Julian Assange has asserted that MI5 are active against Scottish nationalists, as the independence movement is seen as a threat to the UK. Happily, Julian being Julian there is now some traction for this in the corporate media. When I posted on it last week I received nothing from the corporate media except dismissal and abuse over twitter.

I think it is worth repeating some of that twitter abuse for the benefit of anybody who has not fully appreciated the vitriol felt across the entire unionist media establishment towards anybody who queries the narrative they are paid to peddle.

If this doesn’t shake any residual belief in media impartiality, nothing will:

“Craig Murray is mad shocker.” James Bloodworth, The Independent
“Zooooooooooooooomer” Euan Mccolm, The Scotsman
“Craig Murray is obviously an MI5 plant. WAKE UP PEOPLE.” Kevin Schofield, The Sun
“Makes the X files look like Panorama” Rob Corp, BBC
“Cybernat bullying is an MI5 false flag operations, says former British Ambassador. Many Nats believe this stuff.” Iain Martin, the Daily Telegraph
“If you must tweet links to Craig Murray’s MI5 guff, take the SNP twibbon off your profile. That party rejected him as a candidate and rightly so.” Stephen Daisley, STV
“The comments under Craig Murray’s latest rant are really something.” Ross McCafferty, Daily Record

Is it not strange that such a broad spectrum of the mainstream media react with instant vitriol to the very notion that the security services are active against the Scottish independence movement, when we know for certain that environmental campaign groups have been heavily penetrated by agents and agents provocateurs? When such tactics have been used against the Irish Republican movement for decades? When our intelligence services were up to their ears in torture and extraordinary rendition and repeatedly lied about it? When Edward Snowden has revealed the massive scale of surveillance by GCHQ?

In the days when the corporate media had a monopoly on the dissemination of information, simply shouting “conspiracy theorist”, “tinfoil hat” and “lizards” at somebody, excluding them from corporate media access, would be enough essentially to prevent anybody from reaching the public with information. But that no longer works in the age of new media, and especially it doesn’t work in Scotland after the referendum experience.

The fact that my comments on MI5 dirty tricks were so instantly and so unanimously rubbished by the corporate media are more likely to make people realise there must be something to hide. None of the so-called “journalists” I have quoted above has ever tackled the fact that I blew the whistle on torture and extraordinary rendition, and that the government and security services lied about it then, with the support of establishment journalists. In fact I challenge all the named journalists above to say what they think about the sanctioning of intelligence from torture by Blair and Straw, and whether I was truthful in my whistleblowing. Perhaps some of you might be able to contact them to point out the challenge.

For the avoidance of doubt, let me spell this out. I have certain knowledge from an inside source that disruption of separatist activity in Scotland now features in MI5 tasking. The “tasking” of the security services – and that is what it is officially called – is a very formal written exercise conducted by the Joint Intelligence Committee on an annual basis, though it is possible (but very difficult) to insert new tasks in-year.

I have personally taken part – often – in Cabinet Office meetings of JIC sub-committees determining tasking, though in my case more for MI6 than MI5. It is a system I know very well. None of the “journalists” abusing me above has ever sat on a JIC committee. None of them actually know anything about it. None has contacted me to ask me why I have stated there is an MI5 anti-SNP operation. It is so much easier to collect your pay packet, quaff another Merlot and drunkenly catcall “zoooomer!”