<div style="font-size:15px; font-weight:bold;">Commodore Gevel misinformed?</div> – Syndicated Opinion by John Snid
<div style="text-align:justify; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:90%;">In my last article, I expressed concern over the apparent misprint of the Corellian Protectorate's name. After doing a little research, and reading the surprising release by INS, I am convinced that it was indeed not a misprint. Why I have not seen such a potentially scandalous incident smeared all over supermarket tabloids yet, I will never know. Perhaps I got lucky, and saw it first – though I do doubt that very much.
Commodore Gevel himself rebutted my article in a recent news conference, first time someone worth more than a million credits has mentioned me. However, the apparent lack of accurate information by the Imperial commander is atrocious. Gevel is quoted as saying:
<div style="padding: 4px; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px; background-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: justify;"> "The charges laid against Darksword have no merit. He was not involved in the combat on Naboo, which I'll remind you was less of an 'attack' and more of another instance of the Jedi finding themselves some enemies and having a melee right in the middle of a populated area, and saying to hell with the consequences. I have no knowledge of Darksword being a wanted criminal."</div>
Firstly, the tragic terrorist attack on Naboo was, and has been proven beyond a doubt by several independent investigation agencies, to be more than simply "the Jedi finding themselves some enemies". It was a deliberate, genocidal effort on the part of a truly insane cult to rid the galaxy of the Gungan race. They almost succeeded too, had it not been for the Jedi themselves, the Gungans would be all but extinct. Security holos, testimony from both Jedi and Theed citizens, and physical evidence support this. How Commodore Gevel could be so misinformed is a problem the Empire needs to sort out immediately. If such misinformation appeared during a casual rebuttal to a small time columnist like myself, who knows what damage other ill informed Imperial officers might be unwittingly doing at this very moment.
As for Gevel's comment about not knowing that Darksword was a wanted criminal, perhaps it is true, perhaps it is not. Again I must point out the apparent lack of accurate information in the Empire. I'm quite positive that they [the empire] could not be that incompetent, the name of Darksword is a household word for any lawman of any salt. Background checks are typically done before someone is appointed control of several worlds, are they not? The name, and possible implications thereof, would have turned up on even a casual 'net search. Even if Gevel himself was not aware about the implications, someone in the Empire must have.
But then, perhaps it is simply a case of two men having the same name. If so, I suggest that the Corellian Protectorate change his name immediately, and without delay. A casual 'net search such as mentioned above revealed that Lupercus Darksword, exiled prince of Hapes, is guilty of almost every terrorist crime the galaxy has a law for. Mass murders, not one but two (that I could find) genocidal efforts, this man has blood on his hands beyond belief. I for one would not want my name even remotely associated with one such as this Lupercus.
I fully expect this article to be totally ignored by the Empire. But, it does raise some interesting points about the legendary efficiency of the Empire's data-system, and intelligence agency. Perhaps they need to upgrade their database software, the new wave of Open Source systems are rumored to be very efficient, and quite scalable.</div>
