My world view changed forever when, after 20 years in the Foreign Office, I saw colleagues I knew and liked go along with Britain’s complicity in the most terrible tortures, as detailed stunningly in the recent Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee Report. They also went along with keeping the policy secret, deliberately disregarding all normal record taking procedures, to the extent that the Committee noted:
131. We note that we have not seen the minutes of these meetings either: this causes us great concern. Policy discussions on such an important issue should have been minuted. We support Mr Murray’s own conclusion that were it not for his actions these matters may never have come to light.
The people doing these things were not ordinarily bad people; they were just trying to keep their jobs, comforting themselves with the thought that they were only civil servants obeying orders. Many were also actuated by the nasty “patriotism” that grips in time of war, as we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost nobody in the FCO stood up against the torture or against the illegal war – Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Carne Ross and I were the only ones to leave over it.
I then had the still more mortifying experience of the Foreign Office seeking to punish my dissent by bringing a series of accusations of gross misconduct – some of them criminal – against me. The people bringing the accusations knew full well they were false. The people investigating them knew they were false from about day 2. But I was put through a hellish six months of trial by media before being acquitted on all the original counts (found guilty of revealing the charges, whose existence was an official secret!). The people who did this to me were people I knew.
I had served as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Poland, and bumped up startlingly against the history of the Holocaust in that time, including through involvement with organising the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. What had struck me most forcibly was the sheer scale of the Holocaust operation, the tens of thousands of people who had been complicit in administering it. I could never understand how that could happen – until I saw ordinary, decent people in the FCO facilitate extraordinary rendition and torture. Then I understood, for the first time, the banality of evil or, perhaps more precisely, the ubiquity of evil. Of course, I am not comparing the scale of what happened to the Holocaust – but evil can operate on different scales.
I believe I see it again today. I do not believe that the majority of journalists in the BBC, who pump out a continual stream of “Corbyn is an anti-semite” propaganda, believe in their hearts that Corbyn is a racist at all. They are just doing their job, which is to help the BBC avert the prospect of a radical government in the UK threatening the massive wealth share of the global elite. They would argue that they are just reporting what others say; but it is of course the selection of what they report and how they report it which reflect their agenda.
The truth, of which I am certain, is this. If there genuinely was the claimed existential threat to Jews in Britain, of the type which engulfed Europe’s Jews in the 1930’s, Jeremy Corbyn, Billy Bragg, Roger Waters and I may humbly add myself would be among the few who would die alongside them on the barricades, resisting. Yet these are today loudly called “anti-semites” for supporting the right to oppose the oppression of the Palestinians. The journalists currently promoting those accusations, if it came to the crunch, would be polishing state propaganda and the civil servants writing railway dockets. That is how it works. I have seen it. Close up.
Not so much a comment but a plea. I think there is a need for someone to get the facts straight re that Mail article 11/08/2018 Corbyn lays graves on Munich terrorists. The narrative from @dannythefink and @jBickertonUK is that the camera doesn’t lie. But I found lots of questions, and would love it if someone did a bit of analysis. To help the budding journalist you may at least see some random questions I tweeted today:
https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=from%3Achrisfriel7%20%40dannythefink&src=typd&lang=en-gb
Both Left and Right whine about Media competence but the profession has always been lop-sided with idiots who cant connect dots. The Good journos have always been a stark minority.
Well said Ben. Indeed, intelligent thinking is generally in short supply; most people give themselves a free pass by blaming anyone else.
What is new is the degree of media consolidation. I saw a graph for the US; media organisations independent of each other fell from over a thousand to under a dozen in a few decades. All corporatism follows that trajectory, if governments permit it.
Deregulation fever from conservatives eroded Constitutional protections which explains their new love for Putin and the Criminal state.
bill clinton’s communications act of 1996 is generally acknowledged to be the key measure in corporate media consolodaton.
This came up Chris. Is that because I do not have a Twitter account?
‘No results for from:chrisfriel7 @dannythefink
The term you entered did not bring up any results. You may have mistyped your term or your search settings could be protecting you from some potentially sensitive content.
You could also try removing filters or clear all filters.’
I did ‘clear all filters’. ??
Re Chris at 16.34
The camera may not lie but it can be deceptive, we would need to know the exact time/date the picture was taken and confirmation of the location, we would need to know that it had not been altered or cropped, who can be clearly identified in the picture and in particular the translation of the inscription that can be viewed. Is Corbyn actually touching the wreath or is the angle deceptive? If as Skwawkbox maintains the graves are not those of the actual terrorists but of planners or plotters of the attack, how reliable is the source of the evidence that they were in any way connected?
Tried to connect to your link but the result came up empty, has your tweet been deleted?
https://twitter.com/RobJoyce156/status/1029064484051202049?s=19
Cant imagine the excuse for UK media decline but in the US it’s pretty simple.
Broadcast media killed print after they themselves took hemlock.
Up until early 70s the NEWS divisions of TV were not held to profit objectives of the Network. They were viewed as a public service as part of the role of media was dependent on the AIRWAVES BELONGING TO THE PEOPLE., so News was like a free PSA which was their ticket to an. FCC license
When they started answering to the bean counters they had to pander to advertisers and the low info viewer was left with another Marketing feature of Big Business.
A sensible post Ben. Are you feeling Ok?
It’s pre bong-time ?
Happy to hand you your hat in a debate pre or post bong, junior.
The BBC was hit hard by the government for daring to report Dr David Kelly’s revelations shortly before his death in 2003. An internal market was also imposed, removing many political programmes from the reach of Freedom of Information Act requests. Both under New Labour, supposedly our party of the Left.
The Guardian extended its operation to the US, in the midst of going downhill rapidly.
Anybody ever heard of this guy? Come on, you gotta know *the* wealthiest chap in our land!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Blavatnik
People are going to love bashing him around here a little bit….
Pro forma letter for Labour Party Members to send to Jennie Formby
ALL FOR AN INQUIRY INTO FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN UK POLITICS AND THE LABOUR PARTY
We are members and supporters of the Labour Party. We have today sent the letter below calling on the General Secretary Jennie Formby to see that the revelations of last year’s Al-Jazeera documentary, The Lobby, and new information that has since emerged are investigated.
We hope that others will send this letter on to Jennie Formby so that the request comes from as many people as possible. All are welcome to sign. When you have written please let us know by BCCing us or sending us a copy. Please circulate this widely.
Email Jennie Formby jennie_formby at labour.org.uk; CC Jeremy Corbyn leader at labour.org.uk, John McDonnell mcdonnellj at parliament.uk and Emily Thornberry thornberryeat parliament.uk.
From: Michael Kalmanovitz, Sara Callaway and Moshé Machover
Dear Jennie Formby,
We write as Labour Party members or supporters to ask what is happening with the investigation into interference by the state of Israel into UK politics.
In January 2017, Al-Jazeera broadcast a four-part documentary, The Lobby, into a senior political officer of the Israeli Embassy in London plotting to “take down” Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan and discredit the then chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Crispin Blunt for disagreeing with Israel’s policies towards the Palestinian people.
The evidence recorded on video also exposed extensive interference by the Embassy into the Labour Party and the National Union of Students and its then president, a supporter of Palestinian rights. The main protagonist from the Israeli Embassy, Shai Masot, had set up a group called ‘The City Friends of Israel’ (in collaboration with AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobbying organisation in the US), and a youth wing of Conservative Friends of Israel. He was then working to set up a youth wing of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).
Masot was filmed bragging to Labour MP, Joan Ryan (chair, LFI), that he had more than £1million of Israeli government funding at his disposal for LFI MPs to take trips to Israel. It also showed Ryan without justification trying to smear a Labour Party member.
Ella Rose, director of the pro-Israeli Jewish Labour Movement, said that she knew Masot “very well” and that she had worked with him when she was a public affairs officer at the Israeli embassy.
There is evidence that Masot was working for the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, headed by Gilad Erdan. The ministry, with a budget of some $45 million, is in charge of Israel’s covert efforts to counter the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions movement, internationally.
At the time, Jeremy Corbyn (ably supported by Emily Thornberry MP) commented that ‘such improper interference in this country’s democratic process is unacceptable’ and ‘a national security issue’. Corbyn called for the government ‘to launch an immediate enquiry into the extent of improper interference’.
We think that this demand for an investigation into outside interference, or actual subversion, by a foreign power into the internal affairs of both the Labour and Tory parties was right and proper.
Despite Al Jazeera’s evidence of a network of organisations and political operatives working to undermine British democracy, the May government stated that this matter was closed. And as far as we know, there has been no inquiry inside the Labour Party.
There is now an urgent need for such an inquiry. We say this because:
1) Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party to carry out an ethical foreign policy based on respect for human rights, including Palestinian rights, escalating accusations of antisemitism (hitherto always associated with the racist right) have been wielded against the left within the Labour Party, especially by organisations in the UK which strongly support the Israeli government and are attempting to stifle any political criticism of Israel by labelling it “political antisemitism”.
2) The three Jewish newspapers which collaborated to demand that Labour adopts the full IHRA definition with all examples relating to Israel, explicitly state that their aim is to destroy the movement that elected Jeremy Corbyn and hand the party back to the rightwing: “Had the full IHRA definition with examples relating to Israel been approved, hundreds, if not thousands, of Labour and Momentum members would need to be expelled.”
3) Since March 2018, the Israeli army has murdered at least 160 unarmed Palestinians and wounded over 16,000 others, including children, women, medical personnel and journalists (many of them deliberately maimed by illegal dumb-dumb bullets) during the Great March of Return which calls for the right of return for refugees of the Nakba, and for lifting the siege of Gaza which forces Palestinians to live in genocidal conditions.
4) Defenders of the IHRA definition insist that it is antisemitic to refer to the State of Israel as a “racist endeavour”, even as Israel has just enshrined in its Basic Law the already existing apartheid system against Palestinians and anyone who is not Jewish;
5) This August evidence emerged of an app (Act.IL app) created and operated as part of an Israeli government propaganda campaign (a product of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs) to generate accusations of antisemitism against Corbyn.
6) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has now intervened personally with demonstrably false accusations against Corbyn. As John McDonnell has said: “Having a politician like Netanyahu join the media feeding frenzy is a line in the sand. Enough is enough.”
7) Ongoing investigations into whether or how much foreign governments and other external forces, via social media or by other means, influenced the last presidential election in the US and the Brexit referendum in the UK, show that this poses an existential threat to the democratic process.
We cannot be complacent.
In March 2018, a poll of Labour Party members found that 77% believe the charges of antisemitism in the Labour Party are ”being deliberately exaggerated to damage Labour and Jeremy Corbyn, or to stifle criticism of Israel”. This is likely to have increased now that three pro-Israeli newspapers have warned that a Corbyn-led government would pose “an existential threat to Jewish life” in the UK.
Clearly the overwhelming majority of members would welcome an investigation into any attempts by the Israeli government, or any other foreign power, to determine who represents their party and therefore what their party’s policies are. Labour Party members and the public at large have a right to know.
We ask that you pursue this matter by urging the government to investigate what seems strongly to indicate Israeli interference with the Parliamentary process in the UK, and that you initiate an investigation to determine whether and if so how much the Israeli government, or the government of any other foreign power, is interfering in the Labour Party.
We look forward to hearing from you.
In solidarity,
__
I have deleted the para breaks for brevity. There are also hyperlinks within. Too many to include here.
@ Sharp Ears August 14, 2018 at 17:50
Also sign the Petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/216561
Done, and forwarded to friends.
Sharp Ears, do you have a link for that please?
It’s important to link good stuff; for readers, obviously, but it also drives the linked article upwards in search engine results.
Why is Corbyn so weak against this apartheid regime in Israel?
‘Wreaths for terrorists’: Netanyahu & Corbyn face off over ‘anti-Semitism’ as Twitter erupts
https://www.rt.com/news/435951-corbyn-netanyahu-antisemitism-faceoff/
Call him out for what he is, a freaking racist!
As it turns out, none of the Munich attackers were buried in Tunis. They were all buried in Libya. Morons at the Mail!
@ J August 14, 2018 at 20:47
The Evening Standard also went for the fake story. So maybe the Mail and Standard made a mistake, but War Criminal Netz has no such excuse – if he wasn’t aware of the facts himself, the Mossad would soon have set him right:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/pictures-show-jeremy-corbyn-holding-wreath-and-praying-near-graves-of-palestinian-terrorists-linked-a3910921.html
‘…Pictures have emerged of Jeremy Corbyn with a wreath and holding his hands out in prayer near the graves of Palestinian terrorists linked to the Munich Olympics massacre.
The Labour leader has clashed with the Israeli Prime Minister over the photographs, which were taken at a Palestinian martyrs’ cemetery in Tunisia in 2014.
Mr Corbyn has admitted he was present when a wreath was laid but said it was for “some of those killed in Paris in 1992”. He added: “I don’t think I was actually involved in it.”
The photos show him at the cemetery where members of Black September, the terror group which massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, are buried….’
‘..Israel’s right wing leader Benjamin Netanyahu has said Mr Corbyn deserves “unequivocal condemnation” after the emergence of the pictures.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone – left, right and everything in between.”..’
Here, Netz gets his knickers in a twist in a nonsensical form of words:
https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2018/08/14/corbyn-says-he-did-lay-a-wreath-at-palestinian-martyrs-cemetery/?guccounter=1
‘Benjamin Netanyahu
✔
@netanyahu
The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre and his comparison of Israel to the Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone – left, right and everything in between’
‘…on the graves of the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre..’ – so
A) How many ‘graves’ does one guy have?
B) ‘..the terrorist who perpetrated the Munich massacre..’ – so now he seems to be saying only one terrorist committed the Munich Massacre?
C) All the terrorists involved in the Munich massacre were buried in Algiers, not Tunis.
@ Jack August 14, 2018 at 18:48
Why call him out? Everyone knows Netz is a racist, and a War Criminal to boot.
Don’t seem to have harmed him much.
He defeated the Bush/Clinton/Obama mob, and got his own bloke in the White House.
A bit circumscribed, but still.
He’s friends with Putin, and your more nationalist European states in the east. And China.
Tech and Cyber business is booming.
That’s an Israeli shift away from financial Globalism and towards more economic nationalist policies.
And that seems to be the way it’s going globally.
Looks like another “Allahu Akbar” vehicular jihad attack in Londonistan. There are 26,000 known jihadists in the UK. This was one of the many thousands more who aren’t on the radar.
Who was in the vehicle following him, then? Father Christmas?
@ N_ August 14, 2018 at 19:18
What info do you have about a car following him? That could be important. The idea did cross my mind that his car could have been remotely taken over like Michael Hastings and Danny Jawenko, among many others.
I’m not suggesting it happened like that, but if there was a suspicious car following him, it could be remote takeover.
If he was a genuine terrorist, he was certainly an inept one.
Then he’s probably from Yemen?
Wonder what got into him.
If so, Could be any one of about seven countries. Blown to to bits.
I consider Yemen a bit like the end of Vietnam, where they are just using up the bombs on people who don’t matter. Can’t have overproduction.
All killing is wrong, but makes some types of terrorism seem almost honourable. “We” just do it for money, keep the gravy train going.
It really sums up this blog. One respondent goes for false flag, the other with a lame attempt to make it our fault. Both are in denial and neither can accept reality.
Go walk your dog.
The terrorist is suspected to be from Sudan.
And what is your preferred solution, Anon1?
Sorry, off topic but im just gonna post this here…
https://southfront.org/salisbury-nerve-agent-attack-reveals-70-million-pentagon-program-porton/
Salisbury Nerve Agent Attack Reveals $70 Million Pentagon Program At Porton Down..
The Pentagon has spent at least $70 million on military experiments involving tests with deadly viruses and chemical agents at Porton Down – the UK military laboratory near the city of Salisbury. The secretive biological and chemical research facility is located just 13 km from where on 4th March former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench following an alleged Novichok nerve agent poisoning..
Those who collect stories about “groups of unidentified masked men” will wish to pay attention to last night’s coordinated arson attacks in Sweden. Most of the work was done in Gothenburg; some was carried out in cities up to 60 miles away, which isn’t far in such a huge country. A small amount of the arson happened in Stockholm.
The prime minister said it looked “almost like a military operation”. Which I suspect was exactly the aim. Buzzphrases uttered by prime ministers are very much inscribed within the sets of events.
The BBC is linking the arson to (can you guess?) a “debate over immigration”.
Expect more, and not just in Sweden.
Sweden has a general election on 9 September. The far-right Sweden Democrats are likely to become the first party in the legislature. They are currently the third, and they got their first seats in 2010. Last month they joined the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the EU parliament, which their pals the British Tories also belong to.
An updated “strategy of tension” for the
clutching your mobile phone while your head’s up your arse because Fa卐ebook told you tocurrent epoch?Like Paris in 2005? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_French_riots
nothing to see, keep (sleep)walking.
Those damn Zionists !@#$!@
This latest London “attack” is a very timely diverson away from Boris Johnson. Johnson who won’t apologise for his crude remarks is possibly set for diversity training, (a convenient get out of jail card used by many) according to the press.
Has anybody ever suggested that it might just be Muslims who need the diversity training?
nobody that daft – are you volunteering?
Anon1. What does religious beliefs have to do with anything?
When we bomb a country why are the quiet christian prayers of 100s of thousand of solders not bought into it?
Over and again you demonstrate your agenda. I don’t believe you are that dumb at all. And if I ran this blog your toxic focus would be cleansed.
He’s just the local hasbara chargé d’affaires.
Twit. Muslims are incredibly diverse. If they all matched the caricature you paint of them everyone else would have been murdered centuries ago.
Murdering everyone else is a bit of a tall order.
There are a lot of Hindus for example – but a lot less than there would have been had it not been for the attention they received from Muslims.
Do you ever wonder what may have happened to zoroastrians? Ever wondered how Coptic Christians are making out? Ever wondered why Sudan split itself into 2 countries?
Did you know that in 1910 in the area that is now Lebanon some 77.5% of the population was Christian. Today only about 34% of the population of Lebanon is Christian. I wonder why. Whatever happened to Armenians?
Strangely for a blog allegedly interested in human rights no one seems that bothered that China is alleged to be holding up to 1 million people in a massive internment camp
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-10/china-holding-1-million-ethnic-uighurs-massive-internment-camps-shocking-un-report
Are the Chinese just evil and devoid of reason much like Hitler and Trump, or are they trying to protect themselves from something.
Finally all good liberals will recall the days when they eulogized Aung San Suu Kyi – that was in the days before she too turned into a racist and a female Asian version of Hitler and Trump. What could possibly have caused the saintly Aung San Suu Kyi to abandon all that is good and holy and pure and to choose the way of evil?
All good questions. The ignorance btl here is something to be seen. No wonder Murray doesn’t go beyond half a page of rubbish.
+1 for lateral thinking and pragmatic at the same time.
The ‘Life in the UK’ test required to be taken by all immigrants as a condition of permanent residence needs a significant overhaul.
And why is it that Hindus and Sikhs very very rarely come up on the radar for trouble-making?
And why is it that Hindus and Sikhs very very rarely come up on the radar for trouble-making?
Because our Government and its masters are in a never-ending war against Muslim nations in the middle east.
Can you blame them?
You would benefit from a course in comparative religions. The UK is the crucible where Pakistanis are tested vs the Indians. Then you shall/should know who are the haramis.
That would clearly be the answer. Take Afghanistan as proof of your theory.
Buddhism established itself in Afghanistan in 305 BC – and thrived for many hundreds of years. Buddhism started to fade with the arrival of Islam in the 7th Century and by the 11th Century was effectively wiped out.
It is hard to see what any of this had to do with the British – or maybe you think Native Americans were pulling all the strings in the 7th -11th Century Afghanistan
Take modern day Thailand – a country that was never colonized and is 93% Buddhist. And what do they have for entertainment? Why a Muslim insurgency which has been going on since 1948 and which intensified in years following 2001. What exactly has this got to do with the British?
.
Loony
As usual Loony produces fake facts by using using tendentious sources. Buddhism was not introduced into Afghanistan in 305BC. It is more like 150 AD as a minority religion. Loony’s argument is like: the first Buddhist went to America in the 19th century (let’s say for sake of argument), therefore America has been a fully Buddhist country since the 19th century. And that’s for 150AD. 305BC is when the Greeks, not the Buddhist, set up a kingdom in Afghanistan. Two centuries later the Greeks in today’s Pakistan (i.e. somewhere else), came in contact with Buddhists, and several centuries even later (AD) created Gandharan Art in which the Buddha is represented in a quasi-Greek style. All of which nonsense is regarded by Loony as undeniable ineffable proof that Muslims are evil and destroyed the perfection of a millennial Buddhist culture – in which in fact only existed for a few hundred years, and may not even have been the majority religion in Afghanistan in that time.
Anon1
Everyone needs diversity training.
Potentially timely for a number of things.
Anything but Borris, Yemen, Israel etc
Notice how all the midea focus was the accusations against the none terrorist leader. But the counter accusations? Factual & aimed at a known terrorist leader running an apartheid state?
Zero.
RoS
Hubris Johnson set up Skripalgate to divert from Brexit, and pillarboxgate to divert from Corbyn is an anti=semite campaign, both of which Tory strategies are not going according to plan. The Tory plan to colonise the Middle East using barbarian islamists has completely failed and the Tory plan to profiteer from cheap products from abroad behind the back of the EU has also completely failed. You can only fool some of the people some of the time.
As Craig has already shown, the anti-Semite wonk is defeatable, if expensive. The greedy toffs who run us wasted zero seconds when the Pound lost value and instantly profiteered by increased sales. They are ready and primed to profiteer from hard Brexit and No Deal, calling sensible compromise “a turd “.
I know it’s hard but one must think like a shitty Tory to understand a shitty Tory. Insulting the opposition and insulting the electorate are normal aspects of Tory Shiteology, a subject in which Hubris Johnson is Professor Enemitus at Oxford.
I saw Theresa May laying a wreath for Bomber Harris/Korea/Suez/Kenya et al – good job that Dresden civilians got wiped out otherwise their would be complaints. Is it the uniform that distinguishes terrorist from heroes?
“Is it the uniform that distinguishes terrorist from heroes?”
Then again maybe not, the phrase Dress to Kill, first appeared in the US Cambridge Tribune. An army recruit respendent in his shiny new uniform was asked how he felt, the flourishing soldier simply replied, I am dressed to kill.
this site has become a parody of itself
Turns out the Munich attackers are all buried in Libya. Hilarious.
It’s all kicking off and the Silly Season isn’t even over yet.
“Jeremy Corbyn has been reported to Parliament’s sleaze watchdog, accused of failing to declare his controversial wreath-laying trip to Tunisia or reveal who paid for it.”
“Tory MP Andrew Bridgen has written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, alleging “a serious breach” of Commons rules and demanding an investigation.”
Like a hungry cur with a juicy bone, this one won’t be let go of anytime soon.
https://news.sky.com/story/tory-mp-demands-sleaze-probe-into-jeremy-corbyns-wreath-trip-11472759
Presumably unlike Priti P whose jaunt in the occupied Golan was paid for by the British taxpayers. Or was it?
The internet has made us more cynical. Jeremy Corbyn twigged that the Irish and the Palestinians were victims of ethnic cleansing , but failed to assert clearly who he thought the main perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing might be, in the case of Ireland, the British, and in the case of Palestine, Israel.
Since the wording of the internationally accepted IHRA definition of anti-Semitism prevents one from asserting that Israel do ethnic cleansing, and the British establishment have NEVER done proxy anything, EVER, it’s pretty impossible to legally state what one’s truth might be. You will find the truth somewhere over there.
I don’t think it was. She was on holiday remember? Even if she was having meetings (12 I believe) with a foreign power without the knowledge or authorisation of the UK government!
Jo1
You have a less cynical of Mrs May than me. IMHO Mrs May gave her Foreign Aid secretary to try to channel the aid to Al Qaida discreetly. But when it became public she washed her hands of it immediately. If the Tory business community had not threatened to jack in the party after WTO tarriffs there would have been no soft Brexit. The Tory party works like a septic tank; the crust on the top floats on the piss which drains into the land while the crud is consumed by bacteria like a good cheese. Oh dear, I’m making it all sound much too healthy and clean.
Giyane
I have little time for May but confess that I find Priti Patel utterly insufferable.
That said, your own take on events explains why she got off so lightly.
Does one go on a holiday when one is a cabinet minister of a country to an area illegally occupied by another under recognised international law, on ones own expense? Do try another one.
You misunderstand SA. I am not making excuses for Patel, far from it! In my view her conduct was treacherous!
She was, it was claimed, holidaying in Israel with family. That was her story. I only mentioned that in response to your question about the UK taxpayer funding the trip.
A question i posted at the time on my erstwhile Groaniad commens life.
Why wasn’t she asked to produce her payment record for her holiday? The Groan didn’t even consider trying a cod fax.
Ho hum. Let us REJOICE though at the first rains to end the drought of the silly season. The Artiste is back
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2018/aug/14/steve-bell-on-jeremy-corbyn-row-with-benjamin-netanyahu-cartoon
The first thing that occurred to me with regards to the current ferocious politicial and media attacks on Jeremy Corbyn, was – were there any terrorists involved in the Munich Massacre of 1972 buried in the cemetery that Corbyn was visiting?
I am not 100% sure of the answer, but am fairly convinced the answer is no. It can’t be that hard to find out for certain.
Surely this would be a powerful defence, that Corbyn in visiting Tunisia was completely innocent of what he has been blatantly accused of.
How could he be honouring Munich Terrorists with a wreath, if there are no Munich Terrorists buried there?
He and the Labour Party should be far more proactive in his defence.
Tony
From Wikipedia on the subject of the hostage takers shot by German police
“The bodies of Afif and his four compatriots were turned over to Libya, and after a procession from Tripoli’s Martyrs’ Square, were buried in the Sidi Munaidess Cemetery.[16]”
The media have been careful in their words, which have been conveniently misquoted by politicians and lazy journos.
There are former leaders of a group, said to be associated with the Munich attacks, buried in the cemetery. There are no graves of any terrorist who took part in the Munich attacks, simply former leaders of a group ‘said to be associated’… said by whom is never clarified. It’s all very vague, light on facts, heavy on innuendo, i.e. par for the course when the corporate media, colluding with corporate gangster politicians, attempt to undermine democracy by defaming, denigrating and smearing political opposition.
The public should see this recent anti-Corbyn hysteria for what it is – blind panic at an opinion poll putting Labour 5% ahead of the Corporate Gangster Party. That is literally all there is to it; they are scrapping the bottom of the barrel, dredging up old news which has been previously reported years ago, and repackaging it as anti-Semitism. It’s simply pathetic.
Corbyn could have ended it been honest about what he was up to.
I laid a wreath commemorating x,y, and z. I did it because I admired his work.
He should also have clarified if he paid all his own expenses, or should have declared it.
Instead it is his usual shifty half truths about flashing his ankles to every passing Marxist psychopath, so long as they had anti-Western intent.
What do you think he was “up to”? Where has Corbyn been dishonest?
If you read the media articles they are using loaded language and fact-less innuendo. This is then twisted by the likes of Netanyahu into ‘laying wreaths on the graves of the Munich terrorists.’, which is factually not true. Corbyn has made it clear that he laid a wreath in remembrance for the victims of an air-strike in Tunisia, not to celebrate the murder of Israeli athletes, something which I am sure Corbyn totally opposes.
So the attacker is suspected to be from Sudan. Meanwhile, Lille accepts 42 Sudanese migrants trafficked by the MV Aquarius. Wise up, people.
All male, of course.
Indeed, though Israel, isn’t too fond of taking dark skinned folk either, even when they’re J**ish.
Strange don’t you think for a so called democray?
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-they-didn-t-want-ethiopian-jews-in-israel-either-1.5785804
Initially the MSM said he was “known to police”. I notice this morning the papers report “he was not known to MI5 or the security services”.
It gets worse. He’s a “British citizen”. How is it professionals from Asia have to jump through hoops just to work here but any chancer on the back of a lorry gets a passport and money for life?
The normal mode of transport used to be under the belly of the lorry, but then they put fibreglass hats on the cabs to decrease air-drag. Inside the lorry is also perfectly normal. No wonder you are not finding them if you don’t know where to look. Or maybe the English have discovered bribery in the 21st century AD. After all the domine in question was born a very long time ago …
The irony of it is they are running away from Islamic countries steeped in violence and then have their gripes about British society, after they have been given a home here.
The irony of it is they are running away from Islamic countries steeped in violence created by members of parliament voting for illegal neo-colonial war, a problem which getting here didn’t cure.
@Giyane
Yes, quite.
Haha, I knew that was coming, but put that aside yes with some empathy, many if not most are from countries that have nothing to do with post 9/11 countries.
@ Observer August 14, 2018 at 23:00
‘…post 9/11 countries..’ means more than just Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria; there are the direct links (from Wesley Clark’s testimony that he was told in 2001 that the US was going to overthrow 7 governments in 5 years – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran’) but also other attacks, coup attempts and drone strikes, all done under the ‘umbrella’ of 9/11: Venezuela, Yemen, Pakistan, various African countries where US forces have been operating and causing mayhem with their terrorist proxies.
Also, though you probably won’t accept it, through weather warfare, floods and droughts.
Imperialist/capitalist war.
So your statement is based on what exactly? Here are some statistics. The most violent part of the world appears to be catholic South America.
https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp
Allow me to put your statement in more accurate terms: “The most violent part of the world appears to be communist Venezuela”
…and oh look coming in at 4th place is communist South Africa. Europe is represented by fascist Ukraine and wanna be communist Sweden.
Odd that Syria is so low down on the list given the urgent need to resettle Syrian refugees but no need, whether urgent or otherwise, to resettle refugees from PNG.
Venezuela, a country sitting on the biggest oil fields on the planet yet is an utter basket case. Only Marxism can achieve this. I am not a leftie because I don’t believe in social justice but because I do.
Exactly. My comment and yours are all as equally bonkers as those made by observer.
@ Rocky August 14, 2018 at 23:24
And I suppose you think that US sanctions and destabilisation and coup attempts had nothing to do with it?
The US 4th Fleet, mothballed after WWII in 1950, was brought back into service in 2008, to operate in the Sothern Command area ; in 2009 the Colombia and the US signed deal on use of seven bases (Colombia shares a very large border with Venezuela).
The Saudi oil price cut hit Venezuela very hard indeed (as I believe it was intended to, along with Iran and Russia).
But the benefits for the people (housing, education, health, land redistribution – although not enough of it) raised the living standards of the workers and ordinary folk.
At the present time, the US is employing the Chile treatment of ‘making the economy scream’, as Nixon put it, as they are trying to do with Russia, Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
Venezuela is a ‘basket case’ because the US government has been waging economic war, for over a decade, in an effort to get a Washington lackey in place. This has also been backed up with repeated coup attempts by the CIA.
@ SA August 14, 2018 at 22:23
Has it not occurred to you that decades of extremely brutal US-backed or imposed Military Juntas, Death Squads and drug cartels (yes, also US-backed) might have something to do with it?
Anon
To solve some of these mysterious but justified questions I suggest you read Mark Curtis Secret affairs, Britain’s collusion with radical Islam.
HMG first renderedBelHaj to be tortured by the Libyan Government and then later rescued the suicide bomber of the Manchester arena who belonged to the terrorist organisation called the LIFG.
Sorry this sounds a bit illogical and should be …later rescued the Man who was a LIFG terrorist who later became the Manchester arena suicide bomber.
@ SA August 14, 2018 at 23:20
Don’t take the p*ss – the poor critter has a hard time getting through the Beano.
@Anon1 August 14 21:09
No, any ‘chancer coming in on the back of a lorry’ doesn’t ‘get a passport and money for life’ – mostly they get deported. Anyway, all we know is that ‘the suspect’ is a British citizen – nothing about how he acquired citizenship, which isn’t easy to do.
Isn;t Sir Humphrey Appleby still running the country?
Yes he is , but the cuttings taken from Thatcher have all reverted to wild stock. Short-term greed is the order of the day. This week the Tories announced a new plan to end homelessness, without spending any money on homes, or spending any money on people. How? “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”
Perhaps by issuing bottles of novichok. Archaeologists have discovered quite a lot of Victorian skeletons that had simply died from a bash on the head. Conservative means going back to old ideas.
The Tories’ god has always been Thomas Malthus. And he’s about to come home.
I feel like Heinrich Heine for saying that.
What I don’t understand is how Charles Dickens could have been a member of the Athenaeum which was Social Darwinism’s HQ for a while.
Still I’m sure there’s no class bias at the fortnightly multidisciplinary team meetings at NHS hospitals where medics decide who will live and who will die. Right. Right?
If the “central question” could be posed openly in this country, the ruling class wouldn’t last more than a few weeks, if that. But people are so deferential here it’s almost unbelievable.
I’m glad Stokes was acquitted. He had a sombre, humble demeanour outside the courthouse and no fist raising victory gestures. Grace is fast disappearing in this cruel, degenerating world we live in. The gay couple who were at the centre of the night’s events were also very graceful. Heartening.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/gay-couple-thank-ben-stokes-for-sticking-up-for-them-as-he-is-cleared-of-affray-a3911606.html
So you approve of people knocking other people out after verbal intercourse. I never did think sport was a good idea. Grace would have been not to knock somebody out because of something they said, but that’s religious grace, not sporting grace, red in tooth and claw.
Well said. I am still feeling astonished at the verdict when this absolute thug behaved so violently and was actually filmed doing so.
His reaction when cuffed sitting in the car was calculating. He asked the officer whether there are cameras about the place, the response from the police was affirmative. The footage we have seen was from people who were present.
So what happened to all the other footage?
His behaviour would not have been acceptable outside any club. What a dump and what a sob.
Playing in the last test against India? Before the bat strikes buttocks.
and don’t do it again….
Norwich 3 – 1 Stevenage
Quite disgusting to see these venomous personal biases undercut a proper legal trial process. NM if you don’t like the legal processes in the UK, you have an EU passport am sure.
Some people here are armchair keyboard warriors, some are armchair ‘activists’, some now armchair jury and judges. A little knowledge is dangerous. In other words, Ignorance rules.
Media portrayal with a pinch of salt. I trust our fellow citizen jurors. Why complicate it?
He was acquitted on the grounds of being an English cricket player, his behaviour had nothing to do with it. Perfidious Albion
Thought you meant WG Grace , the famous cricketer.
A lot of modern organised sport came out of practices imposed at top English private boarding schools in the 19th century, which explains why so much of it is so bully-gay and at least borderline sicko.
I’m not going to read about this case, but when I heard about the “gay couple” on the radio, whom he claimed he was wading in to “defend against homophobic abuse”, I thought that sounds like a load of old crap. It’s a classic defence: “I stabbed him because he grabbed my child, was abusive towards women, etc. etc.”
Is there a precedent now that it’s justifiable to beat the crap out of people who carry out homophobic abuse, because that’s “self-defence”?
I bet the hack who wrote that last line had a good laugh!
Basically some coked-up celebrity arsehole wearing white leather shoes couldn’t handle himself outside a nightclub when a bouncer didn’t know who he was. Is that it?
Have you ever seen such a meaner looking person? A thug.
So he’s a Kiwi with an anger management problem. £millions from India for hitting a hard ball with a shaped piece of willow. It’s all about the money.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Stokes
Q. If you are born in Christchurch, NZ, how come you can play for England?
Fuelled by an excessive alcohol intake over years. There are several reports like this one going back to 2013 –
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/9882415/England-Lions-pair-Matt-Coles-and-Ben-Stokes-sent-home-from-Australia-tour-for-persistent-late-night-drinking.html
Ben Stokes’ dad was a rugby player who came to England to play professionally in Cumbria when Ben was a young child. Young Stokes was signed by Durham and played county cricket as he qualified by residence. He did well and was selected by England. If you grow up in England you can play for England. If you grow up elsewhere, you have to wait for several years to achieve residency qualification to play for England. In the case of Hick it was 4 years but is much longer now. Eg Archer at Sussex will have to wait several more years.
I find most of the above comments about the trial most hypocritical. It was ridiculous they were charged with affray. The definition of which is the fighting of two or more persons in a public place that disturbs others.
From the footage, other people were not unduly disturbed. The charge should have been being drunk and disorderly.
In the words of Kirsty McColl ‘then there’s always cash’
“Drunk and disorderly”
John A, you aren’t serious!
Did you just close your eyes and look away when the actual footage was shown? He was behaving violently, throwing punches and knocked at least one person out! Also fractured someone’s eye socket! And all while England were involved in a match.
You say , “other people were not unduly disturbed”. Really? So the people he was throwing punches at were fine with that, eh? And you’re clearly fine with England cricket players behaving like that, eh? Wonderful example to youngsters, eh?
You may wish to ignore what this thug did. You may wish to ignore the fact that as well as his criminal behaviour he absolutely brought the game into disrepute. But the fact that you do so exposes you as someone who doesn’t care about conduct when it comes to this guy …because he’s an England player! I wonder if you’d take a similar approach if he’d broken your eye socket.
You find some of these comments “hypocritical” do you? I’ll tell you what’s hypocritical. Those English cricket fans who screamed for lengthy bans in the ball-tampering scandal in Australia….but who are incredibly relaxed about English cricketers marauding around in the early hours knocking people unconscious!
The Stokes trial will go down as one of the most disgraceful legal connivances in recent history. It has to be asked, why did it take from September 2017 until January 2018 for Stokes to face charges? despite the cctv evidence showing him punching two men who were clearly retreating from him. It appears the original charge was going to be assault, somehow, in those 4 months the charge was altered to affray, a little used charge that is difficult for any jury to understand let alone convict on. Did his legal team conspire with the police and CPS to use the charge of affray to make it impossible for the jury to convict him?
@Spencer
A very odd case indeed with one of Stokes’ victims, Ali, also in the dock, also found not guilty and who exchanged handshakes with Stokes and his agent when the verdict was announced! Ali then rushed away not wishing to speak to the press. Hmmm.
Even the Guardian thinks this is OTT.
Steve bell and Owen Jones to the rescue in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2018/aug/14/steve-bell-on-jeremy-corbyn-row-with-benjamin-netanyahu-cartoon
SA
Bell has managed to make Nastyyahoo look human. He is in fact as ugly as his political ideas..
I like the American flag KKKlansman on the left doing a bit of finger pointing.
Bell’s cartoon taken down by the repugnant and owned Guardian after only a few short hours. I wonder who complained….no comment section either, wonder why?
@Alex August 15 11:23
No, Bell’s cartoon is still there, although it’s no longer featured on the homepage – you have to go to the Cartoons link at the very bottom.
Don’t worry, though, the Guardian is still firmly on-message – a long article from Jonathan Freedland:
For Corbyn, precision and honesty are the way out of this wreath mess
https://www.theguardian.com/commentaries/2018/aug 15/jeremy-corbyn-honesty-labour-wreath-mess
Obviously the Destroy Corbyn movement is belatedly realising that the incessant hysterical smears, dredged up from ever further in the past, are seriously backfiring. The strategy now seems to be to try to discredit Corbyn’s honesty and integrity, by claiming that it’s always been known that he supports terrorism (Palestinians, IRA) so he might just as well admit it and stop pretending that he condemns all violence for political ends and that he only wants peace. The Guardian still seems to think that their readers believe everything they read in the paper, and don’t know about anything that they don’t/can’t read in the paper.
Sorry, mistyped that link:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/15/jeremy-corbyn-honesty-labour-wreath-mess
Reply to Jo
The people who were throwing punches at each other were the ones on trial. All for affray. Other people in the videos were clearly not ‘unduly disturbed’. BTW I am not defending/supporting Stokes, he was clearly drunk and disorderly but he was not guilty of affray and the jury quite rightly did not convict him as this was not proven beyond reasonable doubt. That is what trials are for! Absolutely nothing to do with his status/celbrity as a cricketer.
I have no truck with violence, but I also have no truck with hypocrisy.
Plus, cricket is not played that late at night. The match was long over therefore youre claim that England were involved in a cricket match is false.
Then you launch into a ludicrous and unrelated tangent about ball tampering in Australia. You’ve got hypocrisy really bad.
You seem to be like the mad I’m with Her Clinton crowd who cannot accept that Clinton was a terrible candidate and many people felt Trump was the lesser evil.
John A
If I’m working tomorrow I have to look after myself the night before. Before you accuse anyone of lying, in ordinary English usage a cricket match can be said to be on even if it has stopped for the day. But maybe you’re not English?
John A
Oh dear, you’re wrong again. I despise Hillary Clinton. Cannot stand the woman and I’m on record on various threads here that were I American I’d have stayed home and not voted at all. I believe, even on this thread, I’ve said in one post that Clinton was the reason Trump won. The Democrats could not have put up a worse candidate. You really shouldn’t make assumptions about people.
people still ignore that she polled MORE votes than Trump….2 really bad candidates but due to their absurd electoral college system coupled with the first past the post system they now have Republicans dominating all areas of government and Trump as prez….their system needs an overhaul
Grover Furr’s BLOOD LIES Disproves Tim Snyder’s BLOODLANDS’ Accusations Against Stalin and USSR –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxYdGSIP0d0
I reckon it was Bibi driving that car in Westminster today. He was all riled up by his Twitter spat with Corbyn and thought he’d touch the dog’s arse. Planned to torch the fing down Shoreditch, innit?
Naughty boy. Hodge was with him, all glammed up. Quite fetching she was. A real gangster’s moll.
The Blairites and their press handlers will be howling. Bibi’s timing sucks. If it’s him v Corbyn then it’s no contest in the mind of every thinking feeling human being. No wonder the state broadcaster has squashed the story.
lets get this straight. JCs real is his anti imperialism. The “alt right” hate him because they really support it though unfettered capiatlisum, keep the “white race” on top, neo liberals hate him because they are also essentially imperialist and capitalist, So are the “centrists”.
Guardian writers support it e.g.. if “we” are gong to bomb NK with something “let it be capitalism”.
He is just a traditional left of centre politician, entirely unremarkable otherwise. But they are all so far to the right. Hell, 90% of self identifying “socialist” & “leftists” hate him. Why? Because they have gone off the cliff. They don’t even know what it is anymore beyond some fucking nice sentiment. like O’brian. Buy some homeless guy some shoes. Don’t change anything.
They are all for the status quo because it benefits them. Imagine you can change without really changing anything. That’s not how it works, half measure will change squat.
JC’s Real* issue is his anti-
And all the shit we are seeing is a direct result of what? Muslims?…Communism? …Ha, a word so twisted as to be almost unrecognisable.
No. It’s the same ubiquitous shit imperialists have be doing for centuries.
Them, it’s always “them”. No its fucking you.
The alt-right need an enemy, at this stage of what are they doing.
I’m wondering how they will run the campaign in Sweden. Last night’s arson attacks smell of a strategy of tension, except the left is pretty much nowhere.
Meanwhile in Britain, it’s going to be difficult for Jeremy Corbyn to say much about the Westminster attack, given BBC hostility – even with Theresa May out of the country for three weeks.
An interesting article, even if a little out of date. Randy Credico, apparently a pal of Assange will be having lunch with Mueller in less than a months time.
Assange may have meetings, so might our host. Watch this space.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/former-british-ambassador-weigs-assange-russia-israel/237050/
Imperialist JK Rowling, why should I be any less upset at her than the few spreading toxic stuff on this blog I wonder.
Same team.
Land of the free! Want to make a fortune? Invest in private jails:
‘Why It’s a Crime to Be Poor in America’:
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/its-a-crime-to-be-poor-in-america-bail-reform/?utm_source=Iterable&
‘..Take Reynaldo, for example, who could not afford his $1,000 bail that the judge set. As Reynaldo himself expresses it in Vera Institute’s “Bail Stories” series, “I had a high bail and my family was impoverished, so I was unable to pay my bail. A $1,000 bail can ultimately feed a family of three or four for two months. So these are people who are already going to be under the poverty line, and ultimately you’re going to take the time rather than your family going hungry.”
So that is precisely what he did. Reynaldo, before being convicted of anything, spent six months in jail on Rikers Island in New York instead of paying the $1,000 bail. Whereas movie producer Harvey Weinstein, charged with first-degree rape, was able to meet his $1 million bail and stay at home, preparing for his trial….’
‘…in any given year in America, nearly 12 million people will spend some time in city and county jails, not convicted of anything, just waiting to go to court. And 90% of the people in pretrial jail are there because they are unable to afford bail.
So, what happens if you can’t make bail? You basically have one of three terrible options to choose from.
Option 1: You plead guilty to the crime, even if you didn’t do it, rather than await trial. And because the vast majority of people are charged with low-level, nonviolent crimes that would not even receive a custodial sentence, for many that means they go home that day. When you hear what options two or three are, you will understand why more than 90% of people end up pleading guilty if they can’t afford bail and suffering all of the debilitating consequences of a criminal record.
Option 2: You plead your innocence and sit in jail. That’s right, if you plead guilty, you go home; if you maintain your innocence, you must go to jail, for as long as it takes for your case to come to court, which in some instances can take years. Yet even if it is only much shorter than that, the consequences are far reaching. As attorney Josh Saunders from Brooklyn Defender Services, which provides legal representation to people who cannot afford to retain an attorney, explained on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonightepisode on bail, “Our clients work in jobs where if you’re absent, you’re fired. Our clients live in shelters or in transitional housing places, where if you’re not there for the night, you’re gone. So there’s a lot of different ways in which incarceration, even for a short period of time, can really destroy a person’s life.”
But the damage extends beyond simply the person who is being detained. It is families, and generally women, who bear the brunt of the issue. The costs related with detention, from visitation to court fees, often amount to one year’s total household income for a family and can force a family into debt. And, after all that, you are much less likely to win your case anyway, faced with the struggle of putting your case together from inside prison walls. One study suggests that those people are “over three times more likely to be sentenced to prison” and “over four times more likely to be sentenced to jail” than those who are not detained pretrial.
So that leaves you with option 3: Going to a commercial bail bondsman. To gather together the money for release, many people and their families are forced into exploitative arrangements with bail bond corporations that charge a nonrefundable fee of 10% of the full bail amount. Indeed, for those who do manage to put up the money for their bail, a majority sought the services of a bail bondsman. In New Orleans, for example, according to a report last year, 97% of people arrested on a felony charge who were able to pay bail purchased a commercial bail bond. Many are then trapped in a cycle of debt and fees, and even people who are proven innocent never get their money back….’
Not for nothing did Ayatollah Ali Khamenei call the United States the ‘Great Satan’.
If they can get away with accusing a country like Russia of things, show no evidence, and then enforce draconian sanctions not only by America, but by other countries, how much more vulnerable to miscarriage of justice, or even straightforward framing, is Joe Bloggs?
Or summary execution, if you happen to be Black or Hispanic?
Yep, ‘Land of the free’, if you’re a Bankster or a billionaire.
America, land of the sold, home of the gulags.
I used to dream of going to the USA. Not any more, i now view it as a cesspit of capitalism, paranoia and war, much like the Uk.
Yea, We are the bad guys, …Really sucks.
yup, you’re free to do anything you can afford – yahoo!
We all know the extent to which Bhs Green went in his failed bid to nab the M&S pension pot but this is even more atrocious. Any sanhedrin and his dog wants to nail Jesus Corbyn to the cross, all the pollards are queing to throw a stone at the devil who laid a wreath in Libya, sorry Tunisia. Even wellcrypto Wellby may be expected to out soon. And the question really is, just what is the nature and size of the pension pot they are after?
Even the Torygraph raise the question.
Mystery over white van in the Westminster ‘terror attack’: was the suspect being followed?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/14/mystery-white-van-westminster-terror-attack-suspect-followed/
Does anyone else?
Maybe they are taking a leaf from America, keep em guessing. Fear & control.
I don’t know many contemplating such things who do anything but waste their life away. Unless they have specific insider knowledge to add (like Craig for instance) or a whistleblower with evidence it’s just as likely to be a red herring absorbing attention, Now that is something I do believe dark state forces often propagate. Misdirection.
If I was part of capitalists imperialists security services the first thing I’d do is set up a Corbett site. And put operatives on blogs just bombarding people with shit. Which (not yourself) I worry about some doing on this blog. But maybe they just have that mindset.
The live footage on yesterday’s BBC Lunchtime News clearly showed a Police Van at the scene bearing a Birmingham registration plate, that is, a plate with an initial letter B. One would usually expect Police vehicles used by London based forces to be London registered and have an initial letter L. Whilst not conclusive of anything, it could suggest that this man had indeed been followed all the way from his starting point to the actual scene of the crime. Just to add, it is common practise for Police forces in the UK to use vehicles that are locally registered to their areas of operation. For example the Scottish Police will drive S plates, Heddlu (Welsh Police) C plates, etc etc.
@ Pyewacket August 15, 2018 at 10:15
Well spotted! Someone else on here posted about a car following him – but no other info.
@ Pyewacket August 15, 2018 at 10:15
Actually, on reflection, if the TV coverage was live, at midday, a Birmingham police van would have had plenty of time to have got there after the event had occurred; anyone know if the Birmingham van was there at or soon after the event?
Not necessarily, a quick image search produces a lot of images of Metropolitan Police vehicles bearing B, particularly BX, plates issued in Birmingham such as this van:-
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WCgQ-zlBdU8/maxresdefault.jpg
The Met purchase a lot of their vehicles from Babcock Vehicle Engineering who are based in the West Midlands. It looks as though Babcock are registering the vehicles locally before delivery.
Another lonesome young man from the inner city, radicalised on-line (most likely) and given a purpose (perverted) to their otherwise humdrum life.
Note; no weapons were found in the car. The IRA protocol was to deny the authority of the court and claim combatant status, these homegrown jihadis invariably plead guilty. It’s as if they want to join their fellow BIG BRAVE WARRIORS in the high security wing. The ridiculous thing is that it matters not a jot how inept their act of jihad is, it’s the thought that counts apparently.
Some of them immediately reoffend on release (presumably knowing that they are under surveillance). Must like prison food?
@ Sharp Ears August 15, 2018 at 06:56
The police could very easily have identified the white van by checking cameras along Whitehall or wherever it entered Parliament Square from. If it had no number plates, that would immediately make it a priority to trace the white van (unless, of course, they knew darn well who was in it and what it was doing.
They should clearly try to identify the van, as it was driven in a dangerous manner and also drove up a one-way street and across part of a pedestrian island.
It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the white van took over the controls of the Fiesta remotely.
That could be why the Fiesta turned towards the Victoria exit, or to go round square again, then drove the wrong way into a one-way road and went over a pedestrian island. If the driver of the Fiesta wanted to do what he did, why on earth do that? It would have been so much simpler to just bear left instead of right on leaving the square.
One of these days there will be a REAL terrorist attack; there are so many juicy targets around the country, that would cause real heavy-weight damage, and pose very little risk of being caught.
Though I don’t believe we have seen ‘blowback’ yet, it is certainly a very real threat, next time perhaps not choreographed by MI5 or whoever.
If it had no number plates, it could have belonged to the queen. That’s something else she is exempt from.
Can’t quite imagine Brenda having a secret second life as a WVW.
Broaden your mind, then.
Alan Mendoza. On Sky News just now talking about terrorism and likely targets. He is a frequent visitor to the Sky studio in W London
See Affiliations!
http://powerbase.info/index.php/Alan_Mendoza
He would surely know.
Small time terrorists have nothing on people like this.
I post WAY to much here.
Brave New World vs Nineteen Eighty-Four https://youtu.be/31CcclqEiZw
I: “I post WAY to much here. ”
I find that hard to argue with. About half the posts here come from you these days.
Do check this out on Cemetery Gate – and apologies for haste!
https://www.academia.edu/37238622/They_came_back
Thanks for pointing out some of the weakness in the Daily Fail case, and the origin of the story.