The brief wave of Islamic terrorism in the UK followed our invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and effectively stopped when those occupations ended. In every case of actual terrorist attack, the terrorists involved cited those invasions as a key part of their motive. There may yet be another residual attack, but as a campaign it is over, and historical perspective will show it related purely to our invasion of Islamic lands.
Yet we have suffered a week of media propaganda aimed at repeating the mantra that Isis’ success in Iraq will lead to terrorist attacks in the UK. The only apparent purpose of this mantra is to justify some degree of US/UK intervention in Iraq’s current civil war. As it was the US/UK invasion which caused this civil war in the first place, this is ironic. As any form of UK intervention is the only thing that might in fact provoke Iraq related terrorist attacks in the UK, it is a crazed argument; the absolute opposite of the truth.
The brief period of Islamic linked terrorism in the UK killed about eighty people – a tiny percentage of those who died in the UK from Irish linked violence in the 70’s and 80’s – but had two disproportionately dreadful effects. The first was a massive reduction in civil liberties in the UK. The second was the spawning of a vast and parasitic security industry, both within government, and in the private sector but government funded.
The patent absence of any genuine Islamic terrorism in the UK to fight is an obvious threat to the funding of this huge industry. Hence the current hype about the threat from Birmingham school governors or British residents fighting in Iraq and Syria. We have the usual propagandists for this threat thrust upon the airwaves again – Frank “Goebbels” Gardner and even the utterly discredited “Quilliam Foundation” who have been back on the BBC. At the moment they are peddling the utterly untrue line that 9% of those who travel from the UK to participate in fighting abroad, on return get involved in terrorist activity in the UK. Frank Gardner has been repeating this ad nauseam.
This claim is absolutely unfounded. It is brought to you by the same people who claim there are 4,000 active terrorists in the UK, or that MI5 foiled 34 active terrorist plots.
How gullible do you have to be to believe that in the last seven years this 4,000 committed terrorists in the UK, with their 34 active plots, managed to kill nobody at all, except for the two deranged and utterly disorganised Nigerians who murdered the unfortunate Lee Rigby? The other 3,998 must be the world’s least productive terrorists. Surely between 3,998 fanatical and committed murderous terrorists they could at least have injured somebody? The truth is that in the last seven years Irish political violence has again killed more people in the UK than Islamist political violence.
If you have 4,000 totally non-productive fantasy terrorists, then it is not surprising that you think that one in nine of those who go to fight abroad are involved in such “terrorism” in the UK. In fact, the terrorist threat in the UK is miniscule and the entire narrative is a nonsense. You have a much greater chance of drowning in your own bath than of being killed by a terrorist. The death of Gerald Conlon should be a sobering reminder of the willingness of English juries to make completely improbable terrorist convictions on the say-so of the authorities.
There has probably not been a war abroad in the last two hundred years in which some UK resident did not go and fight. The BBC and Sky news headline today is about someone from Aberdeen who went to fight for Isis. That is meant to terrify us about terrorism here.
Nonsense.
Somebody else from Aberdeen went to fight in a war abroad. George Gordon, Lord Byron, went to fight for the Greek revolt against Ottoman rule, and died of fever in a Balkan swamp. (Under Blair’s “anti-terror” legislation, that would have made Byron guilty of terrorism in the UK). In the same decade George De Lacey Evans went to fight for the Spanish Infanta against her uncle. Several Britons including David Urquhart fought against the Russian invasion of Circassia. I am talking in all these cases of politically motivated volunteers, not mercenaries. A number of British residents fought in the Franco-Prussian war. Several Britons fought for the Confederates in the US civil war – almost certainly some fought for the Union as well, but I can’t claim to know of them. Garibaldi had a Welsh officer called Griffiths. We should all be terrifically proud of the Britons in the International Brigades in Spain. British residents fought on all sides in the recent civil wars in the Balkans. I should be astonished if some British residents of Ukrainian and Russian heritage had not gone to join militias there at present.
Nor should we forget that the same political establishment which so deplores Britons going abroad to fight, has legalised, massively encouraged and financed the mercenary activities of hired killers like Tim Spicer and Tony Buckingham. The hypocrisy is rank and stinking.
The dreadful violence and destruction the West has inflicted and promoted in recent years in its efforts to gain control of the mineral resources of the Middle East continues to play out. Those who see communities with which they identify abroad engaged in military conflict will always produce a small number of people going to join the fight. This is in no sense unusual, and in no sense a threat to ordinary citizens in the UK. The link to terrorism here is entirely a fiction. The unfortunate thing is that the mainstream media allows no outlet for people to mock its false assertions and point out its sinister agenda.
Rev. Scorgie
“I haven’t forgotten Habbabkuk, I’ve been away on a mission.”
___________________
Converting the heathen, Doug?
Or more of a 007 type mission?
You pompous so-and-so 🙂
“here I would demur is in the suggestion that Iraqi and other invasions “caused” the terrorism we have had.”
No more than rubbing soil into an open wound. The question is; what is the real strategy of the West? They sure egged on Saddam because he was the fly in Iran’s ointment. We ‘trained’ Iraqis and equipped them for self-reliance, but they couldn’t infuse commitment into the troops, so 800 ISIL’s routed 30,000 Iraqis ran at the first sign of battle.
All this crap is for Israel’s benefit, especially the cross-talk about dividing Iraq into a Triad.
Craig, I believe that Irish and English officers and soldiers played a major part in Simón Bolívar’s campaign to liberate South America from Spanish rule. I don’t know whether they were mercenaries or volunteers – I know he planned the campaign in London, in a house now owned by the Venezuelan government.
Good post, Richard (as was Craig’s), and I would agree in particular with your “Where I would demur is in the suggestion that Iraqi and other invasions “caused” the terrorism we have had.”. Perhaps there is just a “moment” for these things: after all, why did IRA terrorism flare up in the 1950s, then subside, and then resume with renewed vigour 20-30 years afterwards?
Speaking about IRA terrorism : it’s a pity this blog wasn’t around during the IRA bombings on the UK mainland, it would have been fun to see various Eminences and useful idiots coming up with a hundred and one reasons and justifications for why it was the British govt which was REALLY responsible. For that’s what they surely would have done.
Huw 24 Jun, 2014 – 4:51 pm
“Irish and English officers and soldiers played a major part in Simón Bolívar’s campaign…I don’t know whether they were mercenaries or volunteers”
This suggests they were mercenaries recruited after mass demob following Napoleon’s defeat.
California Ben
“The question is; what is the real strategy of the West?”
____________________
No, that isn’t the question – and even if it were, you would be unable to provide a coherent answer because you know too little.
Be more modest and focus a little more on something you do know about and which you CAN answer yourself, namely:
“Just to be able to evaluate your bona fides, so to speak – apart from frequently sounding off on this blog (and perhaps on others), what do you do in concrete and practical terms to support the Palestinian cause and help the Palestinian people?”
Do not hide your talents under a bush, Ben!
“because you know too little”
So, then provide a perspective, if you have the cajones to out your vested interests. The rubber hammer of Zion gets your reflexive sympathies with a shekel’s worth of effort, but I fear all your talents are exposed for what they are worth.
Never mind them. What has it cost the state? A lawyers’ paradise and THEY are all in it together.
‘Other senior journalists from The Sun, NOTW and The Mirror are on bail or under investigation.
However the Crown Prosecution Service may come under renewed pressure to scale down its investigation after the string of not guilty verdicts in this long and costly trial.
Legal commentators estimated that the combined cost of the defendants’ legal team would have stretched into tens of millions of pounds.’
http://www.smh.com.au/world/uk-phone-hacking-trial-andy-coulson-guilty-but-rebekah-brooks-walks-free-20140624-zskm6.html
Ben-LA PACQUTE LO ES TODO 24 Jun, 2014 – 4:50 pm
“All this crap is for Israel’s benefit”
Claptrap. Israel is just another rogue state. Israel would not exist if it did not serve western capitalism well.
Every time someone repeats this “Israel is the problem” nonsense they fuel divisive racist and religious arguments that obfuscate the real problem. And someone in Langley smiles.
In this way I reckon those who disproportionately bemoan Israel are as misguided as those who blindly defend it.
Another excellent post Craig,thank you.
Spot on,its a load of total bollox this War On Terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr,Inc
Kerry says US action against ISIS will be “intense and sustained”. That means a lot, and for a long time.
Dig the identical black outfits, btw. Paydirt for the lucky tailor.
“I’d like 30,000 metres of black cotton, please.”
Toyota would have been delighted too.
“I’d like 2,000 pick-up trucks, please, the ones with the double cup holders. Do they all have built-in sat nav as well?”
Here’s what is going to happen. With American protection, ISIS will retain a stronghold in western Iraq. The first objective here is to prevent military aid to Syria coming from Iraq and Iran. America will essentially create a safe haven in which ISIS can carry out this role.
The US will of course have to kill some militants for the cameras, but they can easily be replaced by emptying a few more Saudi jails. Perhaps some creative film-making (as happened after the Ghouta gassing in Damascus) will leave the correct impression on the viewing public.
Once ISIS has been strengthened by Gulf State fodder and American weaponry, it will open another front in the Syrian campaign — this time with US ground and air support. This is the second, and main, objective.
I’m sure Mark Urban on Newsnight will tell us all about the tenacity of this desert army without asking any awkward questions, like how such a large force managed to acquire all its weapons, co-ordinate its actions across such a huge area, travel so quickly, and stay “hidden” for so long before it moved.
In case you’re wondering, Mark, It was being trained and armed in Jordan by the United States, and guided by their drones. But the mainstream is nothing if not adept at ignorning any elephant in the room.
ISIS in Jordan will probably co-ordinate with this new offensive, a little Israeli interference in the Golan Heights, and maybe a touch of Turkish assistance in the north. This will destroy what’s left of Syria and kill and displace a lot more Syrians, but it’s a price worth paying, right?
The American war machine is a devious, psychopathic entity.
MJ
24 Jun, 2014 – 3:48 pm
“Anne Field: a very interesting and well-researched article. Thanks for that.”
http://xtcuk.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/isis-what-crisis/
Seconded. The Big Picture penned down very succinctly.
“Every time someone repeats this “Israel is the problem” nonsense they fuel divisive racist and religious arguments that obfuscate the real problem”
If I sounded racist, many apologies. Just as it’s difficult to separate average American capitulation to hegemony and Nation-building, so too rhetoric around Zionism tars others who need not be. Who was it said; “Evil can only flourish when good people do nothing” or WTTE.
It’s probably best to separate Western banking from Western capitalism. There’s a bit of a fight going on between these two as well.
The Western producer countries will for example have more in common between themselves and the BRICS than they have with the banker run outfits like the UK and UK. Mighty Germany is a case in point here, but so too are Canada and Australia.
It’s a difficult position. These Western producer countries have to hang on to the banker’s coat tails, but at the same time be ready to quickly ditch should the bankers look like they’re heading over the edge.
The hope of course is that the bankers will win worldwide and the goodies can then be divvied up at a big meeting. This cannot be guaranteed however.
Anyway, so long as the Poles have wised up to their sucker status. About time.
The bankers main game is to ensure the containment of Russia and China, and in the case of Russia this involves undermining any potential relationship with western Europe. This is of course not in Europe’s long term interest, but “Fuck the EU”.
$236 Trillion in derivatives exposure for top 25 US banks, with $9 trillion in assets to show. I hope the Uber Graft got they cash through that hole in the bucket. I don’t see any light of day between banks and capitalism.
http://www.occ.gov/topics/capital-markets/financial-markets/trading/derivatives/dq413.pdf
Clarkson was the Brooks’ first visitor. He is ‘elated’
Boris is pleased too.
Boris: ‘Pleased Rebekah and Charlie Brooks acquitted’
ITV News - 3 hours ago
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “I’m pleased for Rebekah and Charlie Brooks that they have both been acquitted and that justice has …
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-06-24/boris-johnson-pleased-for-rebekah-and-charlie-brooks
but some years he called the accusations ‘codswallop’ and was actually seeking sponsorship for his cable car across the Thames from Murdoch using his friendship with the Brooks as an entrée
Boris Johnson’s diary reveals Brooks and Murdoch calls
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19862637
Boris Johnson dined with Murdoch days before hacking investigation
Labour calls for official investigation after meetings between mayor and News International come to light
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/20/boris-johnson-dined-murdoch
.
Craig, if I remember correctly, you previously stated that the Woolwich murder of soldier Lee Rigby had absolutely nothing to do with Islam. Now, it appears that you acknowledge the connection to Islamic terrorism, albeit with the qualification that the killers were “deranged”. On what basis do you assert that these killers are/were deranged? Because they killed for their cause?
If that is true, then are all Islamic terrorists deranged? What is the origin of this mental illness? What is it that attracts deranged killers to the cause of advancing and defending the primacy of Islam?
The implication of your post, Craig, is that if the UK stays out of the affairs of Muslim nations, then Islamic terrorism in the UK will self-extinguish. How can you be so sure when there is a rapidly growing Muslim demographic that rejects the native culture and seeks to assert its preferred way of life in every area of society including its laws? There are numerous examples of British Muslims being disaffected for reasons other than UK military incursions in the Muslim world. But the fact that they identify so strongly with foreign Muslim experiences at all should tell you something about the hierarchy of their loyalties.
The history of Britain, and the rest of the world, is a violent one involving many civil wars and battles between different tribes. You have witnessed the murderous conflict between Protestants and Catholics over hundreds of years until recently. Of course, the Irish Troubles involved other issues but religion played no small part in those troubles.
And as we witness in these ‘civilised’ times horrific crimes of warfare in many parts of the world, who can be bold enough to say that the UK will be free from religious violence and civil war in the future? What is SO special about now and the future that protects your country from the same evils of the past?
The UK is headed for more troubles and those who do not heed the lessons of the past can take their share of the blame for that – not that they will, of course.
It is not racist to say that Israel is the problem. It is a fact.
Jonathan Cook who lives in Nazareth tells us that torture cells are being brought back into use and Netanyahu wants legislation passed through urgently to allow force feeding for the 100+ Palestinian hunger strikers held under permanent arrest but not charged. ‘Administrative detention’ is its Orwellian name.
‘Last week, the heads of the World Medical Association urged Israel to halt the legislation, which in a double bill of compulsion will require doctors to sedate and force-feed prisoners to break their hunger strike.’
Israel Can’t Force-feed Occupation to Those Who Hunger for Freedom
June 24th, 2014
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/06/israel-cant-force-feed-occupation-to-those-who-hunger-for-freedom/
“I don’t see any light of day between banks and capitalism.”
The difference is in how they make their money.
Bankers make money by shuffling it about hither and thither.
Producer countries make money by selling made things, commodities and resources etc.
Bankers are a tax on this process. That’s the tension.
Producers are of course tied to the financial system. They can’t escape it now that they’re in it.
But, and this is the point, the banking system is in such a mess that the producer countries would like to reform it.
It can’t be reformed because it’s broke. The only way out for banking is global domination.
Should banking be unable to achieve global domination then that will force the producer countries to bail.
Of course the main banking countries are big producers of military technology too. So, even their products are toxic. They need ongoing instability to thrive, and that’s currently directed towards the objective of global banking dominance.
You’ll see the split more clearly should it look like the bankers are not going to achieve their objective.
And, there’s a timeliness about it all too. They’ll need to achieve global dominance reasonably quickly, or it will collapse on its own.
I see what you’re saying, but producer Nations also utilize venture capitalists for funding, routing their loans through the banking system.
I haven’t seen the tension you refer to however. If there is any it’s probably garden-variety competition, as most of these bean-counters are so possessive they wave good-bye to their own shit as they flush.
Mike a good post.
The notions of ISIS/L with their black flags bearing white writing (shades of Taliban, their White Flag with black writing, not very imaginative really) being so powerful and taking over and need to be stopped has not panned out all that well. Few days in politics is a life time, the original plan of helping ISIS/L to attack Syria in a combined forces fashion is rapidly evaporating.
Despite the talking up of the ISIS/L the new plan is start a “revolution” hence in the Kurdish Enclave in Irbil the chaps have found a couple of masked “Sunni Revolutionaries” talking about ISIS/L is not the main force, and the resentment of the Sunnis will be enough to get the revolution going!
Already the narrative is changing and ISIS/L war is rapidly giving way to a new narrative; Maliki must go, and a new Sunni friendly government should be set up.
Obviously the plans of the psychotic animals residing in the Pentagon and State DPT. have been scuppered hence the new narrative.
However your assessment is correct and the ultimate thrust of the current kabuki is to get Assad.
The tension is fairly obvious.
Producer countries make things, sell resources and are then paid in pieces of paper.
So long as the bankers are playing a straight game then that can work fine.
But they haven’t been playing a straight game so their pieces of paper ultimately aren’t worth squit.
Current central banking is an additional tax on the trading nations, but if the bankers aren’t playing a straight game then they’re no longer simply levying a tax for running the financial system, they’re engaged in outright theft of the planet’s wealth and labour, for worthless pieces of paper.
‘She has told friends that she intends to make a comeback, citing the jailed Conservative cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken as a role model. She has also said she will never write her memoirs because she will not betray Murdoch’s secrets. There is no sign that he is about to betray her either. When she resigned, he gave her a payoff of £10.8m. Since then, she has been spotted holidaying on a Murdoch yacht and he has been telling anybody who will listen she is innocent.
Now the jury has acquitted her of all four charges. The Rebekah Brooks story continues.’
Rebekah Brooks: ‘she’s always been able to get what she wants from people’
From charming the powerful to threatening foes, the ex-News International chief is adored and loathed in equal measure
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/24/-sp-rebekah-brooks-profile-news-international-rupert-murdoch-
Yeah, Fedup. Split the country in 3 like they wanted to do in 2003.
Solution: Russia sells Syria more jets; Iraq asks Syria to bomb ISIS, cutting the US out of it.
Not much of a solution, I know…
Freedom fighter or terrorist – its always a subjective call depending upon one’s allegiance. Hypocrisy is ever present; the main thing is to be honest with oneself.
@Doug: Liam is only following in the footsteps of these reprobates (with the same puppetmaster?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9_yv1m9jN8
Excellent analysis Craig. Thanks you for an enlightened perspective of how our government and spooks are whipping up hatred and creating a non-existent enemy. Moazzam Begg has been charged with some trumped up terrorist claim because he has been pursuing the secret services involvement in torture, and the recent Justice and Security Act is another abuse of human rights, designed to hold court hearings in private to protect the security services – who are really the ones who ought to be facing judgment together with Blair, Straw et al.
Good points well made, as usual. For what it’s worth, I’d add:
1. The people in power in the UK have to be seen and heard singing from the same hymn book as their overlords in Washington, preferably at the top of their voices.
2. The term “the mainstream media” seems to confer legitimacy on the brainwashers. Isn’t there a better term for them? I’d suggest something like “the imperialist media”, but I know that sounds way too old-fashioned and unlikely to catch on.
“Yeah, Fedup. Split the country in 3 like they wanted to do in 2003.”
But if that is what the people of Iraq want wouldn’t that be the right thing to do?
That is how it was under the Ottoman empire before WWI, three regions comprising three ethnic groups. It’s only because Britain reneged on their promise they could have independence if they helped defeat the Germans that they were joined. Only because we double crossed them. Only because Britain wanted their oil.
Shouldn’t we just let the people of Iraq decide for themselves?
@Fred: convicted under part 1, which is entirely different. This law emerged as a mish-mash, and it remains so. Why wasn’t he convicted under the 2006 revised (for Goodman?) Computer Misuse Act, I wonder? Perhaps that comes next…