Eight days ago I published a leak from an MOD source that the MOD’s Defence Intelligence Service fundamentally disagreed with Cameron’s “70,000 moderate rebels claim” and were incensed about. Today the Murdoch Press – the Times and the Sun – publish as massive front page exclusives exactly what I published eight days ago.
Interesting isn’t it that they didn’t publish it before the parliamentary debate on Syria?
As I constantly point out, this is not just a blog of commentary. It is a source of news the mainstream media does not choose to print (or chooses to delay).
On 26 November I published:
There is a very interesting parallel here with the claims over Iraqi WMD. The 70,000 figure has again been approved by the Joint Intelligence Committee, with a strong push from MI6. But exactly as with Iraqi WMD, there were strong objections from the less “political” Defence Intelligence, and caveats inserted. As the Head of Defence Intelligence, Major-General Michael Laurie, told the Chilcot Inquiry:
“we could find no evidence of planes, missiles or equipment that related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD). It was clear to me that pressure was being applied to the Joint Intelligence Committee and its drafters. Every fact was managed to make the dossier as strong as possible. The final statements in the dossier reached beyond the conclusions intelligence assessments would normally draw from such facts.”
The truth is the military tends to be much more honest about these matters than the spooks. Rather than make the same mistake again, parliamentarians should be calling Laurie’s successor, Air Marshal Philip Osborn, to ask him the truth about the nature, composition and availability of the 70,000. I happen to know that signals of dissent from Osborn’s staff – quite probably with his blessing – are reaching not just me, but many Tory MPs.
So, will that translate into less bombing for less bucks, say once a month?
Will our disaffected Os spornes now stop underwriting arms deals with taxpayers money to the tune of hundreds of billions?
We had almost the opposite here Craig, with the German spooks telling a probable truth (the italics), whilst their gov possibly spins it 180 degrees. . . they have their vote on their neo-colonial post middle-east chaos stake today:
these paras lifted from a fairly unbiased BBC report on the matter http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35001377
but I generally, after many decades of reliance on BBC & other UK media that you highlighted above, now smile at their transparent lying.
The Ballad of Kiplingson
THERE came a knock at the Heavenly Gate, where the good St. Peter sat,—
“Hi, open the door, you fellah there, to a British rat-tat-tat!”
The Saint sat up in his chair, rubbed eyes, and prick’d his holy ears,
“Who’s there?” he muttered, “a single man, or a regiment of Grenadiers?”
“A single man,” the voice replied, “but one of prodigious size,
Who claims by Jingo, his patron Saint, the entry to Paradise!”
The good St. Peter open’d the Gate, but blocking the entry scan’d
The spectacled ghost of a little man, with an infant’s flag in his hand.…
“Wot! haven’t you heard of Kiplingson? whose name and fame have spread
As far as the Flag of England waves, and the Tory prints are read?
“I was raised in the lap of Jingo, sir, till I grew to the height of man,
And a wonderful Literary Gent, I emerged upon Hindostan!…
“And rapid as light my glory spread, till thro’ cockaigne it flew,
And I grew the joy of the Cockney cliques, and the pet of the Jingo Jew!
“For the Lord my God was a Cockney Gawd, whose voice was a savage yell,
A fust-rate Gawd who dropt, d’ye see, the ‘h’ in Heaven and Hell!…
“Oh I was a real Phenomenon,” continued Kiplingson,
“The only genius ever born who was Tory at twenty-one!”
“Alas! and alas!” the good Saint said, a tear in his eye serene,
“A Tory at twenty-one! Good God! At fifty what would you have been?
“There’s not a spirit now here in Heaven who wouldn’t at twenty-one
Have tried to upset the very Throne, and reform both Sire and Son!
“The saddest sight my eyes have seen, down yonder on earth or here,
Is a brat that talks like a weary man, or a youth with a cynic’s leer.
“Try lower down, young man,” he cried, and began to close the Gate—
“Hi, here, old fellah,” said Kiplingson, “by Jingo! just you wait—
“I’ve heaps of Criticisms here, to show my claims are true,
That I’m ’cute in almost everything, and have probed Creation through!”
“And what have you found?” the Saint inquired, a frown on his face benign—
“The Flag of England!” cried Kiplingson, “and the thin black penny-a-line!
“Wherever the Flag of England waves, down go all other flags;
Wherever the thin black line is spread, the Bulldog bites and brags!…
“O Gawd, beware of the Jingo’s wrath! the Journals of Earth are mine!
Across the plains of the earth still creeps the thin black penny-a-line!
“For wherever the Flag of England waves”—but here, we grieve to state,
His voice was drown’d in a thunder-crash, for the Saint bang’d-to the Gate!
Robert Buchanan, (1841–1901)
and of course this sort of thing doesn’t happen/doesn’t get reported in the UK {
http://www.thebreakingtimes.com/2-1-billion-arms-deal-bafarawa-denies-receiving-any-funds-from-dasuki/
Nigerian arms deal of several billion dollars, $7 million of which is allegedly discovered in the bank account of VIPs, and some of the involved are writing VERY long lists of names – the money should have gone into fighting Boko Haram. . . more at. . .
http://www.thebreakingtimes.com/2-billion-arms-deal-dasuki-allegedly-implicates-long-list-of-political-actors/
} The UK spook department for tidying things up always impresses me
Quite a few rather large hostages to fortune have been given over this. One is the 70,000 figure which is bound to come back and haunt Cameron. Another is the sight of certain MPs cheering the result of the debate. That’s going to play well if/when there is an ISIS terror attack on the UK mainland.
Firstly, Craig congrats are in order that you have been ahead of the curve by at least eight days!!!! That is one heck of an achievement! Given the nature of the claims and the ramifications thereof, you have yet again proven your integrity and zeal for truth to inspire others to somehow manage to convey to you the truth in the current world of lies and deceit.
Secondly the timing of the Oligarch Owned Media to trickle out an eight days old stale “news” manifestly clarifies the intention of the said Media to suppress any source of possible conflict with crying havoc and letting loose the dogs of war! The fact that now the imaginary and fictitious numbers of the enemy that were grossly over estimated (as ever inflate the none existent threats and play down any probable and real threats) were the figleaf of respectability that the pond scum presiding as the Labour representatives hid behind whilst voting along with the government to bomb Syrians some more, has now given way to subterfuge of “death threats” and pictures of severed heads being sent to these free loading scoundrels whom are adamant to vote for bombing but do not wish to remain informed of the consequences of their vote!!!
Fact that these days the pampered and well fed and cared for political reps are ever so sensitive that they no longer wish to let the plebs to email them as they wish and they are too busy devising protocols for the plebs to adhere to, when addressing these “representatives” clearly manifests the degree of disconnect of these miscreants whom have become to be minor royalties in their own right and wish not to be offended by the plebs negative opinions!!!
First it was the parliament that was barricaded and made secure from ingress of any plebs, now the “representatives” are getting to have their protection detail, under the flimsy pretexts of death threats, that are in fact the grisly images of the aftermath of the said bombings that are now being used to afford the pond scum whom believe they are entitled to their seats by the way of heredity form bLiar et al! That is without the hassle of the we the people even getting to let them know what we think of these morally crippled ideologically bankrupt free loading carpetbaggers!
Well, an increasing number of people (excluding it seems the majority of our MP’s) can now see at least a little bit more of the truth, and tell the difference between what has really been going on, and the most outrageous lies of our US Neocon controlled Puppets. What British Government I ask? They are working for The Americans – not us.
Meanwhile it seem that President Putin, is more than a little annoyed, but is still trying to keep calm instead of kicking off a Full Blown World War III, which the Neocons are literally dying for. They were known as “The Crazies” in Washington even before they wrote their PNAC stuff in the 1990’s.
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50864
“Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly”
“Vladimir Putin delivered the Annual Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly. The Address was traditionally delivered at the Kremlin’s St George Hall before an audience of more than 1,000 people.”
December 3, 2015 13:00 The Kremlin, Moscow
Extract
“[T]he Turkish people are kind, hardworking and talented. We have many good and reliable friends in Turkey. Allow me to emphasise that they should know that we do not equate them with the certain part of the current ruling establishment that is directly responsible for the deaths of our servicemen in Syria.
We will never forget their collusion with terrorists. We have always deemed betrayal the worst and most shameful thing to do, and that will never change. I would like them to remember this – those in Turkey who shot our pilots in the back, those hypocrites who tried to justify their actions and cover up for terrorists.
I don’t even understand why they did it. Any issues they might have had, any problems, any disagreements we knew nothing about could have been settled in a different way. Plus, we were ready to cooperate with Turkey on all the most sensitive issues it had; we were willing to go further, where its allies refused to go. Allah only knows, I suppose, why they did it. And probably, Allah has decided to punish the ruling clique in Turkey by taking their mind and reason.
But, if they expected a nervous or hysterical reaction from us, if they wanted to see us become a danger to ourselves as much as to the world, they won’t get it. They won’t get any response meant for show or even for immediate political gain. They won’t get it.
Our actions will always be guided primarily by responsibility – to ourselves, to our country, to our people. We are not going to rattle the sabre. But, if someone thinks they can commit a heinous war crime, kill our people and get away with it, suffering nothing but a ban on tomato imports, or a few restrictions in construction or other industries, they’re delusional. We’ll remind them of what they did, more than once. They’ll regret it. We know what to do.”
Not just Murdoch, but also Roy Greenslade at the Graun now:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/dec/04/so-david-camerons-70000-syrian-forces-claim-really-is-dodgy#comment-64521989
Some telling comments. The Graun is having some serious credibility isssues with its readers. The thing is I can’t quite figure out why and what’s going on.
I posted on this in the thread about the Oldham West by-election result.
I don’t pretend to understand even a fraction of the forces at play in the Syria conflict but this is a really interesting article suggesting a motivation for the recent rush to war by the UK, Germany & France. Essentially Turkey (US?) has blackmailed the EU into supporting its aims against the state of Syria with the threat of flooding the EU with Syrian refugees. That Turkey saw fit to bring down a Russian plane shows the stakes which are at play here (not to mention the £3M per day in oil revenues from the ISIS oil passing through Turkey).
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/03/erdogan-blackmails-nato-allies/
As far as I can see the real danger here is that we are being dragged into this conflict on the wrong side – on the US side (whose motives are to advance US interests which seems to mean creating failed states and arming terrorists to secure regime change) and will be acting against Russia who are determined to actually defeat ISIS and support the sovereign state of Syria.
well said BabsP, Turkey, if NATO had much say over its rogues, should have had their membership suspended, but they were just acting on instructions when shooting down the Russian jet, hence no reaction from other NATO members.
Any fair and respecting country worth its salt would contemplate taking the blinkers off, leaving NATO rather than relying on shady right wing arms peddlers to cajole it into a world wide conflagration.
Craig, you’ve often released information ahead of the curve and frequently at junctures that are awkward and inconvenient for those that would prefer to let sleeping dogs lie – you have done this legally, honestly and with a very clear conscience and this latest clear example shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.
Today’s ‘revelation’ from News Corpse serves at least three obvious purposes, in addition to highlighting your scoop, considering the interfering directives that Murdoch will habitually be spewing all over his institutionalised editorial staff:
1/ Inject the Syrian chaos-intervention canard with continued momentum, keep it fresh and front of mind, continue to insinuate the pretext that the motivation for the UK’s intervention in Syria is sincerely humanitarian and self-defensive in nature, and not at tall misguided, hubristic or imperialistic since the hidden agenda is (a) as in WWII, not to miss out on the victory celebrations and (b) to re-compete for UKG’s ‘special’ place at the top table of US vassal states, thus avoiding an unseemly relegation – who seriously believes a few additional bombings in Syria is going to ‘save lives’? Regardless, that’s the ailing albatross that UKG has lumbered itself with.
2/ Provide free media cover for ‘the good chaps in the military’ who might perhaps know more than they can let-on just now about the murderous, deceitful and self-serving motivations of UKG; you don’t have to be particularly observant to count the number of bombings that are already taking place in Syria and you don’t need to be clairvoyant to notice other comparable interventions this century that have resulted in abject chaos and misery plus state-level misappropriation of the victim’s resources. Hence there will be a large body of personnel within the establishment/services that would prefer to cleanse themselves of culpability for this crime as early as possible, before UKG is again publicly-humiliated and the finger-pointing and lying begins in earnest.
3/ Make life slightly uncomfortable for UKG with a mere hint of the punishment that News Corpse implies that it can still administer, should UKG’s commitment and slavery to the service of Murdoch-esque neo-con world-dominance ever dip below expectations.
Far from me to translate the whole article this is a mere guist of it.
According to German internet specialists, Avanti, SES and Eutelsat could stop the internet propaganda of IS/Daesh/Al Nusra and Takfiris in one foul swoop.
But they rather employed lawyers to give out unspecified threats. We bomb the dishes, thing is some are owned by money lenders and important people who are not IS, but who have strict permissions/commercial reasons to operate such access.
Turkey’s bazaars are making lush profits in electronics, satellite dishes walky talkie’s with long range coverage, anything that communicates over distances. All of the propaganda is uploaded via satellites and those who operate them have the key to stop it.
One suspects that closing/suspending financial streams and accounts of paymasters for terrorists wages, UK arms purchases and bribes would be as easily targeted than their satellite access.
oops
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/islamischer-staat-so-kommt-die-terrormiliz-ins-internet-a-1064575.html
This article describes Juergen Todenhofers approaches to IS, the only journalists in the west with IS inside knowledge, who interviewed IS actors and is now working on his material for publication.
So lets hear no more from Timothy Garden trash or any of the MI spike Frank gardener, presented to us as the ‘is specialists’.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/inside-isis-the-first-western-journalist-ever-given-access-to-the-islamic-state-has-just-returned-9938438.html
Regardless of the existence of otherwise of 70k “moderates” they are almost by definition weaponised to some extent and therefore can reasonably excluded from any peace talks wherever they take place as they remain outside the legitimate legal and moral framework for any future democratic settlement.
Tarpley’s another who’s very ahead of the news curve.
Terrorist Supply Routes and Safe Zones;
http://tarpley.net/
He’s now giving a daily briefing on the geopolitical game, including how the players line up in Washington.
“ISIS/Daesh is portrayed by the corrupt western media as a mysterious band of supermen endowed with magic powers, receiving food, ammunition, gasoline, spare parts, and cannon-fodder recruits through the services of djinns riding on flying carpets. But back in the real world, the ISIS/Daesh terrorist congeries and genocide is a very material army just like any other army. Cut the supply line from Turkey into ISIS/Daesh territory and everything collapses sooner rather than later. The Tax Wall Street Party, as our readers know, has been hammering on this theme since late July. Close the 100km (60 mile) Jarablus corridor and ISIS/Daesh is a dead duck. We have brought this theme to a major conference in Germany, and we have featured it in a widely-viewed video report directed to Anglophone and Francophone audiences. Our goal right now is to force one major power – any one will do –to team up with one major force on the ground (the Syrian Arab Army or the YPG Kurds) to close that corridor.”
Great Work Craig, It was bad enough reading your Scoop, with the Syria debate looming, But now that it’s over, and we Bomb away. The sick Gutter press pipes up. so depressing…
Gotta go pick up a wee shinning star from school. what future for them ??
Tony @ 1;33 pm
as I have been saying The Uk remain outside the Legal Frame –
The UK Parliament’s Decision to Bomb Syria is ILLEGAL
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-uk-parliaments-decision-to-bomb-syria-is-illegal/5493200
Craig, the intelligence any Prime Minister receives is made the subject of a judgment by him, similar intelligence facts can lead another leader to an entirely different conclusion. The bottom line is, it is ‘policy’ which drives the Governments actions, not intelligence, whatever it was, [the intelligence] didn’t make them do anything they had already decided they wanted to do in the first place, to that extent the intelligence was almost irrelevant. Of course if as I think we both agree the intelligence was faulty, then the Prime Minister will, as Blair did before him, blame someone else, in this case the Joint intelligence committee, and maybe MI6.
O/T sorry. Interesting points raised here about Lord feldmann and the Tory bullying cover up.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/watch_father_of_bullied_wisbech_tory_calls_for_culture_change_in_conservative_party_1_4336591
Yes well said Craig.
Somewhere I said that Cameron’s 70,000 rebels = Blair’s Dodgy Dossier
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/12/massive-collapse-in-tory-vote-share-in-oldham/comment-page-1/#comment-566541 (Times link/paywall)
It’s Friday so CameraOn is on the Turkish border inspecting progress in Operation Inherent Resolve. That name rolls off the tongue so easily.
Naming of Operation Inherent Resolve
Unlike previous U.S. combat operations, no name had been given to the American intervention in Syria and Iraq until it was announced in mid-October that the operational name would be Inherent Resolve. The decision to keep the conflict nameless drew considerable media criticism.
Yesterday he was in Sofia. He is defo the Heir to Blair.
BabsP,
I realised shortly after The coup in the Ukraine that the World had in effect changed by 180 degrees. Initially, I thought it was probably Russian snipers doing the shooting – which I watched almost live.
Then all was revealed by a hacked telephone conversation made by Ms “Fuck The EU” Victoria Nuland.
This wasn’t just an unprovoked attack on the Democratically elected Government of The Ukraine by the US Neocons, and it wasn’t just an indirect attack on Russia – it was in fact a Massive extremely well planned attack to drive a Wedge between Europe – and its natural trading partner Russia.
I suddenly realised, that this was also an attack on the whole of Europe.
So far as I am aware, The USA has Never before so directly attacked Europe – and this of course also includes The UK.
Many people still cannot understand this – or believe it. They still keep to their long held beliefs and think back to World War II when many Americans fought with us and lost their lives against The German Nazis.
Some of us now realise that Fascism is back and it is very strong and its disgusting smell is infecting all of us. Its centre, its base, is no longer in Europe – but in Washington DC, USA.
Tony
The truth is the military tends to be much more honest about these matters than the spooks.
Maybe if the spooks’ (and politicians’) safe return to their families from being shot at in a MidEast freefire zone depended on their accurate assessment of what was going on, they’d be more honest too.
This is related, because what’s happening in Syria is all part of the corporate coup d’etat…
“The “Annex on Environmental Services” reveals that TiSA will aim to ensure that national environmental protections within TiSA countries will be “harmonized down”, promoting the interests of multinational companies providing water purification, sanitation and refuse disposal services over worker safety, public health and the natural environment. Assessing the agreement, Friends of the Earth calls TiSA “an environmental hazard”, pointing out that public services of an environmentally sensitive nature are in danger of being privatized. Commenting on the “Annex on Road Freight Transport and Related Logistical Services”, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) calls TiSA a “race to the bottom,” observing that the Annex joins other Annexes published by WikiLeaks to form an overarching trade liberalization agenda, fragmenting the trucking industry, opening up sensitive areas of the transport sector to international competition, and contributing to the ongoing privatization of public services, undercutting workers’ rights, public health and safety, and the ability of national governments to plan and direct their own industrial and infrastructural development.”
https://www.wikileaks.org/tisa/press.html
Oh, and for those who might not be familiar with the TTP, TTIP and TISA here’s a short Wikileaks video about it all…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw7P0RGZQxQ
The Grand Ol’ Duke of Pork,
Had 70,000 men,
He hyped them to the top of the speech,
And he hyped them down again.
Yes, well deserved self-congratulatory pat on the back, just a shame it’s marred by your bonkers green light to the war mongers by firstly declaring that UK military action in Syria would be lawful !!
Not surprisingly Russia has today issused a warning shot by stating that it is very much illegal.
That’s exacty the reason tne SNP couldn’t sanction the bombing of Syria, on countless occasions SNP leader in the House Angus Robertson asked David Cameron to clarify some details, one of which related to the supposed 70,000 moderate rebels.
Repeatedly David Cameron snubbed Mr Robertson on the question, ergo common sense prevailed on the SNP’s part.
If David Cameron had the intelligence too hand why not produce it. The only logical answer is that he didn’t possess such intelligence, because it didn’t exist, the moderate MP’s probably bought this underhanded technique and voted yes, to the bombing of Syria.
TTIP is the new campaign to force other countries to sign over their power, rights and assets to America, without dropping a bomb.
Scotland has no influence whatsoever on TTIP only the E.U. has an influence, or not!
Maybe we would be better off out of the E.U. after all.
Robert, the EU has yet to sign up to it, this is not an ironed shirt. Its up to us to lobby MEP’s and inform MP’s, there are many other objectors to such folly.
Should they do sign that treaty before the referendum, then I will support any campaign to leave not just the EU but also the UK, because as eggs are eggs, the UK, in a brought ‘brush’ stroke with their poodle tail will be signing it.
In both cases, the lies were for the sake of keeping in step with the U.S.
Yesterday, the story was that Cameron was going to go to the Bulgarian-Turkish border to see whether refugee migration had been stopped there. I thought all the migration had been through Greek islands.
Now we’re told it’s to observe participation in Inherent Resolve. By the way, what the hell does “inherent resolve” mean?