Sentence first - verdict afterwards. Silverstone's incompetence or maliciously deliberate delays?

The "House of Cards" Smith's Beach Inquiry now becomes Alice in Wonderland trials.

Unbelievably, Mike "Children Overboard" Silverstone and his minions at the Corruption and Crime Commission have taken over two years to lay new charges of giving false evidence against Julian Grill, Brian Burke, Norm Marlborough and two public servants. The charges relate to giving false evidence at public hearings in 2006, into the Smith Beach Development.

Is this undue delay, just plain incompetence on Siverstone's part or is the CCC deliberately delaying the process to bankrupt both Burke and Grill, damage their reputations and stave-off any embarrassing acquittals?

Incompetent outfits like the CCC should be made to bring charges within a reasonable time - perhaps 6 months, unless new evidence emerges.

Effectively, these people have already served more than a two year sentence and the charges have not yet gone to trial, let alone a verdict.

Like Alice's experience, is it all just a bad dream? Can such unreasonable delays be real?

"Sentence first-verdict afterwards" said the Queen.

These Western Australian citizens have lost their jobs, their livelihoods, their businesses and many of their friends in the ALP and those who are employed in government; as they are damned if they associate with them while under investigation and suspicion.

Friends won't speak freely to them because they know Mike Silverstone and his cabal may have a record of everything that is said, and photographs of them.

They may, in the future, hear selective parts of a conversation salaciously played out-of-context in some court. Some, possibly all, have had to live with the intrusion of phone bugs, secret cameras, listening devices and eyes prying over personal emails, mail and faxes - for over three years now.

Not to mention legal costs of $250 000 to $350 000 for some of them and thousands of hours of work going over details, court transcripts, records (that haven't been seized) to respond to the various charges relating to the very same matter - charges that never seem to end.

Like the current abuse of process by the CCC, justice was not exactly done in this Wonderland trial:

Alice's Evidence
`Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
`No, no!’ said the Queen. `Sentence first–verdict afterwards.’
`Stuff and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. `The idea of having the sentence first!’
`Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple.
`I won’t!’ said Alice.
`Off with her head!’ the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
`Who cares for you?’ said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) `You’re nothing but a pack of cards!’
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.
`Wake up, Alice dear!’ said her sister; `Why, what a long sleep you’ve had!’
`Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!’ said Alice, she told her sister.

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Silverstone dodges Senate questioning

Was the Major-General protecting the timorous Brigadier?

The Desert Rat was looking at transcripts of the Senate Committee of Inquiry into the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and noticed Corruption and Crime Commission were listed to give evidence.

The Committee seemed to the Desert Rat, to be going through the motions. The transcript of evidence revealed most was rehashed material already in their 2008 Annual Report. CCC supremo Major General Robert-Smith fielded all the questions and his responses were about as dry and interesting as camel dung.

Just towards the end of Roberts-Smith's comments, the Desert Rat realised that the Executive Director Brigadier Mike Children Overboard Silverstone was at the Major General's side but hadn't uttered as word during the long and boring session. The Desert Rat only knew because Roberts-Smith asked the Chair for Silverstone to be excused!

Mr Roberts-Smith— Madam Chair, I wonder if Mr Silverstone could be excused at this stage.

He has an urgent commitment elsewhere.

CHAIR— Of course. Thank you very much.

Mr Silverstone— Thank you.

CHAIR— We will shortly be winding this up, but I do have a couple of quick questions. I note that the parliament committee has a formal role in promoting integrity in the public sector. What does it actually do?

There are a number of explanations for Roberts-Smith talkativeness and Mr Invisible Mike Silverstone's silence.

One is that Roberts-Smith has no confidence in Silverstone answering questions from Senators; that Silverstone is a timorous and shy beastie who now lacks any confidence; or that he was just there to waste taxpayers money and was possibly asleep.

For someone that has been paid about $1 million dollars in salary since being at the CCC, it must be retirement after military retirement for Brigadier Mike Silverstone.

The Desert Rat wonders if Mike Silverstone is double dipping by collecting an army pension as well as an inflated CCC salary.

Silverstone's "Chinese Whisper" reflects a lack of basic administrative skill

What happened when Silverstone transmitted sensitive information orally and without confirmation?

Like the CCC's Smith's Beach fiasco, the Children Overboard political fiasco was also a massive waste of taxpayer's money and resources.

The Desert Rat was interested to read a submission by Commodore Sam Bateman (ret.) to the Children Overboard Inquiry. Under the heading "Communications", he writes:

" The Minister for Defence has acknowledged that there was a breakdown of communications within his portfolio with the “"children overboard”" incident (3) but I believe the causes of confusion are deeper than that.

Developments in communications over the last decade or so, particularly email and mobile phones, have meant that an unofficial and informal channel of communications has developed within the Defence Force that to some extent runs counter to the formal chain of command and formal message channels.

Frequently the informal channel will run ahead of the formal channel leading to the risk of “Chinese whispers” as information is passed from one person to another. Chinese whispers” clearly were happening during the “children overboard” incident as demonstrated for example, by the controversial phone conversations on 7 October 2001 between Commander Banks and Brigadier (Mike) Silverstone and then further “up the line”.

As now appears accepted, the conversation between (Commander) Banks and Silverstone was the main source of the myth that was passed onto Air Vice Marshall Titheridge then to Ms Jane Halton and then seized upon by the political “spin doctors”.

At the meeting of the People Smuggling Task Force on Sunday 7 October (4), Group Captain Walker appears to have had the formal messages but by then, the informal channel had jumped ahead and “the horse had bolted”.

As Dennis Shanahan, Political Editor of The Australian, has suggested, the entire episode was the result of senior professional military officers hurriedly transmitting information orally and without confirmation”.(5) I agree with this assessment but in defence of the senior military officers, I must also say that they were responding to a heavily politicised environment created by aggressive, “shoot from the hip” bureaucrats in senior positions in Canberra.

What can be done about this situation? It is a consequence of technological advances and to some extent, it is inevitable that in a highly political charged situation, bureaucrats and ministerial staff in Canberra are going to seek information from the operational level on which to base their advice to the Minister.

However, for officers at the operational level, these phone calls are highly disruptive. The same might be said within the Defence Force about phone calls from further up the operational chain of command. As Greg Sheridan has rightly observed in The Australian, these phone calls are “a dysfunctional aspect of modern military organisation”. (6)

While Brigadier Silverstone, as Commander Northern Command, was notionally in command of border protection operations, he is an Army officer and not experienced in maritime operations.

His (Silverstone's) phone call to Commander Banks (7) in the heat of the operation on October 7 would not have been helpful, particularly as Banks may have found the need to explain carefully some basic issues of seamanship, seaworthiness, life saving at sea, navigation and so on.

The present system of operational command and control in the Defence is a joint one and officers trained in one military environment (air, land or sea) can find themselves in command of operations in another environment. However, it is most important that they do not move personally into a mode of giving advice or asserting influence outside of their experience. I suggest that this was a feature of the phone calls between Silverstone, Titheridge and Halton. "

The Desert Rat thinks history is repeating itself with Brigadier Mike Silverstone (ret.)

(3) John Kerin, “Communications breakdown, says Hill”, The Weekend Australian, The Nation, February,
16-17, 2002, p. 4.
(4) Marian Wilkinson, “Tampering with the evidence”, The Sydney Morning Herald, News Review, February
16-17, 2002, p.23.
(5) Dennis Shanahan, “A damning indictment of bureaucrats”, The Weekend Australian, The Nation,
February 16-17, 2002, p. 4.
(6) Greg Sheridan, “Out of the blue, a big whopper”, The Weekend Australian, Inquirer, February 23-24,
2002, p.23.
(7) Marian Wilkinson, “A few good men”, The Sydney Morning Herald, News Review, February 23-24,
2002, p.27.

Silverstone goes "overboard" with surveillance

Silverstone's dark "War on Terror"

The Sunday Times this week revealed that Julian Grill his wife Lesley and visitors to their Mount Street home have been continally filmed by CCC voyeurs. This surveillance and gross invasion of privacy would have continued during the tragic death of their granddaughter last year - and continues today.

Not only is Mike "Children Overboard" Silverstone and the voyeurs down at the CCC bugging Julian Grill's house including their bedroom, we have now learned that Silverstone has also hidden cameras monitoring all movements to and from the Grill's house.

One miniature camera was discovered by an SEC worker last year and immediately shifted by the CCC goons.

The Desert Rat has been told the camera was low enough to see up a woman's skirt, if her hem is above the knee. That must have amused and titillated the spooks in the nearby van. Were any of these images circulated?

There is a strong probability that there are other cameras in the house - perhaps a toilet camera in case someone has a penchant for reading on the loo.

Mike Silverstone is very desperate to find something on Julian Grill to justify his massive waste of taxpayers money and probably illegal warrants.

Silverstone and his goons from Dad's Army, as well, have intercepted all Grill's home phone calls, mobile phones calls, faxes, email and bugged all the rooms in his house, including the bedroom.

To get warrants for this snooping Silverstone had to convince a judge that he had strong evidence that Grill had committed an offence which could incur a 7 year prison term. To date they don't seem to have any evidence that Grill has broken any law. The CCC has resorted to selectively airing salacious bits of conversations to severely damage or destroy Grill's public reputation.

No wonder Silverstone did not want to have the Parliamentary Inspector Malcolm McCusker QC look at the warrant applications. The Desert Rat believes the CCC has dishonestly obtained the warrants and someone should eventually go to gaol for this unnecessary and appalling breach of privacy and civil liberties.

In our Anglo Australian legal system, a strong principle of justice should be that the state must never use these types of powers unless they involve serious crime such as murder or major organised crime AND that they have strong evidence an offence has been committed. They certainly should not be used for CCC fishing expeditions.

Silverstone's grandiose pursuit of high profile politicians does not fit either of these two basic requirements. Silverstone seems to want to run the show like Dick Cheney who said after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that "the USA was going to go over to the dark side".

It is clear to the Desert Rat that the CCC has been operating "on the dark side" of the law for most of its existence and like Chaney - Rumsfeld - Wolfowitz and fellow travellers, the CCC cabal will reap their bitter harvest.

It is becoming more probable as time goes by that the shady CCC operatives will end up in disgrace and in gaol.

Van Onselen argues for an Independent Review of Corruption and Crime Commission

Who is the CCC trying to protect? asks Peter Van Onselen

In this weeks The Sunday Times, respected political commentator Peter Van Onselen says that:

"In recent months, the extraordinary powers of the CCC have given cause to question the findings and methods of its operations".

Van Onselen was alluding to Edmund Burke's warning that "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

He refers to Malcolm McCusker's "scathing review about the most secretive and unaccountable authority in the state." - the CCC, and supports the way McCusker has discharged his role as the Parliamentary Inspector of the CCC and more importantly supports the views McCusker has expressed in his reports which highlight the appalling way it has operated.

Van Onelen castigates the CCC for wasting time bugging politicians, bureaucrats and lobbyists and says it should like its NSW counterpart "go after drug dealers and murderers." - a function is has ignored in its five year existence.

Van Onselen says in the article
:

"In a democracy we should value our liberties and our freedoms. Sadly, the CCC does neither. It can invade people's privacy and go unchecked. When it is questioned as to the findings it issues from such invasions it seeks to further shield itself from review, as evidenced by its reaction from McCusker's criticisms."

The Desert Rat say bring on the review and we will see how many CCC officers get are charged misconduct and criminal offences. One certainty is that the CCC will desperately try to stop any independent review.

"Children Overboard" Mike Silverstone changes the evidence

It's OK for Mr Invisible Mike Silverstone to change his evidence - even when prepared

Wouldn't it be nice if witnesses who were cross examined by the Corruption and Crime Commission on subjects they were not able to prepare for and review information, could fiddle with their evidence or restate it more accurately!

The invisible man, Mike "Children Overboard" Silverstone the Executive Director of the CCC appears to have been quite prepared to extend that privilege to himself according to the Children Overboard enquiry transcripts.

Was this fiddling with the record, just fixing an omission or something more nefarious?

Read this ABC Online report of proceeding of the Senate Inquiry in 2002:

"Wednesday, March 27, 2002 . Posted: 19:35:13 (AEDT)

Brigadier admits adding 'child' to notes

The Brigadier who first reported asylum seekers threw their children overboard has revealed he added the word "child" to his notes after he first received information about the incident.

Brigadier Mike Silverstone has given a written submission to the Senate committee investigating the affair.

The Commander of HMAS Adelaide, Norman Banks, has repeatedly denied ever reporting that children had been thrown overboard.

But the man on the other end of that first phone call, Brigadier Silverstone, insists he said it.

The Brigadier says that is supported by his notes of the conversation, even though he has now revealed that the words he recorded during the conversation were "men thrown over side".

He says he added the word child immediately after the conversation and just before he passed the message on to the head of strategic command, Air Vice Marshall Alan Titheridge.

The Senate committee continues its hearings next week."

Mike Silverstone - The Invisible Man

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi bickering brattle!

Like Griffin the main character in HG Wells classic novella The Invisible Man, has Mike "Children Overboard" Silverstone the Executive Director of the CCC, successfully carried out a procedure to make himself invisible?

If he should try to become visible again, will he fail, and like the forlorn Griffin, become mentally unstable as a result?

The Desert Rat has pondered the invisible role played by Silverstone. It is not as though the CCC is investigating vicious criminals, bikie gangs or organised crime (heaven forbid), where there may be some threat to him - why then is he so reticent. Only one photo of Silverstone has been tracked down to date.

If Silverstone is under threat, then so should Roberts-Smith be, but he is happy to have his pompous image displayed without restraint in the public arena.

When the public hearing were announced into the (apparently legitimate) lobbying activities of Burke and Grill, Silverstone was soaking up all the kudos and glory of the coup in front of the TV cameras. Since then this timorous man has slunk into the shadows - no photos, no publicity, very few if any personally attributable statements or public appearances.

The CCC 2008 Annual Report has one only sentence identifying him as the Executive Director. Silverstone has the hallmark of a fugitive, low lying, refusing to be fully accountable to the Parliamentary Inspector Malcolm McCusker QC by not providing details about the CCC's use of telephone interception warrants, warrants for bugging private homes and offices.

What does he actually do? The Desert Rat thinks he may have been employed because of some possible expertise in running covert operations. We can glean from the Annual Report that about 10 to 20 warrants to plant surveillance devices (bugs) and over 100 telephone interceptions are granted each year.

Administration would appear to be Silverstone's weakness. We know on the administration side he has been responsible for the stuff-up of simple search warrants and the embarrassing stuff-up of a number of charges presented to the Court's, as recently as last month. He had to re-issue the media release on Smith's Beach, CCC reports take forever to be finished and years for simple charges to be laid.

Some, including the Desert Rat, would suspect he lacks competence in that area.

Will or does Silverstone insist on having a barrister with him if and when interviewed by the Parliamentary Inspector, as have his minions such as Senior Investigator Mark Ingham? Why are they so precious and wary about being scrutinised by the Parliamentary Inspector, even in private?

Have they done something illegal or indulged in "misconduct" - God forbid? Will the wrath of justice, like Burns plough, wreak havoc upon this timorous mouse and his minions?

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving forsight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

To a Mouse by Robert Burns