Shayler questions global terror attacks

As up to 100,000 protestors marched through central London, ex-MI5 officer David Shayler arrived at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park to talk about unanswered questions on 9/11, the London 7 July bombings and an alleged attempt on his life in 2002.

“I bought a second-hand car, checked the tyres and about two months later somebody pointed out the tyre was worn down in a single place, about the size of a coin,” said Shayler.

“It looked like somebody had hacked through to the actual fibres of the tyre. We had those tyres changed. About a week later I was driving along the M25, I was in the car by myself. A white unmarked van came up by the side of me and started travelling at the same speed. There was then an explosion and I went off the road.

“You can say that was a coincidence, you could say it was a warning, you could say it’s an attempt on my life, I don’t know. But I am inclined to think there are suspicious circumstances around that. The effect, of course, was to make me scared for the next 18 months. I’m now over that.”

David Shayler, 39, appeared in the public eye in August 1997, writing articles for the Daily Mail to expose mismanagement and ill-practices in MI5 and MI6, the two main branches of the UK secret service.

Since then he has been constantly battling the British government.

In 2002, he was sentenced to six months in prison for breaking the Official Secrets Act, but only served seven weeks, was released and electronically tagged.
At the Peace and liberty demonstration he signed copies of a new book, “Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers” written by his partner Annie Machon, also an ex-MI5 officer, which was released in May 2005.

Protestors wore T-shirts saying “9/11 is a lie” with “Don’t Shoot Me” printed on the back, in reference to the UK shoot-to-kill policy that has already left one man dead, Brazilian-born Jean-Paul de Menezes, after police mistook him for a suicide bomber.

When asked if Shayler believed there is a cover-up over 9/11, he replied: “I don’t have to put forward a theory. It is up to [the conspiracy theorists] to convince us that this is what happened.

“I am asking intelligent questions, which is what we should all be doing in a democracy.

“In 9/11 there are many questions… where is the plane outside the Pentagon? How was the Pentagon, the most defended building in the world, hit by a civilian airliner when it should have been shot down automatically?

“Why wasn’t National Defence scrambled in the US. How did the steel melt in the north and south towers when airline fuel burns at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit and steel melts at 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit? That can’t have happened.”

Shayler says questions needed to be raised about 7/7. He said in his own experience of working in MI5, Western intelligence services carry out terrorist attacks.

“I know that is the case, because I was briefed on MI6 operations to fund Al Qaeda in 1996 to assassinate [Colonel] Gaddafi.

“Similarly, I read documents at MI5 about how the Israelis had bombed their own embassy in London and then subsequently fitted-up two Palestinians for that attack.”

In order to confront these and other issues threatening Western democracy from the inside, Shayler said organisations involved in protest have to unite.

“We have to realise we have a lot more in common than we disagree about, because otherwise we are always going to be ruled by this elite, this kind of shadow government. And that is wrong in a democracy."