Carole Cadwalladr Profile picture
Mar 4, 2022 15 tweets 8 min read Read on X
This is Oakeshott with Williamson at launch of her book.

Plus new statement she made about Brexit funder as agent of Russian influence.

Below is thread with new court docs.

Key q: Did Williamson help Johnson bury Russia investigation (involving Johnson)? Is knighthood payback?
Oakeshott gave evidence + statement to Sunday Times in Nov 2017.

This is letter from editor Martin Ivens. He’s left but @ShippersUnbound is still there. Does he know what happened? Can new editor @EmmaTuckerST find out?

Did Oakeshott change mind? Did govt ministers intervene?
News International didn’t cover Banks court case. So they maybe don’t know that Banks’s witness statement conflicts with this.

Letter from editor shows Oakeshott gave emails to Sunday Times in Nov 17.

But Banks says it was Wigmore who gave emails to Sunday Times in June 18.
Banks says Wigmore rang Sunday Times deputy editor @cazjwheeler & gave her the emails in order to spike mine & @peterjukes’ story for @ObserverUK.

Banks made this statement on oath.

But we know from Martin Ivens’ letter that Oakeshott gave Sunday Times emails months earlier
Why does this matter? For whole load of reasons.

The failure to sanction UK-based oligarchs is not only a moral stain, it’s a national security risk. Every extra day we give Putin matters.

And Williamson knighthood throws up invidious new qs about Johnson’s failure to act.
Theresa May made this speech Nov 14, 2017. Sunday Times letter is dated 3 days later.

Did Sunday Times alert NCA or intelligence services? Did they go for comment to Williamson or Johnson in Nov 2017?

Why was story spiked?

theguardian.com/politics/2017/…
Theresa May got it. She tried to warn us. Listen to this speech again. She said it all here.

She called Putin’s invasion of Crimea what it was. She calls out ‘election meddling’. And its attacks on our information space.

Her cabinet colleagues - Johnson & Williamson - didn’t.
Johnson was asked about Russian interference by @RhonddaBryant just 2 weeks earlier. ‘Not a sausage,’ he replied.

This is not true. Theresa May isn’t just calling out Putin in that speech. She’s calling out her own foreign minister.
Johnson’s failure to take action against Russian £ even now is a national security risk & we need to know what happened in Nov 2017 when FBI revealed London investigation, when Theresa May warned us, when Sun Times spiked explosive scoop.

Where was NCA? Where was MI5/6?
Britain’s national security apparatus was paralysed by a failure of leadership. The Russia Report told us that explicitly. And our political leadership was paralysed by Brexit.

I think @theresa_may got it. And I suspect she has answers.

The evidence suggests Johnson directly involved in covering up Russian interference. New docs I published yesterday reveal Williamson’s involvement.

This is photo of Johnson in Congress with Mifsud who head of FBI called ‘a Russian agent of influence’

Will Sunday Times tell us why it spiked its story? I hope so. It had explosive story about Brexit funder as 'Russian agent of influence' 3 days after Theresa May's speech on Russia dominated the front pages.

We know Johnson had already tried to bury the story once. Did he again?
Why did Arron Banks state on oath that Wigmore gave emails to Sunday Times in June 2018? When ST editor confirms he has them in Nov 2017?
Nov 14, 2017: Theresa May dominates front pages with speech saying Russia has attacked our elections.

Nov 17, 2017: Sunday Times indemnifies Oakeshott over explosive story of Brexit funder as "Russian agent of influence"

Nov 19, 2017: This is Sunday Times front page.
To be clear, I am not trying to lay blame with Sunday Times or even Oakeshott. I don't know what happened. There were other forces at work here at highest levels of govt.

But I do think @ShippersUnbound & others can help expose what happened here. And hope they will.

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More from @carolecadwalla

Mar 28
NEW: I’ve found an opaque financial vehicle owns a large chunk of the Observer. And neither it or the Guardian will say who it is. Why?

Well there is a clue. Which goes by way of Saudi Arabia…
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The capture of US media orgs is accelerating. And the UK is next in line. The BBC has fallen to an AI hype guy. And my old newspaper, the Observer, is publishing Palantir puff pieces.

But why? I set out to find out..
2/

open.substack.com/pub/broligarch…
In Companies House I found the Observer has a mystery investor: the North Hatley Trust.

Who is the North Hatley Trust? Good question!

There’s only the tiniest bit of public info about it. With one important clue..
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Read 12 tweets
Mar 25
NEW: Will Google's AI hype man kill the BBC?

I've written about Matt Brittin because the coverage of his time at Google is shockingly naive.

The BBC's next DG made his career as a yes man at a rapacious AI monopoly that preys on news journalism in order to destroy it.
1/ Image
Out of a shortlist of 5, 4 were women with decades of experience of public service broadcasting. And one man with none at all: Matt Brittin.

But that maybe the least of his problems...
2/
thenerve.news/p/matt-brittin…
The BBC's profile quotes sources "close" to Matt Brittin to deliver a fawning portrait of an "inspirational leader". Only he's never led anything.

Brittin is a middle manager whose job was to stop Google being regulated and grow the business like late stage cancer.
3/ Image
Read 8 tweets
Mar 17
Distracted by the slaughter of children in Iran & Lebanon? Me too! But what better time could there be for govt to quietly relaunch its Digital ID plan?

Missed it? Me too! But look who’s celebrating…

The director of ‘govt innovation’ at the Tony Blair Institute!
1/
The govt noisily scrapped Digital ID after huge pushback when nobody bought its ‘it’ll solve immigration’ bollocks. But as markets tanked last week - kudos to the comms team! - it was discreetly re-launched with all-new messaging: a ‘common sense solution to everyday probs’
2/
Darren Jones, Cabinet Office secretary, put out a press release claiming the govt will be holding a ‘consultation’.

NOT: ‘Do you want the govt & unknown tech companies to have all your data?’

BUT: (I kid you not): ‘At what age should you be able to get a digital id?’ 🤔
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Read 10 tweets
Feb 28
Congrats to all the news orgs that signed syndication deals with this company. You’ve licensed your journalism to be a core component of Trump’s illegal war machine. Great job everyone 👏
A special shoutout to the editor-in-chief & CEO of the Guardian, Kath Viner & Anna Bateson. The deal with OpenAI was an unforced error which legitimised OpenAI’s illegal scraping of Guardian data & IP. In exchange for a quick buck. The NYTimes, in contrast, chose to sue.
Anthropic stood up to Trump. But OpenAI has capitulated. And now all its ‘partners’ are complicit in the consequences.

That includes Guardian. It will financially benefit from its journalists’ work - inc mine - being used to support Trump’s illegal wars & ICE’s reign of terror.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 19
PREDICTION: If Andrew is charged (no assumption of guilt etc), we are going to have a crisis of both the press & judiciary.

In Britain, it is an offence to publish ANY info on defendant beyond bare facts.

But! US outlets can print whatever they like…
1/
Contempt of court is foundational principle of British justice: press must not prejudice a jury trial.

Editors risk a prison sentence if found in breach.

Even in digital age, the law held…but how could it possibly withstand deluge of US coverage in a case like this??
3/
Short answer: it won’t. Far right agitator Tommy Robinson weaponised UK laws on contempt as a ‘cover up’ over grooming scandal. And the New Yorker ignored & published on Lucy Letby.

If Andrew is charged, it’ll trigger a crisis for both the press & judiciary
4/
Read 4 tweets
Jan 28
NEW: Our investigation for @thenerve_news reveals not only that Peter Thiel’s Palantir is completely enmeshed in our critical national infrastructure.

It’s also the ‘cloud support’ for our nuclear weapons system
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Palantir’s stated mission is to defend America. Peter Thiel is a radical libertarian who does not believe ‘freedom & democracy are compatible’.

Yet, the UK is overwhelmingly dependent on Palantir’s services. As a national security threat, this is off the charts.
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Please read the piece with comments from tech & national security experts.

We have no national security while we rely on highly political US Silicon Valley firms that are enmeshed in Trump’s increasing fascistic administration.
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Read 4 tweets

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