the charges and that he could soon lose his home.
James Sturman, QC, said there was no prima facie case against Mr Jorsling and that there would be amove to dismiss the charges.
He asked the judge ‘‘to consider whether it’s in the public interest to render this defendant homeless over the next three months’’.
The judge asked the prosecution to re-examine the case against Mr Jorsling. The prosecutor, Andrew Edis, QC, said they would but that the decision to charge ‘‘had already received very careful consideration and I wouldn’t like anyone to think that it hadn’t’’.
Mrs Brooks, 44, is charged on count one that between July 6 and July 19 last year she conspired with her husband, Mr Hanna, Mr Edwards,Mr Jorsling and persons unknown to conceal material from officers of the Metropolitan Police. On count two she is charged with Ms Carter between July 6 and July 9 last year of conspiring to permanently remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International.
In the third count Mrs Brooks is charged with her husband, Mr Hanna, Mr Edwards and Mr Jorsling and persons unknown of conspiring together between July 15 and July 19 last year to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police. The other five defendants face one charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice each.
Mr Brooks faces a single charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice with his wife.
All six defendants will face court again on September 26 for a plea and case management hearing. No trial date was set.First published in the Sydney Morning Herald.