Geen evolutie en ecolutie zonder revolutie!

Albert Einstein:

Twee dingen zijn oneindig: het universum en de menselijke domheid. Maar van het universum ben ik niet zeker.
Posts tonen met het label M. Curtis. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label M. Curtis. Alle posts tonen

maandag 13 april 2020

MI5 en MI6 blij met Coronavirus om blunders bij bomaanslag te camoufleren

De Britse geheime diensten zijn blij met het Coronavirus, zo kon men de enorme blunders verbergen die tot de bomaanslag in de Manchester Arena hebben geleid.... De verantwoordelijke terreurgroep Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is een aantal jaren gesteund door de Britse geheieme dienst, daar deze terreurgroep Khadaffi omver wilde werpen...... Na een mislukte aanslag vluchtten een aantal LIFG leden naar Groot-Brittannië waar ze asiel kregen...... De leden werd geen strobreed in de weg gelegd als zij naar het buitenland afreisden en uiteraard als ze terugkeerden....

Overigens blijkt uit gelekte documenten van MI6 dat deze dienst al in 1996 vergevorderde plannen had om Khadaffi, de voormalige president van Libië, middels een staatsgreep af te zetten..... Khadaffi dezelfde man die van Libie het rijkste land van Afrika maakte, waar studie en scholing (voor jongens en meisjes), huisvesting, gezondheidszorg en energie praktisch gratis waren...... Na ingrijpen van de VS en haar NAVO-partners beleef een land achter dat in puin lag en dat nu tot de armste landen van Afrika behoort, een land waar chaos en terreur heersen (met toestemming van het western) en waar zelfs openlijk slavenmarkten worden gehouden..... Ofwel: het zoveelste waanzinnige 'succes' van grootschalige westerse terreur!!!

De bomaanslag in Manchester was een grote misser van de geheime diensten MI5 en MI6, zoals die er al een fiks aantal op hun conto hebben, terwijl deze diensten (ook andere geheime diensten zoals 'onze' AIVD en MIVD) na elke 'islamitische aanslag' meer geld en bevoegdheden eisen en dat meestal krijgen, i.p.v. deze diensten eens tegen het licht te houden om de efficiëntie te onderzoeken......

Na elke aanslag in EU lidstaten, maar ook in de VS, blijkt dat geheime diensten deze hadden kunnen voorkomen, was men meer alert geweest en men bepaalde figuren beter in de gaten had gehouden......

Terzijde: opvallend dat de Nederlandse geheime diensten al in 2016 hebben gewaarschuwd voor een tekort aan IC bedden en beademingsapparatuur mocht er een pandemie uitbreken, iets waar Rutte 2 noch Rutte 3 iets mee hebben gedaan. Echter als het gaat om aanslagen laten ook 'onze geheime diensten' (zoals gezegd) het afweten in het voorkomen daarvan......

Het volgende artikel werd geschreven door Tom Coburg en werd op theCanary gepubliceerd:

The shocking story ‘lost’ in the coronavirus crisis that MI5 and MI6 would prefer you didn’t see

Tom Coburg 6th April 2020

The shocking story 'lost' in the coronavirus crisis that MI5 and ...

On 17 March 2020, Hashem Abedi was convicted of the murder of 22 people at the Manchester Arena. They died as a result of a bombing carried out by his brother, Salman Abedi, who died at the scene. Hashem Abedi was found guilty of aiding his brother in this heinous act, which also saw 237 people injured.

Following the trial, the corporate media rightly focused on the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. Perhaps this explained why there was little mention in the press of how MI5 failed to monitor Libyan jihadists properly in the part of Manchester where the Abedis lived; or of how MI6 may have helped radicalise the jihadist group that the Abedi brothers, via their father, were linked to. 

Blowback’

Journalists Mark Curtis and Nafeez Ahmed previously argued that the Manchester bombing was “blowback” for UK foreign policy and intelligence operations in Libya, saying:
While a number of factors operate to contribute to an individual’s radicalisation, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that one of these contributory factors is British direct and covert action in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Without these actions – by Britain and its close allies – it is conceivable that [Salman] Abedi might well not have had the opportunity to become radicalised in the way he did.
MI6 was responsible for covert action in Libya. Monitoring of exiled Libyans in Britain was down to MI5. 

MI5 and the LIFG

In the wake of terror attacks in London and Manchester, a former senior policy adviser to David Cameron commented on how Theresa May should accept responsibility, tweeting:



Theresa May responsible for security failures of London Bridge, Manchester, Westminster Bridge. Should be resigning not seeking re-election
View image on Twitter


Indeed, under May’s watch there was an apparent catalogue of failures by both MI5 and the police to follow through on warnings and intelligence.
As RT previously reported:
An official report into the attack, conducted by David Anderson QC, noted that: “On two separate occasions in the months prior to the attack, intelligence was received by MI5 whose significance was not fully appreciated at the time. It was assessed at the time not to be [related to] terrorism but to possible non-nefarious activity or to criminality on the part of Salman Abedi.
In retrospect, the intelligence can be seen to have been highly relevant to the planned attack.”
In particular, it was under May that MI5 reportedly conducted an ‘open door’ policy for the Manchester-based LIFG (Libyan Islamic Fighting Group). One LIFG fighter told Middle East Eye that MI5 had inspected but returned their passports and that counter-terrorism police at Heathrow Airport were told to let them board their flights. As for Salman Abedi, Middle East Eye reported that:
after his father returned to Libya in 2011 to fight for LIFG, Abedi reportedly travelled back and forth between his home and Manchester and Tripoli, and fought alongside his father during the school holidays.
MI6 and regime change
As the Guardian reported, many LIFG members had escaped Libya and arrived in the UK after a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi failed:
When that plot – which some claim was backed by MI6 – failed, the LIFG was pursued by Gaddafi’s security forces. A large number fled to the UK, where they were granted asylum on the grounds that as opponents of Gaddafi “our enemy’s enemy is our friend”, and many went to Birmingham and Manchester – home to established Arab communities that had found work in the cities’ engineering industries.
A leaked top-secret CX (MI6) document – with the title LIBYA: PLANS TO OVERTHROW QADAHFI IN EARLY 1996 ARE WELL ADVANCED – shows details of that plot. According to the document, an agent referred to as ‘Tunworth’ admitted contacts between the assassination plotters and extremists. They were described as “Libya veterans who served in Afghanistan”, i.e. people with connections to groups like al-Qaeda. Explanatory notes to that document suggest that the permanent under secretary’s department, GCHQ, MI5, the Ministry of Defence, and MI6 stations in Tunis, Cairo, and Washington all knew of the assassination attempt in advance.

As Mark Curtis observed:
The plot went ahead in February 1996 in Sirte, Qadafi’s home city, but a bomb was detonated under the wrong car. Six innocent bystanders were killed, and Qadafi escaped unscathed.
MI6 also played a pivotal role in the alleged rendition of LIFG leader Abdel Hakim Belhaj, who was subsequently tortured by Libyan intelligence. Several incriminating documents retrieved by Human Rights Watch showed the extent to which MI6 head Mark Allen personally intervened and assisted the Libyan authorities in the matter.
Blowback revisited
Libya is currently one of the most unstable countries in north Africa. There are now reports of Syrian jihadists allied to Turkey providing support to the Tripoli-based government of national accord.

Covert intelligence operations can lead to unforeseen results, and it’s impossible to predict how events would have panned out had Britain not interfered in the geo-politics of that region. But while politicians who oversaw those operations appear to have emerged relatively unscathed, the same can’t be said for the ordinary folk who merely wanted to attend an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
==================================
Voor meer berichten over Libië, MI5, MI6, LIFG, Al Qaida, AIVD, MIVD en/of Coronavirus, klik op het betreffende label, direct onder dit bericht.

maandag 23 september 2019

De 7 oorlogen die GB voert zonder parlementaire controle

The Canary bracht vorige week woensdag een artikel van Fréa Lockley, waarin zij een artikel in the Daily Maverick, geschreven door de journalisten Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard, aanhaalt en waarin te lezen is dat Groot-Brittannië minstens 7 oorlogen voert, oorlogen waarop geen parlementaire controle is en die de reguliere media in GB voor het grootste deel verzwijgen.......

GB voert oorlog in: Afghanistan, Irak, Libië, Pakistan, Syrië, Somalië en Jemen....... (waar in het laatste land met hulp van o.a. GB een genocide wordt uitgevoerd....) Deze oorlogen worden in feite gevoerd zonder dat daar zoals gezegd parlementaire controle op is, zo melden Curtis en Kennard....... Wat betreft Libië nog een opvallend nieuwtje (althans voor mij): het blijkt dat GB al onder Khadaffi bezig was om onrust te zaaien in dat land..... Kortom het was niet 'de Arabische Lente' die een groep mensen in opstand bracht, maar het zoveelste geval van opstand organiseren door de VS (CIA) en GB in een soeverein land....... (een land dat van het rijkste land van Afrika, waar bijna alles gratis was voor de bevolking, na de bemoeienissen van het westen, veranderde in het bijna armste land van Afrika..... Een land volledig in chaos en nog steeds in oorlog gedompeld.....)

Over Jemen: opvallend en ook al niet bekend bij mij is het feit dat speciale Britse troepen naast militaire training ook meedoen aan geheime militaire missies in Jemen, waar de Saoedische terreurcoalitie zoals gezegd een genocide uitvoert.... (dat feit kan niet vaak genoeg benadrukt worden, zeker daar de reguliere westerse media dit woord mijden 'als de pest.....') Overigens ook speciale troepen uit de VS zijn af en aan op Jemenitische bodem....

Wel was bekend dat GB militaire training geeft aan Saoedische militairen in Saoedi-Arabië en dat GB de ene grote levering van oorlogstuig na de andere levert aan de reli-fascistische dictatuur Saoedi-Arabië, dan gaat het niet alleen om wapens en munitie, maar ook om vliegend, varend en rollend oorlogstuig...... Het voorgaande ondanks een stop op wapenexport naar S-A, dat gaf zelfs conservatief politicus Liz Truss toe...... Wapenleveringen waarmee in feite de wet werd overtreden.....

Niet alleen aan de genocide in Jemen verdient GB geld, maar ook aan de andere oorlogen waar haar leger aan meewerkt (oorlog voeren voor het bedrijfsleven....)......

Here’s evidence of the ‘seven covert wars’ the UK’s fighting right now

Fréa Lockley  
18th September 2019

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor Here’s evidence of the ‘seven covert wars’ the UK’s fighting right now

Many people in Britain live under the illusion that war happens ‘out there’ and only involves other countries across the globe. But as new evidence from journalists Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard demonstrates, this isn’t true. The UK’s currently engaged in “seven covert wars”. And our government also continues to profit from these wars.

Zero parliamentary or public oversight”

Curtis and Kennard’s article in the Daily Maverick reveals that UK special forces (UKSF) are currently engaged in conflict in: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Yet the nature of UKSF operations means that our “political system enables ministers to conduct secret wars in our name with zero parliamentary or public oversight”. 

As the authors explain:

The British government states that its policy on the covert wars it fights is “not to comment, and to dissuade others from commenting or speculating, about the operational activities of special forces because of the security implications”.

Added to this, the UK’s Freedom of Information Act gives “absolute exemption” to UKSF activities. So this makes it virtually impossible for anyone to question or “scrutinise policy”. And if any information is leaked to the establishment media, there’s another layer of control in place.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) DSMA* committee works:
to prevent material deemed damaging to the national security interest from being published in the media.

So any leaks that do emerge, must first be “approved” and “sanctioned” by the DSMA committee. As the article also shows, these covert wars often take place “alongside MI6”:

The UK’s special forces are shielded from all forms of democratic accountability. Currently they are fighting wars in at least 7 countries, often alongside MI6, who are also completely unaccountable.

Both are taxpayer funded. @markcurtis30 and me reporthttps://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-17-britains-seven-covert-wars-an-explainer/ 

But another crucial factor is that in most of the seven countries named, the UK government also profits from selling arms to parties leading those same wars. Since 2008, UK arms export licences totalled £44bn.

Yemen

Saudi Arabia has been leading an assault on Yemen since 2015. The situation’s now the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”. According to Curtis and Kennard:

British special forces have been secretly working in Yemen since at least 2016, while the UK’s Ministry of Defence has been covertly supporting the Saudi air campaign in the country.

In 2016, the government stated:
There are no UK Armed Forces personnel based in Yemen.

But as this article demonstrates that simply isn’t true. It notes that a 2016 report from Vice News:

based on interviews with UK officials revealed that British special forces were in Yemen. They were, in fact, seconded to MI6, which was training Yemeni troops fighting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

Curtis and Kennard detail all the evidence of further involvement of UK forces in Yemen. But UK arms exports also prop up this same war. Arms exports to Saudi Arabia are currently on hold. Yet Liz Truss has since admitted the government broke the law. It shipped £261,450 worth of equipment to Saudi Arabia despite this ruling.

And the UK government recently invited delegates from state-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) to the world’s largest arms fair – Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEI).

Afghanistan

In July, a UN report found that:
more civilians were killed by Afghan and international coalition forces in Afghanistan in the first half of this year than by the Taliban and other militants

As the article shows, UKSF play a role in this:

By 2018, the SAS was reportedly fighting almost every day in Afghanistan, usually in support of Afghan commandos leading the battle against the Taliban.

It states that by mid-2019 there were still about 1,000 UK troops in Afghanistan. And, yet again, there’s further profit here for the UK government. Since 2016, UK arms exports to Afghanistan totalled over £42m.

Money, money, money

Curtis and Kennard paint a harrowing picture of the true extent of UK involvement in so many global conflicts. And in too many of these, it’s impossible to ignore the UK’s integral role in the current crises.

For example. chaos followed the NATO bombing campaign of Libya in 2011. David Cameron was instrumental in a military assault that left the country both splintered and a perfect playground for terrorists. But not only did the UK play a leading role in the bombing campaign, it also facilitated unrest in the country while Muammar Gaddafi was in power.

Similarly, the illegal invasion of Iraq caused huge devastation. It also helped unleash a wave of terror around the world that we still see today.

As Curtis noted, taxpayers pay for UKSF:

Image below is a military base we’re not allowed to know of, for a regiment we’re given no information on, that’s fighting 7 covert wars hidden from the public. Which we pay for. Good that UK is democracy otherwise SAS might just be totally out of control. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-09-17-britains-seven-covert-wars-an-explainer/ 

And yet our government still profits from death.

As Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) notes, since 2016, UK arms deals totalled:
Curtis and Kennard’s research is meticulous. The UK is involved in covert wars. Our government doesn’t want us to know this. Neither does it want us to know how much it rakes in from global arms deals. We can’t ignore these facts.


Featured image via Flickr – ResoluteSupportMedia

* DSMA: Defence and Security Media Advisory

vrijdag 20 september 2019

Historicus spreekt schande over gebrek aan onderzoek door reguliere media naar Britse banden met dictaturen

Mark Curtis, een historicus maakt zich flink pissig over het gebrek van de reguliere media om de Britse regering te confronteren met haar groeiende banden met repressieve regimes, ofwel dictaturen. Curtis begrijpt het niet helemaal, maar de media in GB (en de rest van het westen) zijn er vooral om de bestaande neoliberale status quo te bewaren, maar dat terzijde......

De Britse minister van internationale ontwikkeling. Andrew Murrison, heeft gesteld dat GB een sterke partner is van 'de Egyptische reis' die tot economische hervormingen* moet leiden...... De Britse regering ondersteunt momenteel 16 projecten in Egypte, inclusief het UK Action Against Corruption Programme (UAACP)........ Voorts werkt GB ook op het gebied van 'veiligheid' samen met Egypte......  

De neoliberale Britse regering had zelfs het gore lef te stellen dat de Egyptische overgang naar democratie de potentie heeft om een voorbeeld in de regio te zijn..... (als het gvd niet zo'n enorme puinhoop was in Egypte wat betreft de schendingen van mensenrechten, executies enz., zou je je daadwerkelijk doodlachen......)

In 2013 heeft het Egyptische leger bij de coup van al-Sisi 900 mensen vermoord en meer dan 1.000 mensen (van licht tot zwaar) verwond......

De Egyptische overheid martelt, verkracht en dood tegenstanders en ondanks dat steunen westerse landen, waaronder Nederland de Egyptische dictatuur..... De VS is de grootste 'donor' van de bloedige dictatuur in Egypte en geeft het land jaarlijks 1 miljard aan militaire hulp....... GB steekt in totaal 67 miljoen pond in Egypte en dat voor 16 projecten......

En dan durft het westen nog steeds een grote bek over de democratisch gekozen Syrische president Assad te hebben en dat op basis van leugens, terwijl in Egypte de mensenrechten openlijk worden geschonden, een land dat de ene misdaad tegen de menselijkheid na de andere begaat.......

Historian calls out media for failing to question UK’s ‘ever-growing’ links with repressive regime

Ed Sykes  
18th September 2019

Afbeeldingsresultaat voor Historian calls out media for failing to question UK’s ‘ever-growing’ links with repressive regime

On 17 September, historian Mark Curtis slammed the media for failing to hold the British government to account over its increasing links with Egypt’s repressive elitist regime. Tweeting a screenshot of a recent government announcement, he said:

UK has an “ever growing economic partnership” (and military) with Egyptian regime whose deep repression is also ever-growing. But fortunately for Whitehall, the corporate media corps is so disciplined there will be none of those embarrassing news articles. bit.ly/2kkRobp
View image on Twitter

An ‘ever-growing partnership’ amid corruption allegations

The 15 September announcement quoted international development minister Andrew Murrison calling the UK “a strong partner of Egypt and its economic reform journey” and speaking of “our ever-growing economic partnership”. Indeed, the British government currently has 16 ‘active projects’ in Egypt, including the UK Action Against Corruption Programme ([UAACP] with a budget of £39,126,318) and two Egypt Country Programmes (with a combined budget of £27,992,471).

The latter pledge to “support Egypt’s economic reform agenda in support of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme”, and also involves “security cooperation”.

Elsewhere, the UK government has said:
Egypt’s transition to a democratic state has the potential to be the role model for many other states in the region.

At the moment, however, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is facing allegations from a former military contractor that he has spent “millions of dollars of public money on palaces, villas, and hotels”. And as academic Dalia Fahmy told Middle East Eye:
This comes at a time of [IMF-backed] austerity programmes in Egypt, the rising cost of basic goods, and at a time where President Sisi has asked the average Egyptian to sacrifice even more for the future of the country…
For the average Egyptian to see state funds misappropriated to bankroll the building of luxury homes for the president and his family during times of austerity, that seems to cut deeper than the revelation of government corruption.

El-Sisi has denied misusing public funds.

Unprecedented levels of repression” (and Western support)

In an open letter to the UN Human Rights Council on 17 September, 18 organisations (including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders) insisted:
Since the last review of Egypt’s record in 2014, human rights violations have increased sharply and the undersigned organisations and our partners have documented unprecedented levels of repression against human rights organisations and human rights defenders.

As signatory Human Rights Watch explained:
The organizations made a series of recommendations concerning the death penalty, torture, violence against women and girls, detention of activists and rights defenders, and a crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly, among other human rights violations.

Despite the above, the UK isn’t the only “strong partner” of el-Sisi’s regime. The US is also a major long-term supporter of the state. As Reuters reported in 2015, “Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. military assistance after Israel”. In fact, it routinely gets over a billion dollars in military aid each year.

Earlier this month, the US released $1.3bn in military aid. An official memo “waived human rights conditions” despite admitting that el-Sisi has “restricted freedom of expression”, “actively prevented civil dissent and cut down on democratic reforms”. The Egyptian government also approved constitutional changes in April which could see el-Sisi stay on as president until 2030 while increasing his “power over the judiciary”. In 2014, 47.5% of Egypt’s eligible voters participated in an election where the vast majority elected him as president. Then, in the 2018 elections, only 41% of voters turned up to vote – again handing him an overwhelming victory.

When will the media hold our governments to account?

El-Sisi overthrew Egypt’s democratically-elected government in a military coup in 2013. Weeks later, he oversaw a state massacre of civilians. This caused over 900 deaths and injured over 1,000 people. And as Al Jazeera reported in August 2019, “no one has ever been brought to trial and the Egyptian government has yet to transparently investigate the massacre”.

Despite the allegations of corruption and mass repression, however, Western support remains.
The US still gives el-Sisi’s regime vast amounts of military aid; and the UK continues to sell it weapons. They do exactly the same with many other brutal regimes around the world. And amazingly, they still act like they have the moral authority to lecture other nations on democracy and human rights.

You’ll see almost no coverage of this in the corporate media, though. Because that wouldn’t be good for business.

We deserve so much better – from both our politicians and our media. And we’ll only get that when we stand up and demand better.

Featured image via YuoTube – goingunderground RT
=========================================
* Economische hervorming aan de hand van een IMF programma, waarbij het volk nog verder wordt uitgekleed dan voor mogelijk werd gehouden.....

PS: begrijp overigens niet dat men nog steeds met vakantie naar Egypte gaat, zal er dan ook geen traan om laten als Nederlanders en andere toeristen bij een aanslag om het leven komen.....