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.
Peacewisher: dunno. NLP? Must re-read Leo Abse.
Phil, Most of what I read in the Media…is totally fuckin bollocks….Now come on now…is Craig really that naive? Is Julian Assange really living in the Ecuadorian Embassy…except when Craig turns up….and come on….the smart young American Tech Guy…who looks just like an English bloke I used to work with….Edward Snowden…come on….They are all still on the Team….Think about it…The Deceptions…you simply would not believe…But who is the Director….Do not believe that they are all on the same side…Some of them really are not nice.
Great Post Craig
” 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 ”
I fear that Very many People rather than Gullible Are Brainwashed ( or likely Both) but especially Where it matters Most to Our Dictators – Military, Police ect
Mike @ 5:54 Nice one.. Liked that. And you Too Ann Fields, great work there indeed very Thorough Piece..well done
Herbie
“The US seems the worst so far. They’ve moved far from the Constitutional settlement, so that’s an admission that they’re expecting social breakdown.”
Have you seen this on the Memo Regarding Illegal Drone Murders –
“Now that the U.S. government has released parts of its We-Can-Kill-People-With-Drones memo, it’s hard to miss why it was kept secret until now…..
“Then there’s the problem of Congressional authorization of war, or lack thereof, which Barron gets around by pretending that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force was as broad as the White House pretends rather than worded to allow targeting only those responsible for the 911 attacks.
Then there are the facts of the matter in the case of Anwar al Awlaki, who was targeted for murder prior in time to the actions that President Obama has claimed justified that targeting.
Then there are the facts in the other cases of U.S. killings of U.S. citizens, which aren’t even redacted, as they’re never considered.
Then there are the vastly more numerous killings of non-U.S. citizens, which the memo does not even attempt to excuse.
In the end, the memo admits that calling something a war isn’t good enough; the targeted victim has to have been an imminent threat to the United States. But who gets to decide whether he or she was that? Why, whoever does the killing of course. And what happens if nobody ever even makes an unsupported assertion to that effect? Nothing, of course.
This is not the rule of law. This is savage brute force in minimal disguise. I don’t want to see any more of these memos. I want to see the video footage of the drone murders on a television. I want to see law professors and revolving-door State Department / human rights group hacks argue that dead children fall under the public authority justification.”
by David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/so-thats-why-they-kept-drone-kill-memo-secret#.U6j2DTaGvf8.twitter
One should not perhaps be surprised if War Criminals speak with a ‘forked tongue’, but all this sickening clap-trap about the terrible dangers of returning fighters from Syria really does highlight the Government’s and MSM’s lying, two-faced hypocrisy. Britain planned to oust Assad with mercenaries in 2009: see ‘Former French Foreign Minister: The War against Syria was Planned Two years before “The Arab Spring”:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/former-french-foreign-minister-the-war-against-syria-was-planned-two-years-before-the-arab-spring/5339112
I was going to link to ISIS/ISIL being trained by US Special Forces in Jordan, but ‘Tony M’ has covered that general area well.
And, of course, 4*General (Retd.) Wesley Clark (ex-Supreme Allied Commander Europe) is on record saying when he visited the Pentagon after 9/11, he was told by a 3* serving General on the Joint Chiefs that the US was going to overthrow ‘7 governments in 5 years – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Never seen or heard of your blog before. Bravo for an excellent piece. We are being hoodwinked by the neocons who are many in number in government and media and have too many useful idiot sympathisers parroting the narrative
just remind people -no royals or politicians get attacked by these so called terror threats
Maybe because they’re surrounded by proper security.
@Technicolor. I know very little about NLP. I do know, however, that it is used in management training, and to enable people to “harness their personal power”.
However, if it can cause people to become unhinged, surely it should be banned… or, at the very least… discouraged.
“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? ”
Yes clearly if Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Iraq had kept out of Muslim affairs they wouldn’t now be fighting their own brands of Islamic radicalism. The danger comes not from direct attacks on the UK by ISIS or Boko Haram but from the inspiration their success might provide to home grown fundamentalists. Elements of Sharia law have already been worked into the British legal system although they contradict existing UK and european legislation.
Link:-
http://www.secularism.org.uk/blog/2014/03/sharia-law-is-well-and-truly-operating-in-the-uk–thanks-to-the-law-society
A warning here from the ex Chief of the Defence Staff of terrrrrism arising out of Afghanistan. Note Iraq was a ‘strategic error’.
Jihadist Threat ‘To Rise With Afghan Pullout’
Ex-defence chief Lord Richards says the consequences of the “strategic error” in Iraq is now being felt with the ISIS insurgency.
http://news.sky.com/story/1288805/jihadist-threat-to-rise-with-afghan-pullout
Wonder why that should be a likelihood? Maybe because hundreds of family members including children have been turned into blood and gore by missiles sent down from coalition drones.
Civilian drone deaths triple in Afghanistan, UN agency finds
February 8, 2014
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/02/08/civilian-drone-deaths-triple-in-afghanistan-un-agency-finds/
Lord Richards of Herstmonceux (there’s a noble title) lists some of his interests here:
1: Directorships
Chairman and Director, Palliser Associates Ltd (provision of strategic advice to governments and companies) (the company is 100% owned by the Member and his wife – see category 4(a); personal clients are: Ondra Partners (whose business is financial advice); Vitol Group (whose business is energy provision); International Institute for Strategic Studies; the King and Government of Bahrain; the King and Government of Jordan; Government of UAE/Royal Ruby Group; Huntsworth plc (international PR and communications company); Apache Asia (traditional merchant bank with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore); income from employment listed in category 2 is also paid to Palliser Associates Ltd)
Chairman and Director, Equilibrium Gulf Ltd (provision of geo-strategic advice to governments and companies) (see category 4(a) – no personal clients)
Chairman and Director, Equilibrium Global Ltd (provision of geo-strategic advice to governments and companies) (see category 4(a) – no personal clients)
Non-executive Chairman, Arturius International Ltd (a company started by ex-servicemen and specialising in logistic and transport services)
Shareholdings, remunerated employment and overseas visits.
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-richards-of-herstmonceux/4317
His non-financial interests include a Governorship of the Ditchley Foundation. Look that one up and see who meets whom at the gatherings.
Baby steps to start off with …,,
US Troops Arrive In Baghdad On ISIS Mission
About 40 US special operations personnel have arrived in the Middle East to assess the Iraqi response to the invasion of ISIS.
http://news.sky.com/story/1288822/us-troops-arrive-in-baghdad-on-isis-mission
Jemand
“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.”
UK murder abroad is bad. UK Lying is what causes the anger. UK stubborn rejection of the Oneness of Allah’s power will give its citizens a lot of grief when they meet their Maker one day soon.
Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth, slightly worse than water cannon I fear.
Guano
“UK stubborn rejection of the Oneness of Allah’s power will give its citizens a lot of grief when they meet their Maker one day soon.”
Everyone is entitled to their religious belief, but I have a deep contempt for all those whose faith gives them a sense of superiority over and hostility to those who do not share it.
These mercenary armies are just another example, albeit extra in your face deadly, of private profit made from public investment. i.e. They are all state trained killers.
Heaven forfend we call these close associates of our prominent politicians ‘terrorists’, eh?
It is right to expose lies and exaggerations. Keep up the good work.
@maynon2013
The IRA got Airey Neave and Lord Mountbatten, and very nearly Margaret Thatcher. Terrorists who want political results go after the decision makers. Remember that chilling ‘we only have to be lucky once: you have to be lucky all the time’?
Killing civilians, even in large numbers, is only effective when the politicians care about the people, and therefore a poor strategy in UK. Any incident which targets only civilians is immediately suspect as false flag.
The only thing that will deter US/UK politicians is a believably high risk that their violence will quickly rebound on them personally. Morality is just chit-chat. There was a funny episode of Red Dwarf where in some weird region of the universe anything that you did to someone else, like smacking him over the head with a shovel, actually happened to you. We obviously don’t live there.
Ah. But these people weren’t Muslims, and Islamophobia has obviously been chosen as the glue to bind the white British working class together and distract it from its real enemy, the global ruling elite. I fear for Muslims in the West – they are being turned into the new enemy within (now that the Unions have been crushed). Doubtless their persecution will be counted as the price worth paying for keeping free market capitalism safe.
To lighten up for a moment…
Rebekah Brooks:
– Friend of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of England
– Friend of Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of England
– Friend of David Cameron, current Prime Minister of England
Remember when there was a slight chance of Mrs. Brooks being found guilty and serving some prison time?
Yeah. Me neither.
More cogent comments (many unsuitable for elderly ladies with cats) here –
http://m.fark.com/comments/8311589?from_page=politics
Peacewisher to Fred
“Also, what about the people of Donetsk and Lugansk. When will their right to self-determination be recognised?”
__________________
Habbabkuk to Peacewisher
How about at the same time as rasPutin recognises the rights of Dagestan and Chechniya to self-determination?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Under your cloak of moderation and reasonableness, you’re as Stalinist and twisted as most on here. You’ll make full Eminence pretty soon! 🙂
Peacewisher to Fred
“@Fred: We’ll have to disagree about the finer points of RIPA part 3.”
___________________
Don’t be such a twister. You got it wrong and Fred got it right. Have the grace to admit it or just shut up (as most Excellences do when shown up) but please stop your twisting and turning and pissy little euphemisms.
@Tony M
I expect there are many who feel themselves to be Iraqi and put their loyalties to their country first.
However events have shown that there are a significant number who don’t.
I’m not arguing that Iraq should be split. I’m just saying that arguing that it must not be split because that’s what the Americans wanted is not a good argument.
Off topic, but what the hell. What was Ms Brooks found innocent of? It can’t be phone hacking, seeing as her Deputy got done, and she was up to her kneck in it. It must be something else. Innocent of being a brunette? Not guilty of terrorism? Fair enough. But phone hacking? That’s a very curious decision indeed. I almost feel sorry for ‘patsy’ Coulson. Indeed, I would genuinely feel sorry for Coulson, were it not for the fact that his lies got Sheridan jail time. Karma Coulson, love it.
News Corp has already paid hundreds of people compensation for phone hacking, in a process that (it) usually settles out of court.
Usually, lol. Along with paying the pizza delivery guy. Ginger knew.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/rupert-murdoch-may-face-police-questioning-after-rebekah-brooks-cleared-20140625-zsll2.html
Habbabats at 9.38 a.m. “Your’e as Stalinist and twisted as most on here.” Possibly the most classic case of pot calling kettle seen on’t Internet this week.
“she was up to her kneck in it”
Brendan, love your misspelling of neck. If there was any justice in the world that would be the correct spelling.
Kempe
25 Jun, 2014 – 8:09 am
“Elements of Sharia law have already been worked into the British legal system although they contradict existing UK and european legislation.”
Kempe, I am a secular atheist so I don’t agree with religious courts but if British Jews can have religious courts why not religious courts for Muslims?
Rabbinical Law (Jewish) has been in Britain for centuries.
We don’t get as much publicity about that though.
“Scandal of women trapped in marriages by Jewish courts”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scandal-of-women-trapped-in-marriages-by-jewish-courts-1765888.html
Rabbinical court ruling makes mother ‘feel like a harlot’
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/rabbinical-court-ruling-makes-mother.html
Peacewisher, 24 Jun, 11:44 pm
technicolour, 25 Jun, 12:37 am
John Smith died.
Yes, sorry for rather flippant reply. Alas, John Smith. Blair was already being groomed by the right, as far as I know – but Leo Abse well worth re-reading (read it quickly as was at a house party at the time).
Police Scotland said there was no link between the mosque in Aberdeen and the the man who was identified as fighting in Syria. He had left Aberdeen and live in the south for two years before going to Syria.
Why it was even mentioned that he had been in Aberdeen was a questionable stance, but it seemed even more suspicious that STV news would report the terrorist story, this man and the mosque, then finish with Police Scotland’s statement.
None of it needed to mentioned at all, unless an issue had come up locally.