Difference between revisions of "Clive Ponting"
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'''Clive Ponting''' was a British [[civil servant]] turned [[whistleblower]] who leaked documents that proved that the public had been lied to about the sinking of the Argentine warship ''General Belgrano''. After what [[Martin Rosenbaum]] for the [[BBC]] termed "one of the most controversial and dramatic court cases in the history of the [[Official Secrets Act 1911]]" the jury accepted his defence that he was acting in the public interest and he was acquitted.<ref>''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13430012 "Clive Ponting case: Where is the investigators' report?"]''</ref> | '''Clive Ponting''' was a British [[civil servant]] turned [[whistleblower]] who leaked documents that proved that the public had been lied to about the sinking of the Argentine warship ''General Belgrano''. After what [[Martin Rosenbaum]] for the [[BBC]] termed "one of the most controversial and dramatic court cases in the history of the [[Official Secrets Act 1911]]" the jury accepted his defence that he was acting in the public interest and he was acquitted.<ref>''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13430012 "Clive Ponting case: Where is the investigators' report?"]''</ref> | ||
| − | On 6 August 2020, [[David Leigh]] wrote an extensive obituary for Clive Ponting in ''[[The Guardian]]'':{{QB|What has not been disclosed until now is that Ponting also went on to expose one of Britain’s most unsavoury cold war cover- | + | On 7 August 2020, [[Craig Murray]] reminisced about Clive Ponting:{{QB|I am mortified we never met. We emailed each other quite frequently, and a couple of planned meetings fell through because one or the other of us was unwell. He had to cancel a planned talk on Independence at ''Doune the Rabbit Hole'' as his health deteriorated. In June he contacted me aware that his health was failing. He had things he wished to say before he left us, on what he had learnt from his experiences and on the authoritarian tendencies in the British state. I discussed this with [[Alex Salmond]] and we all agreed the ''Alex Salmond Show'' would be the best venue for this. Clive asked that we wait a few weeks until he had recovered strength from his latest rounds of chemotherapy. Sadly that strength never came back. He deserves to sleep well after a good life lived.<ref>''[https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/08/clive-ponting-hero/ "Clive Ponting, Hero"]''</ref>}} |
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| + | ==Blowing the whistle== | ||
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| + | ===Operation Cauldron=== | ||
| + | {{FA|Operation Cauldron}} | ||
| + | On 6 August 2020, [[David Leigh]] wrote an extensive obituary for Clive Ponting in ''[[The Guardian]]'':{{QB|What has not been disclosed until now is that Ponting also went on to expose one of Britain’s most unsavoury cold war [[cover-up]]s – the 1952 attempt to develop [[bioweapons]], during which a trawler off the Hebrides was accidentally doused with plague bacteria. All files on the incident were destroyed, except for a single highly classified folder, which Ponting discovered three decades later, locked in his [Ministry of Defence]] safe. | ||
He confidentially told the ''[[Observer]]'' about it while I was a journalist on the paper, and in July 1985 the story appeared on the front page with the headline "British germ bomb sprayed trawler".<ref>''[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/06/clive-ponting-obituary "Clive Ponting obituary"]''</ref>}} | He confidentially told the ''[[Observer]]'' about it while I was a journalist on the paper, and in July 1985 the story appeared on the front page with the headline "British germ bomb sprayed trawler".<ref>''[https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/06/clive-ponting-obituary "Clive Ponting obituary"]''</ref>}} | ||
| − | + | ===Sinking of the ''General Belgrano''=== | |
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Clive Ponting was a senior civil servant at the UK [[Ministry of Defence]]. In July 1984 he sent two documents to Labour MP, [[Tam Dalyell]], about the [[sinking]] of an Argentine naval warship ''General Belgrano'', a key incident in the [[Falklands War]] of 1982. The documents revealed that the ''General Belgrano'' had been sighted a day earlier than officially reported, steaming ''away'' from the [[Royal Navy]] taskforce, and was ''outside'' the "exclusion zone" when attacked and sunk by the nuclear attack submarine ''HMS Conqueror''. | Clive Ponting was a senior civil servant at the UK [[Ministry of Defence]]. In July 1984 he sent two documents to Labour MP, [[Tam Dalyell]], about the [[sinking]] of an Argentine naval warship ''General Belgrano'', a key incident in the [[Falklands War]] of 1982. The documents revealed that the ''General Belgrano'' had been sighted a day earlier than officially reported, steaming ''away'' from the [[Royal Navy]] taskforce, and was ''outside'' the "exclusion zone" when attacked and sunk by the nuclear attack submarine ''HMS Conqueror''. | ||
Revision as of 16:52, 7 August 2020
 Clive Ponting        (author, academic, whistleblower) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Clive Sheridan Ponting 13 April 1946 |
| Died | 28 July 2020 (Age 74) |
| Exposed | Belgrano affair |
A UK civil servant who blew the whistle on the Belgrano affair | |
Clive Ponting was a British civil servant turned whistleblower who leaked documents that proved that the public had been lied to about the sinking of the Argentine warship General Belgrano. After what Martin Rosenbaum for the BBC termed "one of the most controversial and dramatic court cases in the history of the Official Secrets Act 1911" the jury accepted his defence that he was acting in the public interest and he was acquitted.[1]
On 7 August 2020, Craig Murray reminisced about Clive Ponting:
I am mortified we never met. We emailed each other quite frequently, and a couple of planned meetings fell through because one or the other of us was unwell. He had to cancel a planned talk on Independence at Doune the Rabbit Hole as his health deteriorated. In June he contacted me aware that his health was failing. He had things he wished to say before he left us, on what he had learnt from his experiences and on the authoritarian tendencies in the British state. I discussed this with Alex Salmond and we all agreed the Alex Salmond Show would be the best venue for this. Clive asked that we wait a few weeks until he had recovered strength from his latest rounds of chemotherapy. Sadly that strength never came back. He deserves to sleep well after a good life lived.[2]
Contents
Blowing the whistle
Operation Cauldron
- Full article: Operation Cauldron
- Full article: Operation Cauldron
On 6 August 2020, David Leigh wrote an extensive obituary for Clive Ponting in The Guardian:
What has not been disclosed until now is that Ponting also went on to expose one of Britain’s most unsavoury cold war cover-ups – the 1952 attempt to develop bioweapons, during which a trawler off the Hebrides was accidentally doused with plague bacteria. All files on the incident were destroyed, except for a single highly classified folder, which Ponting discovered three decades later, locked in his [Ministry of Defence]] safe. He confidentially told the Observer about it while I was a journalist on the paper, and in July 1985 the story appeared on the front page with the headline "British germ bomb sprayed trawler".[3]
Sinking of the General Belgrano
Clive Ponting was a senior civil servant at the UK Ministry of Defence. In July 1984 he sent two documents to Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, about the sinking of an Argentine naval warship General Belgrano, a key incident in the Falklands War of 1982. The documents revealed that the General Belgrano had been sighted a day earlier than officially reported, steaming away from the Royal Navy taskforce, and was outside the "exclusion zone" when attacked and sunk by the nuclear attack submarine HMS Conqueror.
Acquittal
Clive Ponting admitted revealing the information and was charged with a criminal offence under Section 2 of the 1911 Official Secrets Act. Ponting expected to be imprisoned – and had brought his toothbrush and shaving kit along to the court on February 11, 1985 – but was acquitted by the jury, although the judge directed the jury to find him guilty. Jurors may not be asked why they reached a particular verdict, but it emerged that some of them resented the patronising and over-emphatic way in which the trial judge, in effect, ordered them to convict. Another factor was the feeling that the "catch-all" section of the Official Secrets Act 1911 under which Ponting was charged and which allowed no public interest defence was unfair and oppressive.[4]
Publications
- ISBN 0722169442 - The Right to Know: The Inside Story of the Belgrano Affair - Clive Ponting
A Document by Clive Ponting
| Title | Document type | Publication date | Subject(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Probable Western Responsibility for Skripal Poisoning | blog post | 28 April 2018 | Sergei Skripal Novichok Pablo Miller BZ Skripal Affair DSMA-Notice Ken McCallum Steele dossier | Those of us who have been in the belly of the beast and have worked closely with the intelligence services, really do know what they and the British government are capable of. They are not “white knights”. |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Craig Murray - Political Prisoner of the British State | Speech | 30 July 2021 | Craig Murray | "This is selective prosecution. This is political persecution. And I have no doubt whatsoever that I go to jail as a political prisoner" (extract from Craig Murray's speech two days before going to Edinburgh's Saughton Jail). |
