Imagine my hilarity when the front page headline new “Iranian plot”, trailed by MI5 as involving weapons stores, attacks on the Israeli Embassy and on Whitehall, turned out to be yet another faked “surveillance operation” against Iran International, the “media company” that is dodgier than Al Capone’s accountant.
The BBC still made it the second item on Saturday’s main news, as “Iranian Terror Plot discovered”. Three men have been charged and remanded on bail before a hearing at the Old Bailey on 6 June.
This is another exercise of the UK’s draconian new legislation, the openly fascist National Security Act 2023, where it is an offence to gather information, whether classified or not, as “Engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service”.
This is an incredibly low bar – prosecutors don’t have to prove there is any actual contact with a hostile power. So if you take a photo of Downing Street, as many tourists do, that can be an offence as it could be “useful” to non-existent “Iranian terrorists” or others. We already have one person in jail for taking photos of Iran International despite absolutely zero evidence that he had ever had any kind of contact with Iran.
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