Asil Nadir ‘stitched up’ Navigation
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Secret Photographs
A letter written by Simon Regan,
late editor of Scallywag magazine, has circulated on the Internet. The subject
of the letter concerns a road traffic accident, which occurred in North Cyprus
3-years after Asil Nadir had returned to the island following the collapse of
his first trial at the Old Bailey. In his letter, Regan confirmed his half-brother,
Angus James Wilson, killed in the accident, had visited North Cyprus to
conclude a deal with Nadir.
As he continues his letter,
Regan states Asil Nadir purchased photographs of a prominent Tory politician
caught in compromising circumstances with a young boy. He also says that
detectives working for Mohamed Al-Fayed took the photographs in a sting
operation.
Regan assumed Nadir wanted the
photographs to blackmail the government into dropping or reducing Serious Fraud
Office charges against him. Regan’s assumption is wrong; let us examine the
facts.
Apart from Regan’s claims in his
letter and circumstances that occurred after its publication, I have no
evidence as to whether the photographs he mentions actually existed. However,
in his letter to Frank Dobson, Regan asked the MP to circulate its contents,
meaning that if the British services were until then unaware of any transaction
involving Nadir and Angus James, when they did know it presented before them a
potential risk to national security and they had to act as if the photographs
really existed. However, we do know that Angus James and Nadir did meet; an
article by Chris Blackhurst in the Independent confirms it and that would add
to British secret service suspicions the photographs truly existed.
Aware Maggie Thatcher had
stitched him up (see CIA Report) but in those days unable to
prove it, the motive behind why Asil Nadir would purchase the photographs is
clear. He had just invested serious money in an anti-Tory magazine and as he
sought a good return on his investment, Nadir aimed to publish the photographs
to embarrass the British government in retaliation for the destruction of his
company, Polly Peck International. However, when the editor of the magazine
died of serious injuries sustained in a car crash that occurred almost
immediately after the deal, it killed Nadir’s plans. In the 1990s, paedophile
activity was still concealed in Britain and in his situation at that time; it
would prove too difficult for Nadir to persuade a UK newspaper to publish the
photographs, especially while the Tories reigned.
Simon Regan’s supposition that
Nadir intended to commit blackmail makes no sense and should be excused as ‘an
understandable emotional response’, however his letter to Frank Dobson, replete
with names, dates and places is compelling independent corroboration that the
compromising photographs really did exist.
Whether the secret photographs
existed or not, as reports of them circulated following the tragedy, British
secret services had to take seriously the possibility that they did exist – the
Tory in question, a cabinet minister, was then in the process of being groomed
as a possible future prime minister – the photographs represented a genuine
national security risk.
As
Asil Nadir appeared on television in The Cook Report, a popular undercover
investigative programme, one year after Angus James’ tragic death in North
Cyprus, presenter Roger Cook and his team, cameraman Peter Salkeld and
researcher David Alford, believed Nadir could be the victim of a government
conspiracy. They intended to do a follow up programme – MI6 intended to hijack
that programme and provide it with a sting in the tail.
In his book, “On Dangerous
Ground” Roger Cook admitted, “that the dubious conduct of the Serious Fraud
Office lent credence to Asil Nadir’s protestations of innocence.”
Unable to sneak into Nadir’s
security fortified home to verify if the photographs existed or not, while they
remained a threat, MI6 found a novel way to silence Nadir and the danger the
photographs represented.
As he visited my flat, MI6
handler, John Taylor, cheerfully informed me that my MI5 mission was over; I
had successfully infiltrated the Nadir Camp. In my new role, he told me I was
to play a double-agent, contact Roger Cook and tell him almost all the details
of my adventure with MI5. While I was able to explain how I received British
passports in new names for my partner and myself to travel and reside in Nice
in France as part of the operation. Upon our return to England, we found jobs
as security officers and became ‘sleepers’ until MI5 handler Denham, ordered
Special Branch to arrest us. As Nadir’s
banker, Elizabeth Forsyth was sent to Holloway prison on fabricated charges,
waiting for her and playing a ‘mole’, I quickly won her confidence and cemented
it as we went onto Cookham Wood together. MI5 fixed our prison transfers to
coincide. However, I was unable to tell The Cook Report that MI5 had also fixed
up my partner and me with new National Insurance numbers vital to help us
progress the operation. Our handler fixed it with the National Insurance HQ at
Newcastle upon-Tyne to open new records and supply us with valid new numbers to
go with our new names and birth dates. Its how we managed to work as security
officers for Shorrock Guards in Chester and pay our tax and insurance dues
without being arrested until MI5 arranged it with Special Branch.
My MI6 handler provided events
for The Cook Report to film; he wanted me to manipulate them. The Cook
Reporters filmed me visit the Serious Fraud Office HQ to meet then assistant
director Robert Wardle – he also wanted me to spy on Nadir. I visited
detective Neil Smith at the Fraud Squad, lovely man we chatted about Eric
Cantona! I also paid a couple of trips to MI6 HQ where my handler gave me fresh
instructions and a bogus assignment brief, which I was to show to The Cook
Reporters. I complained that the contents of the brief would not convince
anyone to believe in it, but my handler simply told me to give it time and get
it into the hands of Asil Nadir. I hired a private detective, Peter Kerry and
posing as my handler in a Kent park, we convinced the watching Cook Reporters
as they filmed the event that it was for real. Shortly, Nadir invited us to
meet him in Istanbul; we met him in his office in Kandilli. While Nadir
remained unimpressed by the contents of the assignment brief, he did appear
impressed by our cover story and arranged for my partner and myself to enjoy a
holiday in exotic Istanbul complete with a car and armed escort as we visited
famous locations. After holding a second meeting with Nadir, we returned to
England where we met Allan Harriden, the guy behind all the hidden-camera
television shows. The Cook Reporters wanted to film our meetings with our
handler inside our flat – they still did not know he was a detective I had
hired to play the role and dupe them. As I warned my handler that The Cook
Reporters intended to unmask him, he ignored my reports and the inevitable
happened. At that point, usually only otherwise told on a ‘need to know’ basis,
my handler revealed what would have happened if the mission had proved
successful.
He explained once The Cook
Report was transmitted on television, MI6 would spirit me away from North
Cyprus while the Nadir camp was celebrating and fly me from Athens. In London,
I would appear before BBC breaking news cameras and read a prepared report
stating Roger Cook’s story was a hoax, thus destroying his career and ruining
his reputation. Asil Nadir would be a laughing stock and nobody would ever
believe anything he said ever again – meaning if he ever produced the secret
photographs everyone would believe them fakes.
As the Tory government ensured
Nadir would say nothing to embarrass them at his 2012 trial in London, they
issued a record 36-gagging orders to ensure his silence and destroy his
defence.
Verbatim copy of letter from Simon Regan to Frank
Dobson MP
Rt Hon Frank Dobson MP
House of Commons
London SW1
11 November 1996
Dear Mr Dobson,
Further to my letter concerning my brother, Angus
James's death in Northern Cyprus, I write again on a perhaps more worrying and complex matter.
Forgive me if I try and put the situation into a proper perspective by spelling
out the background.
Spiked magazine, which
Angus founded and edited, was first funded by Felix Dennis, of Oz fame who now runs a
formidably lucrative chain of computer magazines. It was later funded by Mohammed Al Fayed with a
considerable amount of money – certainly, to date, several tens of thousands, possibly
hundreds. Fayed's interest was to use Spiked as a sort of glorious and expensive publicity
handout to oil the wheels for his desires to expose sleaze in the present government.
Naturally, as we all know, he had many other irons in the fire but it was made obvious to Angus by
Mark Griffiths, Fayed's "fixer" that the budget for his aims was "unlimited."
Angus had access to Al Fayed's extensive files which are presently being leaked in generous doses and have
been painstakingly compiled at truly massive expense.
Angus and I had launched a London version of Scallywag
together, some years ago now, using a legacy from my late stepfather, Andrew Wilson,
as capital. You may be aware of the fact that we quickly became a thorn in the side of the
Conservative party. First of all with a rather ridiculous libel action from John Major and
Clare Latimer. But we did go on in Scallywag to make several serious allegations about
other members of the cabinet. As a result the Deputy Head of
"research" at the CCO, a "Dr" Julian Lewis, began an almost obsessive campaign to close the magazine down, which to all intents and
purposes, he has done.
One of the sponsors for Scallywag was Owen Oyston who
has since been give seven years custody for rape – something we genuinely felt he was
not guilty of. Angus and I were responsible for "packaging" the Oyston story
and giving what we considered to be Tory dirty tricks a wide airing. A large part of the story we
exposed was tape recordings between a known nutcase called Murrin and Michael Atkins who was
then a junior minister and who had clearly compromised himself in lengthy telephone
calls to Murrin.
Most of all this is merely background to a situation which
became very involved and complicated but, quite clearly large sums of money had
been made available to the CCO/Lewis to "deal" with us and if necessary
I can give lengthy chapter and verse on this. Both Scallywag and Spiked had well known financial connections
with various people who had a bone to pick with the government and were
ardently supportive.
Angus and I, amicably, parted company and I was to
continue on my own with Scallywag while he raised further funding to start publishing a
new magazine, Spiked, without any "previous convictions", which he did through
Felix Dennis and Al Fayed. When we had launched Scallywag we made many parliamentary friends,
including MP's, ex-MP's, secretaries to PPS's, and dissolute lobby
correspondents who could not get certain stories published, among others. Until his death, Angus had
nurtured these contacts very successfully and had a very good working knowledge
of anything untoward which was happening in parliament. I know that his next
edition, planned after his immediate return from Cyprus was going to be a
"corker" and for the first time was going on the web.
One of our contacts was Brian Basham, a dirty tricks
PR who had not only organised the BA conspiracy against Virgin for Lord King, but had then
sold out to Virgin for considerable further profit. He and I did not particularly like
each other because, if anything, I fully believed we should be exposing him, not co-operating
with him, and he knew it. But he took a shine to Angus and they began working out in the gym
together. Angus was shamelessly heterosexual but I, and he, had very serious doubts
about Basham's "crush" on Angus.
Basham wanted to take Angus "on board" and
teach him the "tricks of the trade". I found this whole situation
unhealthy and disassociated myself from Spiked even though at the time I had no
other income because of the CCO activities. But Angus had come to see Basham as
a mentor and Basham had clearly seen Angus as a protégé. It was Basham who
fixed up the deal between Angus and Al Fayed. Basham was on the huge
"expenses unlimited" gravy train which Al Fayed had created and was
in receipt of roughly £250,000 a year, plus expenses, just as a retainer. There
is no doubt in my mind that Brian Basham is a dangerous man with no scruples.
Angus, who had a few, but not many, was delighted to be a recruit to the
various gravy trains Basham controlled. His lifestyle before he died had become
massively excessive and in my opinion he and Basham were operating only this
side of the law.
Basham was also hoping to be retained by Asil Nadir in
Northern Cyprus, which is getting to the relevant part of the story. Nadir's
main man in Cyprus is Peter Diamond who has a permanent suite in one of Nadir's
luxury hotels. Diamond is a sort of political minder form Nadir and you simply
cannot get to Asil unless you go through Diamond. His main
stipulation was that, if they met, the meeting would
have to be a complete secret. There was other wheeling and dealing in London
prior to the Cyprus trip and I knew something big was impending. What it was in
full is probably only known by Angus. All I know is that, prior to Angus going
to Cyprus, Basham and Diamond had struck a deal and Angus was going to be the conduit. Basham's brief was to create a situation
in which Nadir could return to the UK under "benevolent" terms. That is that, at
best, he is not charged at all and, at worst, the evidence against him is flimsy and he gets a token
sentence. Basham is probably one of the few people in the world who could possibly create this
situation. My knowledge of him is that he moves in a strange moonlight world of
double-dealing. It is very unlikely that he had anything directly to do with Angus's death, but it was
quite possible that he might have been double dealing Asil Nadir. He had a long association
with the CCO, especially just before the last election. Basham is extremely adept at letting
others do the actual dirty work, while he picks up the profits.
On the Friday before the flight on Saturday morning, I
met Angus in the Pembroke Castle, the nearest pub to the Spiked office in
Primrose Hill. He and his sort-of-second-in-command, Simon Stander, plus
Angus's mistress, Allison, who also worked for the magazine, and Shona, a
typist for the paper, were all in holiday mood and the girls had been shopping
for beachwear. Apparently Al Fayed had absolutely no time for Asil Nadir and
was not informed of this visit – even though he was paying for it.
While the others chatted about the impending holiday,
Angus and I talked deeply about what the visit was all about. Apparently (a
story strongly backed up by Stander) Angus had been offered compromising
pictures of Michael Portillo in explicit situations with a young boy. The pictures had been shown to both Angus and
Stander and the vendor was asking for £100,000 for the negatives. Basham had been brought
into the conspiracy and had approached Al Fayed who had turned the whole
concept down as being far too underhand. I have not seen these pictures myself, and am aware
that, like the Diana video, they could easily be fakes. But Angus and Stander certainly had
and the vendor was willing to submit the negs to any necessary scientific analysis for the
sum mentioned. This, however, was to be merely the cream on top of a huge folder of
allegations collected via Fayed and given to Angus by Basham.
The idea, as outlined by Angus, was to get the deal
financed by Asil Nadir and the suggestion was that he may use it as a leeway to
do a deal with the government. I.e. it was low-class political blackmail of the
most insidious kind. Angus and Stander, without the girl's explicit knowledge,
were going out to Northern Cyprus to offer a package to Nadir which would also
include anything else they, or Basham, could put together to compromise the
government into a situation whereby Nadir would face the minimum of
prosecution.
This frankly disgusted me. If I had such compromising
pictures, I would have verified them and published them and be damned, but only
if it was obvious that the boy in question was under-aged. We were never on a
witch-hunt against homosexuals, but paedophiles were a different matter. I
would have published them in the public interest because I don't think a
Defence Minister should be so foolish and because I despise hypocrisy and a party
which stands for "family values" should be seen to do so. But under
no circumstances would I have resorted to anything which was tantamount to
blackmail of any person, even though I find Portillo, and his policies, quite
repugnant. Our policy was never homophobic, but we campaigned vigorously
against paedophiles and, always, hypocrisy.
Why Angus believed the veracity of the pictures was
that they were apparently taken with secret cameras in a set-up organised by the two top
private detectives permanently employed by Al Fayed, but also used at one time by
Owen Oyston to try and discredit witnesses against him. Al Fayed also sanctioned these
two, on behalf of Spiked, to do a "complete job" on anyone suspected of having
any kind of relationship with Michael Portillo. Which they did, and I know of at least one
break-in to the house of a BA employer where documents and letters were stolen and
were apparently of a compromising nature.
Peter Lilley was also subjected to such a vigilance,
but I don't know the full outcome. So was Michael Heseltine at one stage, but
that was not financed directly by Fayed. However, we did produce irrefutable
evidence that when Heseltine had his heart attack he was actually in bed with
his mistress in the Venice home of Lord McAlpine, who, incidentally, we had
also accused of being supplied by young boys from a Welsh children's home by
Ian Greer. All this from a party who canvasses for "family values."
While both Scallywag and Spiked had hinted heavily of much of the information
available, we had been largely ignored. In the hands of professional dirty
tricksters, however, the information being offered to Nadir was potential
dynamite.
What I do know is that Angus went to Cyprus to offer
Nadir a "package" and that on the day he died he had called my mother
and said the deal had gone through, for a "lot of money" and they
were going to Nadir's well-protected house with Peter Diamond to celebrate.
This was a Friday – exactly one week after I had talked to him, and they were
due to fly back presumably with a significant cheque the following morning.
Although they had not drunk a great deal – Nadir is no big drinker – the
driver, Stander, was over the limit and Diamond offered him a car and driver
which he refused. They had gone as a foursome, but during the week Stander had
made a serious play for Shona and had been rejected. Because of this he had
become petulant and boorish and on the night in question this had turned into
naked anger. The theory of both girls is that when they were driving back to
the hotel to have a night-cap, Stander was deranged enough to try and commit
suicide and take the others with him. However, it is inconceivable to me that
he could knowingly kill Angus alone. Whatever, if this suicide theory is
correct, it didn't happen as it was planned. The girls survived to tell the
tale and only Stander knows the full truth.
Diamond's reaction to the accident was sheer panic and
he hustled the girls out of the country on the next possible plane, even though
they were naturally seriously traumatised. He called my mother to tell her he
would do everything he could to help – as long as the incident was never
connected to Asil Nadir, his paymaster. While in a state of trauma the girls
allowed Diamond to do all the packing and arranging for the flight, etc..
Without a passport, however, Stander would have to stay. While doing the
"arrangements" Diamond was able to take into his own custody all
Angus's belongings, including all his compromising files and papers, and, presumably,
the cheque. As soon as the girl landed in the UK Diamond was completely
unavailable for any kind of liaison and only by duplicity was I able to get
through to him. His only stipulation at that point was that, under no
circumstances, could Asil Nadir be involved with either the visit or the death.
He was, he said, going to "fix things" for Stander. The hire car was
swiftly disposed of, without even a cursory examination by the police.
However, Chris Blackhurst, Westminster correspondent
for the Independent and a good friend of Angus knew who Angus had gone to see,
but not why, and he published a small item naming Nadir. At that point Stander
disappeared. His youngest son had arrived in Northern Cyprus to try and bail
his father out – or at least smuggle him out, for the police had seized his
passport and the last communication anyone had with Stander was through his
son. His eldest son, however, has had communication with his brother and
attests that Stander had decided to stay in Northern Cyprus and had been fixed
up with an income by Diamond, i.e. Nadir and is presently in hiding as a
permanent guest. Only Stander knows what the deal was (apart from Nadir himself
and Diamond). Whatever it was, it fell to pieces when Angus died, because Angus
was the conduit and Basham would not deal with anyone else. Stander could not
be of any further importance to Nadir, so there must be another explicit reason
why he wanted to hide Stander and co-operate in his failure to return home.
The Coroner in London (the official hearing is next
month) told my mother that under the circumstances of Stander's state of mind on the night,
according to the two witnesses, the girls, if the accident had happened in England Stander
would almost certainly have been charged with manslaughter. However, as best I can I
have used my journalistic skills to get some reactions from Northern Cyprus and it can, in my
opinion at least, not be ruled out that the brakes of the car had been
interfered with. Who may have done this and why is a matter of huge conjecture
and a whole bevy of conspiracy theories spring up. All I know is that Angus's
death was not a straightforward matter, one way or the other, and the key to it
is to track down Stander. If there was foul play, which I at first ruled out
after talking to the girls, Northern Cyprus was the perfect place to do it, and
it could be counted on that Nadir, perhaps innocently, would make sure the
authorities out there would not dig too deeply. I just now have an overwhelming
unease about the circumstances of this accident. This is neither hysterics nor
paranoia. It is a gut feeling shared by several others.
The situation at present is that we have one dead
Angus, one missing Stander, two witnesses who have at last got over their
trauma, and are now able to reconstruct the events leading up to, during, and
after, the accident; and a "package" of potentially compromising
material which is still floating around and may well be used in a blackmail
operation to get a Polly Peck crook off the hook.
May I say that my present motives are not
journalistic, and will not be until or if it is proved to me that Angus's death
was no accident. Until I can rule this possibility out, I intend to pursue the
matter until I have exhausted every strand. An obviously problem is that, if
foul play is considered a possibility, it was planned down to the last detail
and will be very difficult indeed to uncover.
The Foreign Office, according to Dr Fox's (PPS to
Rifkind) letter, have two agents in Turkish Cyprus, and it might be invaluable
if they have local knowledge as to where Stander might be, and perhaps further
knowledge of the accident. I presume, also, that the security services may have
an interest, and certainly the Minister of Defence. It is an unhealthy
situation whatever way you look at it and whatever my views are concerning the
CCO's nasty obsession with Scallywag, I hate blackmail far more and am
absolutely partisan about the whole thing. Unless, of course it was "them
that dunnit".
One of the problems, or at least doubts, is that all
traffic between Northern Cyprus and the UK is routinely monitored by GCHQ, and I would imagine
that there would be a special interest in telephone calls concerning Asil Nadir, so
it is quite inevitable that the security forces in this country must have known about Angus's
visit, and why he had gone there, and that on the day he died he had told my
mother everything had "gone through." This inevitably raises a
question mark.
I now have the means to continue my own investigation,
both here and in Cyprus and am determined to be resolute, including going to
Cyprus myself if necessary to try and pick up the pieces. I want to confront
Stander about the exact circumstances of the deals that might have been done
and about my brother's death. But if Stander has been hidden by Nadir and
enjoys his sophisticated security system, this may be difficult. It has also
not completely escaped my notice that should I venture into those waters, then
my own life could well be dispensable.
I would be deeply grateful for any help you feel you
might be able to give me on what is obviously a very complex matter and would
appreciate it if you, as my constituency MP, were able to circulate this
information to any government organisation or person who may have an interest
or who may be able to help me in my quest. Angus and I had many heated
disagreements, particularly about journalistic ethics, but I did not know just
how much I loved the young bastard until he died. My purpose is to try and
eliminate doubts. Not to prove points, and I am sure there must be several
government agencies who may have an interest in the above, for one reason or
another. If they have, I want to get to them. I think perhaps
the only way in which light may be thrown on this one is to kick up a bit of a
fuss.
It is
not my desire, however, that Angus's death should become a party political
issue. Merely to get to the truth.
Again,
thank you for your kind consideration.
Yours
sincerely,
Simon
Regan
Simon Regan (deceased) was editor of Scallywag Magazine
Chris Blackhurst article, which appeared in the
Independent newspaper
The co-founder of the scurrilous magazine
Scallywag and editor of its successor, Spiked, has died in a road accident in
Cyprus. Angus James was killed late on Saturday when the car he was in collided
with a lorry as he returned with friends from a party with the fugitive
businessman Asil Nadir.
The driver, understood to be Simon Stander, a friend of Mr
James and part of the Spiked team, suffered bruising in the accident and was
recovering in hospital in Cyprus yesterday. Mr James, who was in his thirties,
was notorious for upsetting the Establishment and received a series of libel
writs with scandalous allegations about the Prime Minister and other leading
political figures.
His visit to northern Cyprus was thought to be part of a
plan to put his latest magazine venture on a firm financial footing with the
help of Mr Nadir, a former contributor to Scallywag.
Two women in the party escaped unhurt and flew back to
Britain. David Price, the magazine's lawyer, flew out to Cyprus to see Mr
Stander and assist with any inquiries.
Simon Regan, Mr James' older half-brother and co-founder of Scallywag, said: "They came off a mountain road after a party with Nadir. They had just clinched a deal to get Nadir to back the magazine." Mr Regan said he hoped Spiked would continue in Mr James's memory.
The more serious Spiked came into being after legal action
forced the notorious Scallywag into abeyance.
Blog inspired by the memory of my late parents - both murdered by Maggie Thatcher
