14-10-2010, 08:22 PM
David Guyatt Wrote:Whenever I see two completely different explanations of the same...
...spooky term, it's invariably worth a second look:
http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/...p=15050391
Quote:Quote:Cleanskin (security)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Within the vernacular of counter-terrorism agents and police officers, a cleanskin is an undercover operative whose identity is not known to the forces he or she is tasked to infiltrate. This is usually because such an agent has not conducted any prior undercover activity.
The phrase entered wide currency with a slightly different meaning in the United Kingdom following the London bombings of 7 July 2005. The four bombers involved in those bombings were reported in the press to be "cleanskins", according to police sources, meaning that their profiles did not fit the expected profile of bombers.
Terrorist organizations, smugglers, and others performing secretive activities prefer to subvert cleanskins as there is less chance that they will arouse suspicion. For example, a person with previous convictions for importing drugs is more likely to be detained than a person never convicted.
The word cleanskin originally comes from Australia, and refers to an unbranded cattle, with the earliest references being around the 1860s. The word then evolved to mean a person against whom no conviction has been recorded, a person who was 'clean'.
So, as well as the never-before seen, possibly 'unique' explosives allegedly used on the day, 7/7 also managed to rewrite the language of the intelligence community, in the United Kingdom but nowhere else, if the wiki entry is in any way correct?
Before 7/7, a 'cleanskin' was an intelligence asset unknown to those they were tasked to infiltrate; after 7/7, a 'cleanskin' has no connection at all to the intelligence services, other than by virtue of being entirely unknown to them.
In changing the meaning of the term, MI5 avoided what it considered lying; but effectively revealed it was not telling the truth.
"There are three sorts of conspiracy: by the people who complain, by the people who write, by the people who take action. There is nothing to fear from the first group, the two others are more dangerous; but the police have to be part of all three,"
Joseph Fouche
Joseph Fouche