Difference between revisions of "Cabinet Office"

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==UK Resilience and the Civil Contingencies Secretariat.==
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{{Template:Counter-Terrorism Portal badge}}
  
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Without attracting front page attention the Blair government has quietly presided over a revolution in internal propaganda systems for dealing with national emergencies.  The overhaul was set in train in July 2001 as a result of the foot and mouth crisis and drawing on the experience of the floods of Winter 2000 and the fuel protests. Based in the Cabinet Office and overseen initially by the most senior propaganda official in the civil service, the Head of the [[Government Information and Communication Service]], [[Mike Granatt]], is the [[Civil Contingencies Secretariat]].  It works closely with another new body, the [[Health Protection Agency]] which encompasses parts of the [[Department of Health]] disease surveillance operation and the MoD's chemical and biological labs at [[Porton Down]]. Under the rather chilling website branding of '[[UK Resilience]]', this network of organisations also works closely with the [[Special Branch]] and [[MI5]]. They tap straight into the CIC, chaired by [[Alastair Campbell]]. The aim of the CCS is said to be to improve the UK's 'resilience' to 'disruptive challenge'.<ref><http://www.ukresilience.info/role.htm></ref>   It has already seen action in the firefighters dispute - an indication of the orientation of the CCS towards state rather than public service agendas.  It was centrally involved in circulating information on the alleged 'threat' from Islamic 'terrorism'.
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==Background==
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According to the Cabinet Office website they "support the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and ensure the effective running of government."
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They are the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, and take the lead in certain critical policy areas. The Cabinet Office is a ministerial department, supported by 18 agencies and public bodies. <ref name= "Cabinet"> [https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/cabinet-office Cabinet Office], GOV.UK, accessed 30 September </ref>
  
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The CCS houses a 24hour monitoring spin operation called the [[News Co-ordination Centre]] (NCC) which stands ready for use in the event of the next emergency.  It has also (in the wake of September 11) established a wide ranging review of information handling in an emergency situation undertaken by a working party involving government press officers and senior media executives together with police and local authority crisis planners.  The [[Media Emergency Forum]] has produced a long report which the CCS claims 'reflects a more productive relationship' with the media.<ref><http://ukresilience.info/mefreport.htm></ref>  The approach taken by the CCS is more sophisticated than previous emergency planning responses which allow the government simply to take over the broadcast media.  That system is still in place and according to Mike Granatt, now Director General of the GICS 'we've got a system that was put in place for nuclear war.  We could press the button and pre-empt every transmitter in this country'.  But this would be counter-productive. 'Voluntary' agreements with the media are seen as more effective. Granatt says 'we need a credible active, sceptical – rather than cynical – system of news reporting…  Anything we do to subvert the process of giving trust in that is wrong…  If the BBC or ITN… said we think you should do this because the government says so, we would be lost'.<ref>Mike Granatt address to the Communicating the War on Terror conference, The Royal Institution, London, 5 June 2003.</ref> So productive has this been that it has occasioned little attention in the media.
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==Structure==
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[[Civil Contingencies Secretariat]] | [[Joint Intelligence Committee]] | [[Joint Intelligence Organisation]] | [[Strategic Horizons Unit]]<ref>Francis Maude to Tessa Jowell [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-06-26c.249902.h Strategic Horizons Unit: Manpower Cabinet Office]
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Written answers and statements, 26 June 2009</ref>
  
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It was the new propaganda apparatus that oversaw the release of the information on the alleged discovery of Ricin in January 2003 and which ordered the tanks to Heathrow in late 2002, following an intelligence tip off, reported as a Surface to Air missile attack on the airport. In the case of Heathrow Granatt has noted:
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===Cabinet Office units===
  
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:'I will now confess to you.  I sat at all the meetings that decided to do that, and I have seen agony cross their face before…  Ministers actually considering putting tanks at our biggest economic asset…  after what I sat and heard, doing it was absolutely necessary and I can't tell you more – I'm very sorry about it but that's the fact.  But I can tell you first hand there was no lack of sincerity and nobody does that because it's going to make some propaganda point for a war that at that point, wasn't entirely certain anyway'.<ref>Ibid.</ref>
 
  
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What Grannatt and others sat and heard was the intelligence assessment of the threat. Whether or not the threat was genuine or just more dodgy 'intelligence', no-one was arrested and no Surface to Air Missiles were found.  Militarily it is not clear what the effectiveness of light armoured vehicles at Heathrow with a top speed of thirty odd miles an hour would be against a SAM attack launched at some distance from the airport. But according to senior sources involved in the decision: 'You don't catch rockets in an armoured vehicle.  That is not the point.  Part of the point of these things may be deterrence.  So visibility is another part of the game'.<ref>Interviewed by David Miller, The Cabinet Office, 17 July 2003.</ref>  Visibility - otherwise known as propaganda. 
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*[[Intelligence, Security and Resilience Group]]
  
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In the case of Ricin, the information was released, after deliberation in the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, under the name of the then Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr [[Pat Troop]].<ref>From:Dr Pat Troop, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health 'CONCERN OVER RICIN POISON IN THE ENVIRONMENT' 7th January 2003, Reference: CEM/CMO/2003/1, joint statement from the Metropolitan Police and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer <http://199.228.212.132/doh/embroadcast.nsf/0/2344372825A05AFC80256CA7005727CE?OpenDocument></ref>  She conducted a joint briefing at Scotland Yard with the police. Troop has maintained that the information that Ricin had been found was released because 'what we didn’t know when we started was whether or not we were then going to find lots of more Ricin somewhere else and therefore it was felt the public had the legitimate right to know.'<ref>Pat Troop, Address to Communicating the War on Terror Conference, The Royal Institution, London, 5 June 2003.</ref> According to a senior source involved 'the broadcasters response was very positive. They told us afterwards it enabled them to go straight to air… because they were talking to people they believed were trustworthy and experts in their fields'<ref>Interviewed by David Miller, The Cabinet Office, 17 July 2003.</ref>  The CCS released the information in the knowledge that it would potentially prejudice the trial of the people arrested in connection with the find.  As [[Mike Granatt]] noted prejudicing a trial comes way down the list of priorities after 'public safety'.<ref>Mike Granatt, address to the Communicating the War on Terror conference, The Royal Institution, London, 5 June 2003.</ref>  
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:*[[Office of Cyber Security]]
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*[[National Security Secretariat]]
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:*The [[International Affairs Unit]] (IAU)
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:*[[Intelligence & Security]]
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:*[[Hostile State Activity and Cyber]]
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:*[[International Economic]]
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:*[[Capabilities]]<ref name="jobad"/>
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:*[[Civil Contingencies Secretariat]]
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::*[[Director of Civil Contingencies]] | The [[Horizon Scanning and Response Team]] | The [[Capabilities Programme]] | [[Strategy & Communications]] | [[Civil Contingencies Act and Local Response Capability Team]] | [[International, Exercises and Operations]] | [[Corporate Services]] and The [[Emergency Planning College]].<ref>Cabinet Office [http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090331130932/http://cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ukresilience/ccs/how_we_work.aspx Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) How We Work] This is archived web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. This snapshot was taken on 31/03/2009, accessed 6 March 2010 </ref>
  
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The claim that the information was released for public health reasons ushers in a new era or threat warning and assessment where the threat of terrorist attack is whipped up on shaky evidence for our own good - a very New labour propaganda solution.  The 'threat' from Ricin in the 'environment' was clearly very small.  The poison has to be ingested, inhaled or injected.  Even if we suppose that the warning was genuinely given by civil servants operating in good faith, the information on which the warnings are based depend on the 'intelligence' services.  Their collective lack of understanding of Islamic activists together with their own overhauled spin apparatus makes it difficult to discern whether the information was based on 'genuine' if misinterpreted intelligence or deliberate fabrication, as in the case of the MI5 leak that a planned gas attack on the London Tube had been foiled.<ref>See David Miller 'They Were All Asylum Seekers': The Propaganda Campaign To Link Iraq To Terrorism At The Expense Of Refugees. Scoop Thursday, 27 March 2003, <http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0303/S00262.htm></ref>
 
  
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Either way the UK resilience apparatus appears credible to journalists and ensures effective wall to wall coverage for stories based on dubious sources which played very nicely into the propaganda campaign to take the UK to war.
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* [[Emergency Planning College]] (EPC)
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* [[Civil Service Capability Group]]
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:*[[Civil Service and Performance Directorate]]
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*[[Cabinet Secretariat]]
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:* Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat
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:* Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat
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:* European and Global Issues Secretariat
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*[[Intelligence Assessment and Intelligence Analysis]]
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:*[[Honours and Appointments Secretariat]]
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:*[[Joint Intelligence Committee]]
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:*[[Joint Intelligence Organisation]]
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:*[[Strategic Horizons Unit]]
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:*[[Assessment Staff]]
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* [[Government Communication]]
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*[[Domestic Policy Group]]
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:* Office of the Third Sector
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:* Social Exclusion Task Force
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:* Strategy Unit
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* Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (CSIA)
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* Knowledge and Information Management Unit (KIM)
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* Independent Offices
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* Government Chief Whip (Lords)
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* Office of the Leader of the House of Commons
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* Office of the Leader of the House of Lords
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* Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC)
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* Transformational Government
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===Cabinet Office Public Bodies===
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* [[Advisory Committee on Business Appointments]] (ACOBA)
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* [[Capacitybuilders]]
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* [[Civil Service Appeal Board]] (CSAB)
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* Commissioner for the Compact
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* [[Committee on Standards in Public Life]] (CSPL)
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* Futurebuilders Advisory Panel (FAP)
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* [[House of Lords Appointments Commission]] (HOLAC)
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* Main Honours Advisory Committee (MHAC)
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* Security Commission (SC) and Security Vetting Appeals Panel (SVAP)
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* Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB)
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===People===
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*[[David Cameron]], Prime Minister - since 2010
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*[[George Osborne]], first secretary of state and chancellor of the exchequer  - since 2010
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*[[Theresa May]], home secretary - since 2010
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*[[Philip Hammond]], foreign secretary - since 2014
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*[[Iain Duncan Smith]], work and pensions secretary - since 2010
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*[[Michael Fallon]], defence secretary - since 2014
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*[[Oliver Letwin]], chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - since 2015
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*[[Jeremy Hunt]], health secretary - since 2012
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*[[Chris Grayling]], leader of the house - since 2015
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*[[Michael Gove]], justice secretary - since 2015
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*[[Nicky Morgan]], education secretary - since 2014
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*[[Baroness Stowell]], leader of the House of Lords - since 2014
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*[[Sajid Javid]], business, innovation and skills secretary - since 2015
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*[[Amber Rudd]], energy and climate change secretary - since 2015
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*[[John Whittingdale]], culture, media and sport secretary - since 2015
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*[[Liz Truss]], environment, food and rural affairs secretary - since 2014
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*[[Justine Greening]], international development secretary - since 2012
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*[[Patrick McLoughlin]], transport secretary - since 2012
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*[[Greg Clark]], communities and local government secretary - since 2015
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*[[Theresa Villiers]], Northern Ireland secretary - since 2012
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*[[Stephen Crabb]], Wales secretary - since 2014
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*[[David Mundell]], Scotland secretary - since 2015
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*[[Greg Hands]], chief secretary to the [[Treasury]] - since 2015
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*[[Mark Harper]], chief whip - since 2015
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*[[Anna Soubry]], minister for small business - since 2015
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*[[Priti Patel]], minister for employment - since 2015
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*[[Robert Halfon]], minister without portfolio - since 2015
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*[[Matthew Hancock]], minister for the cabinet office and paymaster general - since 2015
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*[[Jeremy Wright]], attorney general - since 2014
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*[[Boris Johnson]], attending political cabinet but not full cabinet - since 2015
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*[[Lord Feldman]], party chairman - since 2015<ref> BBC News [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32658697 Election 2015: Who's Who in David Cameron's new cabinet], 12 May 2015, accessed 14 May 2015.</ref>
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===Special Advisers===
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*[[Simone Finn]]
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*[[Henry Newman]]
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*[[Martha Varney]] - adviser to Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin since 2008.
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===PR===
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*[[Alex Aiken]], executive director for government communications.
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
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[[Category:British Propaganda]][[Category: UK Government Department]]
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[[Category:British Propaganda]][[Category:UK Government Department]][[Category:British government]]

Latest revision as of 09:24, 15 September 2022

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This article is part of the Counter-Terrorism Portal project of Spinwatch.

Background

According to the Cabinet Office website they "support the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and ensure the effective running of government." They are the corporate headquarters for government, in partnership with HM Treasury, and take the lead in certain critical policy areas. The Cabinet Office is a ministerial department, supported by 18 agencies and public bodies. [1]

Structure

Civil Contingencies Secretariat | Joint Intelligence Committee | Joint Intelligence Organisation | Strategic Horizons Unit[2]

Cabinet Office units


  • Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat
  • Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat
  • European and Global Issues Secretariat
  • Office of the Third Sector
  • Social Exclusion Task Force
  • Strategy Unit
  • Central Sponsor for Information Assurance (CSIA)
  • Knowledge and Information Management Unit (KIM)
  • Independent Offices
  • Government Chief Whip (Lords)
  • Office of the Leader of the House of Commons
  • Office of the Leader of the House of Lords
  • Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC)
  • Transformational Government

Cabinet Office Public Bodies

People

Special Advisers

PR

  • Alex Aiken, executive director for government communications.

Notes

  1. ↑ Cabinet Office, GOV.UK, accessed 30 September
  2. ↑ Francis Maude to Tessa Jowell Strategic Horizons Unit: Manpower Cabinet Office Written answers and statements, 26 June 2009
  3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named jobad
  4. ↑ Cabinet Office Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) How We Work This is archived web content selected for preservation by The National Archives. This snapshot was taken on 31/03/2009, accessed 6 March 2010
  5. ↑ BBC News Election 2015: Who's Who in David Cameron's new cabinet, 12 May 2015, accessed 14 May 2015.
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