I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

Terrorism and the Olympics: Let The Silly Season Begin

The first in a series commenting on media stories about terrorist and public order 'threats' to the 2012 Olympics in London.

An impressive one to start with from the Sunday Telegraph of 1 April (and no it was not an April fool). Firstly the Telegraph's David Barrett did have the basis of an actual story. He reports that MI5 believe Akhmed Zakayev, who styles himself as the exiled Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria,  is under threat of assassination in London. They understand his death has been ordered by Chechnya's Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, and are attempting to deport a suspect, named only as E1, who was also involved in the plot. 

Then it gets silly. Firstly we have the move to attach Venessa Redgrave to the story, as she is apparently friends with Mr Zakayev. This leads to the tabloid style heading "MI5 warns of death plot against Redgrave friend", and a picture of Zakayev and Redgrave that corresponds nicely with Telegraph policy of having posh totty on the front cover at least once a week.
As a general rule of thumb I adopt the political position that it is nearly always correct to be on the opposite side, on any issue, to Vanessa Redgrave, so will say no more about the politics of Zakayev. What is noticeable however is that despite this being an explicity Chechen story - all those directly involved - Zakayev, E1 and Kadyrov being Chechens, Barrett decides that this is a story about Russia, and Russians in London.

This gets particularly silly when Barrett not only connects (albeit loosely) this alleged plot with the actual shooting of Russian banker German Gorbuntsov in east London last month, but worse, the Olympics. Try this nonsense on for size:

"And it comes amid growing concern among the security services over the number of Russians in Britain who could present a danger to security, particularly with the London Olympics, identified as the biggest single target for terrorists in British history, fast approaching".

No suggestion is actually made that Russian gunmen (or Chechen?) pose a direct threat to the Olympics - probably because to attempt to do so would make Barrett look even more silly. Instead possible targetted acts of violence amongst one or two exile communities in London are  placed in proximity to an entirely seperate issue - that of Olympic security - with the hope that readers will put two and two together and get 76.

There is now 114 days left until the Olympics. I am going to do my best to log and comment upon silly stories of this type - it surely cannot be long until the Evening Standard dusts off its usual scare stories about Anarchists and public order and places them somewhere in the direction of Stratford - and we can no doubt expect an English Defence League 'threat' to be hyped out of all proportion.

I would be grateful if readers could send me examples of silly season stories that you spot. David Barrett and the Sunday Telegraph have made the early running - plenty of other lame old nags will no doubt follow.

 

Anarchist Terrorists?

I have just spotted this little gem in the January 2012 issue of Searchlight magazine.

In a two page piece by Dr Matthew Feldman of the University of Northampton's Radicalism and New Media Group, "A 2011 Report card on the faces of the British far right" comes this claim:

"Whatever his insantity ruling by Norwegian courts, that Brevik could succesfully navigate the 'terrorist cycle' alone and undetected - while simultaneously writing a far-right manifesto in excess of 1,500 pages - demonstrates an ideological commitment and willing recourse to violence which is the hallmark of self-activating terrorism, whether undertaken by anarchists, jihadi Islamists or far-right extremists."

With the exception of state terrorism, surely all terrorism is 'self-activating'? Secondly where are all these Anarchist terrorists Feldman appears to see?

Still Looking Into The Shadows: Lobster Issue 62 – December 2011 Reviewed

I was a fanatical reader of Lobster, the UK’s first journal of parapolitics, which ran in print form from 1983 to summer 2009. 

Since that winter it has been available twice a year as a downloadable pdf, something that I must admit rather cooled my enthusiasm. You can’t read theory on line, indeed I would go as far as to venture that you cannot read seriously online.  A few articles, a newspaper piece, a blog update – yes, but anymore than that does not seem to work. If someone bought me a Kindle I would give it back, even though deep down I know that we will all, eventually, be bounced into buying them by certain titles only being made available in that format.

Online Lobster is perhaps a curious beast. Issue 62 opens without any contents page or opening comments from editor Robin Ramsay, although the titles of the articles are listed on the front cover. The large font size makes it easier to read on-line, but is less practical for someone who quickly wants to print an article, or the whole thing, out. Don’t try this at home, as the saying goes.

One of the characteristics with this issue of Lobster is how Political (with a capital P) it is. The first two articles – William Clark on what he terms the ‘Cuntocracy’ and Dr T.P Wilkinson on the Tottenham riots and the era of George Soros shout at you in a way the print Lobster rarely did. Throw enough darts and you do eventually hit the bullseye – Wilkinson’s second article, on the manufactured figure of President Ronald Reagan contains a marvellous aside about Barack Obama’s lack of any political history. To see Obama as a synthetic figure, mentioned in the same breath as Reagan, is long overdue. Of Obama’s Presidential campaign, Wilkinson talks of a man “whose entire campaign relied on the illusion that there was a mass movement to which he did not even belong” (p.21) – has anyone summed up Obama better?

Some articles are still pure Lobster. Take T.J Coles on how the RAF attempted to interfere with the weather, leading to suggestions the Lynmouth flood of 1952 was man-made. This leads into a much wider consideration of weather modification as a method of warfare, and the restrictions that have been placed upon it. Old stagers also remain – Corinne Souza appears to have been writing on spook PR since I was in short trousers – although by covering the arrival and departure of Gadaffi’s spymaster Moussa Koussa she brings back to our attention a murky period in recent MI6 history. 

It is still the case that the most cogent pieces in Lobster are those written by editor Robin Ramsay. His assessment of twenty plus years of the UK’s ever changing relations with Libya rather falls flat however  – it is too short and ends before it gets going. Better is his analysis of the economic crisis and the problem it presents the Labour Party, which for a good 25 years has accepted the City as a force for good, and manufacturing as so ‘last century’. I had long forgotten Labour’s Bryan Gould – Ramsay takes us back to 1987 and Gould’s analysis which called for tougher action against bankers, and a Labour economic strategy in support of the domestic economy as opposed to the international. Gould’s arguments fell and stony ground within Labour (even though he had the initial interest of Neil Kinnock) and he eventually took his bat and ball home to his native New Zealand. Perhaps it is time Gould himself, or someone close to him, re-released his analysis? Those on the Labour left, such as Owen Jones, who at least appear interested in thinking differently from new Labour orthodoxy, may wish to consider it.

 View From the Bridge remains Lobster’s highlight. Ramsay’s asides are often spot on politically, and as a source for stories you may have missed in the previous six months, there are few better. Importantly Ramsay is aware – on topics such as Carroll Quigley or the Bilderberg Group, that material can be ‘contaminated’ by conspiracy theorists, but that does not mean the issues themselves should be ignored permanently.

 Here there is – at last – critical comment on the passing of Prof Paul Wilkinson, the doyen of UK Terrorism Studies researchers. Ramsay may not always have the energy to pick through contemporary issues, but when stirred on past events is often exemplary – his recall of Wilkinson’s role in smearing army whistleblower Colin Wallace brings much needed balance to some of the hagiographic obituaries since Wilkinson’s death in 2011. That Wilkinson lost his role as terrorism analyst to ITN for trying to foist dodgy information about Wallace onto Channel 4 should not be forgotten. 

Elsewhere Tom Easton reminds us of the importance of alumni of the British American Project to not just the Labour party but the BBC, whilst the book reviews either make you want to go out and buy the book (Robert Green’s book on his aunt Hilda Murrell) or make you wonder if the reviewer could be bothered to read more than the introduction (Anthony Frewin on Mark Olden’s Murder In Notting Hill). John Newsinger’s analysis of former BP Chief Lord Browne saddens and infuriates at the same time. How many students, struggling to pay tuition fees, know the lineage of the man who headed the Committee employed to draft higher education reforms?

The review of Ken Livingstone’s memoir prompts the (probably accurate) assessment that he will leave no real legacy, something Simon Matthews explains – at least in part – to the political commitment Livingstone and others have had to regionalism, as opposed to a civil service/Treasury Home Counties domination of our politics. Matthews has the basis of a good future article in that very argument, yet it is worth noting that new Labour tried regionalism, with a referendum on a North East regional parliament – and it was soundly defeated.

In conclusion, if you can cope with reading a download rather than an actual bit of paper, Lobster remains important, with food for thought on (most) of its pages. I would still prefer a magazine though…..

 

Of Greens, Deep Greens and Terrorism

In the 1990s, the UK, very briefly, enjoyed a unique period in its modern history.

For a little while at least, Britain appeared to lack an enemy. Communism had been defeated, collapsing in on itself. The Irish peace process, whilst experiencing fluctuations was at making the possibility of a world without Northern Ireland terrorism possible. No one had heard of Al Qaeda or the Taliban, and few, outside of Foreign Office Arabists or his London associates, of Osama Bin Laden.

Perhaps not surprisingly, some began to look rather crititically at the police Special Branches, and in particular at the domestic security service, MI5, and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. Who were these guys? What did they get up to? And how did they manage to spend so much of our money doing it? Whether related to such questions or not, these actors suddenly began to branch out, offering their expertise in other areas. The danger of emerging Russian organised crime (to take just one example) was presented as a mortal threat to our communities, and MI5 began to target alleged British gangsters such as Paul Massey in Salford. 

Suddenly we were being told in the media that the UK was awash was the potential threat of domestic terrorism. Be it from the far-right (who remembers Combat 18?) from the Animal Liberation Front, to deep greens and environmentalists. There was even a nasty World In Action hit piece on anti-fascists, never mind the usual scare stories about Anarchists. One of the few people to really research all this at the time, certainly in book form, was Larry O'Hara in his 1994 "Turning Up The Heat: Mi5 After the Cold War" - others, at some stage will no doubt follow. I certainly intend to.

Many of 'green terrorist' scares in the UK came courtesy of the Sunday Times. Eventually sustained police action followed the media, leading to the failed prosecution of the Green Anarchist group in the Gandalf Trial. I am not as familiar with the environmental movement in the United States, so do not know if the US political fringe experienced a similar odysessy in the early to mid 1990s. What did happen in the United States is a much more substantive radical environmentalist movement emerged, for example in the shape of the Earth Liberation Front.

On Monday 13 February at 10pm BBC4 is showing Marshall Curry's documentary "If A Tree Falls - A Story of the Earth Liberation Front" which covers the ELF, its actions and the states response to it. This is part of BBC2's Storyville series.

In teaching Terrorism Studies, one of the tools I have used in recent years has been to get students to consider groups like the Animal Liberation Front or SHAC and ask - is this terrorism? Is there a line where political violence is crossed,  and terrorism begins?
This attempts to circumvent the rather sterile formula of students struggling with the countless definitions of terrorism and going round and round in circles chipping at them, as it allows the discussion of actual recent cases. Marshall Curry's documentary takes a similar path - it focuses on ELF activist Daniel McGowan and the arson attacks he was accused of.

Over to you. Is this terrorism?

The Police and Twitter

Part of the fallout from the London riots has been the clear desire within the police to gain control of social media during 'emergencies'.

Press reports have suggested that the Met, and indeed certain MP's, are in favour of closing websites such as Twitter and Facebook, but they have not (yet) worked out the legal tools for doing so. In a way this is surprising. As far back as 2009 counter terrorism officers were debating the problems posed by social networking sites. Prof David Sloggett, of Kings College London's War Studies Department, told police at a counter terrorism conference in July 2009:

"Many events in the future are going to be very difficult with user-generated content allowing people to put their views online. When the police service is trying to get its arms around the problem and find out the facts, the public may be putting details online which could be in direct contradiction with what you are saying."

Police Review, 17 July 2009.

And all the indications are that the police response to this question will be - close Twitter.

Rashid Rauf: Dead and Alive?

Rashid Rauf is (or was?) a British Jihadist, originally from Birmingham, who has been linked to several international terrorist plots in recent years.

Arrested in Pakistan in 2006 at the time of the liquid bomb plot, Rauf mysteriously escaped from Pakistani custody in 2007. According to some reports he was subsequently killed in a US drone strike in November 2008. All this confusion appears too much for some intelligence and terrorist analysts. Casting my pedantic eye over the June-July issue of Eye Spy magazine, it is clear Rauf has pulled off the impossible - being directly involved in on-going terrorist plots, whilst at the same time being stone cold dead thanks to succesful US counter-terrorism initiatives!

As with many newspapers, Eye Spy has used the intelligence haul seemingly found at the time of Osama Bin Laden's capture, to revisit certain terrorist plots. According to this approach, the April 2009 Operation Pathway arrests in north west England (where a dozen men, nearly all Pakistanis, were arrested) now appear a lot less weak than they did at the time. Somewhat out of sequence Eye Spy informs us that former Liverpool John Moores University student Abid Naseer, arrested then, has since been rearrested.
Tucked away inside a piece about the intelligence haul from Abbottabad, a casual Eye Spy reader could be forgiven for thinking this rearrest was due to information found within Bin Laden's compund - the truth being of course that Naseer lost a hearing against extradition to the US as far back as January! 

Speaking of the US plot Naseer was allegedly linked to, which was due to see the New York Subway attacked in September 2010, plus a proposed attack on the media in Denmark, Eye Spy claims:

"The prime mover behind the operations was senior UK AQ (Al Qaeda) man Rashid Rauf, who controlled and managed those behind the Trans-Atlantic bomb plot" (p.26)

This would appear to suggest Mr Rauf is alive and well. But turn forward a few pages to a feature on that very liquid bomb plot and the following claim is made:

"As for Rauf - one of Osama bin-Laden's UK 'king-pins', he somehow managed to escape on 14 December 2007 from his security detail. But the CIA had the last laugh - he was killed in a Predator RPV strike on 22 November 2008" (p.33)

I have commented before that Eye Spy does not appear to employ competent proof readers, but this is ridiculous, unless Rauf is leading terrorist plots from beyond the grave. Are there any other sightings of Rauf - either dead or alive?

MI5 Returns To The Shadows

Last month a Twitter account appeared, commenting on security matters, that pertained to be from MI5.

I decided to ask MI5, via the enquiries form on their website, if this was an authorised account? Come the 18th July I received a reply from them that it was not. By now the account seemed to have vanished from Twitter, so time then for a second question: Did MI5 ask Twitter to take down the unauthorised account?

Nearly a month on, I am still waiting for an answer. Shall we take that as a yes then? More seriously, what is the point of an 'Enquiries Team' if it is unable to answer pretty basic enquiries from the general public and academics?

Who Writes Nick Fielding's Captions For Him?

Catching up on some back reading, I have been flicking through Eye Spy magazine.

The March/April 2011 issue 72 had a four page piece by Nick Fielding 'Kidnap of the Godfather' about the 2010 kidnapping and murder of Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar - Pakistan's 'Colonel Imam' a long term conduit between Pakistani intelligence and the Taliban. The British journalist Asad Qureshi was also kidnapped in the same incident, but escaped with his life.

Reading Fielding's piece it is not clear who his sources are for this article. It is very clear however that he has been badly let down by whoever writes the captions for Eye Spy. Beneath a picture of the Red Army in Afghanistan, on p.45, are the words:

"Russian soldiers pictured during Moscow's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988. The Taliban now ruled"

This is so bad it is hard to know where to start. Firstly the Soviet Union was a lot more than Russia. The Soviet Union left Afghanistan in 1989, not 1988. The government they had been backing, that of President Mohammed Najibullah, actually outlived the Soviet state, surviving until 1992. As for claiming the Taliban 'now ruled', they did not even exist as a distinct entity at the time, with most analysts charting their rise in Kandahar in the period 1994 to 1996, thanks largely to a mixture of local conditions and Pakistani support.

I am assuming a writer of the status of Nick Fielding knows all this, so the question has to be - who proof reads Eye Spy, and in particular who writes the captions?

The Mystery Of The Disappearing 'MI5' Twitter Account

On 14 July I tweeted an excellent article from Illytd Harrington, on MI5, that had appeared in the Camden New Journal of 7 July.

Shortly after I received a reply, also on Twitter, from what pertained to be the MI5 Twitter account, pointing out that the service website contains a history of the Security Service. Looking at their feed, it was obvious they were spending a reasonable amount of time following the hashtag #MI5, and then replying to things that had been said. I found this slightly odd, as more usually the overt use of Twitter by insitutions is to disseminate their press releases and statements, rather than get dragged into debate with Tom, Dick and Harry.

Over the weekend I emailed MI5, via the contact form on their website. Was the twitter account theirs? On Monday 18 July I received the following reply:

Dear Paul

Thank you for your enquiry.

This is not an authorised Security Service account.

Yours,

The Enquiries Team
The Security Service

So - who is posing as MI5 on twitter? Looking now, the account I refer to appears to have been closed, and with it all records of the tweets it sent out. Does anyone have any further information on this rather curious affair?

 

Corporations Against Violent Extremism?

Tucked behind its firewall the Sunday Times of 3 July 2011 had an interesting article about Jared Cohen, of Google ideas.

Cohen, Google and the Council on Foreign Relations were behind the recent Summit Against Violent Extremism (SAVE) held in Dublin. An advisor to first Condoleeza Rice and then Hilary Clinton, Cohen's conference brought together former gang members, terrorists, fascists and Islamists to discuss their experiences. There is also an accompanying website for this project -  Against Violent Extremism.

Am I the only person to feel slightly uncomfortable with all this? It is hardly surprising that senior figures in corporations and government will be opposed to what they define as 'extreme' - such opinions after all, may threaten both their interests and at times their person. Given this, we can hardly expect them to be neutral on the subject. Looking at the Against Violent Extremism network I did not spot any former anti-capitalists, Socialists or Anarchists, but no doubt some will appear in the future.

As good as it is for people to leave the Nazi skinhead scene or groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir, there is something slightly Orwellian at seeing the recorded 'confessions' of former radicals. Just as the UK government has been keen to expand its counter-extremism strategy from a post 7/7 concentration on Jihadists to the far-right and even animal rights activists, this international version casts its net equally wide. The further equation of youths joining criminal gangs with people joining 'extreme' political organisations is surely one that is contentious, but the case is already proven from what I read on the AVE website. Is it?

One problem with all this is that governments, and indeed some corporations, are responsible for significant acts of violence and exploitation in the world. Condoleeza Rice and Hilary Clinton have been involved with far more death and destruction than some Nazi skinhead from Sacramento, however unpleasant his views. Have those behind AVE stopped to think how their project will actually look to those currently involved in 'extremist' organisations, and even more so, at the possible contradictions behind it?

American Jihad?

Although the United States had suffered Jihadist violence on its own territory as far back as the early 1990s, many commentators still saw 9/11 as the first instance of Islamist terrorism inside the United States.

In the early days of the Obama administration, US security commentators appeared to switch emphasis from seeing the main threat as Al Qaeda or related individuals from the Middle East or Af-Pak, but - bizarrely enough - the UK. By this they meant British Muslims, with easy understanding of America's culture and few barriers on getting into the US, who were attempting or planning attacks in the country. Richard Reid and Dhiren Barot being two prominent examples. Such claims turn conventional security policy and indeed theories of international relations on their head - that at the same time one nation could be the greatest supporter of another, and at the same time pose the biggest threat to it.

This evening Radio 4's "American Jihad" documentary suggests that the emphasis has now switched again, to what may well be called the British Model - of domestic terrorism from home grown actors, often first or second generation Muslims, who have adopted Jihadi beliefs and practices. American Jihad is at 8pm this evening on Radio 4, and is repeated on Sunday at 5pm. An accompanying BBC article can be read here.

Birmingham Central Mosque To Sue David Cameron?

Over on the 9/11 Cultwatch blog, I have commented on some of the difficulties Birmingham Central Mosque will face if it goes ahead with suing David Cameron for comments he made associating them with claims Israel was behind 9/11.

Do feel free to read, and comment, on the article Prime Minister To be Sued By Birmingham Central Mosque?

On Your Marks

Yorkshire Anarchist Mark Barnsley comments on the Mark Stone/Kennedy affair in this Northern Indymedia article.

A Reply To Peter Fahy

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester weighed into the Mark Kennedy affair in today's issue of The Times, arguing in defence of the covert policing of protests. His arguments are safely hidden behind Mr Murdoch's paywall, but my letter to The Times (which may or may not appear in the 18th January issue) can be viewed below:

Sir - The arguments of Greater Manchester Chief Constable Peter Fahy (Don't Reject Covert Policing, 17 January 2011) bear little scrutiny.

 

Any cost benefit analysis of Mark Kennedy's many years infiltrating environmental activists in the UK and abroad would appear to show a distinct lack of successful criminal prosecutions despite hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money being paid to him and his controlling officers. An identical picture seems to emerge from a similar operation in Cardiff, whilst the activities of 'Lyn Watson' a second officer who joined radical circles in Leeds, appears even more bizarre.

 

In 2004, Ms Watson infiltrated the Clown Army, a group of protestors who dress as clowns on demonstrations. That same year, a group of men from Leeds were planning far more serious activities - the 7/7 bombings. Their leader, Mohammed Sidique Khan, was observed by the security services in London with individuals planning a series of terrorist attacks, many of whom were convicted as a result of Operation Crevice. Surveillance of Khan however was not continued - the rest sadly, is history.

 

That public funds could be found to monitor a bunch of clowns, but not religious extremists, suggests a rather warped sense of responsibilities. Could it be that inflitrating left wing and green activists is simply a lot safer, more in keeping with police culture and more remunerative than dangerous operations against drugs gangs or Jihadists?

 

Paul Stott

The Priorities of the Political Police In Britain

7/7 bomb plotter Mohammed Sidique Khan was considered to be a peripheral player in a group of Britons discussing terrorist attacks, so surveillance on him was brought to a close in 2004. 

Here is Khan, with fellow 7/7 bomber Shehzed Tanweer, and Omar Khyam, convicted for his role in that earlier plot, which included a plan to blow up a London nightclub. 

In the same period the Clown Army, a group of middle class idiots who dress as clowns on political demonstrations, were considered so important that undercover police office 'Lyn Watson' was paid to inflitrate them. 

Here is Watson, as part of a group of clowns who invaded the Leeds Labour Party HQ in 2004. 

Tom Lehrer stated, after Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, that satire was now impossible. This example of the priorities of the police and security services makes satire, at least as far as the UK's political police are concerned, equally redundant.

The Shooting Of Gabrielle Giffords: Some Initial Comments

Over on the 9/11 Cultwatch blog, I have written a few early comments on both the Tuscon shooting and the news that is beginning to emerge on the alleged gunman, Jared Loughner. 

Watching Fox News this afternoon, they appear pretty nervous that a backlash against the whole Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Tea Party meme is beginning. 

Wikileaks Review

Battling through Wikileaks is an enormous job - at some stage I need to go through everything in the cables concerning British Jihadism - but as in all research time is the enemy. 

One summary site, covering news articles about Wikileaks on a rolling basis is Wikileaks Review. Sections are ostensibly divided into politics, the environment, living etc etc although I actually found these to be a tad random - you are best going through them all. 

Wikileaks: An Aside?

I do not totally buy Wikileaks.

From what I have read over the past day or so, much of what has been released consists of a succession of statements of the bleeding obvious, and merely fleshes out stories (e.g. Afghan government corruption or the Saudi/BAE scandal) that have run already. 

Two interesting asides did occur yesterday, that may be worthy of greater consideration. The first was the Iranian government, via its stooge Press TV, stating that Wikileaks is merely an attempt to distract from both US domestic problems and lay the groundwork for an attack on Iran. The second was the apparent assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran, coupled with a second attack in which the intended victim survived. 

What timing! 

It is certainly possible to see the bulk of Wikileaks on Iran as laying the basis for Sunni Islam's case for a strike against Shia Iran (or more accurately the case of the Petro-Monarchies for such an attack) and what could loosely be called the 'liberal' case for bombing Iran - that a succession of countries feel genuinely threatened, that Iran is seriously developing nuclear weapons, a nuclear armed Iran and nuclear armed Israel would unbalance the world etc etc.

The thought certainly enters my mind that at least part of Wikileaks role is an attempt to ensure any US or Israeli(?) move against Iran has wider public support than the disastrous intervention in Iraq did. Proving such an assertion may be another matter entirely. That road may well be the one parapolitical researchers are traveling in the coming months. 

Over On 9/11 Cultwatch...........

I have put a small post referring to the curious lack of 'conspiracy' theories about the stabbing of Stephen Timms MP by Roshonara Choudhry. 

Read the curious case of the Zionist MP who stabbed himself and blamed a Muslim constituent? 

More seriously, for those who think the way to avoid such actions is to have a sane foreign policy that does not invade other countries and kill hundreds of thousands of their civilians, I fear you are well intentioned, but only partially correct. Holland, Denmark and France all have foreign policies that have been far more sensible than ours - but each country sadly has its own versions of Roshonara Choudhry to contend with. 

New Notes From The Borderland Website Launches

Congratulations to Larry O'Hara and his team at NfB. 

The new Borderland website is up and running, and indeed was previewed at the Anarchist bookfair last Saturday. The site combines historical articles from the magazines pages with new contemporary pieces, and also groups together writing that has dominated NfB for over a decade - for example analysis of the far-right, the 9/11 'cult' and spook agenda setting in the media. 

Check the site out today! 

Guerrilla Warfare In The UK

One of my more tiresome duties as a son with an elderly mother is making trips to garden centres. Apart from the cafe and the fresh water fish, the places leave me cold. Until this week. 

Popping into one of Cheshire's bigger centres, I spent five minutes browsing through the book section. Normally these comprise the memoirs of some minor BBC2 gardening celebrity, coupled with the odd tome on cacti, greenhouse plants and how to grow your lawn until it is the envy of your neighbours. (One upmanship is big in the gardening world)

Sighing as I battled through a section of books on World War 2, I was staggered to find a real gem amongst the usual hagiographies of Churchill, the Spitfire and the early days of the SAS. It was Guerilla Warfare by Yank Levy. Bert 'Yank' Levy was one of the fascinating group of Spanish Civil War veterans who coalesced around Tom Wintringham, and developed the idea for the Home Guard during the Second World War.  This was not envisioned as the bumbling, rather harmless outfit of Dad's Army stereotype, but as a People's Army to combat fascism, especially in the case of invasion. Stephen Cullen's "Home Guard Socialism: A Vision of a People's Army" offers in pamphlet form a recent history of these currents. 

A former Communist, Wintringham represented a particular brand of English Socialism that burned all too brightly before, during and for a few years after the war, forming the Common Wealth Party and making a considerable reputation for himself as one of the few socialist thinkers on military affairs of any consequence, and to my knowledge the only British socialist with any practical experience to consider such matters. 

Yank Levy's approach to guerilla warfare obtained a widespread circulation in the 1940s, and was reprinted by Penguin in 2008, a bargain at £5.99. Oddly it does not appear to be currently available from Amazon, so get down your local garden centre and buy a copy today! For a consideration of Levy's importance in terms of his contribution to combat, do read the appreciation The Combatives Freedom Fighter, by Phil Matthews. 

Mossad: A Critical Examination?

This evening at 8pm BBC Radio 4 runs a 40 minute documentary on the Israeli secret service Mossad.

Details of the programme, presented by BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera, can be found here.

Summer 2010 Issue of Lobster Published

Lobster is the UK's longest running parapolitical magazine. This is its 59th issue, a magnificent achievement. 

This is the second issue that has appeared only as an on-line download, as opposed to its traditional printed format. Whilst understanding many of the editor's reasons for switching to that format, it is disappointing to see that an early problem has not been ironed out. 

Unfortunately the on-line magazine is not published in the same layout as the old hard copy. This means that instead of the old style two columns of A4, you get a single large font column spread out over hundreds of pages. The volume of paper and ink required to print this out mitigates against doing so for most people - unless I suspect they have access to a work printer!

If Lobster is to be on-line, is it too much trouble for it to be on-line in its old format? 

Terry Fitzpatrick Charged With Racially Aggravated Harassment

This story comes courtesy of the blog of Ted Jeory, the former East London Advertiser editor, who has now gone down in the world and is Whitehall Editor of the Daily Express. 

Terry Fitzpatrick is a well known figure in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, be it for his past work on the Blair Peach case, for Searchlight, his letters to the Hackney Gazette or his on-line posting on blogs such as Socialist Unity and Harry's Place. According to Jeory, Fitzpatrick was arrested by the Met on May 5, following a complaint from Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote.  

On June 8 Fitzpatrick appeared at Thames Magistrates Court charged with racially aggravated harassment. 

Given this case is on-going, I have disabled comments, but will enable them when it has reached its conclusion. 

Diane Abbott, 'Socialist' Unity and Private Schooling

There is a truly dreadful article in support of Diane Abbott's decision to send her son to a private school on Socialist Unity. 

Having lectured others including Tony Blair on the issue in the past, and complained of racism when it came to the education of black boys in London, Abbott was widely seen as hypocrite when she sent her son to a private school, despite predictable attempts to play the race card in her own defence. 

That the Socialist Unity blog should make excuses for Ms Abbott is perhaps consistent with the identity politics that have dominated that blog for some years. Put simply, Abbott's many faults are to be ignored as she is the only black and female candidate for Labour leadership. 

The editor of Socialist Unity, Andy Newman, has the habit of deleting my posts on his blog, citing potential libel. This has happened to posts I have made pointing out that Searchlight editor Nick Lowles once smuggled a hidden camera into a Yorkshire Anti-Fascist Action meeting, with the footage then appearing in a hostile World In Action documentary. The second instance was when I pointed out that one of the financiers of the Respect Party, Dr Mohammed Nassem of Birmingham Central Mosque, has distributed anti-semitic DVD's about the 7/7 attacks around the mosque. 

Of these two incidents the first is pretty easy to prove - only one person at the AFA meeting went on to subsequently work on a series of documentaries with - World In Action. Nick Lowles. I am expecting the issue will be covered in some detail in the forthcoming book on Anti-Fascist Action by members of the Red Action group. As for the second, it was aired on the BBC's conspiracy files series. Dr Naseem did not sue them. Newman's actions are more about censoring critical political opinions that he cannot answer, especially when they expose the weakness of his own political circles. Just in case he deletes my comment from the thread on Abbott linked to above, here it is:

Andy Newman: “Well what is your explanation for the preference among many better off BAME parents for private schools?”

Paul Stott: That middle and upper class people from ethnic minorities are very similar to middle and upper class white people. They use their wealth to cement their advantages and to the exclusion of those without their privileges. It’s called class society Andy, and before you drowned in the liberalism of identity politics, you were still able to recognise it.

All Aboard The Bilderberg

No fresh post on here today (I'm at an Israeli Defence Forces training camp all afternoon) but I have commented on the fuss over the current Bilderberg conference over at 9/11 Cultwatch.

Check out All Aboard The Bilderberg.

Who Is Listening In?

Sadly that is not a question likely to be answered by the BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera, who has been allowed into Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham. 

You can hear his programme GCHQ Cracking The Code on Radio 4 at 5pm today. Here's one tip Gordon - they will only give away the information to you that they want to be made public. To find out more, you will need to do some ........ investigative journalism. 

More On Officer A and the Special Demonstration Squad

Firstly an interesting letter has appeared concerning Officer A, or Peter Daley as he was known to his friends in Militant/YRE.

Secondly a major moral issue emerges here when you have a man infiltrating an organisation and entering into sexual relationships with young women, who presumably would not have touched him with a barge pole had they known what his job really was.

Thirdly in terms of a strict cost benefit analysis, the police operation appears to have been a nonsense. Placing someone full time in an organisation for three years appears to have led to little or no arrests never mind major convictions. The revelation that this agents ‘intelligence’ alerted the police to the scale of the Welling demonstration is far from convincing - the world and his dog knew many activists had only one intention that day - to shut down the BNP bookshop - for good. In Class War we reproduced the Anti-Nazi League flyer for the march, changing the words "Close Down The BNP" to "Burn Down The BNP" - plenty of similar literature existed at the time.

What the issue really is about then is Youth Against Racism In Europe’s politics, and those of the various civil rights type groups Officer A also looked into. Here little or no criminal offences are being committed.  Instead these groups wish to expose police malpractice, racism or incompetence. Such inflitration looks far more like the police covering their arses than doing anything positive to protect the public. As the old cliche goes, they should be out arresting real criminals.

Finally it is worth noting that the left itself brings some of these problems upon itself - through its guillibility and niavete. Following the Welling riot World in Action attempted a particularly scurrilous expose of the revolutionary left, which included footage from inside an Anti Fascist Action meeting, where individuals appeared to be discussing committing criminal acts. How did they get this footage? Nick Lowles, now editor of Searchlight, filmed it secretly and gave it to them. Red Action give a summary of the conduct of Searchlight in the anti-fascist movement here.

If much of the left cannot even face facts about Searchlight, what hope is there of spotting the likes of Officer A?

The Special Demonstration Squad

News of police infiltration and targetting of activists in Youth Against Racism in Europe in the 1990s, using a body called the Special Demonstration Squad. 

The main coverage - including a 10 minute video, is courtesy of Tony Thompson in the Observer.  For the Police Oracle analysis, go here. 

The most interesting issue here is of course the 1993 Welling riot. At that demonstration police halted the crowd at the top of a hill, before launching a series of baton charges into demonstrators. As few armies in history have won a battle fighting up hill, it was seen at the time as pre-empting violence so the police could have a riot on their terms, not the demonstrators. 

Perhaps the evidence of 'Officer A' rather confirms this? Where it leaves those convicted of committing criminal offences in those baton charges is of course another matter..............

The EDL: Things Just Get More Potty

Browsing over at the Lionheart blog, the waters appear to be getting ever muddier in English Defence League circles.

It is hard not to collapse into paroxysms of laughter however at the blog's interview by Michael Ryan of Paul Ray. Over the years some pretty inaccurate statements have been made about Antifa, but I never thought I would read this:

"Everyone knows Antifa? Antifa is the extreme left wing anarchist movement aligned to militant Islam. In 2006 I infiltrated their training ground in Jericho the West Bank of Israel. They go there under the guise of the International Solidarity Movement, and I came back with proof they are a terrorist supporting group who only go there to be trained up so as to return back home to their host countries to cause civil unrest on behalf of their Islamist masters, which is why they are now aligned against the EDL. Tell me any of the EDL leadership who have done anything of this nature, then I will listen to those accusations of ‘Keyboard warrior’, until then its more smear for the EDL membership to discredit me"

The first action Antifa did in England was a demonstration against both the National Front and Al Mujihiroun in Traflagar Square in 2004. Several groups were present that day - a big gang of Sikhs from west London who had come to fight Al Mujihiroun, and the United British Alliance. They claimed to be opposed to racism and held a separate event away from the National Front, (does this remind you of anyone?)  but oddly enough shouted 'race traitors' at the Antifa contingent. Antifa took great pleasure in replying with cries of "You fat bastard" at one particular Sumo look a like in the UBA contingent!
At one of the first meetings Antifa held in London, Morris Beckman, a founder of the jewish 43 Group of post war anti-fascists, addressed the audience. Not bad for an organisation with Islamist masters!

Who is paying Paul Ray to come up with such fantastical garbage? Or is he so delusional he actually makes this stuff up himself?

 

 

French Lessons In Londonistan

The French academic Gilles Kepel gave four lectures to the LSE in late 2009 and early 2010 on the subjects of Islamism in Europe, Jihad, and US foreign policy in the Middle East.

I was lucky enough to make all four (for those who were there I was the big bald guy in lecture three who Kepel mocked mercilessly for my pathetic French pronounciations when asking him about the origins of the term Londonistan) Some of the themes Kepel discussed have been combined in this article "French Lessons In Londonistan" which I recommend.

Reading through it, the article does not contain Kepel's marvellous line that multi-culturalism is simply a politically term for communalism, but the gist of his thought is clear.

Todays Looky-Likey

The FBI has been rightly panned for basing a 2010 age progressed image of Osama Bin Laden on Gaspar Llamazares, a Spanish Communist.

But surely they should have based their projection on Yorkshire gun nut and BNP 'gold member' Terence Gavan? Check these images out.

 

For those who are confused, the man in the first picture is an obsessive narrow minded bigot who wanted to kill lots of people, whilst the man in the second picture is an obsessive narrow minded bigot who has killed lots of people.
Osama Bin Laden does have a bigger head though.

More on Moazzam Begg, Jihadism and Amnesty International

Yesterday I was invited to pen a little piece on Harry's Place about the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg, who is currently working closely with Amnesty International. 

I have real concerns about this. You can read the article here. 

The Curious Case Of The Multiple Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's

JFK assassination buffs have long been fascinated by one of the most curious aspects of the life of his alleged assassin - Lee Harvey Oswald.

Several fishy trails exist of someone who resembles Oswald, or someone using his name and/or variations of his name. This continued right up to JFK and Oswald's deaths - for example the much debated visits to the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City in 1963. JFK researchers have even speculated that the Warren Commission combined the life stories of two men to form its information on just who Lee Harvey Oswald was. 

It is entertaining to come across a modern version of the multiple Oswalds. 

For some time now various Americans have stepped forward to claim that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was amongst the Iranian students in charge of the hostage taking of some 400 Americans at the US embassy in Tehran from 1979-81.
We now have a British version of this, with a story emerging in November that Ahmadiejad was part of a group of Iranian consulate staff who severely beat-up Iranian exiles in London in 1984. They had broken into the Consulate to protest about the on-going campaign of executions in their country. An interview with an activist who was involved in that campaign can be found here.   

 

One obvious problems exist with the embassy Ahmadinejad's. In both cases, witnesses are being asked to compare someone who is frequently in the news today, with someone they may have seen in the flesh some 25 to 30 years ago. No easy task. 
Add to this the political background, where those wishing to isolate Iran internationally and to portray its President in the worst possible light, have an added incentive to blacken Ahmadinejad's CV. 

So - where will Mr Ahmadinejad - or one of his doppleganger's - be found next? 

Winter 2009 Issue of Lobster Published

The December 2009 issue of Lobster, number 58, is now out.

This is the first issue to be published solely online, and it can be downloaded via the Lobster website here. I'm not a great one for reading theory, or indeed any serious writing of any length on a computer screen, so I must confess I will have to print it out and study it, but at least Lobster has carried on in some format.

Ivan Khurtorskoy Remembered In London

November 16th saw the assassination of Ivan, a legendary figure amongst European anti-fascists, due to his role in Moscow Antifa. Known as Vanya, he had already survived earlier two attempts on his life, before being shot dead outside his flat. 

In Answer to the international call out by RASH and Antifa Russia, London-based Antifascist, RASH's and SHARP Skins, gathered at the memorial of the International Brigade on the SouthBank of the River Thames, on the 4th of December, to honour the memory of Ivan Khurtorskoy. 
Dedicated comrades turned up in recognition of both the fallen comrade(s) but also the need for International solidarity. A special poster was made up for the event, and the Antifa statement concludes: 

"The battle against fascism is ongoing and it is the duty of us all to act and not passively sit by and think that someone else is going to do the business for you.
Thanks goes to those who act and those who care."

 

Red Pepper, The Left and Islam: A Curious Contribution

The October/November issue of Red Pepper has an interesting essay by Alastair Crooke, entitled "Red Shi'ism, Iran and The Islamist Revolution". This is followed by two articles, critical of Crooke's views, especially in the light of events this year in Iran.

Crooke calls, in a sub-heading, for the left to develop a more nuanced and critical understanding of political Islam. He may well be right. What is more curious, and indeed disappointing, is that neither Red Pepper nor Crooke himself consider it worthwhile to inform readers that Alastair Crooke is a former MI6 officer. Indeed the influence he has had, and the opportunities he has had to speak to and with a succession of Shia leaders and organisations in the Middle East has been greatly facilitated by his own background.

Why he wishes to speak to 'the left' or considers it desireable for the left to adopt certain positions is unexplained. Surely it needs to be if Mr Crooke wishes to be heard?

The Independent, 9/11 Truth And A Bloody Good Cup Of Coffee

Anyone looking for my comments on The Independent taking adverts from the 9/11 'truth' movement - go over to the 9/11 Cultwatch blog. 

Wake up and smell the coffee....

Notes From The Borderland Returns

After a two year hiatus, the UK's premier magazine of parapolitics is back!

The autumn 2009 Notes From The Boderland contains analysis of the BNP's success at the European elections, the need for a revised strategy by anti-fascists, and the first critique yet of Searchlight's Hope Not Hate operation.
Elsewhere a significant chunk of the magazine takes on the rise of 'truth' theories with both the 9/11 and 7/7 truth movements under the microscope. Two defectors from 9/11 'truth' - Louise Evans and Mick Meaney - give their first interview about their experiences inside the world of no-planers and no-brainers! I take the opportunity to analyse the group Make Wars History, which has emerged out of the car crash that was the UK and Ireland 9/11 Truth Movement, whilst Larry O'Hara sticks his teeth, bulldog style, into the scrawny backside of the 7/7 Truth Campaign. Oh yes!

As well as the usual book reviews, updates on past stories and potshots at the great and the not so good, we have the Anarchist Studies Network, Redwatch and 'journo-cop' David Rose all coming under the cosh. With something to entertain and infuriate just about everybody - a bargain at just £4. You can buy it here, whilst the magazine will also be avilable in the next few weeks from bookshops such as Housmans and Freedom in London, and some Borders stores.

Channel 4, Anarchists and Islamists

Thanks to Pakistan Daily for drawing my attention to a forthcoming Channel 4 drama which compares contemporary Jihadist terrorism with historical Anarchist violence from the Victorian era.

According to Pakistan Daily, Channel 4 have ordered an "anti-Islamic Muslim 60 minute documentary". I can't quite imagine too many scripts have been floating around Channel 4 HQ with that exact wording on, but there you go.........

As so often with these cases, those getting most excited are those who do their own cause the most damage. Next to the above article on the Pakistan Daily website is a link to the video 'Zaid Hamid Uncensored 9/11' - the sort of denial and conspiracy nonsense about 9/11 that serves to raise more questions about Islam and rationality, rather than demolish them.

Radio 4, ACPO and the English Defence League

Yesterday evening Radio 4's File on 4 devoted forty minutes to the English Defence League and far right extremism.

You can download the programme (for the next 7 days) and get the BBC's summary of Alan Urry's programme here.

A Game Of Two Halves
Urry got down to business straight away, with the sound recording switching from the noise of an English Defence League demonstration in Birmingham to the case of Reading's would be nazi bomber Neil Lewington, and the 'private warnings' of senior police officers that a terrorist spectacular could be carried out by a far-right extremist.

The inference was of course clear - that the EDL is a conduit for or could be linked to such activity. A big claim (if it were made directly) but not one backed up by evidence. A series of short interviews were conducted with regards to the EDL activity in Birmingham - Lisa Brooks of the EDL, Salma Yaqoob from Respect and West Midlands Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Rowe. Somewhat amusingly Ms Rowe was sceptical about whether the EDL ever intended to protest in Birmingham that day. As her officers had most of their number trapped in a pub for many hours, she arguably played as big a role in that decision as the EDL!

Online Is Off Message
What was significant here was the degree to which both Asst Chief Constable Rowe and presenter Urry stressed that these were activities being organised on-line, and that although further arrests would follow regarding the violence in Birmingham (the Association of Chief Police Officer's National Public Order Intelligence Unit got a name check)  that was not enough. Rowe went on to pose the question: Is the Public Order Act now sufficient, in the era of the Internet and the speed with which it allows people to organise? I suspect she, and ACPO already have an answer to that question.

Luton Calling
Luton is a town with a comparatively long history of association with Islamic extremism (the 7/7 bombers, familiar with the town, met up there before heading into London to carry out their attacks in 2005), whilst media reports, from within and outside the Muslim community have stressed the presence of extremists in the town. Couple this with poor relations between Muslim and non-Muslim, and the town centre demonstration by an Al-Mujihiroun off-shoot against Briish soldiers, it is not surprising that Luton has emerged as one of the English Defence League's strongest areas.

Urry interviewed 'Wayne' a local EDL activist. Here it is hard not to scream frustration at the BBC. Wayne was clearly an intelligent, articulate man, yet Urry felt the need to tell us he had short hair and tattoos - information that was not given about anyone else featured during the programme. It is no use Urry speculating that the white working feels left out of political discourse or discriminated against, when he himself is repeating the offence!
Wayne was on weak ground when claiming his opposition was only to Islamic extremism (not something borne out by at least one EDL leaflet and several of its chants) but it was noticeable just how middle class many of the BBC criticisms of the EDL put forward were - they are not going about things 'the right way', they are 'not doing things properly'. The last time I heard an organisation spoken about in this manner was Fathers For Justice, and look how big they got......

Luton Council and Multiculturalism
Wayne took us on a little tour of Farley Hill Estate, and raised his objection to Luton Town taking 10 coaches of local Muslim children, for free, to Wembley last season for the Football League Trophy final. In a way this comment cuts to the heart of multiculturalism as it is currently practiced. Luton Town is uncomfortable about having a mostly white fan base when the ground is located in a largely Muslim area. Whether the fans themselves, or the local Muslim community is as concerned is not recorded, but the solution is to offer local Muslim kids a free ticket and coach trip, and to offer the kids in Farley Hill (of all colours) nothing.
When Urry put the issue of council funding with regards to local communites to Luton council's leader, she insisted that she did not like to talk in terms of white, black or Muslim communities. Neither do I, but coming from any politician, this is more than a bit rich. Is she going to say that to the local Muslim community at election time?

Next up was the governments Prevent strategy for opposing extremism, which seems to have pleased no one, but to have wasted millions of pounds. No wonder a government minister could not be found to go on the programme! A spokesman from the Bury Park Mosque and Islamic Centre discussed the attack on the mosque this summer. As is sometimes the case with racist attacks, here some irony was to be found - his was the only mosque in Luton that had already banned Al-Mujihiroun (although one wonders why the others had not?) Interestingly a significant degree of planning occured with that attack. The stolen car used in the petrol bombing, had been nicked some 9 months earlier..........

Standing Tall
Edmund Standing has carried out some interesting research into the far-right and the Internet. His argument was a straight forward one - that the Internet has made groups on the Nazi fringe far more accessible. Groups like the Racial Volunteer Force and British People's Party can now be reached easily via google, and Nazi forums can even contain information on bomb making equipment. What worries me here is the subtext - clamp down on such websites, and the police will very soon be clamping down on websites that also get on their nerves, for example by promoting and reporting on direct action. Indymedia anyone?

In terrorism studies, arguably the most difficult person to both analyse and counter is the 'lone wolf'. This could be someone radicalised at home or on-line, who does not attend any far-right meetings, is not a member of any group, but is nuturing a strong hatred and desire to attack his perceived opponents.
Two talking heads from the Crown Prosecution Service were put forward to discuss Neil Lewington (who does fit the bill of the lone wolf) and Martyn Gilleard, who does not. Gilleard was a member of a well known fascist organisation, the British People's Party, and indeed one that is riddled with suspected and actual informers. The CPS rather weakened the thrust of the argument by even misnaming the BPP as the British Nazi Party - at least read your own scripts properly!

Conclusions
Earlier this year, Police Review reported on a conference stressing the dangers of the far-right, and in particular the far-right music scene. An un-named spokesman mentioned that the focus on Al Qaeda terrorism should not distract from other threats. We rather got to the meat of this dish only at the end of the programme, when we were informed of an ACPO conference where police had talked of 'knocking over' right wing extremists. Despite this, and concerns expressed to Urry by the Met about far-right terrorism, we were expected to believe the issue was 'so sensitive' ACPO would not put up a speaker. Oh please!

It now appears a given that the government will extent its countering extremism strategy to the neo-Nazi right. As a programme, this documentary failed to prove the English Defence League is a fascist organisation. I can't help thinking however that was not its intention. Its aim was to flag up the  need for new laws - whether against the EDL itself, against certain websites, or against those organising demonstrations on-line.  If history has taught us anything, it is that we should be suspicious of giving the state more power on any issue.

Be careful out there.

On The 9/11 'Truth' Movement

This post is a plug for the other blog that I edit, 9/11 Cultwatch.

The 9/11 Cultwatch blog takes a light hearted approach to exposing the dangers of the 9/11 'truth' movement, and also looks at one or two of its offshoots. In the UK, the 'truth' movement has already spawned a ginger headed stepson in the shape of the 7/7 truth movement. Had attacks such as the 2007 Piccadilly Circus bombing led to loss of life, or the planned attack on the Ministry of Sound, we would no doubt be treated to 'truth' theories about those incidents also.

In the US, some had expected the election of Barack Obama to dampen down 'truth' theories. Would the removal of Bush, Cheney and co from Washington pull the rug from under the 'truthers' feet? Instead they have shown an impressive ability to mutate, with 'truthers' joining with the flakier elements of the Republican right to become 'birthers'. A 'birther' is someone who campaigns on the basis that Barack Obama was not really born in the United States, and thus should not be allowed to be President. To see 'truthers' and racists campaigning together is hardly exceptional to anyone who has followed the 'truth' movement for some time, as 9/11 Cultwatch has.

Finally, information is welcome on 'truth' activity in your area. The 'truth' movement has a habit of attempting to ingratiate itself with a whole host of political currents - the dangers of which, for any campaign, should be obvious. Tell them to piss off, but do ensure you network with 9/11 Cultwatch so your good work is not in isolation.

From 9/11 Truth To Birther

Webster Griffin Tarpley, one of the main 9/11 'truth' activists, has reinvented himself in the post Bush era, as a 'birther' - that section of the US right that cannot accept Barack Obama is an American citizen.

Read my analysis of WGT's most recent UK media appearance here. 

Lobster Leaves The Menu?

One depressing piece of news this summer has been the final print issue of Lobster. 

In his editorial Robin Ramsay suggests future issues will either appear as part of a blog, or as an on-line magazine. He argues that the distinction between print and on-line media is no longer important, and that Lobster has in effect been overtaken by technology. Perhaps more importantly he comments "Producing Lobster has dominated my life for a long time now and I am just tired of doing it".

That's natural - Lobster has been going for some 25 years, and getting any publication out regularly (and Lobster was as regular as clockwork) is an incredible achievement. I disagree however with Robin Ramsay's elevation of Internet material as being on a par with printed materials. To put it quite simply - you cannot read theory on-line - at least not for any length of time. The best way to read is with a book, journal or magazine in your hand, without the distraction of a computer screen buzzing away in front of your line of vision.

Whilst there are a thousand and one advantages we have gained from the Internet, it has also encouraged what I would see as a rather shallow world, where people dip in, and dip out, of various issues, often procaliming themselves as experts without any direct personal experience, and without ever having sat down and truly read anything.

I rather liked the way that Lobster went against the grain. I hope it manages to do so again.

Issue 57 of Lobster is available from stores such as Housmans in Kings Cross, nationally from stores stocked by Central Books, and also from the Lobster website. It costs £4.

An Old Secret Confirmed

Well, what half the Balkans knew, and most parapolitical researchers long suspected, appears now to have been confirmed. 

In an interview with today's Telegraph (designed to encourage Blairite MPs to defect to the Liberal Democrats) the former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown is openly described as an ex "Secret agent for MI6". 

Sadly the on-line version lacks this admission, but it explains a lot about the access Ashdown was able to gain to politicians in south eastern Europe. When they dealt with Ashdown, they knew they were dealing directly with MI6. Indeed Jasper Gerard's article states:

"He also admits to continuing to pass information to MI6 while leader of the Liberal Democrats, and that he secretly smuggled detonators into Sarajevo during the Balkans conflict".

And to think the Western media used to accuse the Serbs of paranoia!

This tells us a great deal about UK politics, and the fear that spooks engender. 

Most democracies would consider it pretty dubious to have a spook as one of their leading politicians, especially as Ashdown was so keen to position himself as the kingmaker had the 1997 general election resulted in a hung Parliament. Instead the scale of Blair's landslide was so significant, Ashdown took his bat and ball home. Even then, the political elite broadly kept mum about Ashdown's lineage. 

MI6 no doubt found someone else's tummy to tickle (George Robertson would be my guess from that era). All in all, further evidence that liberal democracies are not perhaps quite so liberal after all. Now - who will sit down and properly evaluate Britain's conduct in the former Yugoslavia in the light of these admissions..............

Twenty Years Ago Today.......

The Irish solicitor Pat Finucane was murdered at his home in Belfast.

Anyone who doubts that the British state would murder its perceived opponents should consider the following:

Who supplied the gun used to murder Pat Fiuncane?

RUC Special Branch agent William Stobie.

Who shot Pat Finucane?

RUC Special Branch agent Ken Barrett.

Who led the UDA, which claimed responsibility for the shooting?

RUC Special Branch agent Tommy Lyttle.

Who supplied the intelligence that led to the shooting?

Army intelligence agent Brian Nelson.

Oh - and the murder occurred less than a month after Home Office Minister Douglas Hogg complained in the Commons that some Northern Ireland solicitors were 'unduly sympathetic' to the IRA.

Lobster Issue 56 Published

Just before Christmas the latest issue of the UK's oldest parapolitical magazine came out. 

Nothing much changes with Lobster (a strength, not a weakness in my view) and this issue is no different. Many Lobster constants reappear each issue - that an economy based not on manufacturing but solely on moving electronic money about is untenable, that new Labour is to be seen in the context of Anglo-American political history, and that much of the media regurgitates anything spooks tell it to - but I guess some people need to be reminded of these points until they sink in. 

Of the articles in issue 56 I felt I had read Scott Newton's piece on Harold Wilson and the Cecil King 'coup' before, but that may just be my mind wandering. Simon Matthews analysis of Ken Livingstone (or more particular Andrew Hosken's book about him) was a curate's egg. Matthews does place Livingstone - correctly - as a uniquely London figure, but fails to situate that correctly in the capitals left leaning middle class. I also think he overstates Livingstone's Trotskyist associations, although Matthews is spot on in his assessment that Ken was nowhere near as radical as some people like to make him out to be, or for that matter as radical as Ken perhaps thinks he is. 

That the Metropolitan Police thoroughly captured Livingstone at some stage is an issue also worthy of serious study, especially as he appears to have remainded captured even after leaving office. ("Livingstone, His Politics and the Secret State" in Notes From the Borderland issue 3 gives an analysis of not so Red Ken up to autumn 2000, and is an article many would like to see updating to cover the intervening 8 years). 

Elsewhere Colin Challen MP examines the Bush family and its business activities (I am alone in never having heard of Challen anywhere other than in the pages of Lobster? Does he say anything in the Commons?) whilst Phillip Conford's analysis of the politics of the organic movement was a lot more interesting than it sounds. 

As usual with Lobster there is the usual extended and short book reviews. Of these, David McGregor's review of Abdul Haq Al-Ani's "The Trail of Saddam Hussein"  most moved me to go out and buy the book, although perhaps only because it is a tad more contemporary than Paul McMahon's history of British Intelligence and Ireland. Oh - and a lot cheaper!

Finally mention must be made of Danny Weston's article "Britain Spinning in the Sibel Edmonds Web". Weston certainly seems to develop a case that the UK (and other intelligence agencies) not only knew all about AQ Khan and his determined nuclear proliferation on behalf of Pakistan, but actively assisted it. If so, that begs the bigger question. Why? 

Lobster is available in London from bookshops such as Housmans in Kings Cross, Borders and direct from the publisher here. Buy it. 

The 9/11 Cultwatch Blog

This post serves to remind visitors to this blog, that I am also involved in a second blog Project. 

The 9/11 Cultwatch blog  exists to expose the dangers of the 9/11 'truth' movement. We need to resist the spread of crank theories, and the anti-semitism, hypocrisy and laziness they bring in their wake. We need to condemn Tony Blair, George Bush, Ariel Sharon and others for what they have done, (which is bad enough) not things they have not.  Progressive political movements in particular need to ensure that such nonsense does not spread in their ranks. 

Both the Green Party and the Stop the War Coalition have had to face this threat. 

In the case of the Greens, they probably have an on-going fight ahead of them to ensure the party's good name is not seriously compromised. Elsewhere, I like to think that the work that Larry O'Hara, myself and others have done has ensured, thus far, that the nonsense of 'truth' theories has not taken any root in the Anarchist movement. 

We need to continue that work in 2009. 

The Season of Goodwill To All Men?

The Hackney Gazette letters page is once again the scene of a political tiff.

This months spat is between long term Searchlight lickspittle Terry Fitzpatrick and new Searchlight writer John Page from Hackney TUC. 

Last week Terry moved away from his usual red-baiting game, to stick the knife (sadly not literally) into Diane Abbott MP. This week John replies expressing his undying devotion to Ms Abbott, Jesse Jackson, and all manner of anti-discrimination legislation.  

Surely they could save the Gazette's typesetters the bother, and simply have their arguments down the Searchlight HQ? 

Sadie Graham: A Reflection

Well, Sadie has certainly come along way since those days of sweaty Anarchists staggering around punk gigs at the Acton Arms in Hackney, then rushing off for the last train back to Brighton!

Reading of her recent arrest over the BNP members list leak, was hardly a surprise, on several levels. Firstly the split Sadie, Matt Single and Kenny Smith were central to in the BNP approximately 12 months ago has to placed in the context of the pronounced Searchlight/secret state attack on the BNP. That attack is all the more sustained given the balls up they made of the 'Secret Agent' expose of Nick Griffin in 2004, and Griffin's subsequent court triumphs. 

Secondly  the reality is that Griffin was a big enough player to ride out the challenge from Matt Single, Kenny Carter, Sadie and co. As Kaf and I argued in our article in the current Black Flag magazine, Griffins is the rather bloated face of British fascism (or as they insist on calling it, nationalism). Matt Single simply does not compare. Could it be that the BNP membership list was not published as part of some secret state plot, but simply in a fit of pique by a woman scorned? 

Time will tell, although those predicting Sadie's imminent jailing may be wide of the mark. Those working for dark forces (if she is) are rarely abandoned so blatantly..........

It is interesting to see certain obvious Searchlight tools on the far right, such as Chris Hill of Lancaster, who posted on the North West Nationalists blog blaming Griffin himself for the leak. See the comments of 'Anti-Gag' here. Nice one Chris. Quite why Griffin would take such a high risk strategy is of course not expanded upon, but honest explanations can be hardly be expected from such a quarter. A more obvious distractor flare would be harder to spot.............

Although it may be some time before the dust settles and we can really assess how damaging this whole affair has been for the BNP, the more important question is whether it has helped the cause of anti-fascism in the UK. If anything it has brought one thing home - that anti-fascists are certainly starting from a much lower base, outside of inner London, than the BNP.