The outgoing Head of MI6 Richard Moore has formally admitted in a public speech in Istanbul that MI6 has been cooperating with HTS in Syria – a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act – for years.
The government is arresting little old ladies for holding signs supporting one proscribed organisation, Palestine Action, while it admits it has been actively supporting another proscribed organisation. HTS was proscribed as a division of Al Qaida, as shown on the government website:
As I learnt while in Lebanon, the British support for HTS included intelligence support, training and weapons, based at secret UK bases in the Bekaa valley, including inside the Rayak airbase. It also included support via an NGO named Inter-Mediate, run by current British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, who is Tony Blair’s old Downing Street Chief of Staff.
In the UK neither the government nor the security services stand above the law. The fact that neither Moore nor Powell nor any of those on the ground directly involved in actively and substantively supporting HTS – a proscribed organisation – has been arrested, while people are arrested for holding a placard supporting Palestine Action because it is a proscribed organisation, is the very definition of arbitrary and oppressive government.
The impartial rule of law in the UK has collapsed completely. All of this was material support to a proscribed organisation.
Powell with al Jolani
Meanwhile we have Starmer’s hollow gesture of recognising Palestine. This is designed to placate those in the Labour Party who are horrified by the Genocide in Gaza. As it is accompanied by zero intention to limit or even acknowledge the Genocide, it is the very definition of a useless gesture.
Palestine was already recognised by three quarters of the nations of the world. What Starmer believes he has furthered is a Bantustan state, hopelessly divided between an obliterated Gaza, small and isolated remnants of the West Bank and what remains of East Jerusalem. That these fissiparous remnants could ever constitute a viable state is plainly impossible – which is the idea.
Furthermore Starmer attacks the very definition of a state by insisting that the Palestinians can be told who they must have to rule them. The notion that the traitor Abbas and his Palestinian Authority would ever be chosen by the Palestinian people is utter nonsense. Furthermore Macron and Starmer have both specified that a Palestinian state must be disarmed, have no armed forces, and lie prey to the genocidal state next door at all times. The Saudi/French plan even states that Israel should have vetting control over the appointment of individual Palestinian police officers!
The only virtue to this act of recognition is that it will make it more difficult politically for the UK not to react with the first genuine sanctions against Israel once Israel formally annexes Gaza or the West Bank. It is thus a very minor political improvement. With the British government already having repudiated the UN Commission of Inquiry’s finding of Genocide, the attack on Gaza in full flow, and the Global Sumud Flotilla very likely to be met by Israel with deadly force, Starmer is, as usual, completely out of touch with public opinion if he believes he has reduced political pressure over his complicity in Genocide.
———————————
My reporting and advocacy work has no source of finance at all other than your contributions to keep us going. We get nothing from any state nor any billionaire.
Anybody is welcome to republish and reuse, including in translation.
Because some people wish an alternative to PayPal, I have set up new methods of payment including a Patreon account and a Substack account if you wish to subscribe that way. The content will be the same as you get on this blog. Substack has the advantage of overcoming social media suppression by emailing you direct every time I post. You can if you wish subscribe free to Substack and use the email notifications as a trigger to come for this blog and read the articles for free. I am determined to maintain free access for those who cannot afford a subscription.
Click HERE TO DONATE if you do not see the Donate button above
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
PayPal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address NatWest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Well said Craig. The MSM will no doubt ‘big up’ the recognition of a ‘Palestinian State’, but under the actual circumstances it means next to nothing, and will not help the Palestinians at all.
Haven’t the secret services always been above the law, licensed (like the police or the army) to carry guns and kill enemies if necessary, allowed to deal with any scoundrels for the ‘greater good’ in the name of HMG, tap phones, and so on?
No, it’s a myth. There are specific legal powers for what they can and can’t do in each individual sphere. There is not general exemption from law.
Hence the ‘five eyes’ where they each scratch each others backs to avoid domestic laws. And, the SS have never, to my knowledge, ever been prosecuted for law breaking …
There was a marginal improvement over the summer in the British media’s disgusting coverage of the Gaza Genocide. However both wings of the MSM are still scrupulously suppressing Britain’s ongoing, multifaceted participation.
Naturally they are aiding Starmer’s latest effort to muddy the waters of his involvement by massively hyping his insulting and meaningless gesture of “recognition”; omitting all mention of his ongoing provision of arms, intelligence and political cover for the IDF.
Laura Kuensberg of all people did ask Lammy yesterday to provide one tangible difference that “recognising” the state of Palestine will make to the situation in Gaza. Needless to say, he couldn’t. She did not point out however, as history will, that what the British government is doing is “recognising” a Palestinian state while it helps Israel exterminate the Palestinian people.
As for the ISIS regime in Damascus, it’s not only the likes of Dearlove and Powell who support it. The headchoppers also have some big fans in Your Party. Not just Jeremy’s landlord mates but Zarah too.
Why the hell does the British government involve itself in Middle Eastern countries at all? How many MPs or even foreign ministers have actually studied and understood the differences between, for instance, a Sunni, a Shia, and an Alawite? It is none of our business. Is their motivation entirely about their own psychology- wanting to believe that they are still a big player in the affairs of the whole world, as in the days of the “Great Game?”
By “our” of course I mean the common people of this country, and by “they” I mean the permanent Elite.
Au contraire, most of our ministers are very well informed and educated on the ME, after all they have been on educational courses on the situation provided free of charge by those lovely Israeli chaps … 🙂
Oil.
Oil and Geopolitics. *Israel* is the proxy of the Anglo-American Money-Power (sometimes called the “Billionaire Class” these days).
It is an important pivot between Eurasia and Africa. That is why a ‘Nation’ was invented (See Shlomo Sand’s important book “The Invention of the Jewish People” : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Jewish-People-Shlomo-Sand/dp/1844676234) to occupy this important strip of land.
To accomplish this, a settler colony had to be put in place. This was done under the pretext of a “right to return” to a mythical biblical homeland of “wandering Jews”. Unfortunately, that ‘homeland’ belonged to the Palestinian people – whose genetics show clearly that they – not European Jewry – are the true descendants of the people who occupied that land in biblical times.
“Shlomo Sand argues that most Jews actually descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered far across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The formation of a Jewish people and then a Jewish nation out of these disparate groups could only take place under the sway of a new historiography, developing in response to the rise of nationalism throughout Europe. Beneath the biblical back fill of the nineteenth-century historians, and the twentieth-century intellectuals who replaced rabbis as the architects of Jewish identity, The Invention of the Jewish People uncovers a new narrative of Israel’s formation, and proposes a bold analysis of nationalism that accounts for the old myths.”
This myth took active form in Zionism. And it is this myth that was used to justify the occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the true owners of Palestine. This was cynically exploited for Anglo-American geopolitical calculations. That is why “the British government involve itself in Middle Eastern countries”. And that explains the wilful ignorance (at best) and active complicity of the Starmer government in the ethnic cleansing and genocide – which began under the British Mandate, continued under the settler state, and has accelerated these past two years.
It is not difficult to understand – once the (actively suppressed) facts are known.
Privelaged. literally private legislation so nothing new. If justice is denied then there is mob justice to follow. People only need to see your ignore the law a few times before they decide it no longer applies to them either.
The hypocrisy is worldwide. Only a handful of countries have cut diplomatic ties with Israel as a result of the ongoing genocide. These are mainly Central and south American countries (Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Honduras), some ME countries (Bahrain, Jordan and Turkey, African countries (Chad and South Africa) but none of the countries in the west and not even the Gulf Abraham Accord countries and surprising up till now not even Qatar which has been directly attacked and its sovereignty violated. There is however a lot of wringing of the hands everywhere. Russia enjoys a normal relationship with Israel and it is said that Putin has a warm relationship with Netanyahu and a soft spot for Israel, even though the feelings may not be entirely reciprocal especially with regards to Ukraine. China also has strong trading and other ties with Israel. The security council rarely produces any meaningful discussions or resolutions of value.
So it is left purely for ordinary citizens all over the world to keep this flame alive and continue to condemn the genocide.
“So it is left purely for ordinary citizens all over the world to keep this flame alive and continue to condemn the genocide.”
If people don’t like genocide, they shouldn’t elect governments that support it – yes, I’m looking at you, all those who voted for Labour in the last GE. They shouldn’t elect crappy governments under the influence of Zionists and then expect other countries to rescue them from the results of their own foolish actions. The exact same argument was going round before the Brexit vote: “we can’t leave the EU, who will rein in the excesses of our Tory government if we do?”
Putin and Netanyahu can’t exactly have seen eye-to-eye over Syria either, could they? Or Iran? I find the idea of that “soft spot” bewildering – can anybody shed a bit more light on it?
“Starmer is, as usual, completely out of touch with public opinion if he believes he has reduced political pressure over his complicity in Genocide.”
I don’t believe for a moment that he does. Somebody, somewhere probably thought the government should be seen to be doing something and that this would “look good” , while, as you point out, not actually mean anything, especially since the US disposed of that pesky UN vote.
Wiser heads in and behind the party know that Labour will be toast at the next GE, for this and other reasons, so they have a free hand to be as oppressive and arbitrary as they like. These days it’s not what anyone should do that counts, it’s what they can get away with doing. Machiavelli rules!
Sir Richard Dearlove seemed genuinely angry yesterday, when he stated on GB News, that he’d never felt more ashamed [of the UK] over official recognition of Palestine. Do his successors share his view? As with MI5, they usually last around four years in post – presumably to avoid questioning by MPs(ISC) regarding legacy matters for which they can plead plausibly, that they have no knowledge?
Richard Moore spoke in warm terms about the UK – Israel intel relationship. His imminent successor is Blaise Metreweli. Ms Metreweli served for years in the Middle East; she’s currently Director General of Technology and Innovation – dubbed ‘the gadget lady’ by a press who’ve seen way too many Bond films. Surely, she has important questions to answer over any potential UK involvement in the reckless and indiscriminate pager attacks against Hezbollah? Attacks that killed and severely injured children – some left blinded for life.
Today, journalist Con Coughlin, himself linked with the security services, writes a piece in the Torygraph bemoaning anti-Semitism; presumably he writes things that are in tune with his masters’ views? If there is MI6 opposition to Palestine recognition, do any of them really think Israel’s response to October 7 has been in any way proportionate? A UK equivalent response to the IRA’s campaign- remember the Brighton hotel bombing? Would’ve involved flattening all West Belfast, and bombing Dublin, killing tens of thousands. Thankfully , we’re not as insane as Israel’s leadership, and the US – with its large Irish American community – would’ve declared that a war crime.
Richard Dearlove is a vicious right wing monster of the worst kind. Richard Moore is not. He used to be a nice guy and is now just your smooth apparatchik.
Speaking at the Labour Party conference in 1945 Denis Healey famously said:
“The upper classes in every country are selfish, depraved, dissolute and decadent … “
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Denis_Healey
I doubt that even he could have predicted the depths to which the British state, and indeed virtually the whole of the western political class, has fallen.
The cancerous pestilence of American neo-conservatism which seems to have completely overtaken the entire American body politic is now rife across the European one.
American neo-conservatism has one concern and one concern only – global dominance by any and all means necessary regardless of the cost, in terms of money or human life. They have no compunction about destroying hundreds of thousands of lives. Estimates of the numbers of people killed in American wars since 2001 vary, but only in terms of millions – 3.5m – 7m+. (Ask ChatGPT)
The Europeans – with the UK and Starmer in the forefront – have now fallen victim to this psychopathology since idiotically agreeing to join in America’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Whilst America under a new Trump administration seeks to extricate itself from Ukraine, and indeed (failingly) from neo-conservatism, the ridiculous Europeans respond by doubling down.
As in Ukraine, so in Palestine-Israel.
As the United States of Tel Aviv remains uncompromisingly behind Israel up to and including genocide (Genocide Don now clearly the inheritor of Genocide Joe’s mantle) so to the United Kingdom of Netanyahu does likewise, much to the shame, disgrace and disgust of this country.
With the UK and the west’s jettisoning of morality it is now plain to see to the rest of the world, and indeed to much of the nations’ indigenous peoples, that any claim of the west to progressive or moral leadership is gone, and the above photograph of Powell and al-Jolani is a perfect image to demonstrate that.
And further still, as neoliberalism destroys western economies from the inside, we stand naked and soiled in front of the global population.
And all that adds up to one very good reason why “Your Party” should quit their childish shenanigans (Zarah) and get their act together and offer a real, desperately needed, alternative for this country to take a better lead in the world.