The Gateside three are:
- Daniel Lafayeedney
- Chris Donnelly
- Oliver McTernan
Our initial study; Integrity Initiative: A Look Into the Deep State?, demonstrated that all three were connected at the very highest military, diplomatic and political levels. But just how high do these contacts go? Here is one example:
In a Defence Committee hearing entitled "The Defence contribution to UK national security and resilience", held on Tuesday 27 January 2009, the witnesses included General Sir David Richards KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen, (Late Royal Regiment of Artillery), as Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces, also Standing Joint Commander (UK) (SJC(UK)) with responsibility for the provision of military aid to civil power within the United Kingdom.
During his evidence he said:
Well, I would emphasise again that my focus is deployed operations, so I have routinely a conscience in James Everard and his small joint team that really are very dedicated, and they are also joint because they are within HQ Land Forces, which is sometimes forgotten. They are the ones that on a day-to-day basis are horizon-scanning, doing the work with other government departments, particularly the MoD. I think it is really terrorism and the sort of work the Chairman mentioned of Chris Donnelly, who is a very good friend of mine and in fact we are together later today, looking at the full scale of where defence might have to be deployed over the next ten to 20 years in an away-day, it is that sort of work that I focus on to make sure that I come back and say to someone like James, "Have we factored this into the work done by that joint staff downstairs in our cellars?" It is not random, but the work done focused on the UK is part of a much wider piece of work, and I think that is probably right, going back to the Chairman's point, that it is all so interlinked in a globalised world that that is the way it has got to be, and then I cherry-pick bits that I want then to focus on in respect of UK resilience. [Emphasis added]
And what happened in the career of General Sir David Richards after that? He was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff, the professional head of all British Armed Forces and the most senior uniformed military advisor to the Secretary of State for Defence and to the Prime Minister. He held this post from 29 October 2010 until 18 July 2013. And his "very good friend" Chris Donnelly, would, one must conclude, be advising him during this time.
In short, the influence of the Gateside Three and The Integrity Initiative goes to the very top levels, where policy is shaped and the course of the country charted.
