I guess it really is in the hands of god, then ...

November 19, 2003 4:03 AM

Buck Stupid
You.gotta.be.kidding.me
posted by magullo (31 comments total)

No, Buck Nekkid!

So all one has to do is just talk about all the security that is going to be in place, but for them to actually do anything is another story.

Not surprising, makes about as much sense as banning nail clippers in carry on luggage on airplanes will flush out terrorists and make it safer for airline employees from a take over.

This proves to be another point made that the agencies responsible for the security of a nation [CIA. FBI, name 'em] didn't do their jobs prior to 9/11, let alone after the Patriot Act I was rammed through.

The only difference being that now there is no due process if you are "suspected of being a terrorist".

What a waste of tax payers money.

The emperor has no clothes.
posted by alicesshoe at 4:37 AM on November 19, 2003

...then last night at 10:30 when he left the palace he could, if he wanted to, have taken out the president and the royal family.

Don't tease me.
posted by squealy at 4:42 AM on November 19, 2003

Preliminary reports are saying that the reporter in question was carrying a sponge and a rusty spanner.
posted by Dagobert at 4:42 AM on November 19, 2003

I hear you Dagobert!
posted by kenaman at 4:49 AM on November 19, 2003

The Home Secretary's made a statement.
posted by biffa at 4:49 AM on November 19, 2003

US:Security and criminal checks on Mr Parry were carried out "robustly and correctly," Mr Blunkett said.
UK:"To our surprise and then mounting horror we discovered that our man with no training, no experience at all, no real vetting was in very close proximity to the most important people in our country,"
What a waste of tax payers money.
Whose? Seeing the Palace making the blunder.
posted by thomcatspike at 5:04 AM on November 19, 2003

the most important people in our country

What, the Royals? Did I wake up in the 19th century and not realise it?
posted by influx at 5:07 AM on November 19, 2003

You know what gets me wbout these stories. How many times it turns out to be true. You see I've lost count of the number of assasinations and murders carried out by terrorists working deep undercover in order to get close to the "most important people in the country".

A more cynical person may even conclude that these regular "we smuggled tank on to a plane!" type stories are used to keep the climate of fear and security spend ticking over.

Either way, I could do with a daring assasination to liven up my day before the footie starts tonight. Come on you terrorists, if a Daily Mirror journalist can do it, so can you!
posted by fullerine at 5:27 AM on November 19, 2003

That's nothing, you should hear Dagobert play piano.
posted by Scoo at 6:24 AM on November 19, 2003

From the CNN story: "Neither Buckingham Palace officials nor the Metropolitan police have not commented."

Very interesting. I wonder why CNN didn't report the comments that the Palace and the Met didn't not make.
posted by djfiander at 6:32 AM on November 19, 2003

I could do with a daring assasination to liven up my day

I'm as partisan left as anybody, but am I the only one getting a little uneasy with the cheering on of assassins around here lately? It's a miracle the Secret Service doesn't shut this place down.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:56 AM on November 19, 2003

why shut it down now? when after 'it' happens you could use this very discussion as fodder to criminalize even more, to incite more fear. so silly. there's money to be made in fear, er security.
posted by bluefish at 7:23 AM on November 19, 2003

"I cannot rule out that there are other people lurking at the palace who've got their own doggy references," he said.

Her Majesty's Corgi was unavailble for comment.
posted by briank at 7:27 AM on November 19, 2003

I'm as partisan left as anybody, but am I the only one getting a little uneasy with the cheering on of assassins around here lately? It's a miracle the Secret Service doesn't shut this place down.

Yes, I completely agree. For some reason I expected a bit more maturity from some of the responses. Regardless, this especially creeped me out.

Amazing access, especially from an employee with obviously faked credentials, who makes £11,881 a year.
posted by jazzkat11 at 7:52 AM on November 19, 2003

Why do some of his photos have a certain... I don't know... Fark photoshop quality about them?
posted by grabbingsand at 8:34 AM on November 19, 2003

Good question, grabbingsand I was wondering that too. If you click(-ed) on jazzkat11's link just above yours, the one with him standing in the corridor looks real ... doggy. Maybe I shouldn't have put together a FFP with material from the Mirror ...
posted by magullo at 9:01 AM on November 19, 2003

Why do some of his photos have a certain... I don't know... Fark photoshop quality about them?

And who took that photo? A second guy who they got into the palace on false credentials?

Nah, the lighting doesn't match.
posted by kindall at 9:47 AM on November 19, 2003

It coulda been worse magullo. You coulda used The Sun.
posted by squealy at 9:49 AM on November 19, 2003

From what I've read in the links above, it looks like the reporter used his real name, but faked his CV as a floorman. I would imagine the security check would have had his name on a terrorist watch list he wouldn't have gotten a job.

I don't know what the qualifications are for a palace floorman, but it probably doesn't generate background checks they do for MI5.

It isn't shocking that a journalist [presumably a British citizen from birth] with a spotless criminal record would get an entry-level job in the palace.

The fake references? Doesn't everyone do that to some degree? It isn't like he'd use referrences that would.

Now if he filled out the job application with his name as Saddam Hussein and previous address in Baghdad and still got the job I'd be surprised.
posted by birdherder at 9:52 AM on November 19, 2003

This, from the from page of a google search for 'Ryan Parry CV'. Is there an employer anywhere that doesn't do that level of fact checking?
posted by punilux at 10:21 AM on November 19, 2003

squealy Give me some credit here - I know full well that The Sun is Fark material ( o )( o )

birdherder Granted, I called them stupid in the title (which I nicked from another publication - that's the kind of person I am: not fit for a palace job). I'll also add that it is extremely easy to point fingers, bring in other embarrassing examples and have an afternoon of laughs. However, the fact is that, at least in the corporate and in the defense contractors world, the very first item on any security checklist is precisely to avoid this kind of embarrassment.

At the end of the day, you can only put so many locks on a door. But when it comes to consequences, there is a world of difference between being able to show a forced lock and having to admit there were no locks in the first place. I know that in some perfectly democratic, modern and relatively placid places even the most humble clerical employee of a defense contractor will most certainly have his or her previous employment record scrutinized. The boys in charge of Buckingham are not only protecting themselves from big fish. Even a small-time thief can become a huge nuisance from one day to the next. Not to mention an undercover journalist from a tabloid.
posted by magullo at 10:34 AM on November 19, 2003

"To our surprise and then mounting horror we discovered that our man with no training, no experience at all, no real vetting was in very close proximity to the most important people in our country,"

All too horribly true, but that's still no way to talk about the POTUS.
posted by George_Spiggott at 10:37 AM on November 19, 2003

I bet they still screen everybody every time they go in or out though. Just cause you have access, doesn't mean you could do anything with it. Not like you could actually have a gun on you.
posted by smackfu at 10:52 AM on November 19, 2003

According to a TV interview with the editor of the Mirror this morning, (hence no link), he was not searched once during the entire two months, and as late as 7:30pm on Tuesday, went to collect his personal belongings from the Palace before the story broke.
posted by punilux at 10:55 AM on November 19, 2003

.. and, I should add, having already delivered the complementary fruit and chocolates to GWB's room. (Whether the chocolates were placed on the pillow was not mentioned, however).
posted by punilux at 11:00 AM on November 19, 2003

am I the only one getting a little uneasy with the cheering on of assassins around here lately? It's a miracle the Secret Service doesn't shut this place down.

Perhaps it's happening everywhere, and they're having trouble keeping up.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:43 PM on November 19, 2003

What a waste of tax payers money.
Whose? Seeing the Palace making the blunder.

Thomascatspike, you f'real?

The topic pointed you to this URL, titled .me

Bush's Travelling Entourage: Personnel:
250 Secret Service Agents
150 National Security Advisors
50 White House Political Aids
15 Sniffer Dog Teams
200 Representatives from other US Departments
Personal Chef and his Team of 4 cooks

Hardware:
2 identical Boeing 747-200's and a third chartered jumbo jet
1 Sikorsky Sea King Helicopter
1 Black Hawk Helicopter
2 identical Motorcades of 20 Armoured Vehicles including Limousine

Now all these people and 15 dogs aren't being paid? It's a government trip, whom do you think pays these folks?

That's the American tax payer. Now don't collect $200 and do not pass GO.

The British tax payer is paying the £4,000,000 [Discussed here] for the British end of security. Think the Queen is paying the tab? Free lodging at the Palace maybe?

I'm sure.

As for the photo's looking doctored, that isn't the issue. The fact remains he was hired and was there and the art director nicked some photos of said Palace rooms, plopped in the footman's photo and voilà! an allo police¿ cover. Maybe.
posted by alicesshoe at 2:08 PM on November 19, 2003

it'd be a lot cheaper to just shoot the fucker.
posted by quonsar at 2:27 PM on November 19, 2003

Dang, quonsar. I'll miss the spice you bring to our melting pot. Say hi to the nice agents and let us know how it goes.
posted by skyscraper at 10:43 PM on November 19, 2003

On closer inspection, the MetaFilter connection becomes ominous. From one of the Mirror stories:

YESTERDAY IN THE MALL: Riding in horse-gilded carriage yesterday, just hours before George Bush arrived, my fellow footmen ans [sic] I escort the Portuguese ambassador and other VIPs along the Mall to Buckingham Palace as part of my ceremonial duties

Miguel? Is that you?
posted by skyscraper at 10:54 PM on November 19, 2003

All the people and hardware of Bush's entourage remind me of stories I read while visiting Dover Castle, about a visit paid by Henry VIII. He sent his own furniture ahead, and other personal items, for a visit of a few days!

I am an anti-Bush partisan. But I don't begrudge the security team for the most part. He is the POTUS, even if not elected. But 150 national security advisers and 50 whitehouse aids and another 200 from "various departments"? From a country that is running on borrowed money! This dope must think he's Emperor or something.

I watched TV here (England) and saw the Queen make her speech before the banquet. I heard her tell stoopid that she was bigger than he was, and older, but they were there about matters bigger than both of them. She reminded him of the importance of freedom. I was refreshed.

Amazingly, dubya managed his own speech without error and I heard nothing to be embarrassed about. (excepting that someone went "Ugh!" as the speechmaking segwayed from Betty to George. Not sure who did what). From the camera angle, I thought dubya was standing too close to Betty, his elbow in her face, but that was it. Princess Ann sat on shrub's other side, and looked like she regretted leaving her attack dogs behind.
posted by Goofyy at 4:22 AM on November 20, 2003