On 8 July 2018 a lady named Kirsty Eccles asked what, in its enormous ramifications, historians may one day see as the most important Freedom of Information request ever made. The rest of this post requires extremely close and careful reading, and some thought, for you to understand that claim.
Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,
1: Why did BBC Newsnight correspondent Mark Urban keep secret from the licence payers that he had been having meetings with Sergei Skripal only last summer.
2: When did the BBC know this?
3: Please provide me with copies of all correspondence between yourselves and Mark Urban on the subject of Sergei Skripal.
Yours faithfully,
Kirsty Eccles
The ramifications of this little request are enormous as they cut right to the heart of the ramping up of the new Cold War, of the BBC’s propaganda collusion with the security services to that end, and of the concoction of fraudulent evidence in the Steele “dirty dossier”. This also of course casts a strong light on more plausible motives for an attack on the Skripals.
Which is why the BBC point blank refused to answer Kirsty’s request, stating that it was subject to the Freedom of Information exemption for “Journalism”.
10th July 2018
Dear Ms Eccles
Freedom of Information request – RFI20181319
Thank you for your request to the BBC of 8th July 2018, seeking the following information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000:
1: Why did BBC Newsnight correspondent Mark Urban keep secret from the licence payers that he
had been having meetings with Sergei Skripal only last summer.
2: When did the BBC know this?
3: Please provide me with copies of all correspondence between yourselves and Mark Urban on the
subject of Sergei Skripal.
The information you have requested is excluded from the Act because it is held for the purposes of
‘journalism, art or literature.’ The BBC is therefore not obliged to provide this information to you. Part VI
of Schedule 1 to FOIA provides that information held by the BBC and the other public service broadcasters
is only covered by the Act if it is held for ‘purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature”. The
BBC is not required to supply information held for the purposes of creating the BBC’s output or
information that supports and is closely associated with these creative activities.
The BBC is of course being entirely tendentious here – “journalism” does not include the deliberate suppression of vital information from the public, particularly in order to facilitate the propagation of fake news on behalf of the security services. That black propaganda is precisely what the BBC is knowingly engaged in, and here trying hard to hide.
I have today attempted to contact Mark Urban at Newsnight by phone, with no success, and sent him this email:
Dear Mark,
As you may know, I am a journalist working in alternative media, a member of the NUJ, as well as a former British Ambassador. I am researching the Skripal case.
I wish to ask you the following questions.
1) When the Skripals were first poisoned, it was the largest news story in the entire World and you were uniquely positioned having held several meetings with Sergei Skripal the previous year. Yet faced with what should have been a massive career break, you withheld that unique information on a major story from the public for four months. Why?
2) You were an officer in the Royal Tank Regiment together with Skripal’s MI6 handler, Pablo Miller, who also lived in Salisbury. Have you maintained friendship with Miller over the years and how often do you communicate?
3) When you met Skripal in Salisbury, was Miller present all or part of the time, or did you meet Miller separately?
4) Was the BBC aware of your meetings with Miller and/or Skripal at the time?
5) When, four months later, you told the world about your meetings with Skripal after the Rowley/Sturgess incident, you said you had met him to research a book. Yet the only forthcoming book by you advertised is on the Skripal attack. What was the subject of your discussions with Skripal?
6) Pablo Miller worked for Orbis Intelligence. Do you know if Miller contributed to the Christopher Steele dossier on Trump/Russia?
7) Did you discuss the Trump dossier with Skripal and/or Miller?
8) Do you know whether Skripal contributed to the Trump dossier?
9) In your Newsnight piece following the Rowley/Sturgess incident, you stated that security service sources had told you that Yulia Skripal’s telephone may have been bugged. Since January 2017, how many security service briefings or discussions have you had on any of the matter above.I look forward to hearing from you.
Craig Murray
I should very much welcome others also sending emails to Mark Urban to emphasise the public demand for an answer from the BBC to these vital questions. If you have time, write your own email, or if not copy and paste from mine.
To quote that great Scot John Paul Jones, “We have not yet begun to fight”.
Wow! The dots are beginning to join up
presumably because it is clear that this information is not being used for ‘journalism, art or literature.’ (given that they are keeping it secret), it is therefore not covered by the exemption?!
I have emailed my ‘grave concern’ to Mark Urban today quoting your email.
You know you’re wasting your time don’t you Mr. Murray?
Urban will ignore your email and then accuse you of encouraging your extremist followers to abuse and intimidate him. No doubt he’ll get one of his presstitute mates to write a smear article full of the usual non-actionable innuendo. You know the sort of stuff: left the diplomatic service under a cloud, wife with a colourful background, history of mental illness, website chock full of laughable conspiracy theories, anti-semitism (that’s always a good one for silencing criticism), lefty, failed politician. Then edits to your Wikipedia entry with a link to this trusted source.
inuendo you missed out ‘…. has been drinking’
Quite correct. People like Urban and the BBC in general must get inundated with FOI requests and e-mails generally including a large volume from looney conspiracists. The tendency will be to try and brush off or ignore the lot if only because of the amount of time wasted writing replies.
Kirtsy Eccles seems to have form here having submitted 62 FOI requests on a number of subjects in the past year or so.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/user/kirsty_eccles?page=1
Which in even a half- democracy she is entitled to do. In the same way that those with more than half a dozen brain cells are fully entitled to reject the Enid Blyton bullcrap emanating from Propaganda puppeteers.
True but some might think she’s taking the wotsit. For example it wasn’t necessary to submit an FOI request to HMRC to discover the legal basis for Income Tax especially as the question has been asked at least once before.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/is_income_tax_legal
I remember the excellent ‘Media Lens’ team have complained about Mark Urban in the past with his blatant Western bias. For example, like the other overpaid political analysts and presenters on the BBC, he doesn’t question the stated but transparently dishonest premise of the West – that they are intervening in other nations on a humanitarian basis. Like the other wastes of space in the mainstream media, he is also quick to mention civilian deaths by the Russians but not so quick to mention those killed by the West.
As I recall, Urban completely failed to reply to or to address the concerns of Media Lens in a reasonable way.
Garth
“I remember the excellent ‘Media Lens’ team have complained about Mark Urban in the past with his blatant Western bias.”
Mark Urban is from a Western country and the broadcaster he works for is in a Western country. Why are you so surprised that both he and the organisation he works for have a “Western bias”? Is that so abnormal? Would you expect him to have a pro-Chinese or a pro-Russian or, for that matter, a pro-Brazilian bias and would you be happy if he had? Would you expect a journalist who works for RT to have an anti-Russian, pro-Western bias?
A truth bias would be best!
Soothmoother
I was expecting that answer of course. And you are right. The problem is : what is the truth? Everyone thinks that he has the truth.
Given that all of us have what are probably inbuilt and unconscious biases, it is hardly surprising that most people in the West have a “Western bias”; how should this not be the case? I for my part would be neither surprised not shocked to learn that most Russians have a “Russian bias” (just as an example),
Charles
Until about a year ago several commentators on this blog accused Craig, on the basis in part of the apparently happy times he spent in Warsaw for the FO, of having Russophobe tendencies.
Given his terrier like tenacity in criticising the official line on the Skripal case, as encapsulated in his excellent research on the Mark Urban link, and the blistering email to Mr Urban that is reproduced here, I think those commentators must now own up to being seriously mistaken.
Good Luck Craig- I hope, but rather doubt,that your email elicits a full reply from the addressee.
“Would you expect a journalist who works for RT to have an anti-Russian, pro-Western bias?”
:-)) many. very many – https://echo.msk.ru/ http://www.ng.ru/ https://tvrain.ru/
p.s Sorry my bad english
@ Kempe August 28, 2018 at 14:18
And just which of these 62 FOI requests do you find ill-founded?
Could it not be that governments and other parties are far too keen on keeping potentially compromising info secret, thus the high number of legitimate (till proven otherwise) requests? And the fact that a FOI request is denied, does not imply it was an illegitimate request.
The problem with this scenario is that it’s starting to look ineffective. Jeremy Corbyn is still there and the pro Israelis have had an unprecedented amount of media coverage to convince the population that he’s on a par with Goebbels. I suspect having already suffered the vilification he received in his ambassador days, he is in a much better position to endure another campaign. There is also the (not so) small matter of a very loyal and supportive blog readership which is always willing to help him in his hour of need. Craig Murray isn’t the sitting duck you would like him to think he is.
That brought back a lesson in English from way back. Miss Dorothy Rowe wore her cap and gown and was extremely severe. An English scholar.
Disinterested – not motivated by self interest.
Uninterested – having no feeling or interest in something
Crikey. It’s a small world. I found Oliver Kamm’s mother, the author Anthea Bell, reminiscing about Dorothy Rowe.
https://vimeo.com/107024493
PS I am much younger than Mrs Bell! Martin Bell, the man in the white suit (how affected was that?) is her brother.
@ Sharp Ears August 28, 2018 at 15:01
Martin Bell, the forerunner of the ‘White Helmets’?
“Urban will ignore your email and then accuse you of encouraging your extremist followers to abuse and intimidate him. ”
Of course he will ignore such emails and quite right too. The questions are fantastically intrusive and if Craig were asked anything remotely similar (eg, when Craig tells us something based on “conversations with former FCO colleagues”) he would quite rightly tell the enquirer to get on his bike. (Craig has not even given a detailed account of what happened to the money he received to fight his legal action against Mr Simpson despite having told readers he would do so).
Secondly, re ” encouraging your extremist followers to abuse and intimidate him [ie, Urban]” : I have noticed a tendency on this blog to stir up readers into what could be seen as witch hunts against various non-political individuals. The recent campaign against “Philip Cross” is one example and this suggestion to bombard Mark Urbain with questions which you know he rightly isn’t going to answer seems to be another. This tendency is am unhealthy one and should cease. You cannot complain about people launching witch hunts against Jeremy Corbyn and then do the same thing to others.
“I have noticed a tendency on this blog to stir up readers into what could be seen as witch hunts”
Maybe you should ask Craig for a job as Moderator, “Chas” … chum 🙂
Thanks for that suggestion, Keith, I’ll consider it. But I’d expect to be paid, of course – by “recurring expenses”, perhaps.
Played with a straight bat!
And I’m sure your existing remuneration package is more than sufficient 🙂
And what would my existing remuneration package be, Keith-264?
Allegations of persecution are one thing Charles, vilification by suggestion is the dark side…
Ramifications.
‘Recently Aeroflot has been affected by US sanctions and its flights to America face possible suspension by Washington, as the US government seeks to punish the Kremlin for its alleged involvement in the poisoning of former double agent and Russian national Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March.’
https://www.rt.com/trends/aeroflot-russia-airlines-international/
Russian skies could become too expensive for US airlines if Washington targets Aeroflot
American carriers would face huge financial losses if Russia increases tariffs for the use of its airspace in response to possible US sanctions targeting the country’s largest airline Aeroflot, an expert has told RT.
https://www.rt.com/business/435599-russia-aeroflot-us-sanctions/
Or it could simply ban overflights of its vast terrritory.
This would be hilarious – all US/UK aircraft banned from flying over any part of the Russian Federation.
It would certainly add substantially to flight times and ticket prices on many routes. Who needs sanctions?
Nothing to See Here
Rather like Janet Jackson’s nipples,
It’s been a while since we’ve seen the Skripals.
Not so long ago they were all over the news
As official drones droned their official views.
They said that in Salisbury wherever you look
Lurked sinister types splashing novichuk.
Door handle specialists had been imported,
Or so the BBC unquestioningly reported.
A laundry list of despicable acts
Only vaguely coincident with the salient facts.
Boris Johnson wasn’t sitting on the fence,
He don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.
‘It was them Russkies wot dunnit, no doubt about that’,
Said the country’s pre-eminent diplomat.
KGB thugs sent to put the boot in,
By Mr. Evil, Vladimir Stalin Putin.
Novichuk’s lethality was re-emphasised again,
More deadly than others by a factor of ten.
Yet somehow miraculously the Skripals survived,
In Salisbury General they inconveniently revived.
And that was all we heard for a while
Bar a weird statement in machine-prose style.
Then a curious video right out of the blue
That looked like an advert for flyaway shampoo.
A chilled out Yulia said she was contented,
And consular access had not been prevented,
But no, she didn’t want to meet up with her kin
(Not that the government would let them in).
The whole production was charmingly informal,
As though poisoning and exile were perfectly normal.
This remarkable young woman’s taken it all in her stride,
Seemingly happy to go along with the ride.
Her boyfriend, her job, her dog and her flat
All peremptorily dumped at the drop of a hat.
The un-fake corporate media performed as tasked
Ensuring awkward questions remained unasked.
And all this ludicrous b-movie rigmarole
Was discreetly d-noticed down the memory hole.
The legal and diplomatic situation’s now clear:
‘Move along sir, nothing to see here.’
Very good. Love the rhyme of nipples with Skripals.
Gave me a good laugh. Thanks.
That was all rather good,
none of it I misunderstood
I think I may start posting in rhyme
but then again I don’t have the time.
It must be so nice being a poet,
just write one line then…? Oh, Fuck it!
Any legal assessment on the uk police validity of the so called “super recognisers” re skripals yesterday…ie this “evidence” would stand up in court or even be “highly likely”……when even face recognition software validiry is increasingly becoming undone….ie high failure rate…
This seems like one of those situations where I don’t agree with the BBC’s approach on policy grounds, but where I do agree with their interpretation of the law. Unsurprisingly, the law allows/requires lots of things I don’t agree with.
oh, the darling beeb – just listened to news at 1 and the coverage of may’s trip to africa. usual empty nonsense about new opportunities etc which was backed up by a spokeswoman from the whisky industry WHAT! where were the spokespersons for the beads and mirror industries i wonder? is that liam fox i see carrying a bag of grenades – ‘make me an offer, anyone please’
I think Theresa May’s job is so unbearable to her as she is out of her depth, she has a need to escape every so often. This time, it’s Africa.
In Nigeria, will she be meeting the wealthy owner of the giant cement company (Aliko Dangote) who has given Cherie a seat on his board?
http://www.dangotecement.com/about-us/board-of-directors/cherie-blair/
http://www.dangotecement.com/about-us/board-of-directors/aliko-dangote/
Ma Blair is already on the Renault board. ‘To them that hath, shall be given.’
The old saying “the truth will out in the end” doesn’t seem to bother the BBC, they think the volume of propaganda is all that matters. Most think that they can survive no matter what they say.
Looking forward to next revelations in this sad saga.
What about the deceased Coopers in Egypt?
And Sgt Bailey is not alone either:
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/16/health/police-fentanyl-overdose-trnd/index.html
“A police officer in East Liverpool, Ohio, collapsed and was rushed to the hospital after he brushed fentanyl residue off his uniform, allowing the drug to enter his system through his hands. The officer had apparently encountered the opioid earlier in the day while making a drug bust.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6100049/Unknown-chemical-Flat-Bath-sealed-police-felt-unwell-responding-death-man.html
“A flat has been sealed off after police officers became ‘unwell’ while responding to the death of a man in his 20s.
Firefighters in hazmat suits were seen entering the property in the Weston area of Bath, Somerset, after an unknown chemical made some officers ill.
Both examples courtesy of ‘Sandra’
Just more desperate straw grabbing.
The Coopers died quickly from an apparently unknown smelly substance about which medical attention could do little.
Are those remarks intended to be explanatory in some way?
What about the Coopers (since you raised the subject)? ‘They died quickly’ (so we’ve read elsewhere) ‘from an unknown substance’ (unidentified as yet) ‘about which medical attention could do little’ (resurrection not being among a first responder’s usual skill set).
So what’s your point?
My point is that the Coopers might have been killed by British spooks to keep the manufactured pressure on the Russians. We shall soon find out.
‘We shall soon find out”, hopefully.
Now the Coopers’ daughter is insisrting in The Sun that they were deliberately killed by “something in their room.” Novichok?
Think Craig is underestimating Urban;s role in British covert operations.
@ Doodlebug August 28, 2018 at 15:37
What on earth possesses drug addicts to mess with fentanyl, if it is so lethal?
I can understand heroin, cocaine and the like, but fentanyl just seems to be a suicide drug.
Or why, if it is unintentional, would pushers add it to another drug, because it should be obvious they would just lose good repeat customers?
I am way too old to even consider tinkering myself, but I suspect the bottom line is, as in so many things, money. If you can ‘cut’ a bona fide narcotic with something that offers infinitely more bangs per buck then the profit margin widens accordingly. I believe the artist formerly known as ‘Prince’ died on account of Fentanyl poisoning.
What concerns me quite seriously is that Fentanyl is, as you say, a suicide drug. All the more so Carfentanyl, a substance just as readily synthesised, available to order from Chinese suppliers on-line and therefore deliverable in the post FFS! It is virtually ‘kill on contact’, as the Salisbury/Amesbury and other episodes demonstrate (I understand the Russians used it as a nerve agent in a ‘siege’ not too long ago).
Quite apart from the debate attending the Skripals, Rowley and Sturgess, what is not appreciated (and certainly not widely announced) is that very many more people are potentially at risk from this sinful creation than is generally understood. ‘Sandra’ has already turned up an article discussing a squad of police all taken ill simply on account of visiting a property in the wake of a death and firefighters having to go in afterwards bedecked in hazmat suits!
Behind the political convenience of the ‘novichok’ story (a one-hit wonder) there lies, IMHO, a greater cause for concern.
I’ve made a written (online form) complaint today about the BBC’s lack of coverage of the Russian warning about an imminent CW False Flag attack/hoax by the Rebels and their PR outfit the White Helmets. I don’t expect much joy, but it will be stick to beat them with after the attack and subsequent missile bombardment almost inevitably occur.
I also emailed the Times, Guardian and Independent re the same ommission. I suggest others do likewise – these rolling False Flags are deadly serious, and must be exposed, or they will just keep rolling them out till the nukes come home.
Well done Mr.Murray & thank you for exposing the dark dealings the Goebbles HQ & its minions indulge in……..a public service par excellence.
I will email major general Urban & ask him to spill the beans – I do not expect a reply but if I do get one I’ll post it here.
Some of you former ambassadors have had a torrid time of it: https://www.sott.net/article/394112-Former-US-ambassador-claims-Israel-tried-to-assassinate-him-in-1980
There are forces at work which a humble citizen can only hope he never falls foul of.
@ Shakesvshav August 28, 2018 at 15:08
‘…There are forces at work which a humble citizen can only hope he never falls foul of…’
A paraphrase of what HM is reputed to have said to Paul Burrell.
You’re not wrong there.
I recall well the Istanbul bombing(s) which killed Roger Short in 2003. I knew him from his posting as HMA in Sofia several years earlier, but did not meet him again, even though we were both in Turkey at the same time. I left Turkey in 2001, and had been based in Ankara. My only dealings with the consulate in Istanbul was to book the cottage in Tarabya.
Roger was a gentle soul, old-school and very kind and supportive. I remember him taking me shopping for food in Sofia, when I first arrived there. (At that time, c1996, there was briefly almost nothing to eat in Sofia, British diplomat or not; the government was in total disarray. You would see a lock-up garage (for parking a single car, with up-and-over doors) full of potatoes. By the time you got back half an hour later to buy some, armed with some plastic bags, ’twas locked up again, deserted, the potatoes sold. Happy days!)
I recall that the daughter of HMA Ankara, whom I knew extremely well (not the daughter!) had recently got married in Turkey, and had a stash of wedding presents in the consulate at the time of the explosions, which were damaged.
Happy days? You’re not wrong.
Very good article. I do not believe a word the BBC comes out with. It has been taken over by a very dangerous element.
‘MSM FINALLY CONCEDES DEFEAT ON YEMEN, CEASES BLACKOUT OF COVERAGE’:
https://southfront.org/msm-finally-concedes-defeat-on-yemen-ceases-blackout-of-coverage/
‘…It’s Been Over a Year Since MSNBC Has Mentioned US War in Yemen”, but many subsequent republications went with variations on the more attention-grabbing headline, “MSNBC has done 455 Stormy Daniels segments in the last year — but none on U.S. war in Yemen”….’
Substitute BBC for MSNBC, and Corbyn anti-Semitism smears for Stormy Daniels, and I suspect you’d get a rather similar warped coverage re the war against Yemen (though not, it’s true, ‘0’ coverage).
So at least the British Propaganda Corporation is ‘better’ than MSNBC. What an accolade!
Nor has the British Propaganda Corporation seen fit to Russia’s warning of an imminent CW attack/hoax in Idlib, in order to ‘justify’ another missile attack on Syrian government forces and infrastructure.
I believe it would be useful for as many of you as agree to write to their MP’s and Jeremy Corbyn with the links to the Russian warning, ASAP. I have written to JC, the Inde and some others with the info; my own MP is worse than useless, and has refused to even read or watch previous links I sent him re Syria, never mind bringing it up in the House, which I asked him to.
Unfortunately, he won’t get deselected, as he is retiring (and not a day too soon).
maybe we share the same mp? received and email today and shared his voting intentions – looked like a friends of israel reunion
@ charming August 28, 2018 at 15:40
Jim Fitzpatrick.
@Paul Barbara
Neil Coyle
OT so it is wrong for J., Corbyn to share a platform with Hamas a democratily electric government of Palastine but it is alright for everybody else to share a platform with the Israeli government ??? Who are committing slow genicide in Palastine ??? If it is anti Semitic to condem murder and theft then I and I am sure most people will be guilty wrong is. Wrong no matter who is doing. It so stop trying to hide behind this anti Semitic nonsense
Just sent this little missive:
Hi Mr. Urban,
In view of the unlikelihood of your answering any questions about your dealings with Sergei Skripal, would you at least let me know if you have any Novichoks left, and if so, would you sell me some?
I have a long list of people who deserve a dose, perhaps for Christmas.
I can pay in Roubles or Shekels, or even debt-backed US $.
Yours,
Paul Barbara
That’s the best letter so far! 🙂
FWIW an Israeli journalist has made an FOI request to the Israeli government in an attempt to tease out Israeli government connections with the villification of Corbyn by the various ‘Friends of Israel’ in the UK and the role of Masot wrt Israel as partially exposed in the Al Jazeera undercover video on attempts to oust UK MPs insuffucuently obeisant to Israel..
https://mondoweiss.net/2018/08/attorney-determine-campaign/
That’s brave of Eitay Mack. Thanks for the info.
I heard today of this significant but small victory within the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’. Its brutality and lethality is unsurpassed. (Read ‘State of Terror’ by Thomas Suarez.)
Thousands of Palestinians have been denied better treatment in Israel or in the so- called ‘West Bank’. Often they have to co-operate in spying, collaborating in some other way, or yielding names of friends or relatives.
I was told that there is an underground interrogation room at the Erez crossing for sick Palestinians. From the dark side of a dark planet as I often say.
Victory for human rights organizations in Israeli Supreme Court
Israel’s Supreme Court orders state to enable patients from Gaza to reach medical treatment, cancels policy preventing access to treatment due to alleged family ties to ‘Hamas members’
27th August 2018
http://mezan.org/en/post/23196
Since the Erez Crossing has just been mentioned by Sharp Ears (above), readers might be interested to know that Israel re-opened the Erez Crossing on the Israel-Gaza border yesterday, Monday.
The Erez Crossing is the only land crossing for the movement of people between the Gaza Strip and Israel and the West Bank, as well as third countries when Rafah Crossing is closed (the Rafah Crossing is between Gaza and Egypt and is closed from time to time by Egypt).
This re-opening was in reponse to the suspension by Hamas of various provocatory actions on the Israel-Gaza border.
As no one else has bothered to mention this positive development, I thought i would do so.
As I said, the Occupiers are from the dark side of a dark planet.
See this child scaling a fence in Hebron to reach home.
Height of resistance? Palestinian girl scales Hebron fence to reach home (VIDEO)
https://www.rt.com/news/437083-hebron-girl-fence-idf/
‘Video of a young Palestinian girl climbing a closed security gate to get home has sparked anger on social media and highlighted the daily inconvenience for Palestinians living under Israeli control in Hebron.
The video, shared by Israeli activist and Breaking the Silence NGO spokesperson Achiya Schatz, depicts the extreme lengths a Palestinian child goes to to get back to her house. The girl is seen struggling to climb a closed gate in Hebron, the top section of which is angled back towards her. The video has been viewed over 13,000 times since being posted.
girl tries to go home, just like your child, only she was born in Hebron,” Schatz wrote, adding, “Don’t worry, it’s not because we’ve made them less than humans, it’s about security.”
While the extreme route home appears shocking, this is a regular occurrence for Hebron’s Palestinian residents.
In 2017, Israeli forces extended a fence it built at the entrance to the Gheith and A-Salaimeh neighbourhoods in Hebron. It has a single gate, which is meant to remain open between the hours of 6am and 10pm, but is often closed arbitrarily. Those who wish to get to their homes when the gate is closed have to take a long route through a checkpoint or risk scaling the fence.
In May, similar footage was released by Israeli human rights group B’tselem, which showed school children arriving to find their route home was blocked by a closed gate. Women looked on from inside the fence, urging the Israeli soldiers to open the gate, as the children eventually scaled it. The gate was closed for five days, which an IDF spokesperson said was in response to stones and an explosive device being thrown.
The fence is built along A-Salaimeh street and divides it in two, with the far larger, paved side off limits to Palestinians, who are only permitted to travel on a small section that remains unpaved. ‘
Read the tweets within. Some are in Hebrew. General disgust at the IOF.
@Yonatan,
Thanks for that article, he is a very brave guy, and I would actually fear for his safety, given the way Israel reacts at times.
There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind, that the Israeli embassy in London, takes its orders directly from Tel Aviv, and then attempts to implemenet Israeli policy through a dual conduit system – Conservative Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Israel. These two group, seemingly from different parties are joined at the hip.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tories and Blairite factions together with the BBC are working together to oust Jeremy Corbyn.
“There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind, that the Israeli embassy in London, takes its orders directly from Tel Aviv”
Of course it does – just as British embassies receive their policy instructions directly from the FCO in London. From where else do you expect them to receive their policy instructions – Tehran?
Having said that, there is probably some scope for occasional personal initiatives of a local nature provided that they don’t undermine or adversely affect official policy.
AndyOldLabour is referring to Israeli meddling in British Politics. This article should help you:
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2018-08-25/israel-hidden-hand-jeremy-corbyn/
I tend to be sceptical about these allegations of Israeli meddling in British politics, certainly if you men Israeli eforts to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. The reason for that scepticism is that (1) I don’t think the UK ranks particularly highly in the Israeli scheme of things, and (2) what Jeremy Corbyn has said he would like to do is not necessarily what he would do were he ever to head a British government. His behaviour on Brexit, when compared to his historic,long-standing position on the EU, is surely a pointer.
My own take is that Jeremy Corbyn is on the skids (owing to Brexit, his ambiguity about Scottish independence and several other issues) and that attempts on here (and elsewhere) to manufacture an Israeli dimension to that phenomenon is rather a mere reflection of the anti-Israel reflex evinced by some.
@ Charles Bostock August 28, 2018 at 18:59
You do ‘tend to be sceptical’ about the most obvious things.
But ‘(you) don’t think the UK ranks particularly highly in the Israeli scheme of things’ does somewhat take the biscuit.
I won’t even try to refute that, it is so laughable.
But as far as trying to nobble Jeremy Corbyn, Netz went so far as to personally berate him, and have you not watched the Al Jazeera sting videos of Shai Masot?
The identical headlines across three UK Je*ish newspapers castigating JC, and the obviously (though perhaps not to you) coordinated attacks by MSM and MP’s of both main parties against JC?
He who laughs last, laughs longest. Come on, JC, PM or bust!
THEN you can do something serious for the Palestinians, and other travesties across the globe, as well as in the UK.
You can have any old take you want, it doesn’t mean anything. You’re not persuadable because you lack the flexibility to assimilate anything contrary to your view, and you can’t persuade because your take is too immutable, peculiar and contrarian. So you’re wasting your time but what is strange is that you must know you are wasting your time.
Why spend so much online communicating with people you probably don’t like, certainly don’t agree with, who you will never persuade, and can never be persuaded by?
Ex the No 10 press release on May’s trip.
‘The Prime Minister will be joined by a business delegation made up of 29 representatives from UK business – half of which are SMEs – from across all regions of the UK and its devolved administrations. The delegation shows the breadth and depth of British expertise in technology, infrastructure, and financial and professional services.
Delegates include:
the London Stock Exchange
Cardiff-based cooling technology firm Sure Chill
solar tech provider Northumbria Energy from North Tyneside
London-based start-up Farm.ink who have created a knowledge-sharing mobile platform for farmers
Northern Irish agri-tech leader Devenish Nutrition
the world-renowned Scotch Whisky Association and Midlands manufacturing giant JCB
Also travelling are Trade Minister George Hollingbery and Minister for Africa Harriett Baldwin. Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns will join the visit in South Africa to support the Welsh companies in the business delegation, while the Lord Mayor of London Charles Bowman is also accompanying the Prime Minister.’
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/theresa-may-to-lead-ambitious-three-nation-trip-to-africa
JCB’s Bamford of course. He is a major funder to the Tory party and individual Tory MPs. £hundreds of thousands I would estimate.
What Africa needs is cheap transport….why not set up factories remaking early basic Landrover models for example….
‘Chagos Islands dispute: UK ‘threatened’ Mauritius’: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45300739#_=_
Britain up to it’s ‘Cray Twins’ diplomacy again:
‘..”Unfortunately, we have been threatened with retaliation… on issues of trade and on issues of investment, you know, and on our relationship with the UK,” Mr Jugnauth added…’
Here’s the Chagos Refugees Group.UK Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sabrinajeancrguk/?multi_permalinks=1868557313211496¬if_id=1535405813476068¬if_t=group_activity
I put that up yesterday Paul Barbara on another thread.
Boris Johnson’s thuggery was exposed again. I said that it makes us feel proud to be governed by these low lifes.
Craig has often written about the Chagos Islanders, as you probably know. Most recently here – https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/11/chagossians-no-right-self-determination/
@ Sharp Ears August 28, 2018 at 16:38
Sorry, I didn’t catch it. Still, this will spread the news more widely.
hello, thank you as always CM, your a much needed light..This complete vaudeville farce is second only to the pitifull false flagI have c/p your email to him, with this forward, hope not embarrassing or misstepping…
//Hello,No -one was held accountable for Dr.David Kelly’s assassination that aided the Blair/Bush atrocities take off;However back then there was’n’t the Internet access there is today.Either you have a scrap of moral code bigger than your greed and/or fear and do right,or you live the rest of your days hounded by real investigators of integrity and guts, your name blackened by the atrocities you’ve helped occur..
Please if you can, contact Craig Murray, or any other truly independent
journalist.
Thank you
Nathan Smith
hello, thank you as always CM, your a much needed light..This complete vaudeville farce is second only to the pitifull false flag ‘chemical attacks’. I have c/p your email to him, with this forward, hope not embarrassing or misstepping…
//Hello,No -one was held accountable for Dr.David Kelly’s assassination that aided the Blair/Bush atrocities take off;However back then there was’n’t the Internet access there is today.Either you have a scrap of moral code bigger than your greed and/or fear and do right,or you live the rest of your days hounded by real investigators of integrity and guts, your name blackened by the atrocities you’ve helped occur..
Please if you can, contact Craig Murray, or any other truly independent
journalist.
Thank you
Nathan Smith
The 10 Main Holes in the Official Narrative on the Salisbury Poisonings: #1 – The Motive
When I began writing about the Skripal case, I was moved to do so by three main considerations.
Firstly, I really am passionate for the truth, and whatever the truth happens to be in this case, I strongly desire it to be made manifest. It was clear to me fairly early on that this was not happening.
Secondly, I am also very passionate about concepts such as the rule of law, innocent until proven guilty, and the apparently quaint notion that investigations should precede verdicts, rather than the other way around. And so when I saw accusations being made before the investigation had hardly begun, verdicts being reached before the facts were established, I was appalled — appalled that this was happening in what we British pride ourselves is the Mother of Parliaments, and equally appalled that this meant the investigation was inevitably prejudiced and – pardon the expression – poisoned from the off.
Thirdly, the incident happened to have taken place pretty much on my doorstep, which made it of even more interest to me.
Nothing I have seen in the intervening time has persuaded me that my initial impressions were wrong. In fact, the whiff of rodent I first detected has only become stronger as time has gone on and the case has become — frankly — farcical.
http://www.theblogmire.com/the-10-main-holes-in-the-official-narrative-on-the-salisbury-poisonings-1-the-motive/
I wonder how many people here own a TV and have a TV licence. You’re paying for your own propaganda. Moving away from that might be more effective than strongly-worded emails (although I hope these help too)
I seem to remember a court case where someone successfully argued that as he was only watching ITV he was exempt (a while back yes), but now the definition is live or recorded TV on any channel. This in itself is interesting.
But the licence only covers catch-up/on-demand TV on iPlayer only – which can either be circumvented *cough* or easier still don’t use it, since it’s all rubbish anyway.
IANAL etc, but just how I saw things.
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/telling-us-you-dont-need-a-tv-licence
Couldn’t agree more, it’s a hard step for some but an essential one, en masse giving one finger to the establishment
Thanks Jimmy. A thought that struck me since, while walking the dog, is that this blog is resolutely middle class. I recognise the signs, I’m one myself.
Brits are waaaaaaay too brainwashed to give up the BBC and television. Will never happen. Taking away their daily dose of super-hypnotic shows like Eastenders would be akin to asking a junkie to throw away their last bit of smack because it’s bad for them. Not going to happen. To quote George carlin, “they’ve got you by the balls”.
They’re really going after Corbyn now, comparing him to Enoch Powell. The press will print any old shit.
“Jonathan Sacks made the most outspoken attack yet on the Labour leader, branding him “an antisemite” who has “given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-zionist-enoch-powell-antisemitism-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-labour-jewish-leadership-a8511391.html
Unsurprisingly the media has sneakly phased out Boris Johnson’s disgraceful behaviour, and replaced it with him challenging Theresa May for PM.
The British press is run by a bunch of charlatans.
They really are dumb dumb dumb
Enoch? The white supremacist child beater and paedo linked Ulster Unionist?
The morons can’t stop hoisting themselves by their on petards.
Like the empire killer said ‘they ignore you, they ridicule you finally they fight you THEN they LOSE’
It is like watching Fight Clib as They beat the shit out of themselves ! Lol. What next? They novichok themselves in their Red Sea HQ’s?
So, an incestuous relationship between Skripal, Millar, Urban, the BBC, Orbis and MI6 now being covered up by the BBC. How can anyone seriously have any faith in the government’s story?
Netanyahu say you, yes you, should be thankful to Israel for saving your European life.
“That Israel performs in saving so many European lives by our resourceful and brave intelligence people. We have saved so many European lives in so many countries. Israel in many ways is the defender of Europe and it’s time that Europe understood this.”
https://m.jpost.com/Israel-News/Netanyahu-It-is-time-for-Europe-to-appreciate-Israels-life-saving-intel-565842
Of course not forgetting Mossad has the highest commitying assassination rate of all the intelligence agencies…..such as the Iranian missile scientist recently trying to protect his own country from…..Israel……..
i copied and pasted and sent x
At least one MSM title has covered Russia’s warning about the proposed Idlib False Flag attack/hoax, all the others have co*ked a deaf ‘un:
‘Russian claims that US and UK are plotting Syria chemical attack ‘ridiculous’, says British general’:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/08/27/british-general-accuses-russia-ridiculous-propaganda-claims/
And they printed my comment:
‘Well done, Telegraph, you are the only UK MSM to print this extremely important story.
No matter that the ‘British General’ mocks the Russian report; in Mandy Rice Davis’ immortal words: “Well he would say that, wouldn’t he?”.
This story should have been banner headlines across the country, and across the world’s media, but you seem to be the only UK MSM covering it.
Our government, in conjunction with the French and US, commit the supreme war crime, ‘War Against Peace’, just on allegations, without a shred of real proof, and against all probabilities of the alleged perps actually being responsible. Previous CW attacks/hoaxes, in Syria, Salisbury, MH 17.
What happened to evidence? They have as much evidence as they did over Saddam’s WMD claims, and look what devastation they caused over that LIE.’
Please keep prodding the MSM about this issue.
For some inexplicable reason the Telegraph presents the circumstances of the false flag – as warned by Major General Konashenkov -completely incorrectly, and it would appear from his comments that ‘our own’ Major General Felix Gedney is too stupid to understand the warning as well. According to the article ‘MG Felix Gedney dismissed as propaganda suggestions that Britain and the US are about to launch chlorine loaded missiles and that American cruise missile ships working in conjunction with British Secret Services will target the settlement of Kafr Zayta’.
If the Telegraph reporters or editor bothered to read further down their own article they will see that the warning from MG Konashenkov is that eight canisters of chlorine have been delivered to a village near Jisr al-Shughur city for the terrorists’ local use, and that militants have been trained by staff from British security company Olive to play the role of White Helmets and to record the aftermath as if it was the result of an aerial attack by Syrian/Russian forces (so basically a repeat of events in Ghouta), thereby giving the US and allies an excuse to carry out retaliatory missile attacks on Syria from their primed ships.
https://www.rt.com/news/436812-syria-chemical-weapons-provocation/
Further to my post at 22.43, I wonder if Olive have provided the militants with recording equipment purchased from the grant of £196,000 given by the FCO to the one-man Coventry based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Has anyone been able to check out the ” trained by UK company Olive” ….connection?
BBC is skanky state propaganda. The myth of BBC being some standard for news reporting died with the advent of the availability of international and independent news in Western countries. The main thing that BBC used to have which propped up the illusion of it being a respectable news source is that there was no competition or alternative to compare its narratives against. Since that time is over, so is BBC’s masquerading as an impartial or accurate news source.
Agree, Dave. That’s what’s informing the push to rubbish dissenting sites as fake news and eventually have them removed.
Ironic when the BBC has been ceaselessly pushing fake news for at least 15 years, with disastrous results. (Iraq; Libya; what caused the deficit and who should be forced to pay it down; Russia/Syria false flags; Corbyn A/S.)
Well I was convinced of fake BBC news during 9/11 and not for the reasons of building 7 coming down too early but the fact that the female journalist was facing a camera standing in front of a glass window and there was no reflection of her or the camera person from the glass. Not even a faint shadow.
That’s when I knew the BBC were employing vampires and have been ever since.
Green Screen technology I discovered later.
All the On the spot reporters are at it apparently.
Or repeating Reuters or PA.
Look at the state of Theresa May here, as she attempts to dance with African school kids. May’s on a begging mission hoping to shore up a no deal Brexit that appears to be a foregone conclusion, by securing African trade deals.
Frankly she’s an embarrassment, just like her government.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/shortcuts/2018/aug/28/theresa-may-dancing-incredible-cringeworthy-or-a-threat-to-international-diplomacy
I can’t decide which is funnier, Teresa May dancing like a pissed uncle at a wedding or the opening paragraph to your previous article “A former chief rabbi has accused Jeremy Corbyn of the most offensive comments by a senior politician “since Enoch Powell”, after his criticism of British “Zionists”. Comedy gold all round. She’s really busting some moves around 20 seconds into the clip. “Oh my God, look at her go” FZ. crying with laughter
the old story.Mushrooms.Feed us muck , keep us in the dark.That’s what the deep state has been
giving us so far.Now it’s coming out to the doubting Thomas’s like me
Meanwhile as Theresa May rummages around Sub-Saharan Africa (Anon1 won’t like that) looking for trade deals to plug the EU gap.
French president Macron, has shunned Theresa May’s cries for help to rescue her ever increasingly desperate Brexit plan.
Now it looks like a despairing Theresa May, is willing to promise just about anything, including aid, in a bid to grasp any form of trade deal’s on offer.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/emmanuel-macron-therese-may-brexit-no-deal-uk-eu-a8509731.html
@ Republicofscotland August 28, 2018 at 17:58
Whilst at the same time HMG threatens Mauritius over trade deals if they go ahead with the International Court of Justice case re the Chagos Islands: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45300739#_=_
Got to keep Uncle Sam happy, after all…