Office of Public Information, People's Republic of Haven:
It is by now apparent to the galactic population that condemned murderess, Commodore (now Admiral) Honor Stephanie Harrington, is in fact alive and well despite previous reports to the contrary by this Office.
The reasons behind this state of affairs must be revealed now, to set the record straight and to counter the propaganda machine of the aggressor state of the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
Then-Commodore Harrington was indeed captured by then-Citizen Rear Admiral Lester Tourville at the liberated star system of Adler. Citizen Rear Admiral Tourville convoyed Commodore Harrington and several of her henchmen to Barnett, releasing her to proper civilian authorities in the person of Citizen Committeewoman Cordelia Ransom. This much is a matter of existing public record that even the Manticoran propagandists admit to.
Citizen Committeewoman Ransom's full intention was to return the condemned murderess to the People's Court for validation of the sentence issued during the Legislaturist Regime. However, given that the existing sentence was execution, the Committee of Public Safety was concerned over possible retribution that the Manticoran Aggression Forces - and especially their even-less civilized allies in the Grayson Theocratic Dictatorship - might impose on the brave members of the People's Defenders, captured in line of duty. This was a very real possible repercussion raised by no less than respected PRN Citizen Admiral Thomas Thiesman, as well as the presiding judge of the People's Court.
After careful consideration, it was the determination of the CPS that while public justice cried out for the legal execution of the murderess Harrington, practical and humanitarian concerns for the citizens held captive by the RMN and GSN had to be given a higher priority. Accordingly, the CPS resolved to announce and simulate the execution of Honor Harrington, while secretly granting the undeserving mass murderess a reprieve of mere imprisonment, with the true state of affairs communicated to the corrupt dictators of the Alliance via neutral diplomatic sources in the Solarian League. The bargain offered was simple: the PRH would spare the life of Harrington, in return for continued secrecy of her actual state to be maintained by the leaders of the Alliance, along with a guarantee of no repercussions to would be inflicted on PRH prisoners held by the Alliance.
This bargain was fulfilled grudgingly at best by the Alliance; the militarist fanatics of Grayson were particularily inclined to sieze revenge upon members of the PRN where they could. In fact, one of the Grayson Admirals was recorded to having ordered: "Lady Harrington and No Mercy!" as he opened fire on helpless lifepods of the PRH 12th fleet. Nevertheless, the People's Republic of Haven did as it always had, negotiating in good faith and upholding its end of the bargain. Commodore Harrington was kept at the Hades Prison System, even granted a limited pardon to travel at will within the planetary confines of Hades itself.
Exact circumstances of what took place on Hades remain unclear, but it is now evident that Honor Harrington predictably abused her privileges, instigating a mass uprising that left many prisoners and State Security civilian officers dead - but then, mass murder of civilians has always been a specialty of Honor Harrington. Intent on wreaking revenge for "humiliation" of trial by the People's Court, Commodore Harrington instigated a series of kangaroo courts to justify the execution of the surrendered State Security Officers, including Citizen Warden Tresca, who was killed in return for his efforts to treat Harrington in a humane fashion.
Upon her return to the Manticoran Alliance, Harrington and her plutocrat cronies in the Alliance leadership are now attempting to smear the well-deserved good reputation of the People's Republic, claiming all sorts of falsehoods under the assumption that their citizens, and indeed the wider galactic population, would believe anything issued by the authoritative source of a supposedly democratic government. Of course, these claims would be held in skeptical lights by most right-thinking People, given the demonstrated falsehoods claimed by the Alliance, including that the People's Republic was the aggressor in this war (when in fact the opposite is clearly evident by the occupation of many former PRH systems by the RMN, as opposed to *no* Alliance systems suffering under occupation by the PRN).
It is expressly to set the record straight, that this Office of Public Information, together with the Office of State Security, take the unprecedented step of releasing the confidential information above to all free and liberated press agencies both within the Republic and to the Solarian League. It is the belief of Citizen Secretaries Leonard Boardman, Oscar St-Just, and Citizen Chairman Robert S. Pierre, that the full truth, now revealed, will speak for itself; that the evident living status of Honor Harrington is literal proof of the events as laid out in this press release.
For further questions, please contact the Office of Public Information.
Citizen Undersecretary Sorfleet, spokesman.
The information above is provided by the Office of Public Information at the direction of Citizen Secretary Leonard Boardman
Written by Winston L Sorfleet, based on the information set out in "Echoes of Honor" by David M Weber, Baen Books, New York, ISBN 0-671-57833-2