British Government Covert Anti-Russian Propaganda and the Skripal Case 342


It is worth starting by noting that a high percentage of the Integrity Initiative archive has been authenticated. The scheme has been admitted by the FCO and defended as legitimate government activity. Individual items like the minutes of the meeting with David Leask are authenticated. Not one of the documents has so far been disproven, or even denied.

Which tends to obscure some of the difficulties with the material. There is no metadata showing when each document was created, as opposed to when Anonymous made it into a PDF. Anonymous have released it in tranches and made plain there is more to come. The reason for this methodology is left obscure.

Most frustratingly, Anonymous’ comments on the releases indicate that they have vital information which is not, so far, revealed. The most important document of all appears to be a simple contact list, of a particular group within the hundreds of contacts revealed in the papers overall. This is it in full:

Tantalisingly, Anonymous describe this as a list of people who attended a meeting with the White Helmets. But there is no evidence of that in the document itself, nor does any other document released so far refer to this meeting. There is very little in the documents released so far about the White Helmets at all. But there is a huge amount about the Skripal case. With the greatest of respect to Anonymous and pending any release of further evidence, I want you to consider whether this might be a document related to the Skripal incident.

The list is headed CND gen list 2. CND is Christopher Nigel Donnelly, Director of the Institute for Statecraft and the Integrity Initiative and a very senior career Military Intelligence Officer.

The first name on the list caught my eye. Duncan Allan was the young FCO Research Analyst who, as detailed in Murder in Samarkand, appears in my Ambassadorial office in Tashkent, telling me of the FCO staff who had been left in tears by the pressure put on them to sign up to Blair’s dodgy dossier on Iraqi WMD. During the process of clearing the manuscript with the FCO, I was told (though not by him) that he denied having ever said it. It was one of a very few instances where I refused to make the changes requested to the text, because I had no doubt whatsoever of what had been said.

If Duncan did lie about having told me, it did his career no harm as he is now Deputy Head of FCO Research Analysts and, most importantly, the FCO’s lead analyst on Russia and the Former Soviet Union.

Now let us tie that in with the notorious name further down the list; Pablo Miller, the long-term MI6 handler of Sergei Skripal, who lived in Salisbury with Skripal. Miller is the man who was, within 24 hours of the Skripal attack, protected by a D(SMA) notice banning the media from mentioning him. Here Pablo Miller is actively involved, alongside serving FCO and MOD staff, in a government funded organisation whose avowed intention is to spread disinformation about Russia. The story that Miller is in an inactive retirement is immediately and spectacularly exploded.

Now look at another name on this list. Howard Body. Assistant Head of Science Support at Porton Down chemical weapon research laboratory, just six miles away from Salisbury and the Skripal attack, a role he took up in December 2017. He combines this role with Assistant Head of Strategic Analysis at MOD London. “Science Support” at Porton Down is a euphemism for political direction to the scientists – Body has no scientific qualifications.

Another element brought into this group is the state broadcaster, through Helen Boaden, the former Head of BBC News and Current Affairs.

In all there are six serving MOD staff on the list, all either in Intelligence or in PR. Intriguingly one of them, Ian Cohen, has email addresses both at the MOD and at the notoriously corrupt HSBC bank. The other FCO name besides Duncan Allan, Adam Rutland, is also on the PR side.

Zachary Harkenrider is the Political Counsellor at the US Embassy in London. There are normally at least two Political Counsellors at an Embassy this size, one of whom will normally be the CIA Head of Station. I do not know if Harkenrider is CIA but it seems highly likely.

So what do we have here? We have a programme, the Integrity Initiative, whose entire purpose is to pump out covert disinformation against Russia, through social media and news stories secretly paid for by the British government. And we have the Skripals’ MI6 handler, the BBC, Porton Down, the FCO, the MOD and the US Embassy, working together in a group under the auspices of the Integrity Initiative. The Skripal Case happened to occur shortly after a massive increase in the Integrity Initiative’s budget and activity, which itself was a small part of a British Government decision to ramp up a major information war against Russia.

I find that very interesting indeed.

With a hat-tip to members of the Working Group on Syria, Media, and the Propaganda, who are preparing a major and important publication which is imminent. UPDATE Their extremely important briefing note on the Integrity Initiative is now online, prepared to the highest standards of academic discipline. I shall be drawing on and extrapolating from it further next week.

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342 thoughts on “British Government Covert Anti-Russian Propaganda and the Skripal Case

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  • Tony M

    Did you hear the story of the old empty mill? There was nothing in it!

    So … Traducing, defaming, smearing, assailing and terrifying, threatening an entire people … to what end?

    Guilty: Of throwing Anti-Russian propaganda out of incubators.

    The meeting could been about the White Helmet murdering-mercenary-terrorist-scum, AND about the Skripal Affair. Surprising if there weren’t personnel overlaps and intersections of these two (of many) bad-smelling stories which unite in the nebulous cloud which is the deep-state organisation-chart. And it’s not just Russians they’re putting in fear and in real peril, any resulting conflagration can be regarded as an extinction event for our species. That’s where these clowns are pushing us. A self-selecting pilled-up braying middle-class secret-squirrel clique of fantasists and half-wits, deluding none but themselves. After sniffing their own farts for a time they’ve conjured from the shadows on the wall, a threat which simply isn’t there, objectively isn’t real. In such a sweat too, gibbering and gesticulating, that it’s right to be worried about them, for them, I hope they’re curable. Looks like it’s another outbreak of Bluebirds (over the white cliffs of Dover) Disease, a most florid manifestation. Their very existence at-large as much their prior callow activities (which weren’t worth a fraction of the costs, ‘borrowed’ from future taxpayers and lavished on these backstreet liars-for-hire) constitute a greater and in contrast to their hallucinatory bogey-man theat, a real danger to the helpless hostage British Islanders and to the safety and security of the wider-world.

    Saner governments than this would shut it, shut them down, right down to the last one, lock them up somewhere, padding optional.

    It just seems so pathetic, those involved such sad and contemptible specimens that I’m almost inclined to think there’s something else going on here, that these clowns were so useless and clumsy that what’s amazing about the matter is that they’ve escaped widespread notice for so long as they have. If real, this is end-stage decay, going out with a whimper, so crap it’s embarassing. Independence is a pushover, now, the court and emperor stark-naked and gaga.

    Truths reverberate around the world, burst forth, and blossom, they grow and they live eternally. Negative, false propaganda pollutes the historical stream only for a time, in an internet-age it’s an ever shorter-cycle before lies and the falsehoods are run to ground.

  • Kolin Thumbadoo

    I am waiting to hear where Mossad fits into the scheme of things as they are seasoned practioners of media manipulation, survailance software etc etc

    • Jo Dominich a

      Koln yes, this is a key question in all of this for me and one that I believe is crucial in the Skripal affair. The I———I Govt is the only country in the world I believe who has assassinated people abroad using chemical weapons. Not only that, it is one of only four countries in the world who has a stock of chemical weapons but who have refused to sign up to the OCPW. Their work is written all over Skripal and other current world issues.

  • Sharp Ears

    Mr Shurrup and Go Away would like a world war.

    Gavin Williamson: UK ship in Ukraine ‘sends message to Russia’
    1 hour ago
    HMS Echo docked in the Black Sea on Friday, before Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson visited
    A Royal Navy warship which has been sent to Ukraine will send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the UK’s defence secretary says.

    HMS Echo was sent into the Black Sea earlier this month, after Russia seized three ships belonging to Ukraine’s navy and their crews.

    Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has visited the ship in the port of Odessa. He said the presence of the British ship shows support for Ukraine in the face of increased Russian aggression.
    /..
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46657470

    Putin must be so terrified and is hiding in the cupbboard undere the stairs.

    • JohninMK

      As implied by its name, HMS Echo is a hydrographic research vessel. Its main ‘weapon’ is a penetrating radar, pointed down, as well as sonar arrays. As far as armament, a couple of 20mm Oerlikon cannons (like WW2 Ack Ack or late Spitfires), some Miniguns (as per Vietnam Huey helicopters) and a few machine guns etc (as per Crimean War).

      This has has without doubt really got the Russians worried. Talk about a waste of fuel but then we seem to be still a World Power in the eyes of some, very dangerous, idiots that are in positions of power.

    • James

      He’s been out in one of their patrol boats as well.

      Fail to see how taking sides in this messy clash between two nationalisms makes any contribution to UK security.

      And it seems strange that a government that warns of the dangers of the “far right” at home should want to ally itself with a regime that has some +real+ Nazis like the Azov battalion on its side.

      Whole thing seems pretty ill advised.

      • Jo Dominich a

        But James, just like the Skripal affair, it is being peddled out at a time when, once again, this bunch of imbeciles called our Government are making a monumental mess of Brexit, of the economy and of Parliament with Teresa May beginning to act more like a Fascist Dictator by by-passing parliamentary democracy; cancelling a crucial vote on Brexit because she would lose it, failing to schedule time for a debate on a Vote of No Confidence in her when she could make time for a debate on Corbyn’s alleged anti-Semitism and so on and so forth. So, I believe a good number cruncher will be able to correlate an increase in Government propaganda against Russia with every Government mess in Brexit that is reported or with other Government glaring failures.

    • Fedup

      “Putin must be so terrified and is hiding in the cupbboard undere the stairs.”

      He is!

      Our intrepid journos in the various corporate media have traced the twitter account of Ivanderstairsky007 to him; broadcasting with his shaky little fingers about the mistake he made by cocking-a-snook at Gavin and his single war ship!

      I wish these/our morons would spend on a telegraph instead of spending oodles of tax pounds on theatrics.

      • Blunderbuss

        Next, we will send our new aircraft carrier. Oops, it hasn’t got any aircraft on it yet.

        • Dungroanin

          It could be used to bring down the dastardly bridge to Crimea – with Gavin tied to the bow – ‘Ramming speed captain’!

          That is the only way that carrier of no-aircraft, will ever be of use.

          • Paul Greenwood

            Gavin hopes to impress the US Deep State into making him their man to replace May. It is the Blair playbook when stepping up to replace John Smith who would certainly not have fawned over Clinton

          • flatulence'

            Damn wish I could draw cartoons… Imagining Gavin posing bent over naked with the Heart of the Ocean nestled between his buttocks while Poroshenko lustfully watches from behind his canvas, blood red brush in hand. Small atomiser of eau de Novichok on the table by the chaise longue, a paper weight to the stack of papers marked Institute for Statecraft. Next to that, a picture of Trump with lipstick on his arse.

    • Wikikettle

      The new combined head of Army groups North, Centre and South, General Gavin, has been sent to Russia to lay siege to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Volgograd. NATO and Ukrainian troops have been supplied with warm underwear from Marks and Sparks.

        • Wikikettle

          Our source at the MOD says Gavin is due to be promoted to Field Marshall, but we cant confirm this.

        • Paul Greenwood

          Keitel was however hanged at Nuremberg for planning illegal wars. Should have gone to Fettes and received an Immunity Certificate. Manstein died in 1973 having had Churchill lobby to have him released from prison in 1953……..

      • Blunderbuss

        Attempts to invade Russia have not gone well. Napoleon couldn’t do it. Hitler couldn’t do it. What makes Gavin think he can do it?

  • Sharp Ears

    The US is also upping the ante.

    ‘The US will provide $10 million extra in military aid to help Ukraine beef up its naval capabilities, the State Department has announced, days after a Senate resolution called for such aid in response to the Kerch Strait incident.

    Russia was ordered to “immediately return to Ukraine the seized vessels and detained Ukrainian crews” involved in last month’s naval provocation and to allow Ukrainian ships to freely navigate the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov in Friday’s statement from deputy State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino. The financial decision was made “in solidarity with” Lithuania and the UK, which also plan to step up their funding of the Ukrainian military, he added.

    [..]
    Ukraine’s military is already heavily subsidized by the US. Since the US-backed coup that put President Poroshenko’s regime in power in 2014, the country has supplied Ukraine with over $1 billion in military aid, supplemented by $47 million in anti-tank missiles earlier this year. Kurt Volker, the Trump administration’s envoy to Ukraine, promised an additional $250 million “foreign military-financing package” earlier this week.;’
    https://www.rt.com/news/447191-us-funds-ukraine-kerch/

  • Radar O’Reilly

    Not quite a Christmas shopping list, but here https://shoppinglist.wikileaks.org release a database of official US request for purchase documents. Some mundane, some embassies are seeking staff to open their letter-bombs, some embassies want bow-ties that are really cameras. Others need a way to count goldfish, or clean drainpipes. There really is a lot of spooky items for some stations, I presume the wider internet will find interesting stuff…

  • Sharp Ears

    ref Duncan Allan in the list.

    Craig writes:..’it did his career no harm as he is now Deputy Head of FCO Research Analysts and, most importantly, the FCO’s lead analyst on Russia and the Former Soviet Union.’

    His other e-mail address leads to an outfit by the name of Octantra.

    ‘Octant Research & Analysis is an independent consultancy offering high-quality assessments of political, economic and integrity risk in the countries of the non-Baltic former Soviet Union. The founder, Duncan Allan, has built almost four decades of expertise on the region, including more than 28 years as a member of the UK Foreign Office’s Research Analysts cadre. We enhance the information and analytical base on which clients take decisions that add value to their businesses.’
    http://octantra.co.uk/

    When employed in Her Maj’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, can one have outside commercial interests?

  • michael norton

    Gavin is apparently on a British Warship near Ukraine, we are showing solidarity with Ukraine?

    No as far as I remember, Crimea was part of Russia when we went to war in the 1850’s
    Crimea was “given” by diktat to Ukraine which was then part of the Soviet Union in the 1950’s

    So, are we showing solidarity with Ukraine based on which sides we choose, in the 1850’s
    or perhaps the 1950’s or is there some other we are choosing to virtue signal
    maybe Ukraine is to join the E.U.
    but if the U.K. is leaving the E.U. why we we choose solidarity with Ukraine or E.U.
    or is there some other agenda?

    • Jo

      Nonsense rules….when May falls he could himself forward as prime minister to boldly take on the Russians…leading us into the final solution. He has an agenda and so do others pushing him…who are they?

    • Tom Welsh

      Throughout recorded history, there was never any nation or state called “Ukraine” (or even “the Ukraine”) until 1991, when a bunch of people in Kiev took advantage of the Soviet authorities’ preoccupation to declare that Ukraine had seceded from the USSR and was now a separate nation.

      By the standards that Washington and London use today, that act of secession was wholly illegal. The government of the USSR did not agree to it; and there wasn’t even a referendum either. Just as in Kosovo, a bunch of people hand-picked by Washington got together in a (possibly smoke-filled) room and issued a fait accompli. “Ukraine is now a sovereign nation, because we say so”.

  • Skye Mull

    Isabel Oakeshott…..on the list… is/was the Sunday Times political journalist who helped Vicky Price to bring down her husband Chris Hulne over that speeding ticket court case. She has been on BBC Question Time several times.

    • Paul Greenwood

      I do recall that the best layout for newspapers was in Izvestiya and Pravda because they knew in advance what they would print. The plethora of spelling and grammar mistakes together with articles which do not reconcile with headlines, and often not even accord with reality, suggests Western Gleichschaltung is still having teething troubles

  • Skye Mull

    Interesting that in those documents the views expressed on moomofalabama.org are evidently being monitored to see whether the planted stories are being accepted or rejected. MoA credibility has just gone up further (if that was possible) in the estimation of many.

  • michael norton

    Oil is at a one year low,
    U.S.A. Stocks at a decade low,
    France in a terrible state,
    Brexit uncertainty,

    economic slow down, here we come.

        • JohninMK

          The financial ‘aid’ package is a loan at interest secured by the state of Ukraine. The prime function seems to be to allow the money to be recycled back into the international banking system (think Greece) barely touching the ground in Kiev whilst leaving the Ukrainian citizens with the debt. I think. when this is paid, the total loan run up to date will be around $11.5B, with no apparent benefit for the locals.

          Madam Lagarde is one of TPTB, to whom a totally different legal system applies, vide her predecessor.

          • michael norton

            The Powers That Be
            I supposed that includes Mandeleshon and Straw and Blair and Gideon the Banker?

          • Sharp Ears

            There is an entity called the British Ukrainian Society. It is chaired by a Lord Risby. In the list of Advisory Board members, John Smith’s widow is listed. Their daughter Sarah is employed by the BBC as their Scottish Editor according to Wikipedia.

            http://www.britishukrainiansociety.org/leadership

            Lord Risby Chairman, British Ukrainian Society
            An economics graduate of Cambridge University, Lord Risby pursued a career in the financial services industry prior to entering the House of Commons in 1992, where he was an Opposition spokesman for both Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and the Treasury, and Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party. Lord Risby was appointed to the House of Lords in November 2010, and is Prime Minister’s trade envoy.

            Heading the Advisory Board is the Earl of Oxford – Non-Executive Director, JKX Oil & Gas plc.
            Lord Oxford served 18 years in the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office with particular emphasis on Soviet and Eastern European affairs. He was a founding member of the British Embassy in Kyiv and served as its Counsellor in 1992-1997. Following diplomatic service, Lord Oxford pursued a career in business and is currently Non-Executive Director of JKX Oil & Gas plc, the largest British investor in Ukraine.

            followed by Anthony Fisher Managing Director, Global Strategy Ltd.
            Anthony Fisher is the Managing Director of Global Strategy Ltd specialising in strategic and communications consulting to international businesses, institutions and finance centres. He has advised on a wide range of international projects helping to design structures and develop strategies to encourage investment and growth. Mr Fisher has been involved in the Ukrainian market for several years, and is a Founding Director of the EU-Ukraine Business Council.

            There are three Ukrainians in their Kiev office with individual connections to Morgan Stanley, Alfa Bank and The National Bank of Ukraine.

            There are also Alexander Orlov from Stony Brook University and Terry Sandell with EU and British Council connections.

            A nest. A front.

          • Sharp Ears

            More on Milord Risby. Formerly Tory MP for West Suffolk and Bury St Edmunds then known as Richard Spring and PPS to Nicholas Soames and James Arbuthnot. Enough said about those two. Spring was vice chair of the partei until 2010.

            Never a minister, only a shadow version, but given a gong by Agent Cameron in 2010.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Spring,_Baron_Risby
            https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-risby/139 His register of interests.

            Apparently set up by Piers Morgan of News of the World infamy in 1995.
            https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/three-in-a-bed-session-mp-was-victim-of-set-up-1615827.html

            As old Terry Thomas would have said ‘An absolute shower’.

        • Paul Greenwood

          Bernard Tapie was yet another debt-junkie-cum-financial-wizard prevalent in the 20th Century before Central Banks underwrote their activities post-Y2K

  • michael norton

    Too important to go to prison

    I.M.F. Stands by Madame Christine Lagarde, Convicted of Negligence

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/business/imf-trial-christine-lagarde-france-verdict.html?_r=0

    The International Monetary Fund threw its support behind its leader, Christine Lagarde, on Monday despite her conviction in a French court on charges of misusing public funds.

    With international elites and their institutions facing populist criticism amid political and social change in the United States and Europe, the 24 directors of the fund decided that this was not the time to leave the I.M.F. rudderless.

    And yet, today, several years on,
    France is besieged by Populist movements, so the French Banking Elite
    have learned nothing at all.
    have learned nothing.

  • Jo

    Looking forward to this….many thanks for continuing….there is only one step between pragandising against Rusdia then actually faking Ruusian “malign influence” to be a cause to exist against…..and stupid Defence Minister in Odessa with a warship spyship saying UK wil stand with Ukraine ahainst Rusdian aggression…..well he did not ask me….there has to be a tie in with Ukraine re II…their “intel” formed part of the DT dossier did it not? Any more search available on Defence Minister Gavin….it feels like he is being directed and pushed by others as some kind of figurehead….

  • John Goss

    I have now had time to read through Duncan Allan’s paper for Chatham House regarding our (the UK’s) approach to Russia in the wake of the “Salisbury attacks”.r

    https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/2018-10-30-managed-confrontation-uk-russia-salisbury-allan_0.pdf

    The economic conclusions are sound, not wishing to prod the bear into a state of outright fury. However it makes too many unfounded assumptions regarding what has happened politically in terms of the Litvinenko “murder” and the “Skripal” poisonings. It does not even mention the murder of Nikolai Glushkov, which took place a week after the Skripal farce. This really was a murder. It could well be connected with the Salisbury event. Russian oligarch Glushkov died the same way as Russian oligarch Berezovsky by strangulation. While the paper does not mention Glushkov it mentions his loyal friend Lugovoi – as a suspect in the Litvinenko poisoning.

    The paper talks about the long time it took before any sanctions after the Owen “inquiry” were imposed on Russia for the “murder” of Litvinenko and how May’s government was much quicker and much more robust in its response. Exactly Duncan! In fact we took action before any guilt was established!

    Obviously it is a difficult task writing a paper when you are surrounded by a government of wallies and numpties, trying to make sense of the nonsense. Recommendations regarding money-laundering are sound (apart form the last sentence) – if some restrictions had been made formerly the UK would not be such an attractive place for people like Berezovsky and his henchman Litvinenko, for people like Glushkov and his coterie.

    “The UK overseas territories pose an even bigger challenge. According to one estimate, from 2007 to 2016 over seven times as much Russian money entered them (£68.4 billion) as entered the UK (£9 billion). The overseas territories accounted for 12.4 per cent of Russian money invested outside Russia, compared with 2.6 per cent in the UK. The British Virgin Islands were the second most popular destination (after Cyprus) for financial flows from Russia (£56.3 billion), and the third most popular location (after Cyprus and the Netherlands) for Russian investment (£33.7 billion).71 A prime attraction of the UK overseas territories is secrecy, particularly as regards the incorporation of anonymously owned companies. Not all Russian money entering the overseas territories is derived from corruption and money laundering, but a large proportion of it almost certainly is.”

    The last sentence needs rework since it has no reference. What is this large proportion? Professor Redmond would be looking for figures!

    • Paul Greenwood

      Berezhovsky was very helpful to CIA and MI6 and very closely linked to Chechens who provided his “roof”. He created the “Yeltsin Family” web of corruption that permitted looting of Soviet resources and undermining of defence. His bagman was Litvinenko, an FSB policeman looking at the Chechens. Chechnya and Dagestan are where MI6 and CIA were running their agent bin Laden to recruit Islamist insurgents – didn’t Sibel Edmonds say bin Laden’s last meeting before 9/11 was in Turkey with CIA handlers ?

      Berezhovsky was forced to sell down to Abramovitch who was Putin’s Oligarch and now gets the cold shoulder from London, though Alexander Lebedev of Fist Directorate KGB gets to keep Evening Standard and Independent……..is Evegeny Lebedev gay ? He shares ownership of Ian McKellen’s pub and seems to be buddies with Gideon The Osborne

  • Sharp Ears

    Dimblebore massages Gideon’s ego. I thought mistakenly that Dimblebore had gone for good.

    George Osborne: Conservatives must adapt to stay in power
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46655969

    Nowhere in piece is there any mention of the cocaine addict’s sources of income.

    ..From the family firm Osborne & Little. Amount unknown

    ..From Lebedev for ‘editing’ the rag known as the Evening Standard. Amount unknown

    ..From BlackRock for one day’s ‘work’ per week £650,000 pa.
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/08/george-osborne-to-be-paid-650000-for-working-one-day-a-week-blackrock-salary

    …£120k pa from the McCain Institute for his Kissinger Fellowship.

    …£1,000,000 for making ‘speeches’.

    George Osborne paid over £1 million by companies he will now cover as Evening Standard editor
    https://www.businessinsider.com/evening-standard-editor-george-osborne-paid-1-million-by-financial-firms-2017-5?

    Assume that the BBC are paying him for appearing on Radio 4 Today this morning. (Next week Billy Fourteen Pints’ girfriend, Angelina Jolie, takes over the chair on Radio 4 Today.)

    They are all dead from the neck up but they won’t lie down.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Osborne
    Esther McVey took over at Tatton! G-d help us all.

    Thank you very much Gideon for AUSTERITY. We are still under the heel of its boot.

    Osborne would have received a lump sum on leaving the HoC, known as a resettlement fee. LOL
    https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7762 And a pension of course.

  • michael norton

    Christine Lagarde · Net worth 2017
    $6 million USD
    “The former finance minister of France’s pay package includes an after-tax salary of $467,940 a year and an annual allowance of $83,760 for living expenses, the IMF disclosed.”

    So if Theresa May takes over from Christine
    she can look forward to a rosy future.

      • michael norton

        Future integration efforts will focus on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft and other international platforms.
        With superior performance and affordable price, JASSM and JASSM-ER offer the best value of any weapon in their class.
        https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/jassm.html

        I did not know Mr. May was so well connected
        you are correct, when Theresa steps down, she can afford to just be a Cookham house frau.

        • michael norton

          Mr May was introduced to Mrs May by
          Benazir Bhutto, a contemporary, who later went on to become prime minister of Pakistan and who was assassinated in 2007. The pair met at a Conservative Party disco while both studying at Oxford University.
          Mrs. May worked for The Bank of England from 1985 to 1997
          https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/philip-may-theresa-may-husband-profile-a7131461.html
          He is a successful banker!!!
          Mr May left university to embark on a successful career in the City. He was a fund manager at De Zoete & Bevan and Prudential Portfolio Managers UK and later Deutsche Asset Management UK. Since 2005, he has worked as a Relationship Manager at Capital Group.
          The pair live in Sonning-on-Thames, a village and civil parish in Berkshire where Mrs May is the local MP. Notable residents in the area include George and Amal Clooney, Uri Geller, and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

          Will we ever get a working class Primeminister?

          • Alex Westlake

            What do you mean by working class? Theresa May attended a state grammar school, as did Wilson, Heath, Thatcher, Major and Brown. If someone from an “ordinary” background is able to get a place at Oxford I don’t think they should be criticised for taking it.

          • Sharp Ears

            Uri Geller pushed off to Israel in 2015.

            As a member of the IDF he took part in the so called Six Day War in 1967, ie part two of the Occupation of Palestine.

          • Paul Greenwood

            Sorry Alex but Theresa May attended a Catholic girls school – her father was Anglo-Catholic wing of C of E. She omits that bit. As for Benazir you might look at DT where Emma Duncan, formerly of Economist writes. She was close to Benazir and was her biographer. Alan Duncan got rich on oil trading contacts through Benazir. Benazir was so deep into the Oxford Union as to be intimately familiar with most of the males in its upper echelons

        • michael norton

          Hi Tatyana any thoughts about
          Azov Battalion based in Mariupol, Sea of Azov
          and the running of the Kerch Straits by Ukraine troops/secret service?

          • Tatyana

            I’ve got no info on this, Michael, I’m sorry. I see how fast Ukraine rushes to the war, in a hurry, until Poroshenko’s term is not finished. He is not popular, the next Pres. may be turns to Minsk agreement and to peace. I hope “f@ck the EU” story is no longer possible.
            This year Ukraine must release a lot of young men from its military colleges, the generation which began their training after 2014. Hostile to Russia.
            In total, in case of war, I think it will not last more than 2 weeks. Georgia also tried to annoy Russia for long, until at last our military really got there and khm khm … conflict ended very quickly.
            As to the Kerch strait – I wonder will ukraine with Gavin Williamson ahead shove against motion pushing aside the oncoming ships? I mean they indeed have right to use the strait, but what about rules and security? There are one-direction-only parts. Are they about to demonstrate their stupidity?

          • Ralph

            azov battalion are sick shits torturing and murdering people, including having war criminals in it.
            Some years ago I correspondended with one of its pyschos, who claimed he had been to London, but also more so to Scotland. After I had given him some home truths about how in the wrong he was, he cowardly blocked me on google+.
            azov uses the Black Sun (occult symbol) the same as used at Wewelsburg Castle favoured by himmler.

  • michael norton

    President Emmanuel Macron’s most offensive, self-centred and strangest comments in 2018
    Having played 2017 on easy mode, the French president was unprepared for what came next!!!
    https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/12/emmanuel-macron-s-most-offensive-self-centred-and-strangest-comments-2018
    The French president was widely unprepared for what came next. The little prince fell to earth mere days after his show-off celebrations of France’s World Cup victory: his bodyguard Benella beat up demonstrators at a May Day rally while posing as a police office, causing the first scandal of Macron’s presidency. Then, as his rating were in free-fall, his ministers launched a festival of resignations. And street protests, which had been contained in the spring, suddenly made a comeback in the gilets jaunes movement, which caught fire across France.

    Banker of the Rich

  • Republicofscotland

    As the US Federal government partiality shuts down over a number of things including Trump’s Mexican border wall.

    A Texas speech therapist has been sacked from a government post, for not signing a form saying that she’d never criticise or boycott Israel.

    More than 17 US states including New York forces government employed workers, to sign an oath promising never to boycott Israel. As many as 26 US states have also passed anti-BDS laws as well.

    What is the US coming to when people are forced to sign pro-Israeli pledges, or face the sack, or be ruled out for that post of employment.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/texas-speech-pathologist-fired-sign-israel-palestine-pledge-anti-bds-intercept-a8688031.html

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile as Trump withdraws US troops from Syria (I’m under the impression they were there illegally anyway) to boost his flagging ratings at home.

    Turkey’s quasi-dictator Erdogan is very pleased by Trump’s action, but not because he see’s it as less interference from the US, but because Erdogan can now go ahead and exterminate the Kurds in Northern Syria, and further persecute Kurds within Turkey without much of a outcry.

    • Dungroanin

      Moon of Alabama has a informative article on Trump playing his trump card on both Etdogan and his neocon cabinet.

  • Republicofscotland

    Well I suppose we all knew that the “drone incident” would be capitalised on, and sure enough it’s been rejigged into a terrorist threat from IS.

    Watch out for several drone attacks Gladio style to put the fear of god into you and allow the usual suspects to act, after public consent. It’s all so predictable.

    https://www.rt.com/uk/447144-isis-drones-attack-gatwick/

    • Monster

      Police said they were looking for a possible Phd eco-warrior acting alone. Now we hear they have made an arrest of a Phd eco- warrior.woman whose name is er. Patsy.

      • michael norton

        The Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can detect drones using radar, is believed to have been used.

        The pair are helping police with their investigations ( waterboarding)

        • Rob Royston

          I thought the perpetrator was spotted up a lane packing the drones up and cycling off, by a parcel delivery driver. Maybe he was an Israeli agent Posing as white van man?

          • Tom

            I’ll bet the pair arrested will be quickly found to have had nothing to do with it – but not so quickly the real perpetrators won’t have time to cover their tracks and make their escape.
            This police wild goose chase happens every time, faithfully taken seriously by the media.

        • Paul Greenwood

          How does radar detect drones made of plastic ? Isn’t that a definition of stealth ? Together with slow speed, low altitude, small cross-section, and short flying time ?

    • JohninMK

      The NordStream pipelines run next to each other and land in Russia at the far eastern end of the Baltic near St Petersburg. NordStream 2 is currently being laid at the rate of 3km a day. They pass Kaliningrad several hundred km offshore near Swedish Gotland.

    • Garth Carthy

      Thanks for the excellent link, Sharp Ears. You really are the eyes and ‘ears’ for this forum.
      John Pilger is an international treasure when it comes to real journalism just as David Attenborough is a national treasure for his wild life presentations and anthropological climate change warnings.
      I’ve now read most of ‘Propaganda Blitz’ by David Cromwell and David Edwards of Media Lens and would heartily recommend this book (probably for the second or third time on here!)
      Obviously Chomsky’s books are ‘bibles’ for those looking for the truth about US global hegemony and international affairs but of all the books on the evil machinations of politicians and ‘deep state’ manipulations, I have to say that Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’ had perhaps, the most powerful effect on me with her scholarly work.
      I reckon if any one of the books by the above writers were read by school children, they might become more cynical but they would at least be more aware of the dangers of failing to hold to account, our secret power elites.

  • Blissex

    “The Economist”, December 22nd 2018 issue, page 7, summarizes the Skripal story in this way:

    “Tensions increased between Britain and Russia after two Russian intelligence officers poisoned Sergei Skripal, a dissident, and his daughter with a nerve agent in Salisbury, an otherwise quiet cathedral town. They both survived. Russia paraded the attackers on television, claiming that they were innocent tourists with an interest in church spires.”

    Amazing news from London! 🙂

  • Scottish Intelligence Service

    This writer kept commenting that the Skripal incident was obviously a Psyop from the first place. The Skripal’s were likely paid and have new ID’s and are living in the USA or down under.

    There has been never ending anti-Russian hysteria since Russia got involved in Crimea, and more importantly, Syria. Anyone capable of critical thinking would have been able to see, we were being put into a new cold war. Nato needs a bogeyman. Hence why the Isis bullshit was created, and why the fabricated terror events, blamed on Isis, were also spun out via Nato and the various intelligence services, with collusion of the likes of the BBC and Sky. Hence why a BBC operative is on the list Craig has in his blog piece.

    The Britiish government were also up to their eyeballs in trying to get the “one from the dark side”, Hilary Clinton elected, by defaming Trump with the fabricated Christopher Steele (Mi6) dosier. It was Stefan Halper who was also involved with this. Another long time UK asset.

    Steele made the fake dosier and Halper was involved in setting up Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, who were involved in Trump’s campaign. Keep in mind the severity of this, the UK establishment attempted to get the stinking warmonger and criminal Clinton elected. Great to see Trump attempting to play with a straight bat regards Syria.

    Please see:
    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-20/fbi-admits-using-multiple-spies-infiltrate-trump-campaign

    What remains to be seen now, is if there will be some kind of new fabricated terror “blamed on returning Isis operatives”, because Trump pulled out of Syria. What a great thing, that there is a US President that has a conscience for a change.

    • Paul Greenwood

      UK needs to exacerbate trouble with Russia to prevent France and Germany having normal relations with Russia and locking out UK. British Power is built into NATO and that requires a state of tension – France is less involved in NATO Planning and Germany is woefully under-committed with catastrophic equipment failures and dire manpower situation where a large proportion of its troops are actually Russian-Germans or Ossis since noone wants to volunteer for the BW but the unemployable and gang members

  • Tony M

    Think-Tank thinks tanks then tanks.

    If that’s what they call ‘covert’ anti-Russian propaganda, I sure wouldn’t like to see the overt version. Muppets.

    Does the visceral hatred they must harbour to produce for unknown masters such gross distortions of truth and reality come easily to them or must they work themselves up to some sort of episode or frenzy in order to set about their odious vocation?

    Exorbitant and unwarranted defense budgets, music to the tills of greedy arms manufacturers alone can’t account for it. And though far too many military personnel at any time leads to far too many ex-military personnel at some future time -for which there are too few institutions in which to confine these knight-malignants securely – their input to policy I hope should be minimal, if not negative.

    Who, then, what individual, or group of homicidal maniacs, in pursuit of greater wealth and power or simply exercising ingrained hateful misanthropy, daily tempt by provocation and smear all humanity’s immolation.

    Bleeding minnows left and right trailing innards but the big fish steal away.

  • Sharp Ears

    1,300 miles away but Israel’s always there.

    Sudan Roiled by Unprecedented Protests Against Dictator Bashir’s 29-year Rule
    Qatar’s emir expresses support for Sudanese president on fourth day of nation-wide protests ■ At least 9 killed, 14 opposition leaders arrested
    Dec 23, 2018 1:20 pm
    Israel working to establish diplomatic ties with Sudan, Bahrain
    By renewing ties with Chad, Israel is embracing an enabler of terrorism
    Israel can now overfly Sudan, boasts Netanyahu, who has been courting ex-foes
    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/sudan-roiled-by-unprecedented-protests-against-dictator-bashir-s-29-year-rule-1.6768759

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