Theresa May almost certainly sacked Gavin Williamson not just on the basis of a telephone billing record showing he had a phone call with a Telegraph journalist, but on the basis of a recording of the conversation itself. It astonishes me that still, after Snowden and his PRISM revelations, after Wikileaks Vault 7 releases, and after numerous other sources including my own humble contribution, people still manage to avoid the cognitive dissonance that goes with really understanding how much we are surveilled and listened to. Even Cabinet Ministers manage to pretend to themselves it is not happening.
The budget of the NSA, which does nothing else but communications intercept, is US $14.2 billion this year. Think about that enormous sum, devoted to just communications surveillance, and what it can achieve. The budget of the UK equivalent, GCHQ, is £1.2 billion, of which about 10% is paid by the NSA. Domestic surveillance in the UK has been vastly expanded and many taboos broken. But the bedrock of the system with regard to domestic intercepts is still that legal restrictions are dodged, as the USA’s NSA spies on UK citizens while the UK’s GCHQ spies on US citizens, and then the information is swapped. It was thus probably the NSA that harvested Williamson’s phone call, passing the details on. Given official US opposition to the UK employing Huawei technology, Williamson’s call would have been a “legitimate” NSA target.
Mass surveillance works on electronic harvesting. Targeted phone numbers apart, millions of essentially random calls are listened to electronically using voice recognition technology and certain key words trigger an escalation of the call. Williamson’s call discussing Huawei, China, the intelligence services, and backdoors would certainly have triggered recording and been marked up to a human listener, even if his phone was not specifically targeted by the Americans – which it almost certainly was.
Williamson of course is relying on the security services’ secrecy about their methods to maintain his protests of innocence, secure in the knowledge that the recording of him would not be produced. The existence of the recording – of which I am extremely confident – is the only possible explanation for May’s degree of certainty and swift action against one of her very few loyal allies.
All of which of course throws into stark relief the stunning hypocrisy of those who are worried that Huawei will be used for electronic eavesdropping, when they are up to their ears in electronic eavesdropping themselves. One of my heroes is the great Richard Stallman, who put it this way six years ago:
RMS: Well, it’s perfectly reasonable suspicion to me. I don’t think the US government should use operating systems made in China for the same reason that most governments shouldn’t use operating systems made in the US and in fact we just got proof since Microsoft is now known to be telling the NSA about bugs in Windows before it fixes them.
RSS: I was just going to bring this up exactly, so I was saying that the NSA recently received notifications about the zero-day holes in advance and [incomprehensible] the NSA and the CIA to just crack PCs abroad for espionage purposes.
RMS: Now, [incomprehensible] that this proves my point, which is that you have to be nuts if you were some other country and using Windows on your computers. But, you know, given that Windows has a universal back door in it, Microsoft would hardly need to tell the NSA about any bugs, it can tell the NSA about the mal-feature of the universal back door and that would be enough for the NSA to attack any computer running Windows, which unfortunately is a large fraction of them.
All the major western tech companies cooperate with the western security services. In Murder in Samarkand I gave the first public revelation that the government can and does listen through your mobile phone microphone even when the phone is ostensibly switched off, a fact that got almost no traction until Edward Snowden released documents confirming it six years later. China is full of western devices with backdoors that are exploited by western intelligence. That the tables turn as Chinese technology advances is scarcely surprising.
Personally I do not want the Chinese, Americans, Russians or British eavesdropping on me, or on each other, and I wish that they would stop. The spy games will of course continue, as they make money for a lot of well-connected people. But for any side to claim moral superiority in all of this is just nonsense.
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Gavin Williamson swore on his own children that he wasn’t the leaker. If he wasn’t, then he must have been nailed by someone who leaked just when he knew that GW would be talking to a journalist. I wonder who could have known this, and possibly done it to effectively tip off the Americans. Anyone with American blood or Americanophilia in the Cabinet…?
Williamson would have been told(quietly) if the evidence were as compelling as Craig asserts. And he wouldn’t be kicking off in the press as he’s done and making silly statements like the one you mention if they had recorded his call and it were proof.
The fact we know the duration and date of the call(from logs), suggests that was pretty much all the evidence needed to come to the conclusion that he was the source.
The capabilities for targeted surveillance undoubtedly exist, but in this case it’s probably far more likely Mark Sedwill simply gave a GCHQ contact Williamson’s mobile number and simply got his and his Telegraph contact’s call log records. An eleven minute call to a Telegraph journalist after the NSC meeting is probably all the circumstantial evidence required for May’s ‘compelling evidence’ assertion in her letter. They stated he (Williamson) was less than forthcoming when interviewed about the matter.
Williamson, it’s reported has threatened to demand a judge-led inquiry; he’s heavily criticised Sedwill’s role in his dismissal; a plea Labour say they’ll support if it comes before parliament. Some journos likened the idea to Williamson’s Geoffrey Howe moment should he follow through on his threat. Tory MPs ,who obviously see this as a way to get May out, say they’ll back a full investigation too. I guess what, if anything, Williamson does next will be interesting.
El Capo invokes the name of the Old Witch.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo invokes Iron Lady as he slams UK over Huawei decision
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has ramped up the rhetoric against Huawei, invoking the legacy of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as he urged the UK to take a tougher line on the Chinese tech firm. In an impassioned speech, Pompeo slammed the UK’s reported decision to allow Huawei to build parts of its 5G network, warning the move could put the countries’ security partnership at risk.
8 May 2019
http://www.cityam.com/277329/us-secretary-state-mike-pompeo-invokes-iron-lady-he-slams
Not surprised in the least. There are quite a few actors involved in data harvesting – not just the security services. The new DWP freephone number directs calls to a handling centre, where they are automatically answered and put on hold – usually between 15 and 45 mins – before being redirected to an agent. Data is routinely harvested from smartphones during the holding call – photographs, social media accounts etc – to determine whether the claimant’s information is factual. You can’t detect the activity on android units, but IOS devices are still an issue. Dial the DWP number from an iPhone – 0800 323 5644 – select an option and wait until you’re on hold. Switch up the sound and you can hear the activity from the remote actor.
What evidence do you have for this feet washer ?
She has more integrity and courage than all the establishment lickspittles deriding her combined.
this article isn’t about scottish independence, therefore craig must have given up that cause. nice reasoning.
As Craig has rightly stated in his article we don’t want China, Britain or America accessing our data.
The false pretext by some in here that they’d rather have Britain or the USA access their data rather than China, because China would do something nefarious with it just doesn’t wash.
At a higher level ministerial or corporate China or the USA could use data harvested to their advantage. However Britain’s own IPA, or Snoopers Charter comes down hard on its own citizens, under the guise of thwarting terrorism.
The fact is if you use a mobile phone, laptop,
or tablet GCHQ and other platforms are already collecting your data. Cyber attack on a nations economy is probably the front line now, however the world is so connected by electronic devices servers, backbones etc, that cyber attacks and data harvesting are now the norm, defending infrastructure from such attacks is of course a priority.
I was quite pleased when China spied on me when it got the chance, It had obviously read my articles on US secret weapons, especially the one about a laser satellite causing the devastating quake in Sichuan in May 2008.
When I flew from Bangkok to Beijing, It had an agent deliberately move to sit beside me so she could hear from me about what the National Reconnaissance Office et al. were up to when it came to China, and I told her everything I had discovered. She even set up a communication center in the lounge I stayed in while waiting for the flight on to JFK to report what I was doing.. While doing this, I noticed that the flight was given a special set of western pilots who the rest of the crew didn’t know, and they were certainly needed when w to land. got there because JFK was completely fogged in, and the plane almost ran out of fuel while trying.
While waiting to get on the plane, the Ministry of State Security took me aside again to makje sure that I was not a provicative agent by checking my brief case again. And it had a couple sit next to me to make sure that nothing happened to me on the flight which was almost totally composed of Asians. They wanted to make sure that I did nothing to excite them
Western agencies have never been so interested in me.
Interesting stuff Trowbridge, I’m sure your after dinner speeches are captivating to say the least.
Thanks RoS, but I never got the chance. When I had dinner with friemd David Halberstan, and Noah Chomsky, they refused to hear a word from me about the conspiracy which assassinated JFK, And when I got the berg college I was teaching at, it didn’t allow me to say a word at the dinner for speaker Michael Thompson, the Director of the institute of Historical Research at London’s Senate House, who had persuaded it to have it.
Academicsa ere most jealous about who and what gets noted.
Pity that Trowbridge, your last sentence I think sums it up, academic
oneupmanship.
Still I’m sure we in here enjoy your many anecdotal incidents and adventures, I know I do.
When the Snowden sourced stories were first emerging in the guardian back in 2013, William Hague merely stated the default of “we don’t talk about issues pertaining to national security in the this house’, a glib catch-all that basically gives the govt a free pass on accountability. Intelligence matters go through the ISC, which rarely sits and when it does sits in secret and its members are vetted before the PM approves their names. As a result the current ISC has lots of right-wing establishment types who probably aren’t remotely tech literate and probably think unlimited surveillance of the populace is just fine.
On the subject, the head of GCHQ recently gave a speech about how they need to maintain public trust going forward. I guess the tech literate people they wish to recruit are instinctively libertarian, pro-Snowden(most are) and thus many balk at the idea of being involved in bulk collection programmes and the like. If there is no transparency or parliamentary discussion allowed about what they do, how can they possibly build trust with those in the tech community?
Surely citizen’s should have a full right to know what’s being done to them in their name around bulk collection? The problem is, politicians see themselves as defenders of the security apparatus rather than our representatives, defending OUR civil liberties from an overreaching security state. They’ve taken the idea, that first role of govt is to keep citizens safe to the nth degree, and distorted its meaning to the point where they are helping those who wish to subvert democracy bringing about a highly controlled society using mass surveillance.
Goose.
Sadly in my opinion due to our love of gadgets, and a world dependent on them for just about everything, data collection will just intensify in years to come. Statecraft will employ new technologies to counter and be countered in return.
Information is power.
In Switzerland they have a system of notification i.e., by law, anyone subject to what is strictly time limited secret state surveillance and found to be innocent, has to be informed of said activities by legal obligation placed upon their security services. This was in the 2015 Lib Dem manifesto and that of the Greens too.
Also, the ECHR judgement against the UK govt in late 2018 demanded a system of notification, it’s like a digital search warrant. Tim Farron the Lib Dem leader, took quite a lot of flak from Andrew Neil over this in the leaders’ 2017 GE interviews if you recall in the run up to that last election.
Lib Dem 2017 manifesto Page 76
● Permit intercepts where justified and permit surveillance of those suspected
of serious crime and terrorism with proper judicial oversight.
● Scrap the flawed Prevent strategy and replace it with a scheme that prioritises
community engagement and supports communities in developing their own
approach to tackling the dangers of violent extremism.
● Roll back state surveillance powers by ending the indiscriminate bulk collection
of communications data, bulk hacking, and the collection of internet
connection records.
● Oppose Conservative attempts to undermine encryption.
● Notify innocent people who have been placed under targeted surveillance
where this can be done without jeopardising ongoing investigations.
Interesting info on Switzerland there, as for the Britain and the ECHR, no doubt Brexit will alter the relationship, but not in a good way, possibly less accountability in the future.
@RoS
Regarding the European Court of Human Rights(ECtHR) judgement , there are no plans for the UK to leave that court’s jurisdiction…ever…even if we finally leave the EU. It’s not the EU’s court, the EU’s court is the European Court of Justice (ECJ or in French CJEU) – it interprets and rules on EU law and the EU’s own separate Charter of fundamental rights.
The ECtHR is based in Strasbourg, France, it rules on the European Convention of Human Rights. The UK’s surveillance programmes have had adverse judgements from both courts and the govt has set and missed its own deadlines to respond to those rulings.
Would the ECtHR be open to petitions on Blair’s criminal behaviour wet Iraq, and could a judgement be enforced?
Goose.
Is this null and void then?
“Theresa May will consider axeing the Human Rights Act after Brexit, despite promising she is “committed” to its protections, a minister has revealed.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-human-rights-act-repeal-brexit-echr-commons-parliament-conservatives-a8734886.html
@RoS
She only wants to remove the convention from UK law, it was incorporated into Uk law by Labour so our judges could make rulings. Her plan would be a silly, complex move as it’s incorporated into the Scottish and Welsh devolution Acts and the good Friday Agreement. Plus, it would mean UK citizens once again having to go to Europe for redress. Tbh, Theresa May doesn’t seem to know her head from her arse , she got the ECJ mixed up with the ECtHR on numerous occasions as Home Secretary.
Leaving the ECtHR would be a terrible move and an atrocious example to set, most sensible Tories wouldn’t support moves to leave. Iirc remaining party to the ECtHR is baked into her much ballyhooed Withdrawal Agreement ,the UK will never quit. The ECtHR is comprised of 47 member states who are are contracting parties to the Convention(European convention on Human rights).
The EU is only 28 (or 27) depending on whether or not you include the UK.
I have a strong suspicion that the Tories’ dislike of the European Court of Justice is partly because they have confused it with the European Court of Human Rights – the body that ruled that UK prisoners should have the right to vote. Authoritarians do not like the idea of prisoners having rights.
Goose
Engineers like my dad could only find work in the defense industry. Their love of knowledge overpowered their personal integrity. As a result of that the UK’s technical knowledge is far higher than its moral integrity .
Whatever is the point of discussing threats from China when our own moral compass is non-existent. Any country that deploys proxy terrorists to fight its wars will , and has lost already in Syria to a country which exercises greater integrity viz Russia and China.
The weird thing about the British is their opposition to improving their moral integrity, which would make their technical knowledge useful.
Instead the PTB have chosen to use Islamist terror against the integrity of Islam.
The hole we are digging, recruiting terror against truth, greed against embezzlement, fear against creativity, all stems from Mrs Thatcher’s reversal of traditional British values. Now we see ourselves losing technologically as well as morally. Hypocrisy is not a nice thing to be accused of.
Until Britain renews its moral compass it will drift from hypocrisy to being accused of criminality. When will we kick out thevwholly unprincipled Tories?
When we are sacked from the UN like Gavin has been sacked from cabinet?
Then there will be much wringing of Tory hands that nobody could have predictedviur demise. Sorry to say deaf ears
I don’t think a Labour govt will change anything either. Maybe a Labour + Lib Dem and SNP one could, with smaller parties providing some confidence and supply arrangement as the DUP do presently for the Tories?
The real problem is Labour’s authoritarian wing aka. the Blairite PLP – basically ‘red Tories’ I don’t think they’ll even allow Corbyn to be PM for more than say six months, even were Labour to win an outright majority – a distinct possibility with how the Tories are going too..
The security services and military complex need like-minded, authoritarians in power. People who’ll let them get on doing their thing without interference. I don’t know if said security people have corrupted the democratic process , as President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned could happen, but the MIC is so big now they may well have done. Another reason why we need proportional representation for Westminster, PR systems is far harder for any cabal or group to control.
“President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned could happen”
I think Eisenhower was aware, if not of corruption then of at least the power of the Cold War to enrichen arms producers, with his Military Industrial Complex quote in 1961.
“as the USA’s NSA spies on UK citizens while the UK’s GCHQ spies on US citizens, and then the information is swapped” That was my interpretation on how it all worked, though others have not expressed it as clearly.
I think the view must be, if you cast the net wide enough you can catch just about everything and anything that could be useful. There is a lot a bad shit out there, crime etc., and it’s probably really hard to argue the civil liberties perspective against security heads demanding ever more power.
Snowden explained in an interview, that upon taking office, the first thing any new leader gets is the scary security talk; in which said leader is warned, ‘people will die, unless you maintain these ever expanding surveillance programmes’. Snowden stated he believes it would take someone willing to threaten to disband said agencies in order to force change(rollback). That person would have to be either very brave or tech qualified to argue the case.
@ Goose May 7, 2019 at 15:33
JFK had vowed to disband the CIA and replace it with an ‘accountable’ Intelligence Agency, and to retire J Edgar Hoover of the FBI, two of the many reasons contributing to his assassination.
And of course, ‘False Flag’ ‘terrorist attacks’ or hoaxes keep the fear pot simmering (as in Operation Gladio etc.).The Patriot Act with it’s draconian attack on Civil and Human Rights was printed up BEFORE the September 11th attacks.
J. Edgar Hoover gathered dirt on politicians, rivals and other powerful people, for use in blackmail and threaten to get his way. It’s amazing how in denial to the dangers those who scream ‘conspiracy theorist’ at anyone who wants better oversight, are. History always seems to repeat itself.
Hoover opened a file on Ernest Hemmingway due to the time he spent in Cuba during WWII, Hemmingway did have contact in Cuba with the Russian KGB. Hemmingway who penned the likes of the Old Man and the Sea, committed suicide later in life.
.
Now now, RoS, one of these days you’ll go too far. First your tongue in cheek remarks to Trowbridge about how fascinating his old earthquake-machine tales would be after dinner, now telling us that Hemingway killed himself at the end of his life.
Iain.
I recall reading about Hemmingway, and his legendary drinking sessions in his favourite bar. One night he ripped the urinal from the toilet wall proclaiming loudly to all in attendance within the gents loo: “I’ve pissed a fortune down this urinal so its mine and I’m taking it home”.
Hemmingway shot himself in the head, with a shotgun from of all places Abercrombie Fitch, and no he wasn’t quite at the end of his life when he did it.
Difficult to add to these interesting facts, beyond saying that this must have been in Harry’s Bar in Venice, some time after inventing his favourite cocktail of Perrier-and-Scotch no doubt, and even later surviving his own suicide. What a remarkable man, do say hello from me next time you bump into him.
«any new leader gets is the scary security talk; in which said leader is warned, ‘people will die, unless you maintain these ever expanding surveillance programmes’.»
Any politicians with some intelligence will understand that is not a prediction, it is a promise.
«Snowden stated he believes it would take someone willing to threaten to disband said agencies in order to force change(rollback). That person would have to be either very brave or tech qualified to argue the case.»
Arguing the case is pointless. My guess is that as in any corrupt organization change can only be achieved by cunning and skill, replacing corrupt people at critical moments with honest people, de-funding rotten areas, and rebuilding them afterwards, etc.; it can only be done by a very determined master of the bureaucratic game over the long time. Most spy agencies and notably the NSA seem to have collected colossal amount of personal “details” about politicians, that makes it very difficult to control them.
For a Defense minister to use his personal phone in this situation is truly frightening Any fool would have got a cheap pay as you go phone to do it and not be identified
I am aware that in the USA it is apparently possible to purchase a phone, with a new number, without providing personal identification details. Is this also possible in the UK? It is certainly not possible here in Spain, for public security reasons.
No, it isn’t.
To be more precise: you can buy a phone privately from anyone who’s prepared to sell one to you; but if you want a new SIM with a new number, then you’ll have to identify yourself to a telecom provider.
Your faith in Theresa May and Mark Sedwill is astonishing. These people lie routinely. May claimed that Assad had used chemical weapons at Douma and illegally bombed the country on the basis of that lie and contrary to international law and without even telling parliament until after – and yet you are convinced she is telling the truth and Williamson, who swears on the lives of his children, is lying. Personally, I await evidence and until it is presented, I will work on the apparently old fashioned notion of the presumption of innocence.
@ Steve Hayes May 7, 2019 at 15:59
Innocent or guilty, we are better off shot of Mr. ‘Shut up and go away’ as a Defence Minister.
Tbh, the whole lot of them are a complete horror show.
Penny ‘Mordor’ Mordaunt, will likely be just as hawkish.
Britain like the US, has lots of reasonable, intelligent people, who’d make far better leaders than those we have presently. But sadly, few of those good people want anything to do with the ‘nasty’ world of politics
My view is is, if Williamson was as exposed as Craig suggests he is (audio logs of his conversation) he’d have walked away quietly.
The very fact he’s not going quietly; writing angry columns, criticising Sedwill etc. suggests the evidence against him is more circumstantial.
Goose
Tories always lie. Swamp territory please engage low gear in low range FWD.
Now stand upside down and slowly lower the cleft in your left foot next to your big toe over your nose.. others around you are doing similar weird routines.
This British politics in 2019.
Thus handicapped by their own mendacious lies and servile obedience to the U.S. Tory politicians try to make a decision about a simple matter of technology.
If a Chinese system had a backdoor which exposed British political lies would it be a good idea to use it?
A. Yes we could in theory stop lying.
Q. When will that be?
A. When Jeremy Corbyn wins the next election.Soon.
Please give us an example of what would happen if any one of our billions of political lies hit the fan.
==> cabinet minister goes flying as if he had touched 400 volts in a fuse board.
Thank you Sir Gavin for your graphic illustration
«A. Yes we could in theory stop lying.
Q. When will that be?
A. When Jeremy Corbyn wins the next election.Soon.»
The enormously vile and venomous campaign by conservatives, newlabourists, and their “deep state” allies against Corbyn is out of all proportion to his very mildly socialdemocratic programme, so there must be something else.
My best guess is that people like Cameron, May, Blair are terrified of Corbyn becoming prime minister and demanding to to see the “real” files about Kosovo, Iraq, Lybia, Skripal, etc.; because he is not compromised by complicity so he has nothing to fear from lifting the lid. I believe that he would actually have a “live and let live” policy, reasoning bitterly that it would be better to let monstrous bygones be bygones for the sake of getting on with his domestic programme without the distraction of revisiting the crimes of the past.
But the Camerons, Blairs, Mays cannot be sure of that because he has not been compromised by complicity. Only those who have tainted by complicity are acceptable to “The Establishment” (there was a speech by G Brown just before becoming PM where he promised that he had been thoroughly corrupted by decades in London and he was not as threat to “The Establishment”).
Conversely, the supporters of Change UK have been pathetically eager to compromise themselves by complicity, not just with their votes for every nasty policy, domestic or foreign, but also in a classic case of overzealousness: here is an Early Day Motion, signed by the cream of the careerist neocon/neolibs, a few days after the first Skripal event, stating their absolute and eager complicity with the propaganda:
https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/1071
“RUSSIA’S POISONING OF SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL …
That this House unequivocally accepts the Russian state’s culpability for the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury using the illegal novichok nerve agent”
I have no idea if dark secrets exist that would rock the foundations of trust in our democracies. But if they do exist, and if they are dark as they could be( some of the stuff Craig’s explored), Corbyn might not be allowed to take power or if he’s allowed, to hold it for long.
I agree if there hidden horrors, he ought to offer to let bygone be bygones, in return for cooperation towards sensible present day reforms.
“China is full of western devices with backdoors that are exploited by western intelligence.” For once you are completely wrong. the only western devices in China currently are Mercedes and Jaguar cars, and some high-end machinery in niche industries (pharmaceuticals, etc.). On the other hand, the West is full of CHINESE devices. If you really think that your iPhone is Western, Craig, look closely at its label.
«the only western devices in China currently are Mercedes and Jaguar cars, and some high-end machinery in niche industries (pharmaceuticals, etc.).»
And lots and lots of western written operating systems and software packages, and western designed electronic parts, including Intel CPUs that are mostly designed in Israel by (allegedly ex) members of their equivalent of the NSA/GCHQ. As a result the chinese government have started many years ago a programme to develop their own CPUs and other electronic device designs, including router and telephony chips. That the USA government blocked exports of mobile phone chips to China that brought about the collapse of ZTE has surely made them very determined to invest a lot more in replacing Intel and Qualcomm and ARM and nVidia.
Remember those heady times, a generation ago, when teh interwebs was a heralded as an explosion of human knowledge and potential? Billions of networked minds, paradigm shift etc.
Instead, I am shocked and surprised, it blossoms into a tool of universal oppression and control. It is becoming (has become) an entire transfer of power from the individual to the state. No action or thought private.
Those of you who think that no-one should have this power, are entirely correct. But if not, which side would you fall on?
All pervasive mobile phone usage, must have been like manna from heaven to security folks. Everyone voluntarily carrying their own individualised ID-able tracking device, replete with camera and microphone(s) usually 3. …Yes please.
In the 1970s and 1980s even early 90s they were virtually blind in comparison.
As an illustration of how much the UK is controlled by Israel and the Zionist lobby, see what May has backed today, in the company of BLiar, Major and Cameron. This is in spite of major protests at the use of Victoria Tower Gardens and by ICOMOS ‘which advises Unesco on world heritage sites, has objected, warning that the proposal would have a “massive visual impact”’.
[..] But the prime minister will on Tuesday insist that building the centre on the site has an important symbolic meaning.
The prime minister’s words will be played at a ceremony to mark the annual British Heroes of the Holocaust award, alongside supportive video statements from her predecessors David Cameron, Tony Blair and John Major.’
Theresa May backs building of Holocaust centre near parliament
Plans for memorial and museum sparked protests over environmental impact
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/07/theresa-may-backs-building-of-holocaust-centre-near-parliament
Jonathan Cook tweet
‘The weaponisation of anti-semitism is not hyperbole. Here’s Tony Blair backing Theresa May’s plan for a Holocaust museum next to parliament, expressing the hope, after years of smears, it will damage the electoral prospects of Jeremy Corbyn (quote below) ‘
https://twitter.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1125681097482887169
‘And might it not be more fitting – and honest – for our politicians to erect a national memorial to the millions of victims of British colonial outrages? A prominent place could be dedicated to the 100,000s of Iraqis killed by Blair’s illegal invasion of their country.’
https://twitter.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1125682791516184581
Did anyone bother to ask the people of London whether they want this unsightly structure plonked there?
I agree, that it looks like an opportunity to exploit the smears against Corbyn. There’s a lot to criticise with Corbyn, but the idea he dislikes people purely because of their religion is utterly absurd.
Sharp Ears
The Iraq war was appalling but Cameron’s destruction of Libya and igniting the wsr against Syria with snipers has been even more grotesque and gruelling. Cameron’s policy in 2010 was to pay and support islamist terrorists to destroy these two Muslim countries.
The fascists who did the holocaust have been brought to trial but the fascists you mentioned who made the Muslim holocaust with their Zionist Islamist proxies have not yet faced justice.
Blair Hoon Cameron Hague nor have they been imprisoned for their heinous crimes against humanity.
If they build this shrine I pray that one day the tens of millions of victims of Blair and Csmeron’s proxy holocaust are rememberefvin the same place even though it wasn’t he victims of the first holocaust that conceived facilitated and brought to completion the second.
So much for MI5’s adequacy.
London Bridge attack: inquest told of ‘high and terrible drama’
Eight killed and 48 badly injured within 10 minutes in 2017 attack, coroner tells Old Bailey
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/07/london-bridge-and-borough-market-terror-attack-inquests-open
‘The atrocity ended when the attackers, who had taken steroids, tried to kill armed police officers, who shot dead all three.Attending the first day in court was the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, and Ian Dyson, the commissioner of the City of London police.
Butt was on MI5’s radar at the time of the attack and on its list of 3,000 terrorist suspects.
Butt was under active MI5 investigation when he struck, and was suspected of potential involvement in attack planning. He was also on bail for a criminal matter.
He was described as increasing his operational security and by 2017 worked at the Ummah fitness centre in east London, where he met his fellow attacker Redouane. He taught Qur’an classes to youngsters alongside his other co-conspirator, Zaghba.
The London Bridge attack was one of four terrorist atrocities in the UK between March and June 2017.’
Sharp Ears
I reported the imam who recited verses of the Qur’an relating to killing Christians on the day Islamic State claimed responsibility for murdering 250 tourists and Christians.
Both sttacks were commissioned by zionists to ferment tensions.
The mosque is unaware of what hsppened but the Daesh followers are muttering that I’m a Sufi because I don’t enjoy murdering innocents illegally for football team loyalty . Murdering innocent men and women is specifically condemned in the Qur’an, especially when they are worshipping Christians.
“I reported the imam who recited verses of the Qur’an relating to killing Christians”
Does the Quran even posses such verses? I’m under the impression that such words are only found in the Hadiths penned 200 years after the Quran.
RoS
If an army of Christians was to threaten war against you or an army of imposters allied to Christians like the Daesh who were created by Obama and trained in Jordan by Israel and the zio-Saudi regime then you can use verses about a similar situation.
Suicide bombing and murdering non-combatants out of context are forbidden in the Qur’an. Otherwise how could Muslims defend themselves against western proxies like Al Qaida and Daesh?
It was the context of the murders in Sri Lanka that made these verses so appalling. But we all make mistakes when we’re young
A simple yes or no would’ve sufficed Giyane, I take it the answer is no then? Hat the Quran doesn’t posses such teachings.
Of course the likes of extreme Wahhabist brainwashing could account for at least part of the misplaced idea that the Quran promotes violence towards unbelievers.
I was put under total surveillance in Manchester in 2001 and it went on for at least seven years. Computers, phone lines, mobiles, credit cards, company cars, the Full Monty.
What was savagely unamusing was the concomitant pressure to get married.
Ever proposed to a woman by saying: ‘marry me and I promise you that the perverted spooks will overhear every sexual communion we engage in!’?
A great USP, that…..
Rhys Jaggar
Awful, how did you know that you were under surveillance? – what caused it?
Rhys
Your spies are spooks. My spies are Daesh..
Actually the same gangsters from different ends of town.
I do not fear China alleged spying on me at all, I very much fear the ongoing spying by western/domestic/internet/network agencies.
Perhaps that is the issue, west want to be able to spy on their people, and China/Huawei ruin that.
Indeed.
The PRC isn’t going to build ‘datasets’ on hundreds of thousands of innocent western civilians and then try to classify/categorise everyone as western intel agencies are allegedly doing. Look at the digitalisation of medical records and how those could be used against some individual , rising politician who threatens the status quo etc.
There was a time where they’d have had to break in and use a crowbar to jemmy open a filing cabinet, now they just exfiltrate data.
«Look at the digitalisation of medical records and how those could be used against some individual»
Ah I thought too that the “central database” of medical records main motivation was to have all that data to grab in one place, instead of having to steal it or bribe/threaten a nurse/doctor in the relevant surgery. The cost of such a very expensive project could only be justified on “national security” grounds.
«I do not fear China alleged spying on me at all, I very much fear the ongoing spying by western/domestic/internet/network agencies.»
The people to fear most are indeed those who have easy access to your body or can blacklist you from jobs.
«Perhaps that is the issue, west want to be able to spy on their people, and China/Huawei ruin that.»
My very strong impression is that the “security worries” about Huwaei are entirely a pretext, because every tech supplier R&D must be thoroughly infiltrated by every major spy agency.
The real reason seems to me that the USA government want to reset the trade relationship with China and they are beating up, using whatever pretexts, to major chinese exporters to soften up the chinese government. Huawei is the second target so far, ZTE was the first major one. It simple mobster style negotiating tactics common in the NYC/NJ real estate business.
Funnier example from some decades ago: the japanese block imports of french skys “because not tested for the unique characteristics of japanese snow”, the french then block imports of japanese motorcycles “because not tested on the unique characteristics of french roads”. The japanese got it.
Rhys,
Did you get the Targeted Individual treatment,the gangstalking,street theatre etc etc?
7 years you say? I don’t doubt you.
20 years and counting here…and I’m just a simple musician.
I think they’re completely out of control.
Jm
Spooks and extremists are terrified of publicity.
I learned from this blog just how petrified they are of publicity. Cowards every one.
“The existence of the recording … is the only possible explanation for May’s degree of certainty …”
Yes, but Craig, Mrs May was also supremely confident that the Russians poisoned the Skripals.
She may be sincere in her beliefs – perhaps – but that does not mean that she is right, nor does it mean that she has actual evidence.
John 2020
I agree but even being in the possession of no recording gives her the ability to invent one.
Imho I don’t believe any words any Tories ever say, including May
Be interesting to watch if Williamson holds his ground and where he takes this from here.
Tbh, were it me in his position, and had I not discussed the various positions cabinet ministers took , in the NSC discussions – as were detailed in the Telegraph’s piece, I’d fight to clear my name. He’ll always be known as the man who leaked secrets if he doesn’t and that is ruinous to his reputation in politics certainly, but even outside politics.
Good post by CM the whole Gavin Williamson story seemed surreal. I also thought surely the Cabinet Secretary knows what was said during the call and that GW knows he knows or else what is the point of GCHQ.
Watch some of the NSA whistle blower Bill Binney interviews, films, or his evidence to a parliamentary select committee available on You Tube. He makes some interesting arguments about how bulk data collection of actual recordings serve no intelligence purpose, cost the earth and therefore are loved by contractors, bury what is relevant like a needle in a haystack, that one can have better more useful and cheaper intelligence on a targeted approach.
The benefits of bulk collection are all after the event not before the event – in being able to coerce opponents and find out who did it afterwards (although the evidence then has to be found from some other source) not stop something from occurring.
It’s like insurance: the before the event policy is cheap whilst the after the event one is bloody expensive.
Giyane,
Yes I agree.
All this post 9/11 torture paradigm is coming out bit by bit though.You don’t even have to follow Dr Katherine Horton to see its been happening to many thousands of people all over the world,all completely innocent citizens.They can’t keep a lid on such an horrific program.
«All this post 9/11 torture paradigm [ … ] such an horrific program.»
GW Bush, BH Obama, D Trump and G Williamson have all boasted publicly of regularly sentencing to death hundreds or thousands of citizens suspected of being future criminals, and having them assassinated by DOD/CIA or MI6/MOD junta-style death squads, to the delight of their voters.
But since getting rid of potential future criminals is very popular, it is not an issue.
«after Snowden and his PRISM revelations, after Wikileaks Vault 7 releases,»
There was a pretty lengthy debate pre-2001 of “Five Eyes”/”Echelon” in the EU Parliament, and its use for industrial espionage against continental business, to help USA/UK/… businesses win international bids, for example, as after the end of the cold war the spy agencies reinvented themselves as “business friendly”.
«really understanding how much we are surveilled and listened to»
Oh such innocence from young optimistic people like our blogger! “Let’s not talk about this on the phone” and “Better not to write those details in this letter” are decades if not hundreds of years old.
«All the major western tech companies cooperate with the western security services.»
This is again a lot of innocence from our young optimistic blogger, because that’s what *police forces* do, thanks to usually loosely worded laws that mandate tech companies to provide interception abilities to police forces.
In this regard the relevant UK legislation, as mentioned by another blogger, is particularly loosely worded, because “Section 94, paragraph 2 of the UK’s Telecommunications Act 1984” commands:
“If it appears to the Secretary of State to be requisite or expedient to do so in the interests of national security or relations with the government of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, he may, after consultation with a person to whom this section applies, give to that person a direction requiring him (according to the circumstances of the case) to do, or not to do, a particular thing specified in the direction.”
However the *security services* don’t necessarily act lawfully or go through legal channels, and their main activity is planting moles. As a non-expert my expectation is that the *security services* don’t want to leave any evidence trail of asking tech companies for cooperation, even when the law allows them, and I would guess that they simply plant/bribe moles in the R&D groups of all tech companies.
As a taxpayer who supports the UK security agencies if MI6/GCHQ don’t have on their payroll at least several hundred moles in R&D at Microsoft, Intel, Google, Huawei, BT, Ericcson, CISCO, Wipro, Verizon, Accenture, … they are grossly incompetent wasters of my tax money, because surely the american, indian, israeli, chinese, french, russian, … security services have hundreds or thousands of them, all busy putting in backdoors cleverly disguised as “mistakes”.
«really understanding how much we are surveilled and listened to»
As this this Tony Benn, who as secretary of state in a department of critical importance surely had extensive contacts with the security services, wrote in “More time for politics”, page 177:
“Wednesday 4 June Blair defended himself without compromise of any kind in the House on the question of truth. John Reid, the Leader of the House, had said that rogue elements in the security services had tried to attack the Government, which I think is a silly thing for him to have said, because security services know all about everybody and they would be quite ready to bring out scandal on anyone.”
«China is full of western devices with backdoors that are exploited by western intelligence.»
Oh it is much funnier than that, the New York Times not so long reported this boast by the NSA:
“The National Security Agency breached Huawei servers years ago in an effort to investigate its operations and its ties to Chinese security agencies and the military, and to create back doors so the National Security Agency could roam in networks around the globe wherever Huawei equipment was used.”
Just tried to access you via a Facebook link and a big yellow exclamation came up with these words:
Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead
Firefox detected a potential security threat and did not continue to http://www.craigmurray.org.uk. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.
Aw Shucks
Most likely explanation is that the current date on your device was probably set wrong.
@ Sharp Ears
There is a paralysis of good sense when dealing with a ‘taboo’ subjects. Unsightly wind farms, in areas of natural beauty, become worthy to save the planet and unsightly memorials placed in world heritage sites, become worthy to promote the Holocaust, and clearly are intended as a brutal in your face way of promoting certain agendas.
Although the Holocaust underpins Zionism, its been co-opted by EU. Its still called Holocaust Memorial Day, but now includes other selected genocides and promoted throughout EU as a warning of what happens if you don’t support the EU.
A bit like Remembrance Sunday being initially about WWI but now WWII and other conflicts. As a result it would be more accurate to call it Genocide Remembrance Day, but that would draw attention away from the Holocaust and invite closure examination of the named genocides.
Putting a Holocaust memorial in Parliament Square is inviting protests for cultural, let alone political reasons, but if there is none to avoid inevitable cries of “anti-Semitism” shows the power of the Zionist lobby over politicians paralysed by a word.
The crosshairs of the Western weaponry are focused on Iran today. Being turned away temporarily from Russia and China.
Mr Netanyahi decrees it.
We will not allow Iran to achieve nuclear weaponry – Netanyahu
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged that his country will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weaponry after Tehran said it intends to start rowing back on its nuclear deal commitments.
8 May 2019
https://www.rt.com/news/458703-iran-israel-nuclear-deal-weapons/
US Secretary of State Pompeo visits Iraq amid Iran tensions
5 hours ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48195747
‘The visit came days after the US deployed an aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, to the region. Officials said the deployment was in response to threats to US forces and its allies from Iran. On Tuesday it was revealed the US was sending B-52 bombers. The US has given little information about the exact nature of the reported threat, which Iran has dismissed as nonsense.’
You can judge the level of Pompeo’s desperation to put the US aircraft carrier into action. Does he want another conflagration in the Middle East? Is he acting on behalf of Netanyahu?
There is an item on the RT website where he issues a threat to Iran.
‘US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened Iran with a “swift and decisive” response to any attack on “US interests or citizens,” including those by “proxies” – leaving lots of leeway for the war he says the US doesn’t want.’
Trump’s acted as promised!
US raises tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 to 25 percent
Published time: 8 May, 2019 12:59
https://www.rt.com/business/458727-us-raises-tariffs-chinese/
What follows? Apart from what the American people think about this hike in their cost of living.
PMQs today.
Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)
Given the 2017 law requiring everyone in China to co-operate with that communist country’s intelligence services, would it not be naive to the point of negligence to allow Huawei further to penetrate our critical national infrastructure, and should we not be grateful to all those Ministers, present and former, who have opposed this reckless recommendation?
The Prime Minister
We are taking a robust risk-based approach that is right for our UK market and network and that addresses the UK national security needs. The UK is not considering any options that would put our national security communications at risk, either within the UK or with our closest allies. No one takes national security more seriously than I do, and I say to my right hon. Friend that I think my record speaks for itself.
!
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-05-08/debates/8234A80B-6B88-40F3-8994-57B381AB4BC3/Engagements
End of Days
Parliament is now to convict people of hate crime against Parliamentarians.
Next we will be expected to vote for our masters and doff our flat caps to them.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48205408
Threats and abuse to MPs at ‘unprecedented’ levels, says Dick.
Why all this brouhaha about Huawei??? What has the US being doing all these years? Good for the goose but not for the gander.
America’s accusations against Huawei are not really about security. It is about economic supremacy and the ongoing trade war with China. Huawei is in a strong position, they are one of the few companies in the World who can supply all the equipment for the new 5G standard. If left unchecked they could clean up and grow massively over the next 5-10 years.
A few interesting graphs are on this page looking at companies influence on the 5G standard.
https://www.iam-media.com/who-leading-5g-patent-race
Of the non Western companies three stand out, Huawei , Samsung and ZTE. Interestingly both Huawei and ZTE have been hit by sanctions and other challenges by Trump. With accusations of flouting sanctions against Iran, security issues and stealing secrets. For example Huawei were accused of stealing secrets from T-mobile about their robot arm. Stuff which wasn’t really that ground breaking, secret or important.
America will use its military, diplomatic and economic power to further its economic might. That is what it is ALL about.
5G on hold for at least two years whilst the wrangling goes on about locating the transmitters. The mobile phone operators, who want to use council owned street light standards, sound high handed and determined to win.
I noticed the advert for EE and 5G flashing around the sides of the Wembley pitch yesterday.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/19/revealed-5g-rollout-is-being-stalled-by-rows-over-lampposts
Google fall into line.
Google cuts ties with Huawei following trade blacklisting
19 May, 2019
https://www.rt.com/news/459756-google-stops-business-huawei/
Some of the comments say that Google IS the CIA etc etc