Further Details Emerge in Kellett Affair
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Greifenberg Press Agency (GPA)
GREIFENBERG – On Friday, Martin Foor, State Minister of the Interior, announced further details in the “Kellett Affair.”
According to Foor, the incident began on Monday, 30 March, when an email was sent to Molossian President Kevin Baugh stating that Greifenberg suffered an “insult” as a result of the manner in which the Greifenberg flag was flown during HRH Grand Duke Paul’s visit to Molossia in April 2008. The email, which was sent with the grand duke’s signature, was dispatched while the monarch was away on a trip. A second email was sent the following day requesting that photos showing the Greifenberg flag which appear on the Molossian official website be removed. Joseph Hilger, Deputy Head of Government and State Minister of Foreign Affairs, has confirmed that all concerned have been informed of the incident and any lasting effects due to the correspondence are negligible.
Once the incident was discovered, the Head of Government, Michael Geiger, asked the Greifenberg State Police (GSP) asked to investigate the case. The initial investigation revealed that in addition to HRH Grand Duke Paul, only two other people were authorized to have access to the grand duke’s email account: Michael Geiger (Head of Government) and A.G. Bachtiar (Principal Private Secretary to HRH Grand Duke Paul). It later emerged that in 2007 the then State Minister for Economic Affairs, Paul Kellett, was given access to the grand duke’s email account by Geiger during the simultaneous absence from Greifenberg of HRH Grand Duke Paul, Geiger and Bachtiar. According to GSP investigators, despite instructions to do so, the password for the grand duke’s email account had not been changed following the period of Kellett’s temporary access. As a result of his unfettered access to the grand duke’s email account, Kellett was free to send emails (with the grand duke’s signature) expressing “insult” regarding the display of the Greifenberg flag by the Molossian government.
Major Jeffrey Archer, GSP spokesman, described Kellett as a member of a small group of Greifenberg politicians who are not in favor of recent trends in Greifenberg foreign policy. State Minister Hilger stated that Kellett was “particularly upset by Greifenberg’s wider involvement in intermicronational affairs. He was very much against Greifenberg joining the League of Small Nations.”
Apparently the emails sent by Kellett were intended to embarrass HRH Grand Duke Paul, drive a wedge between Greifenberg and Molossia, and, if possible, to derail other ongoing attempts by the Greifenberg Government to pursue bilateral and multilateral relations with other micronations. According to Hilger, the apparent catalyst for Kellett’s recent actions was the success of the recent General Conference of the LSN and the advancement of plans for the LSN Summit in October 2010. Hilger explained that “Kellett simply viewed LSN plans as ‘going too far, too fast’ and took action to try to derail the process by instigating trouble between HRH Grand Duke Paul and President Baugh.”
Interior Minister Foor also announced that an email message found in Kellett’s official government email account hints at possible involvement of another micronation in the incident. Foor, who declined to name the micronation in question, GSP investigators have thus far been unable to obtain clarification of this matter from Kellett.
