Anon-O-Mouse To The Rescue

CitizenJournalism
FiskingTheCourtDocsVille

Well, well, well.

It looks like BC Mary has found us BCRail-O-Philes an Emptywheel* we can call our own.

Specifically, she has recruited an anonymous commenter to comb through the court documents and tell us what they actually mean.

It's fantastic stuff, so far dealing with the Defense's 32 page 'Notice of Application For Disclosure'

Stuff like this:

Paragraph 2, for example, tells us that the RCMP launched the investigation that eventually became this case ‘sometime in 2002’ – an operation that they called “Project Everywhichway” and that, by June of 2003 they had already decided that Udhe Singh (Dave) Basi was, in the usual usage of the force, ‘a person of interest in this investigation.’

The press has covered various bits and pieces of this narrative but we’ve never really seen the whole thing laid out like this. It’s quite a story and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mary will publish a lot of it over the next little while. But first, let’s finish our first calm walk through of the whole 32 pages.


And this:

Part III comprises paragraphs 79 – 138 and is headed Disclosure Issues Arising From the Project Room Review.

There are several sub-headings in this section but you could really call these paragraphs the prima facie case for the defence attorneys’ strong suggestion that the crown – by that I mean the special prosecutor and the police – have not been playing ball. Of course, the prosecution will no doubt take issue with what the defence alleges but, based on this material, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than that there’s been a lot of foot-dragging going on.

And this:

First of all, a caution. This is the defence version of the libretto and it’s undoubtedly the one Gary Mason’s been singing from. As Mary’s posted below – thanks again to Bill, there will be an opportunity for the other side – the prosecution, to weigh in on all these issues. I’m not going to try and point this out at every step of this narrative, but it’s a good idea to keep the notion in the back of your mind; after all, a place like the rockpile in James Bay does have a street address that’s hardly a secret. But, we’ll let the RCMP, the Crown and Gary Mason argue about that.

And, especially, this:

From ¶ 24 onwards, the document begins to deal with the actual results of the RCMP’s surveillance of Mr. Basi’s Ministerial Office and Cell phone conversations. Paragraphs 24 – 29 contain some of the information about which the public, and those of you who’ve been reading Mary’s blog regularly, have been wondering about ever since December 28, 2003.

I think they may be worth transcribing in full – again, keeping in mind that this is the defence version of this little drama.

¶ 24. As a result of listening to Mr. Basi’s intercepted private communications, the RCMP were aware that Mr. Basi was working on the sale of the BC Rail asset for Minister Collins.

¶ 25. As a result of significant information gathering, the RCMP knew that the sale of BC Rail was a highly political matter in which the Government was seen to be breaking a key election promise.

¶ 26. There were originally five (5) bids tendered in the BC Rail bidding process. In the final analysis, only three bids were competitive; those were CN Rail, CP Rail, and OmniTrax.

¶ 27. Through the interception of communications, the RCMP learned that one of the final bidders, CP Rail, was dropping out of the bidding process because of their belief that the process was flawed and that it had been predetermined that CN Rail would be the successful bidder.

¶ 28. In early November 2003, as a result of listening to intercepted communications on the Ministerial Cell Phone, the RCMP learned that OmniTRAX was considering dropping out of the process for precisely the same reasons cited by CP Rail.

¶ 29. Through intercepted communications, the RCMP learned that OmniTRAX had retained the services of Pilothouse Public Affairs Group (hereinafter “Pilothouse”), a British Columbia based lobbying company, to assist them in their bid for the BC Rail asset. Pilothouse at the time was made up of three principal partners, Brian Kieran (hereinafter “Mr. Kieran”), Erik Bornmann (hereinafter “Mr. Bornmann”) and Jamie Elmhirst (hereinafter “Mr. Elmhirst”).


I mean, just read those last three paragraphs and ponder the possibilities if any of this is even remotely verifiable.

Again, as I said over at Mary's place......The work of these exceptional Anon-O-Mice can only lead one to make like 'The Zalm' b/w 'Country Joe and the Fish' and exclaim:

FaaaaaanFreakin'tastic!

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*Emptywheel is Marcy Wheeler, the woman who has turned the Plame case inside-out with the folks at Firedoglake and the Next Hurrah (and done some fantastic live blogging of the Libby trial along with a number of other FDL'ers).

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