Manchester, Libyan Blowback, and Corbyn's Heresy
Earlier this week UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gave a speech that was almost universally considered to be political suicide.
And speaking in London, he will say the West needs an effective response to ISIS that “fights rather than fuels terrorism”.
He will vow that a Labour government would change the UK’s approach – signalling British troops would be brought back home.
“We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is simply not working,” he will say...
One senior Tory said: “This speech is offensive, insulting to those who have sacrificed their lives abroad defending us at home and totally out of touch with the mood of the country.”
...But an ex-Labour frontbencher told the Sun: “It’s clear he’s making a link between the efforts of our troops and Manchester.
“This weak and warped world view only gives comfort to Britain’s enemies. Patriotic Labour MPs will be appalled .”
Why would Corbyn say this?
What could have possibly inspired him to say that the Manchester suicide bomber had something to do with UK foreign policy?
Corbyn may not have given details on the connection, but there is a direct link.
MI6 appear to have funnelled foreign fighters with suspected links to al-Qaeda from the streets of Britain to Libya. Salman Abedi and members of his close family, who are now arrested, were among these people. Abedi would go on, it is alleged, to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
Yes, that is as bad as it sounds.
Abedi was an MI6 terrorist asset that came home after being trained in the arts of terrorism.
Three quarters of all foreign fighters in Libya came from Manchester.
Game, set, match. Corbyn wins.
But wait. It gets even worse.
During Gaddafi's reign, Britain's foreign intelligence agency, MI6, sponsored a group of mujahideen who had recently fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets. They were to assassinate Gaddafi himself. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) was allegedly given $160,000 for a failed assassination attempt in February 1996, in which several bodyguards were killed. MI6 had strange bedfellows while they propped up the group - Osama bin Laden was also reportedly financing the group at the time.
When the so-called "war on terror" began, however, the LIFG was swiftly proscribed. The fact that they denied any formal alliance with Osama bin Laden was irrelevant to British authorities. In 2004 MI6 arranged for an exiled LIFG leader, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, to be transferred into Gaddafi's torture dungeons, with the Libyan intelligence chief saying, "This was the least [the UK] could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built in recent years".
In 2011, however, following the Arab Spring, the LIFG was suddenly back inside the British tent.
So the spooks at MI6 funded terrorists, betrayed them, and then supported them again.
Who could have guessed that this would go poorly?
Not Home Secretary Amber Rudd who said Corbyn's statement was "outrageous".
Not Defence Secretary Michael Fallon who said Corbyn was "wrong to link foreign policy to terror", ignoring the fact that UK's Libyan policy was terror.
So why the phony outrage by the UK political elites?
Guess who was Home Secretary when the UK was exporting terrorism to Libya? The current warmonger in chief, Theresa May.
And as Home Secretary, May attended a total of fifty-five national security council meetings on Libya, between March and November 2011. Yet that council’s report [pdf] on Libya fails to flag up any implications for domestic terrorism in Britain.
Some might say that there was no way for May to know...except that Muammar Gaddafi warned the UK in 2011 that he was opening Pandora's Box.
No thought to the consequences was ever considered.
David Cameron’s intervention in Libya was carried out with no proper intelligence analysis, drifted into an unannounced goal of regime change and shirked its moral responsibility to help reconstruct the country following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, according to a scathing report by the foreign affairs select committee. The failures led to the country becoming a failed a state on the verge of all-out civil war, the report adds. The report, the product of a parliamentary equivalent of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, closely echoes the criticisms widely made of Tony Blair’s intervention in Iraq, and may yet come to be as damaging to Cameron’s foreign policy legacy.
It concurs with Barack Obama’s assessment that the intervention was “a shitshow”, and repeats the US president’s claim that France and Britain lost interest in Libya after Gaddafi was overthrown. Cameron has refused to give evidence to the select committee. In one of his few reflections on his major military intervention, he blamed the Libyan people for failing to take their chance of democracy.
For now the establishment is attempting to use the "How dare you!" method of dealing with Corbyn's statement of truth/heresy. However, it doesn't appear to be working.
Home Sec Amber Rudd says connecting UK foreign policy + terrorism is "outrageous". But 66% of voters disagree with her + back Corbyn's view. pic.twitter.com/lFAqqFrLAq
— C4 News FactCheck (@FactCheck) May 26, 2017
Comments
There's a great scene...
in the British version of House of Cards where a bomb goes off down the street from the Prime Minister's office. The PM shoots a look at his henchman. The henchman just shrugs and says, 'It's not one of ours."
And that was a BBC show.
After all those years of IRA troubles, the Brits are much less naive than we are about who the various purveyors of political violence might be three weeks before election day with the PM's numbers tanking and the DFH making inroads with Brexit voters.
So the PM has operational ties to the Manchester bombers. Well. well.
I suppose the fallback now is that the MI6 asset decided to go rogue after watching Corbyn deliver his rousing Manifesto just a few days before?
I guess terrorists must not like speeches about economic justice.
I know the Tories don't.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
This is really screwed up. The only thing I can think of is
the world is run by sociopaths (at best) and psychopaths (in general.
What just freaked me out is that I'm no longer surprised.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Well, if you think about it
they all are connected in so many ways. Many of them intermarry so their psychopathy just becomes an inherited trait perhaps. Somewhat snark as I'm not really sure that is inherited but you never know. That's how I think of these fuckers now - too inbred to see their flaws and too damned interconnected to get rid of.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
@Amanda Matthews
If you look at the boards of directors of big European multinationals, you will find lots of old European oligarchs, as well as ties to British intelligence. The two most important institutions to look at are Barclays and HSBC. HSBC is the old Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which was established during the Opium Wars specifically for the purpose of banking and distributing profits from the opium trade which destroyed China. Do you remember back in 2008 or 2009, a top official at the World Bank or IMF admitted that the world financial system actually would have collapsed were it not for the hundreds of billions of dollars in dirty money? Even back in the 1970s and 1980s, much of money behind leverage buyouts and mergers and acquisitions was dirty money.
Yes, most of the world's elites are installed by, or at least tolerated, if not actually part of, some very evil, vicious people. As Balzac observed in 1834: Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait, which has come down to us, a bit simplified, as At the base of every great fortune there is a great crime.
- Tony Wikrent
Nation Builder Books(nbbooks)
Mebane, NC 27302
2nbbooks@gmail.com
This word sums up the Libyan war quite well.
"Shitstorm" It's nice to see Barack admit that letting Hillary talk him into overthrowing Gaddafi was a bad idea. Looks like he forgot his campaign motto. "Don't do stupid stuff"
What was that Orwell saying?
Corbyn was "wrong to link foreign policy to terror", ignoring the fact that UK's Libyan policy was terror.
If we could get more people to understand the reason for why they hate us.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
What ?
They hate us (and, presumably, the Brits) for our freedoms!! Dontcha know? Besides, how are you gonna get all that on a bumper sticker? /s/
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
I made the mistake of saying that to my son
My son who has served over in Afghanistan. He was quick to point out that while some, perhaps, hate us for our "freedoms" or lord knows what else, there is another staunch voice which hates us for very clear and well publicized reasons. Those reasons are religious not secular. Apparently there's a Freedom Fighter trade rag of some sort and the opinions published were pretty clear.
If you care, I'll get him to give me the reference again but I found the publication and article pretty compelling. There are in fact radical Islamists who want to wipe out the evil pagans because we are evil. I just don't know what sort of voice that segment would have if we didn't provide plenty of matches and gasoline to go with.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
What a shock
Actions have consequences. Sometimes they just happen to the wrong people.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Landslide no more
Lots of undecided.
Now we know why May didn't want a debate
@gjohnsit Well, well, well. Three
Well, well, well. Three points. Hmmm.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Tories to lose 20 seats
@gjohnsit And there as here, the
And there as here, the (possibly populist, but often not) far right regards the leftie as mistaken, but sincere, and as such better than the lying crock of sociopathic shit standing for the establishment.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Berniecrats helping Corbyn
interesting link
Now if Bernie would
only get back on his high horse and do the same here.
2018 would look different.
As it stands not so much.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
People aren't waiting on Bernie
It's beyond his control
True, but Bernie grabbing
his batton and again leading the parade wouldn't hurt. He draws a wider political circle than just Dems, a wider circle than any politician out there. That can only help.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Sure, that would be great. But it ain't happening.
Bernie is sticking with the party. Unfortunate, but clearly he's made his choice. The revolution must now go Beyond Bernie to continue what he started.
that's happening
And just that is what is happening. Bernie lit a fire in seven places. There are now flames and smoke in eighty. Many of those eighty are places where Hillary and her ilk can't get.
(You're soaking in one right now!)
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
As the saying goes "but what has he done
for us lately"?
Lately meaning since he became a DNC sheepdog?
He so last election. Now we have to find somebody who says what he said (better way, revolution, etc.) and who REALLY means it.
EDIT: fixed a typo that made me look dumber than Trump
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
fire
Bernie Sanders lit a fire in seven places. There are now flames and smoke in eight.
Make that eighty!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
More info on the two Maine Dems
at this link http://www.pressherald.com/2017/05/26/two-democratic-lawmakers-drop-from...
It's in part about the clear need to regulate copper mining at a superfund site and pressure to continue to worsen the situation.
My original thought: How does one fund responsible people like this?
An idea whose time has come
is hard to supress. America's Middle East policy (and by extension, Britain's as well) has been sheer lunacy. Thank God there is at last some substantial resistance to it. Bravo, Mr. Corbyn.
native
The Libyan "shitstorm" was the take-off point
for the Syrian intervention.
Interesting that both originated in Benghazi!