Nairobi

By Michael Shrimpton

 
Somebody saw that one coming.  It is now being said that Kenyan National Intelligence Service officers were telling family members not to go Nairobi’s Westgate Mall on the day of the attack.  Thankfully there were no ‘dancing Israelis.’  At least two people with security or intelligence connections were on hand, armed, to help rescue the shoppers and their families, including brave little Portia Walton, aged 4.
Smarter than the ACLU, little Portia realised that the nice black man with the gun was a Good Guy trying to save her, so she ran to him.  Without a gun of course he couldn’t have saved her.  Guns aren’t dangerous.  Terrorists are dangerous.  I hope Portia joins the NRA when she grows up.
There is no way on God’s earth those al-Shabaab scumbags were able to move in 50-caliber Brownings (that’s a mansize gun), AKs, spare ammo, explosives and all the other stuff they had without somebody on the inside.  I don’t just mean inside on the mall either, I mean inside NIS or the government, which is deeply corrupt, or both.
It’s reminiscent of that scene in Airplane II, where the terrorist with the machine gun walks through airport security whilst they handbag the little old lady with the handbag.  Nairobi is apparently even more dangerous a place than Thames Valley, and almost as bent.
The White Widow
Speaking of Thames Valley it does look as though the ‘White Widow’, a terrorist from Aylesbury named Samantha Lewthwaite, Elmhurst Primary School’s first terrorist, was involved.  She was not the leader in my opinion, but she was there, and was allowed to escape.  Elmhurst Primary School was just down the road from where I used to live.
Her ex-husband was an ex-terrorist named Germaine Lindsay.  He fell off his perch when his explosives pack blew up in his face on 7/7.  He was hoping it wouldn’t – the cellphone he was using as a ‘timer’ had been rigged by the Brazilian terrorist Jean Charles de Menezes to detonate on arming.  Yes, I’ve heard the Met’s claim that there were no timers, only simple electronic contacts, but that nonsense was only circulated to protect de Menezes and GO2, the DVD’s London operation.
Details of the timers were circulated in the days following 7/7 to international police forces, including the good folk over at NYPD.  Unlike Thames Valley they are a serious police force, and so much politer.  They even rang me for some advice once, which was nice of them.  It was freely given, by the way, and I was right, discounting a terrorist connection to a plane crash in NYC.  You would never get a British police force consulting an outside expert on terrorism.  They’re usually too busy arresting them.
Customs and Border Protection are very polite, too.  I rang them this afternoon to check that I was still good to go for the space conference at the US Naval Academy next week, my little contretemps with Thames Valley Police notwithstanding.  I found myself being put through to ESTA Director Suzanne Shepherd, a very nice lady if I may say so, and very professional, who wished me a pleasant visit to the USA.  I love visiting your great country, where I have many friends, and look forward to filing next week’s column from Annapolis.  It will be a conference report.
Samantha Lewthwaite was clearly in the loop on 7/7.  She didn’t suddenly become a terrorist.  She used to shop in our local Tescos dressed in a niqab, clearly a Salafist Moslem.  Not all Salafists are terrorists, but most terrorists are Salafists.  The nice Moslems by the way are called Sufis.
Both she and her murderous husband were protected by GO2 assets inside Thames Valley Special Branch, which has an office in Aylesbury.  They were both known to an Iranian VEVAK asset, living in Aylesbury, as Special Branch well knew (they even have a report on his fake ID), under an assumed name.  It was from his premises that Lindsay set out on the morning of 7/7, confirmed by SATINT of the carpark, in which the Nissan Micra the terrorists used was parked (careless of them, but they weren’t expecting me to tip off the NSA and ask for the SATINT of those premises in the 24 hours before the attack to be reviewed).
Thames Valley Police not only protected the Iranian, as well as the two terrorists, they condoned the commission by him of serious criminal offences, including forgery.  He was paying off police officers in Aylesbury nick in cash, something I was made aware of via a backchannel to the National Crime Squad.  Senior officers at Kidlington were well aware of what was going on, but too many of them reported to GO2 for anything to be done.  Thankfully MI5 surveillance of him led to the discovery of the liquid bomb plot, which involved an al Qaeda terrorist cell in nearby High Wycombe, also being protected by Thames Valley Police, al Qaeda’s favourite rozzers.
Lewthwaite was allowed by the Cabinet Office to leave the UK, indeed GO2 probably made the arrangements.  She was also protected in South Africa.  Clearly the NIA knew where she was, but she was off-limits.  The NIA boys have been talking to their colleagues in NIS.
On BBC TV’s rather silly Question Time programme last night one of the panellists predicted that the War on Terror would last for ever.  If we keep protecting terrorists like this and help them ship Browning fifties into shopping malls to strafe passing shoppers with then she will be proved right.  We need a new strategy.  Time for the Global War on Terror to move to Phase Four.  The Bad Guys aren’t going to like Phase Four.
The Australian Sex Party
Bad news if you’re a sex maniac, good news if you’re a wowser, or a Methodist, in so far there is a difference, no offense intended.  The ABC prediction for the Tasmanian Senate election turned out to be wrong.  The last seat went instead to Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party.  Something to do with preferences on votes below the line going a different way to votes above the line.  Ask the Australian Electoral Commission if you’re still confused.
It’s good news for Tony Abbott, as the PUP have sensible views on climate change, unlike the crazies on the UN’s panel on climate change.  The warmists are going to have a serious problem once Australia scraps the carbon tax.  I take on board the comment that Canada should be added to the list of countries (Australia and Russia) which have elected a government with intelligent, scientifically sound views on the climate.  I have not met Stephen Harper, although we have mutual friends, but I gather he’s a terribly sensible chap, with respect.
Movie of the Week
The movie this week is Hang ‘Em High, made in 1968 and repeated this week on British TV (reviews of the latest movies you can read anywhere – I only review the classics!).  This superb motion picture, directed by Ted Post, features a wonderful cast, led by the great Clint Eastwood.  He plays the hero, US Deputy Marshal Jed Cooper.
Clint Eastwood is all that we British expect of an American lawman: square of jaw, taciturn, a straight-shooter, firm, fair and erect in the saddle.  He is nearly hanged himself and gradually brings the lynch mob, led by that fine actor Ed Begley, to justice.  Alan Hale Jr., the skipper in the hilarious Gilligan’s Island, is one of the mob.  The late Dennis Hopper features briefly in an early scene as a crazed prisoner, who is very properly shot whilst trying to escape.  Nobody played crazy better than Dennis – had they made a movie about the global warming scare he could have played an IPCC panellist.
The other hero is Judge Fenton, played by Pat Hingle.  He is what the boys in the robing room at Snaresbrook would call a ‘medium to high tariff’ tribunal, with sound views on the death penalty.  The movie is not only great entertainment, but even after nearly 50 years serves as an instructional video for lawmen, judges and public hangmen.  The law has changed a bit since 1889, even in Oklahoma, but there are a few handy tips to be picked up.

Michael Shrimpton

Michael Shrimpton was a barrister from his call to the Bar in London in 1983 until being disbarred in 2019 over a fraudulently obtained conviction. He is a specialist in National Security and Constitutional Law, Strategic Intelligence and Counter-terrorism. He is a former Adjunct Professor of Intelligence Studies at the American Military University.

Read Articles from Michael Shrimpton;

• 2023-Present
• 2016-2022
• 2004-2015

Read Michael Shrimptons’ Full Complete Bio >>>