We are experiencing a Denial of Service Attack on a massive scale. Our extremely experienced tech team – who are serious professionals who come from major IT players – have never defended an attack this big on which someone is spending real resources. The attack is not over, but our various levels of defence and diversion are currently holding.
The attack works simply by getting many tens of thousands of bots from around the world to interrogate the site with queries into its search facility, thus crashing it. It is a type of attack we come under routinely, but never on anything like this kind of scale. This is a proper effort to get the blog off air.
EDIT: Attack ongoing – latest figures.
Further Update: Still going but slowing a bit now.
Boris was in front of the camera’s/mps today justifying his accusations against Russia;
Question: Why do you think they did this now?
Boris – “It is often attractive to conjure up the public image of an enemy. It was an attempt to excite a Russian electorate”
Ehhhh, aren’t the polls predicting a massive loss for the Conservatives in the local elections next week? And a Fraudian ”poll” showing people thought May better responded to this charade than Corbyn…………
In short, Boris does indeed like to shit on the plebs from a great height. So much so he cant contain his contempt for our intelligence above.
YCMIU
boris had the right concept, but the wrong country.. it was his own and theresa mays leadership under threat of becoming completely irrelevant…
The USSR lost 25+ million people defeating the Nazi’s. Boris has just suggested Putin is today’s Hitler. Would anyone (other than his coke dealer) shed a tear if Boris was hit by a bus tomorrow? A despicable man.
Boris obviously also really, really, really, really, really hates English football fans travelling to Russia soon. Unfortunate souls are going to bare the brunt of his actions. Does he care? Does he fuck.
boris is clearly a deranged man.. too bad he has a place in uk politics… we have someone similar here in canada – crystia freeland… a complete loser from the get go, but on soros payroll, so she gets a free ride…
knuckles
March 21, 2018 at 21:56
The USSR lost 25+ million
I prefer the simple statistic of 80% of the Nazis were killed by Russia.
In what they refer to as the Great Patriotic War.
Have no doubt that if Germany had not turned east on its then Russian allies,then the outcome of the second world war would be very different.
Boris has excelled himself once again it seems,Foreign secretary was always going to be a stretch for him i thought,I thought it quite clever on Mrs Mays behalf in so much as it could be absolutely certain that his mouth would get in the way.I agree with the Russian sentiment,he is indeed a dangerous man.
Johnson should be removed from office for his remarks today. The man is a total disgrace to the nation and brings dishonour on every British citizen.
May must sack Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson now. The man is beneath contempt and utterly unfit for one of the highest offices of state.
.
Boris Johnson has got form. His great-grandfather was Ali Kemal:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Kemal
On 4 November 1922, Kemal was kidnapped from a barber shop at Tokatliyan Hotel in Istanbul, and was carried to the Asiatic side of the city by a motor boat en route to Ankara for a trial on charges of treason. On 6 November 1922, the party was intercepted at İzmit by General Nureddin Pasha, then the Commander of the First Army which was aligned with Mustafa Kemal Pasha. Kemal was attacked and lynched by a mob set up by the General with sticks, stones and knives, and hanged from a tree. His head was smashed by cudgels and he was stoned to death. As described by Nureddin personally to Dr. Riza Nur, who with Ismet Inönü was on his way to Lausanne to negotiate peace with the Allies, “his blood-covered body was subsequently hanged with an epitaph across his chest which read, “Artun Kemal””. This bestowal of a fictitious Armenian name administered a final indignity to the victim.[14] He was considered a Quisling.
I Fully agree with Sharp Ears and Jon.. and a few others – About the Donation Button… Craig is under massive attack..and We Know Why.. He Should NOT Be left to Fight This on his own – Craig and his Techy’s that is
we should all be in this fight
Flak increasing….you must be right on target ????✌?
Yes, must be the fact he exposed Hamish and Doctor No as spooks I think, or something infinitely worse
BBC 4 moral maze was such a one sided disappointment. There was no discussion about the immorality of prejudging the whole issue, am ignorance of the culpability of the US in attempting to destroy Russia after 1992 and trumpeting ‘our values’ which of course did not include our war crimes in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere and ongoing in Syria, and our embracing the dictators on the Arabian peninsula. It was a maze alright but not very moral.
Oh don’t be so shy, maybe you’re just really popular there suddenly – google translate gets around the language barriers now!! :p
I do not post often, but when someone like Craig sticks his head up above the parapet, he needs support. I am sure everyone who visits this site appreciates honesty and integrity which Craig has in spades.
Great comment, agree wholeheartedly. Some people are head and shoulders above the rest. Ambassador indeed.
Arthur Ponsonby, MP, book 1929, Falsehood in War-Time
http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/texts/t050824i/ponsonby.pdf
Harold D. Lasswell, Propaganda Technique in the World War, 1927
https://archive.org/details/PropagandaTechniqueInTheWorldWar
Crazy! You’ve not even said anything revolutionary. I see no racism, sexism, religious or political hatred. Even your comments on Boris Johnston are pretty mild. And do they really think you’re the only one to notice any of what’s happened?
You pointed out the obvious “of a type developed in the Soviet Union” comment, pointed out the proximity between Salisbury and Porton Down (which could suggest origin of chemical OR intention that it be detected by professionals), hypothesised (explicitly) two of the many possible explanations of events and noted Boris Johnston’s change of tack to the “within the last decade” line.
Hardly treasonous stuff. Somebody must be paranoid.
I think that everyone who is so sure that Russia did it, before any real facts are known, should be forced to watch the 1957 film “12 Angry Men”.
There is a more recent version, called simply “12”. It’s russian. https://www.comingsoon.it/film/12/916/scheda/
Thanks. Interesting that it’s Russian.
how can we support your Craig? Your blog is amazingly helpful in a sea of hysteria by Johnson et al.
How poignant. May says Putin’s silence proves him guilty, but this attack speaks loudly of her political intrigue.
May clearly doesn’t understand how criminal justice works. It is up to the Accuser to prove everything. The accused does not have to prove anything at all.
Barrie, that’s an old fraudsters’ trick: silent = guilty; or loudly denying something (“see, i told you, why he would be so loud…”) = guilty
I would suggest adding a donate button, Craig. Some of us are making a point this year of financially supporting the alternative media, and you are an important source of information. The kind of support your blog requires to defend against this kind of attack does not come cheap.
I’m not surprised – you”ve had a huge impact on countering government propagada on the posoning. Brilliant!
Keep up the great work, Craig.
The Syria-Ghouta connection has been raised on threads. The present judgement of CENTCOM, and presumably the Pentagon and Joint chiefs, is that Assad has won the “civil war.” The General in charge of CENTCOM just testified in open session in Congress last week to this effect. This is not what Neocons and hawks want to hear as they, and their Israeli counterparts, want Assad overthrown with Syria dismembered and increased confrontation with Iran and Russia. So we can expect these elements in the US and UK to forge ahead with the anti-Russia information warfare campaign.
We can ask, if the US general in charge of CENTCOM has just testified to Congress that Assad has won – in a military sense – does the UK military establishment share this appreciation of the situation? Have May and The Boris been briefed to this effect? Or just what? Do they care?
So, what is transpiring in Syria on the ground? Here is a professionally done concise sitrep by “TTG” at Col. Pat Lang’s Sic Semper Tyrannis blog in DC. I will past it here in extenso so you dont have to jump to the site. I don’t know the protocol here about long quotes so pls advise.
“…. Perhaps eliminating the Kurdish threat is the real goal of operation Olive Branch. If true, it bodes well for the future of Syria. While I don’t know Erdogan’s full reasons for the operation, I strongly suspect that one of Russia’s goals for acquiescing to the operation was to force a breakup of the US-Kurdish marriage and a return of Rojava to Damascus. Now that Afrin has fallen, we must wait to see what the TSK and FSA have in store for Manbij. US troops are still in the area. Will they abandon their Kurdish allies in the face of a TSK/FSA advance? What happens when the TSK/FSA go after Kobane? I would think that the Kurds will eventually realize that the US is not their friend and ally and that taking the deal offered by Damascus is their only hope of resisting further Turkish predations.
The SAA offensive to reduce the East Ghouta pocket appears to be going well. It should. The SAA massed sufficient forces, the cream of the SAA, and applied sufficient supporting fires to ensure success. However, the fighting has not been without surprises. After inducing a large number of jihadis to surrender or be bussed to Idlib and successfully evacuating tens of thousands of civilians out of harms way, the SAA was hit by a surprise Daesh attack out of the Yarmouk refugee camp into the al Qadam district. Some SAA troops were surrounded for a short time before being rescued by a sharp counterattack. The SAA suffered high casualties at al Qadam requiring the redeployment of several assault units from the 4th Mechanized Division to reinforce the line. Daesh now control ninety percent of the al Qadam district in this back and forth battle.
The jihadis suffered heavy losses as a result of another one of their counterattacks targeting Masraba. They pushed forward recapturing a large swath of the district. The SAA again had to divert forces to stop the counterattack. After a day, the jihadis decided to pull back to their original positions in Douma. Unfortunately for them, the SAA caught them in an indirect and direct fire trap as they crossed an open area resulting in lots of dead jihadis.
To the southeast, the SAA and its militia allies stopped a sizable Daesh offensive just south of T2. This offensive consisted of numerous waves over two days. The jihadis simultaneously struck near al Mayadin and al Bukamal. The SAA called in airstrikes to beat back the attacks. Estimated casualties on both sides exceeded one hundred. The R+6 made a wise decision when they started reinforcing the Deir Ezzor area a few weeks ago.
In my opinion, all these battles point to the wisdom of reducing some of these pockets of jihadis before finally taking on the Idlib area. Those in the pockets are not defeated remnants waiting to be mopped up. They are organized units fully capable of offensive actions. They could create havoc if they attacked while the bulk of the SAA was engaged in Idlib. Perhaps now that the TSK/FSA has made Afrin safe for jihadis, the SAA can soon push the Idlib jihadis further north once that inevitable offensive kicks off.
The US is reportedly beefing up its garrison at al Tanf and establishing similar strongpoints in the YPG/SDF occupied areas east of the Euphrates. From these garrisons, Special Forces teams continue to organize, equip and train various shades of remnant jihadi outfits to ostensibly take on Daesh, but the real target appears to be the SAA and its allies. I try to imagine some of the conversations that must go on around the fire among these teams. Exasperated talk about what those idiots back in DC are thinking. Surly, mutinous talk that stays around the campfire, but also in the minds of the Green Berets. Once the campfires die out, they will move on and continue to fulfill their assigned missions to the best of their abilities.
General Votel may agree that Assad had won the civil war in Syria, but he knows this is far from over. The situation is still fraught with danger for all in the region. “…
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/
Could the party extend to Canada? Trudeau, Freeland and their ilk make me want to vomit at present.
I have difficulty organising not to run out of teabags. I don’t think I would run the world very well.
From Craig’s post:
– “Further Update: Still going but slowing a bit now”
Rather amusing the way it’s smoothly throttling back, like someone who strutted onto the stage at completely the wrong time and now trying to sidle off unnoticed.
Twits; what on Earth did they hope to achieve? Even if they’d have succeeded in taking the blog down they’d only have drawn attention to it in the long run. Shoot first, think later?
DDOS is a blunt instrument.
I used to get these regularly. It may be completely random, and not targeting you for any particular reason – my blog is about herbs! (It started way before I got even marginally active in politics) I can recommend Wordfence plugin or something similar. Assuming this is a WordPress blog.
These aren’t web “GET” commands to retrieve a page but rather web “POST” commands to the WordPress built-in search facility to instruct the site to search for random numbers etc. and this site has a very large database of posts and comments to search through. Wordfence is active on this site as is Cloudflare which is why the blog is online.
If you actually were regularly being attacked by huge worldwide botnets for hours on end then you should consider reporting it to the police although quite likely they won’t be able to do anything.
Bloody “dynamic” blogs. It’s much cooler to have a site that you can carry around on a USB stick and update using FTP 🙂 Pages will load a lot faster too, because no need to generate upon each request. Unfortunately allowing comments then becomes an issue. Does WP allow disabling of its search?
They are scared of you. Keep up the good work.
I couldn’t get on from work today.
Go figure!
I note that at the press conference in Moscow held today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for ambassadors from around the world the pressure on the scientists at Porton Down to say the nerve agent came from Russia was mentioned in a presentation by General Kirilov of the Russian Armed Forces. That information probably came from this blog. Very embarrassing for the UK so I am not surprised about the DOS attack.
Sorry, I hadn’t read your comment before I posted. I think you hit the nail bang on the head.
I would imagine that what is freaking them out at MI5/6 is not so much Craig’s healthy scepticism or his forensic takedown of the language used, but the fact that he has insider knowledge of how they operate, and even worse, contacts inside the security services who tip off him about dissenters on the inside. That is what probably unnerves them more than anything else, especially as they don’t know how much more he knows. Known unknowns – can’t have that. Leak some character smearing to Guido Fawkes and co. Imply that the MSM can’t do business with him. He won’t be the first to be delegitimised through mockery and character assassination.
My thoughts exactly.
You’re connecting the punches Craig. They’re starting to hurt. So much so that someone very, very high up is really pissed off at you. But you already know that.
It’s what they do next that you need to watch out for. We’re concerned for you Craig. You’ve travelled this road before. You know the score more than anyone I’ve ever met. Be careful.
Whilst you’ve been embarrassing the hell out of the tories we’ve been sharing the other news that was covered up by the Russian debacle like the 10,000 deaths due to tory cuts in the English NHS.
We certainly live in interesting if ugly times. Scottish independence is coming, it won’t be easy but it’ll be worth it. That will only be the beginning though, not the end. Not a time to hang up the boxing gloves I think. Maybe I’ll get a chance to connect a few punches myself.
Power to your elbow.
Kindest regards,
David Milligan
Keep up the good work.
Craig, you are doing an excellent job and I and many others appreciate it very much. Thank you.
Craig Murray described how he has been hounded and subjected to abuse for raising rational questions about government claims:
‘In 13 years of running my blog I have never been exposed to such a tirade of abuse as I have for refusing to accept without evidence that Russia is the only possible culprit for the Salisbury attack. The abuse has mostly been on twitter, and much of the most venomous stuff has come from corporate and state media “journalists”. I suppose I am a standing rebuke to them for merely being stenographers to power and never doing any actual research, but that hardly explains the visceral levels of hatred exhibited.’
Owen Jones made a crucial point about the treatment meted out to those who challenge official propaganda:
‘It’s the same [thing], every time. Iraq, Helmand Province, Libya. Anything other than total subordination to the government line invites accusations of being a stooge for Saddam/Taliban/Gaddafi, of treachery, of cowardice. All dissent has to be bullied out of existence.’
As he noted in a short, powerful clip on Sky News:
‘Why are the politicians and pundits who brought us Iraq and Libya still treated as statesmen and sensible hard-headed pundits?’
By contrast:
‘Those who were (tragically) vindicated are traitors and cowards.’
Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor of The Canary, rightly emphasised the point:
‘The same people who spent the last three years bemoaning the “post-truth era” are now denouncing as heretics anyone who wants facts re: the Skripal poisoning. And they see nothing contradictory in that *at all*. Welcome to modern McCarthyism. The witch hunt is on.’
Veteran journalist Peter Hitchens warned:
‘In the past few days I have begun to sense a dangerous and dark new intolerance in the air, which I have never experienced before. […] The treatment of Jeremy Corbyn, both by politicians and many in the media, for doing what he is paid for and leading the Opposition, seems to me to be downright shocking.’
He continued:
‘There’s no real spirit of liberty left in this country.
‘Yes, I am scared, and I never have been before. And so should you be.’
George Galloway observed of the distasteful media treatment of Corbyn:
‘The grisly collection of #Russian exiles, opposition exiles, absconded thieves and oligarchs donated £3 million to the Tories and zero to #Corbyn. That “the story” is instead Corbyn expressing the same view as France & Germany shows the absolute corruption of the British media’.
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/865-no-spirit-of-liberty-the-salisbury-case-corbyn-and-the-need-for-dissent.html
Brian
There is certainly an attempt afoot, which seems to be failing for once, to enforce certain selected improbabilities as unquestioned “facts”.
As a footnote to your comment, however, I can’t help but react to the inclusion of Owen Jones as an example of an aggrieved truth-teller. You write:
“Owen Jones made a crucial point about the treatment meted out to those who challenge official propaganda:
“‘It’s the same [thing], every time. Iraq, Helmand Province, Libya. Anything other than total subordination to the government line invites accusations of being a stooge for Saddam/Taliban/Gaddafi, of treachery, of cowardice. All dissent has to be bullied out of existence.’”
The problem is, I recall when Owen Jones did precisely that – by aggressively refusing to share a platform with the saintly and courageous Syrian nun Mother Agnes, whom he vilified back in 2013 as being an “Assad stooge”. Jonathan Cook decontructs Jones’ record here https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2017-02-15/why-is-owen-jones-helping-to-subvert-corbyn/ and here https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2013-11-18/bowing-before-the-inquisitors-on-syria/.
This is what Jones had to say regarding Libya in late March 2011, at a time when “the left” was just waking up to what was about to be rolled out: the systematic, externally-orchestrated destruction of the independent Libyan state: “Let’s be clear. Other than a few nutters, we all want Gaddafi overthrown, dead or alive.”
Perhaps Jones has changed his mind about Libya and Syria in the last five years? We’re all entitled to do that. But I can’t find any record of him fessing up to having a mistaken analysis the first time round. That’s what an honest commentator would do..
As things stand, I’d suggest there’s something not quite right about the heavily promoted Owen Jones. A faint whiff of spookery, perhaps?
Syd
Thank you for that..
Yes I am Uncomfortable with reference to Jones… And apart from you, the last person to mention Mother Agnes on this Blog, was probably Myself
Thanks for that brian, I also hope that Owen Jones is slowly getting the claws out and might have changed his mind, but he is good at talking and presenting both sides at times.
I remember him being stumm when Nafezz Ahmed was fired from the Guardian for a simple piece that pointed out the gas fields 6 miles of the Gaza coast being usurped by Israeli gunboats.
He could come out with many other issues if he has had a conversion, a fair proportional vote, changing all here, would be one most important policy change Labour could be jostled into.
Little-known fact: Paul Staines, who uses the pseudonym “Guido Fawkes” which he does not deserve to use, likes to get out of his Tory excuse for a “mind” on hallucinogenic drugs, and he has boasted about it.
The attack on this website started shortly after people here started talking about how ludicrously badly the poshboy kingdom was doing at that Skripal case meeting in Moscow, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKyR0KZn2Xc I have just watched this,the lying scum are going for boom or bust,we will probably suffer both of these.Hang in there!
Love the way you posted the chart. The power of transparency.