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

On the dangers of Iran (again)

I had a short article - just 600 words in the Telegraph over the weekend, concerning Iranian influence in the UK.

This really ought to be addressed in Yvette Cooper's 'extremism review' currently being conducted somewhere inside the Home Office. You can read the article online here, and download a pdf below.

Download Iran promotes UK extremism – it must be stopped 31 08 2024

Notes from the Borderland: Back and sizzling at the table

After a very considerable hiatus, the parapolitical magazine Notes from the Borderland is back. Issue 12 is out now, and covers an eclectic range of issues. The magazine is available in bookshops like Housmans in Kings Cross and stores stocked by Central distribution, and also via the Magazine Heaven chain.

The front cover shows the disastrous National Action rally in 2015, where the far-right's finest ended up hiding in the left luggage facility at Liverpool Lime Street station, besieged by anti-fascists and surrounded by rather nervous looking coppers. Larry O'Hara and Dave Hughes question the state response to far-right terrorism in recent years, not least when it is a phenomenon so significantly dwarfed by its jihadist rivals. A significant player in the trials involving neo-Nazis has been academic Matthew Feldman - O'Hara dissects just how low the bar may be when it comes to academic 'expertise' in some of these cases. The sorry collapse of CARR - the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right - an organisation Feldman founded, features as a perhaps classic example of the ability of some of those on the left of politics (as they would see themselves) to eat their own. The questions this debacle raises illustrate that even within an academia where it has the pitch to itself, the left's iconoclasm ensures that it is more interested in smashing up, than building institutions.

NFB is perhaps the only parapolitical magazine in the UK now appearing in print form. Old rival Lobster moved to online only many years ago, and if there are any new kids on the block (Declassified UK perhaps?) they have been born and will no doubt only ever breathe and toddle online. I think that's a shame - I don't believe the human brain can read detail or theory online for a significant amount of time. Its pleasing therefore to see Verona Silenda pick up her stiletto and wield it in the direction of artificial intelligence and the threat technology poses to both our politics and our personal freedoms. Technology of course, makes hypocrites of us all, and it was a delight to be reminded once more of Steve Booth's old cartoon, on page 50 about the primitivist CD-Rom.

One book I don't have from my days in the Anarchist movement is the Anarchist Cookbook. Heidi Svenson covers recent terrorism trials involving this text, and some of the curious specimens caught up in them - none more so than Mr Logic lookalike Oliver Bel. I have contributed a short piece on the environmental movement and its giddy approach to fascism, which it seems to see virtually everywhere, but most certainly in the production of the fossil fuels that we, for now at least, cannot do without. Comments on my article are welcome.

In general terms the magazine, while detailed, sustains a humourous tone, is well produced and is perhaps best read in chunks. As Brian Clough once said of televised football - you don't want Sunday roast every day of the week. Notes from the Borderland is a roast dinner, not a sandwich at your desk. As with any roast however, some parts are perhaps better than others. If there is a rubbery carrot served it is Dave Hughes's article 'It isn't just them.' This is almost teenage in its naiveté about pro-Palestinian marches, and the wider Gaza conflict. Contrary to Mr Hughes's rose tinted spectacles, the reason the arrest rate at these marches is 'lower than Glastonbury' is because the authorities (including the very spooks NFB is supposedly watching) have treated them as a safety valve, broadly allowing extreme behaviour, threats and support for terrorism to occur on the streets, rather than force it underground. Indeed the point is made by Neil Basu, former head of counter-terrorism policing and Sir Keir Starmer's newest buddy, that the marches are important for that very reason. Bear in mind though, that those people calling for jihad here or anywhere else are not your friend........

And there's more. There is also an NFB special issue on the 1999 London nail bombings, an outrage for which we have just seen the twenty-fifth anniversary. Details of that publication and where to order it, are here.

Recognising the Islamic Republic of Iran's threat to the UK

Last month Policy Exchange published the report I have worked on for some time - 'Tehran Calling: The Iranian Threat to the UK'.

This takes the view that the Iran poses a unique challenge to both the security and social cohesion of the United Kingdom.

Iran is a hostile state in the style of Russia or China: it seeks to interfere with our online systems and takes British citizens hostage. Yet Iran also seeks to wield social and cultural influence in this country, declaring and imposing blasphemy codes, and creating institutions that project power and influence.

You can read the report online here. A pdf can be downloaded below.

Download Tehran Calling The Iranian Threat to the UK 2024

By Satan's Hand? Perhaps...........

Behind as ever in my reading, I am just catching up with the December 2023 issue of Fortean Times (no 438, p. 10). It has a short piece on Angel Almeida who the FBI consider a dangerous figure in a Satanic organisation called 764. This we are told is an offshoot of the satanist Order of Nine Angles (O9A) and the related Tempel ov Blood.

The article 'By Satan's Hand' lacks a named author but is online here, although I would encourage anyone interested to take out a subscription to Fortean Times. FT ranges across a number of different genres, but does manage to do what John Peel famously said of The Fall, being 'always different, always the same'.

This article, is however flawed. Anything to do with the O9A is it seems contested territory, not least as some circles in UK counter-extremism, most notably the anti-fascist group Hope not Hate, wish to see the O9A proscribed as a neo-Nazi Satanic group. This gained some impetus after Danyal Hussain, allegedly influenced by the group, was convicted of murdering two women in 2021. As horrible as his actions were, and 09A is, something here does not quite add up - why would someone who is demonstrably not white, and is called Hussain, be operating in neo-Nazi circles?

Rather like Hussain, American Angel Almeida, appears to have created a blood covenant, an image of which appears both in the Fortean Times article, and below.

This drawing was smeared in blood, and Almeida is accused of coercing a girl to cut herself, and encouraging a teenage girl into sexual relations with an older man. But have a closer look at the drawing . That image is certainly familiar to me, and ought to have been recognised in the editorial process at FT. The image is of one of America's most infamous serial killers of the late 1960s, California's Zodiac Killer, about whom countless books have written. He was never caught, and his identity remains a matter of dispute. Ciphers which the Zodiac wrote have challenged experts ever since. Below is an image of the Zodiac:

Angel Almeida has one of the most notorious serial killers in history as his covenant, but Fortean Times seem to have missed it. A Guardian US report, by Ali Winston of 28 September 2023 covers the Almeida case in some detail, but does not reproduce the covenant, instead referring to "The most telling item was an O9A “blood covenant” featuring a blood-smeared drawing of a hooded figure with glowing red eyes surrounded with sigils for four O9A deities and the caption Vindex, Nythra, Satan and Abatu."

Important yes, but surely that the covenant features the Zodiac Killer was worth a mention by someone?

Two interventions on the independent review of Prevent

I neglected to post on her two articles I had published last month, discussing the long overdue independent review of Prevent, by William Shawcross.

For Con Home I asked whether anything will really be different this time - an attitude which rather percolates the response to many government initiatives, including the approach to immigration. You can read the article online here, and download a pdf below.

Download The Prevent Scheme will it be different this time Conservative Home 16 02 2023

The run up to last months Prevent review saw a series of leaks and counter leaks. For the Telegraph I asked whether the government would allow the various bureaucrats and civil servants control, or whether it would see the Prevent review process through to the end. Time will tell. The article is on the Telegraph website here. The pdf is below.

Download The Tories cant let naive bureaucrats take back control of counter terror strategy Telegraph 08 02 2023

The Islamist Attack on Salman Rushdie: Comment

On Friday 12 August an attempt was made to murder the writer Salman Rushdie at a public event in New York State.

I was quoted on the issue of Rushdie's security, and the wider threat from terrorism in the Sunday Post newspaper on 14 August. As the article does not appear to be online, I attach it as a pdf below.

Download Sunday Post Peter Swindon on Rushdie attack p 8-9 14 08 2022

14 Questions following the killing of David Amess MP

I wrote the following for the Policy Exchange website earlier this month.

You can read the text here, and as a pdf below.

Download 14 questions for ministers and police emerging from the killing of Sir David Amess MP 19 10 2021

Mumbai 26/11: The nature and impact of a state sponsored jihadist attack

Over the weekend I had a short article published in the Sunday Guardian in India, concerning the 2008 terror attacks in the city.

In it I attempt to characterise some aspects of jihadist violence, for example its anger and hatred directed at 'the other', and also discuss aspects of the impact of the attacks. For example, the view of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, was reinforced.

You can read the article on The Sunday Guardian website here, and also get a pdf of the piece
Download Nature and impact of Mumbai attacks 21 11 2020.

Now - what are my chances of getting a commission to write for the Guardian in this country?

A Jihadist Triangle: Islamic State, Britain and South Asia

On Tuesday I was part of a panel organised by the European Foundation of South Asian Studies, on Islamic State in South Asia. This should have been held in Geneva at the United Nations as one of the side meetings by accredited organisations at the UN HRC, unfortunately Covi19 forced us onto zoom.

Along with Malaiz Daud from Afghanistan and the analyst Tim Foxley, we spent two hours battling through the nature, characteristics and ambitions of Islamic State, as well as discussing more generally the Afghan peace process, Pakistan's influence in the region and America's intentions.

My twenty minute presentation, delivered in a somewhat wintery blue jumper, can be seen below.

On The Death of Harold Covington

Yesterday the death was announced of US Nazi Harold Covington, best known in recent years for his attempts to establish a 'white homeland' in the pacific north west of the United States. Here in the UK, Covington had a degree of public recognition for a brief period in the early 1990s, where he lived here in Britain, and helped to establish the Combat 18 group.

To see some initial reaction to his death, his Northwest Front group's initial comment can be seen here, and the Southern Poverty Law Center's obituary here. One issue with Covington was the belief in sections of the far-right that he was not what he claimed to be, and was working for the FBI or some other intelligence or law enforcement agency. This view was perhaps helped by a media tendency to link Covington to the 1979 Greensboro massacre, where five members of the Communist Workers Party were killed at an anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstration. Covington was never charged with any offence in relation to that incident, but gave provocative media interviews stating he did not give a "happy damn" about the demonstrators, and they got what they deserved. If Covington was a spook or asset it would make his time in England, and role in establishing a neo-Nazi group which flirted with terrorism, all the more significant.

Way back in 1995, Larry O'Hara attempted to analyse some of the conflicting threads around C18, Covington and the security services. That article was published in issue 30 of Lobster magazine, and you can also read it on the Notes from the Borderland magazine website here.

It is always useful to go back to articles, even after twenty years, see how they stand the test of time, and how we might examine events anew today. Whether fresh information emerges about Covington, now he is safely out of the way in Valhalla, remains to be seen.

Brendan Cox, Survivors Against Terror and the Manchester Bombing

The 22nd May was a year to the day since the Manchester Arena bombing in which 22, mostly young people and children, were killed.

To coincide with events held in Manchester, the Survivors Against Terror group (SAT) issued an open letter in the Observer of 20th May (scroll down here), calling for five distinct positions to be adopted against terrorism. This received considerable media coverage, see for example that from the BBC. The main figure in SAT is Brendan Cox. Whilst he resigned from positions in two charities linked to continuing his wife’s work in February, his work on countering terrorism was not mentioned at the time. Even when he has been publicly labelled a sex pest, it is perhaps rather difficult to condemn him when he is standing with fellow victims of terrorism. That of course is precisely the type of thing he will have calculated into his thinking, as he seeks to return to public life.

The SAT intervention has a five point programme it seeks support for:

• Please keep your focus on honouring the memory of those who have been killed. Terrorists often attack partly to gain notoriety. We should deny them it; their names don't deserve to be remembered.

• Give to appeals to help the victims of attacks and demand government provide the high quality services that survivors need.

• Ask media and social media organisations to do far more to take on and shut down those driving hate.

• Support our emergency and security services to do their job. If you know something or suspect something, tell them.

• Take on hatred wherever you find it. Very few of us will ever meet a terrorist, but lots of us will experience those driving hatred. Hatred is the sea that terrorists need to swim in, if we take on that hatred, we dry up that sea.

It would be interesting to know who wrote this, or developed the draft. Points 1, 2 and 4 are so anodyne as to be agreeable by virtually anyone, not least those who have suffered bereavement in terrorist incidents. Points 3 and 5 are more contentious, and open up a potential agenda – restricting social media, and acting against ‘hate’ that is more debateable, and entirely in keeping with political agendas from liberal elites and their little helpers.

Social Media and Terrorism?

Terrorism long predates social media – the IRA campaign, or that of the various loyalist groups from 1969-98, hardly needed it, even if the technology had existed. Historically, explanations for terrorism have considered concepts such as injustice, poverty, bad foreign policy, or the nature of, and trends within, ideologies and belief systems, serving to radicalise individuals and groups. Social networks are also important – you are more likely to join a terrorist group, if friends are doing so. That is why some towns, like Portsmouth, appear to have had Islamic versions of First World War ‘Pals Regiments’ going off to Syria. Cox and co ignore all of this. Instead the problem is the media and social media, and the wide, perhaps all too wide concept of ‘hate’.

There is little evidence social media played any role in the Manchester bombing.

The bomber, Salman Abedi, was a supporter of Islamic State, and a Mancunian of Libyan heritage. His father, Ramadan Abedi, was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organisation the British government helped to overthrow Gadaffi. Salman Abedi had long moved in Islamist circles in Greater Manchester, and fought in Libya in 2011 in its Civil War. His brother Ismail Abedi is currently in custody in Libya, fighting extradition to the UK.

But - there is nothing here from SAT or Brendan Cox on foreign policy, immigration or religion. Is it a good idea to be allowing members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to settle in Manchester? Why did the British government seemingly support the overthrow of Colonel Gadaffi, then work with him against the Islamists, then change course again, to support regime change? What does Theresa May, either the Home Secretary or Prime Minister in much of this period, have to say? There is nothing from SAT on breaking up friendship groups of extremists - in the months before the attack, Abedi twice visited a convicted terrorist in prison. Should we be allowing young men convicted of supporting terrorism to hang out in jail with impressionable young men from the streets?

Taking on 'hatred', requires a definition of hatred that is agreed upon by a majority of the populace. How likely is that? Whilst elite level groups and government departments can readily agree (debating terminology is one of the things they do) such a consensus is unlikely to emerge from where it is needed - the bottom up. And where does any definition of ‘hate’ sit with the concept of free speech?

What Next?

The deployment of victims of terrorism to promote the idea that social media is in some way a ‘cause’ of terrorism is now underway. At the same time, there seems to have been a low level purge on Twitter of ‘extremist’ voices, most prominently of Tommy Robinson. In due course, that is likely to be extended to You Tube, and Nigel Farage has made the accusation that algorithms are being used to censor conservative comment on Facebook.
That, combined with loose accusations of ‘extremism’ or ‘hate’ is likely to be at the centre of the work of groups like Hope not Hate, and it seems, Survivors Against Terrorism, going forward. It avoids asking hard questions about foreign policy, immigration policy and (almost certainly) it avoids asking hard questions about trends within contemporary Sunni Islam. Consider all those politicians and news readers talking about ‘Daesh’ or ‘so-called Islamic State’ to see how readily euphemism can predominate. It risks conflating those involved with violence, with those who are not. And it will almost certainly serve as one of the fronts in the conflicts over politics we will see over the next 18 months.

Do you trust Brendan Cox to define what constitutes ‘hate’?