Assange on Scotland 91


Julian Assange has asserted that MI5 are active against Scottish nationalists, as the independence movement is seen as a threat to the UK. Happily, Julian being Julian there is now some traction for this in the corporate media. When I posted on it last week I received nothing from the corporate media except dismissal and abuse over twitter.

I think it is worth repeating some of that twitter abuse for the benefit of anybody who has not fully appreciated the vitriol felt across the entire unionist media establishment towards anybody who queries the narrative they are paid to peddle.

If this doesn’t shake any residual belief in media impartiality, nothing will:

“Craig Murray is mad shocker.” James Bloodworth, The Independent
“Zooooooooooooooomer” Euan Mccolm, The Scotsman
“Craig Murray is obviously an MI5 plant. WAKE UP PEOPLE.” Kevin Schofield, The Sun
“Makes the X files look like Panorama” Rob Corp, BBC
“Cybernat bullying is an MI5 false flag operations, says former British Ambassador. Many Nats believe this stuff.” Iain Martin, the Daily Telegraph
“If you must tweet links to Craig Murray’s MI5 guff, take the SNP twibbon off your profile. That party rejected him as a candidate and rightly so.” Stephen Daisley, STV
“The comments under Craig Murray’s latest rant are really something.” Ross McCafferty, Daily Record

Is it not strange that such a broad spectrum of the mainstream media react with instant vitriol to the very notion that the security services are active against the Scottish independence movement, when we know for certain that environmental campaign groups have been heavily penetrated by agents and agents provocateurs? When such tactics have been used against the Irish Republican movement for decades? When our intelligence services were up to their ears in torture and extraordinary rendition and repeatedly lied about it? When Edward Snowden has revealed the massive scale of surveillance by GCHQ?

In the days when the corporate media had a monopoly on the dissemination of information, simply shouting “conspiracy theorist”, “tinfoil hat” and “lizards” at somebody, excluding them from corporate media access, would be enough essentially to prevent anybody from reaching the public with information. But that no longer works in the age of new media, and especially it doesn’t work in Scotland after the referendum experience.

The fact that my comments on MI5 dirty tricks were so instantly and so unanimously rubbished by the corporate media are more likely to make people realise there must be something to hide. None of the so-called “journalists” I have quoted above has ever tackled the fact that I blew the whistle on torture and extraordinary rendition, and that the government and security services lied about it then, with the support of establishment journalists. In fact I challenge all the named journalists above to say what they think about the sanctioning of intelligence from torture by Blair and Straw, and whether I was truthful in my whistleblowing. Perhaps some of you might be able to contact them to point out the challenge.

For the avoidance of doubt, let me spell this out. I have certain knowledge from an inside source that disruption of separatist activity in Scotland now features in MI5 tasking. The “tasking” of the security services – and that is what it is officially called – is a very formal written exercise conducted by the Joint Intelligence Committee on an annual basis, though it is possible (but very difficult) to insert new tasks in-year.

I have personally taken part – often – in Cabinet Office meetings of JIC sub-committees determining tasking, though in my case more for MI6 than MI5. It is a system I know very well. None of the “journalists” abusing me above has ever sat on a JIC committee. None of them actually know anything about it. None has contacted me to ask me why I have stated there is an MI5 anti-SNP operation. It is so much easier to collect your pay packet, quaff another Merlot and drunkenly catcall “zoooomer!”


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91 thoughts on “Assange on Scotland

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  • John Spencer-Davis

    Technicolour
    16/04/2015 12:15am

    I don’t know about that. What is being suggested (eg by the seven reporters Craig listed in his posting) is that it is a lunatic notion that MI5 (or the security services generally) are meddling in the independence movement using direct physical action.

    Kind regards,

    John

  • FergusMac

    Do remember that some of the greatest contributions Britain made to the Allied victory in World Wars I and II involved the expert use of deception.

    The Zimmerman Telegram.
    The XX (Double Cross) effort to turn every German agent that landed in the UK. Included in this was the false reporting of V1 and V2 flying bomb/missile strikes to alter the German targeting.
    Operation Masterman “The man that never was” and the invasion of Sicily.
    Patton’s made-up army that was to land at the Pas de Calais around D-day, and the use of 617 Squadron (the Dambusters) to sow window over the Channel to convince the Germans that another phantom invasion fleet was on its way, thus tying up vital German reserves which were not available in Normandy in June 1944.

    I could go on, but you get the idea. Trust Perfidious Albion as far as you can pick up and throw a Sherman tank. We are a desperate threat to them. Expect desperate measures.

    Remember Charles Stewart Parnell and Kitty O’Shea. Remember Willie MacRae. The British clandestine services have no morals and no conscience. England is everything to them. England is their love. Ignore them at Scotland’s peril.

    Alba gu bràth

  • fred

    “Is anyone suggesting MI5 aren’t persuaded that the movement for an independent Scotland is some kind of threat, for example? Because Teresa May has told them that it is:”

    No, what people are saying is that they don’t think painting of graffiti on constituency offices in Aberdeen has anything to do with MI5. That the notion is somewhat far fetched.

  • John Goss

    “I don’t know about that. What is being suggested (eg by the seven reporters Craig listed in his posting) is that it is a lunatic notion that MI5 (or the security services generally) are meddling in the independence movement using direct physical action.”

    Unfortunately John they meddle in whatever way they see fit. They don’t do it themselves of course. It is contracted out. Governments do the same. Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi US agent as I recall. Before 9/11 Aaron Russo was told by Nathan Rockefeller that there would be an event and they would be searching in caves – everything that happened. Hmmm.

  • BrianFujisan

    The Fuckers Tried to Kill me Tonight..After i had a fight With Labour in Greenock… they had an Richard Wilson from ‘one foot in the grave’ Most fitting i’d say… they are toast in Scotland…

    Anyhoo we, Listeningwater and i came close to the ol maker ( Cosmos ).. After Speeding cop car came 5 inches from Ramming my car.. Dickheads… Maybe i should Stop wearing the Desert scarf on ze napper… Aye..Righty

    Thank you Mary…

    15 Apr, 2015 – 6:27 am

    That was Very Beautiful… Cura ut Valeas x

  • Gary

    No, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that MI5 have infiltrated SNP and other parties/groups in favour of independence. When we look back it is not only pressure groups who were infiltrated but the mainstream parties too.

    Famously the scandal over Labour politicians, even holding the highest office, who were investigated and bugged with large amounts of data being held on file on them. This was forty years ago when collecting data took many more man-hours than it does now.

    This happened even as Labour were in office, it begs the question, who does MI5 work for?

    It seems that democratic processes can be set aside to further the aims of those holding the keys to number ten, rather than the aims of the people.

  • John Goss

    “This happened even as Labour were in office, it begs the question, who does MI5 work for?”

    If you think the government is under the control of neocon/Zionist money then the Secret Services were a long time before. They are supposed to be part of our security but because there is a rank system, like the degrees in masonry, those at the bottom have absolutely no idea what the agenda is of those at the top.

  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    Fred : “No, what people are saying is that they don’t think painting of graffiti on constituency offices in Aberdeen has anything to do with MI5. That the notion is somewhat far fetched”

    Do you agree with the people who think the notion is far fetched?

  • giyane

    There’s not many people who can say that they have turned from being a government agent to being a target of government agencies.

    Sometimes I think we are supposed to register what it feels like to be on the receiving end of our own mischief in order to cure ourselves of that particular temptation.

    Could we arrange for Tony Blair to experience a 10 metre hole appearing in an adjacent building, exploding his ear drums etc. or Mr Cameron to experience 800 tons of explosive being released on him in a few weeks of illegal bombing.

    If I was a prospective Prime Minister, I’d be panicking by now.
    What have they got planned for me when I win this super-dream-ego election?

    BTW I hope Mary’s treatment goes well.

  • Mary

    Cheers Giyane.

    Well and bravely said Craig. The word journalists is put in inverted commas. Indeed. They are trash and the rags that employ them too. True investigative journalists are few and far between and rarely feature in the MSM.

    Habbabkuk’s comment is his most revealing since he landed on this blog in 2012.

  • Mac Beth

    Ahem, point of order. If the UK secret police are going to do to us splittists what they did to to the tree-huggers and the animal lovers – pledge their undying love and seduce us and fuck us and cohabit with us and impregnate us and whatnot – I would if I may like to register my preferences so there are no awkward miscues. Please assign me a tall blue-eyed brunette with above-average flexibility and poor judgment. An oral fixation would be nice but it’s not a deal-breaker. Also, since this is the UK we’re talking about, do you think you can possibly find me a provocateur who doesn’t prefer 12-year-olds?

    Thanks in advance!

  • Techno

    There are two outlandish conspiracies that were eventually admitted to being completely true:

    – The 1953 Iranian coup, which was orchestrated by the CIA and MI6

    – Project Azorian in 1974 where the CIA built a vessel, the Glomar Explorer, to retrieve a sunken Russian submarine under cover provided by the film producer Howard Hughes.

    These cases are why I never dismiss conspiracy theories out of hand myself.

  • Peter

    That these people are trying to portray you as mad just shows that The Political Abuse of Psychiatry is alive and well in 21st century British politics.

    And it’s a kind of ironic that people who would consider themselves liberal democrats (in terms of political belief, rather than supporters of the party of that name) would use Stalinist tactics to try and shut down or marginalise dissent, and criticism of the powerful.

    Especially dissent and criticism that comes from a former ‘insider’, who has a good grasp of how the system actually works.

    One doesn’t even have to agree with your specific claims to recognise that penetration and subversion by the security services is at least a possibility – if not a probability – and that the issue is something that should be out in the open and up for discussion.

    Well done for raising it Craig, and for being much braver than most of the handmaidens to power that call themselves ‘journalists’ these days.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Mary

    “I am well aware of Nick Robinson’s illness, it having been widely publicised. Normally one should take time off after an operation to recuperate fully. Perhaps he fears losing his place to one of the underlings. Stress is very bad for him with his diagnosis. I wish him well.”
    ____________________

    So you called him “Whispering Nick Robinson” (in another post) merely in order to draw attention to your idea that he should have taken longer off work?

    Why don’t I believe you, I wonder.

    But I shall continue to address you as “Mary” without any preceding adjective, hope that’s OK.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Well, I wasn’t going to come back to those two posts of mine which suddenly (and rapidly) disappeared, but on the other hand, why not.

    If memory serves, they both referred to various expressions Craig used:

    “the security services are active against the Scottish independence movement”

    and

    “disruption of separatist activity in Scotland now features in MI5 tasking”

    and I was just asking what specific and concrete form(s) this “activity” and “disruption” were taking in the here and now.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    (If the argument is one of prognostication rather than of ongoing events – it does not seem to be, but that may of course be claimed – then it seems legitimate to recall another prognostication exercise which turned out to be without substance; I refer to the prognostication of a dirty tricks campaign before the referendum)

  • YouKnowMyName

    there are *real* journalists left in some countries, Nicky Hager is persisting in Aotearoa, and some of the NZ media still report on state-sponsored torture allegations.

    Mr Hager’s latest comment on Radio New Zealand is that their National Security , have not just been tasked to ‘over-collect’ correspondence on behalf of the UKUSA, but are now accused of ‘over-sharing’ with deadly third-party-groups in places like Bangladesh. A state rather irrelevant to NZ’s foreign policy.

    Journalist Nicky Hager said it was almost certain the the Government Communications and Security Bureau had helped security forces in Bangladesh torture people.

    Mr Hager said documents released by the American whistleblower Edward Snowden showed the GCSB had spied on Bangladesh since 2002.

    He claimed the GCSB had shared the intelligence it gathered on groups within the country with Bangladeshi security forces which he said were known for their human rights abuses.

    “There is almost no doubt that the information we have been giving them for almost 12 years now will have been used for torture possibly for extra judicial killings and general terrorising of Bangladesh people.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/271363/pm-refuses-to-discuss-gcsb-allegations

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11433216

    the NZ Herald goes much further on analysing the links with between 5-eyes spies and human rights abuse

    Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the spy agency was “dragging” New Zealand into human rights abuses, and the Government should stop providing intelligence assistance to Bangladesh.

    “All three key anti-terrorism government agencies in Bangladesh have been implicated in horrendous human rights abuses, so it is impossible to guarantee that the information passed on did not lead to innocent people being killed or tortured,” Dr Norman said.

    “John Key has always justified the GCSB on the basis that it is there to protect the good guys, but these documents reveal that it is helping the bad guys.

    “Most New Zealanders would find this deplorable and agree that this is not within the mandate of the GCSB.”…

    …Bangladesh has several agencies that focus on gathering intelligence, primarily including the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the National Security Intelligence agency (NSI), and the police Special Branch. The lead agency that executes the country’s counter-terrorism operations is the Rapid Action Battalion, or RAB.

    Each of these agencies has been accused of involvement in severe human rights abuses over a sustained number of years…

    …In 2010, a trade union activist accused the NSI of arresting, torturing, and threatening to kill him. The same activist was found dead in unexplained circumstances two years later, his toes and feet broken, legs and body battered and bruised, and his legs apparently pierced with a sharp object.

    Bangladesh’s intelligence agencies and main police and security forces co-operate closely. Most notably, they work together as part of a notorious centre called the Taskforce for Interrogation Cell, located inside a compound in northern Dhaka that is controlled by the RAB unit.

    In 2011, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported the interrogation cell was used as a place to extract information and confessions from “enemies of the state”.

    It was described as a “torture centre” used for “deliberate and systematic” mistreatment of detainees. One British man detained there in 2009 on terrorism-related charges was allegedly hooded and strapped to a chair while a drill was driven into his right shoulder and hip.

    Other torture methods used by Bangladeshi authorities, according to Human Rights Watch, have included “burning with acid, hammering of nails into toes … electric shocks, beatings on legs with iron rods, beating with batons on backs after sprinkling sand on them, ice torture, finger piercing, and mock executions”.

    In February 2014, the US Government suspended its own support for the RAB, citing “gross violation of human rights” committed by the force’s members. The same month, a case against the Bangladesh Government was lodged in the International Criminal Court, accusing the country’s officials of waging a brutal campaign of “widespread or systematic” torture, killings, and other human rights abuses that amounted to crimes against humanity.

    It is unclear from any of the NSA documents whether New Zealand sought or received any assurances from Bangladesh over how intelligence it shared could be used for detentions and interrogations, or whether there was any effective oversight of how the country’s agencies ultimately used the information.

    closer to home, there is one paper that takes Julian Assange’s claims seriously

    http://www.thenational.scot/news/assange-uk-spied-on-yes-campaign.2080

    Assange: UK spied on Yes campaign April 16th, 2015 – 12:19 am Nan Spowart
    No comments

    THE “full capacities” of UK security services were used to spy on Yes campaigners in the run-up to the referendum, believes fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

    Speaking yesterday by videolink to a Glasgow conference from his hideout in London, Assange said campaigners were “correct” in believing security services were involved.

    An expert in surveillance, the Australian said the prospect of independence was a “national security threat” to the UK that would have triggered the “full capacities” of the state spy network.

    In the past, Unionists have dismissed claims of spying as “paranoia” but Assange said: “No, they are not at all paranoid.

    “They are correct for a number of reasons. The attitude of the UK Government is that this is a national security issue, that Scottish independence is, in effect, a threat to the state.

    “This means that the full capacities of the GCHQ, for example, could be deployed.”

    Julian further mentioned that the anti-democratic Scottish work inside the UK spook agencies is likely to be compartmentalised, to avoid the insider threat of Scottish staff from revealing the tasking. In recent days NSA has undertaken a massive overhaul of their internal data-cloud to further limit the ‘problems’ of National Security agents with a conscience.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    The man’s at it again (more “moments”!):

    “Osama Bin Laden was a Saudi US agent as I recall.”

    and

    “If you think the government is under the control of neocon/Zionist money” (he obviously does!)

    Does he never stop to wonder how people can be expected to take him seriously when he comes out with garbage like this all the time?

    And that’s only a sample from this thread.

  • Abe Rene

    There is evidence that MI5 spied on the SNP in the 50s (http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/files-prove-that-mi5-spied-on-snp-1-1423283). Therefore it is possible that they do so now, for the same reasons. On the other hand, MI5’s interest may have been, not in the SNP as a whole but with a militant minority involved with illegal actions. Whether that included the recent spray painters of swastika and “Q” symbols on the HQs of other parties would depend on whether they were SNP members or acting independently.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    John Goss
    16/04/2015 12:55 am

    “because there is a rank system, like the degrees in masonry”

    Freemasonry does not have a rank system. A rank system implies the right to give, and the obligation to obey, orders.

    The degrees you refer to are degrees of initiation: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. A Master Mason does not have a right to give orders to an Entered Apprentice or a Fellow Craft except within the highly stylized context of the initiation ritual itself, which lasts a few minutes, is freely entered into, and can be withdrawn from at any time without penalty. No Master Mason has any right to give orders to any other Master Mason except within the highly stylized context of the lodge meeting rituals, which are freely entered into and can be withdrawn from at any time without penalty. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent has no more right to give me orders than I have to give him orders, and would receive a dusty reply if he tried.

    Kind regards,

    John

  • Mary

    Julian has also been speaking to an audience in Moscow, saying that there was no Russian or Chinese intelligence involvement in Edward Snowden’s journey from Hong Kong.

    ‘While the 2013 operation to evacuate whistleblower Edward Snowden from Hong Kong, where he faced impending arrest, involved a degree of subterfuge, no Chinese or Russian intelligence agents were involved in it, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange said.

    The rebuttal of a theory of possible involvement of Chinese of Russian special services in NSA whistleblower’s departure from China to Russia came at the Moscow premiere of a documentary detailing Snowden’s escape.’

    http://rt.com/news/249613-snowden-terminal-documentary-assange/

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    “@7.26am Wrong thread. Off topic.”
    ___________________

    If Mary were a politician, it could be said that she’s doing a bit of “brushing aside” with the above….. 🙂

    I was just a bit surprised that Mary referred to BBC reporter Nick Robinson as “Whispering Nick Robinson” despite knowing that he was recovering from an operation from cancer and that it was that which was causing him to whisper.

    I’m sure that Mary would not – for example – refer to Abu Hamza as “One Hand” Abu Hamza; nor would she find a similar reference to the consequences of her own illness in particularly good taste.

  • Mary

    8.58am. Still off topic. My original reply was on the appropriate thread which is obvious to see.

    ~~~~~

    15.04.2015

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that UK Government considered Scottish independence as a threat to the state and British security services spied on supporters of Scottish independence during the independence referendum.

    http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150415/1020934951.html

    Sputnik launched last November. Russian.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_(news_agency)

    George Galloway has a show on RT with the same name.
    https://twitter.com/rt_sputnik

  • John Goss

    “The Fuckers Tried to Kill me Tonight”

    Take it easy Brian. No amount of kung-fu is going to save you from being done in by the Rozzers. 🙂 Also, you’re better off being killed by someone else, someone who migh be brought to justice. 🙂 But of course you’re better off not being killed at all! 🙂 Stay safe mate.

  • Porkfright

    Those issuing denials of the almost certain involvement of security service involvement in this and many other matters makes me think of the Monty Python “Parrot Sketch”. Trying to pretend that the MI’s are not involved in any way is just like shouting out “It’s not dead. It’s just tired and shagged-out after a long squawk”

  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    Node: “Do you agree with the people who think the notion is far fetched?”

    Fred : “Yes.”

    “Far fetched” by what criteria? Is your belief based on facts or information, or is it your unsupported opinion?

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