Modern Day Propaganda: Top 7 Pieces – Part 1 (Geopolitics)

Source: Modern Day Propaganda: Top 7 Pieces – Part 1 (Geopolitics) | The Freedom Articles

freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com

Makia Freeman

June 21, 2017

Propaganda isn’t just a thing of the past. Modern day propaganda is all around us. Part 1 of this series uncovers lies in the realm of geopolitics.

Modern day propaganda

is all around us. However, people have usually become so numb to it that they can no longer perceive it. Many people choose ignorance, complacency or apathy to deal with it. Often you can observe groups developing societal Stockholm Syndrome, where they praise they captors out of a forlorn hope that by doing so that may somehow change things or alleviate the pain. The control system uses all of its tentacles to keep people conditioned to a more a sheeplike and unconscious state. It is the politician’s job to lie, the MSM (mainstream media’s) job to program you and Big Pharma’s job to keep you sedated with synthetic petrochemical drugs. It is a constant battle to broaden your awareness, uplift your consciousness and expand your perception in the face of these forces which seek to imprison humanity in a limited perception of Who We Are, who’s running the world, how they’re doing it and how we can change it. Propaganda does not just belong to Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Modern day propaganda is everywhere; sometimes subtle, sometimes overt, always pervasive.

With that in mind, here is a collection of the top 7 pieces of modern day propaganda, part 1 of a series.

Modern Day Propaganda in Geopolitics

1. The Syrian War is a civil war. False. The Syrian War has never been a civil war; it’s a proxy war fought by foreign fighters with foreign aid. It has become an open secret that the US-UK-Israeli axis, along with the Saudis, have either created or are funding ISIS (or both). Evidence keeps coming to light showing that Israel is paying Syrian rebels and that ISIS gets their weaponry and Toyota trucks from the US. Many “rebels” fighting the Syrian Government of Bashar Al Assad are not even Syrian. Remember Obama’s freudian slip that “we’re training ISIL”?

2. The US is fighting ISIS in Syria. False. ISIS (aka Daesh, ISIL, IS) is the pet Frankenstein of the Anglo-American-Zionsit NWO and is a US-Israeli creation. The US has no real interest in defeating ISIS – at least not until ISIS has caused the maximum amount of chaos designed to unseat legitimate governments and facilitate regime change. The real target has always been Assad (then Iran, then Russia and China). There is copious evidence for this; 2 quick examples are the incessant mantra a few years ago that “Assad must go” (until the NWO controllers realized Assad was strong enough to defend himself and his nation) and the recent shooting down by the US Coalition of an SAA (Syrian Arab Army) jet.

3. All the refugees flowing into Europe are genuine refugees. False. Some (or many, depending on your perspective) refugees are economic migrants. They are being helped by a network of NGOs (e.g. those funded by George Soros) who have an entire system of transporting migrants from Libya to Italy for money. It’s people smuggling / human trafficking. For the background to this and further analysis, see the article Mass Migration to Europe: All in Line with the New World Order.

4. US military intervention abroad makes us safer. What a load of nonsense! When he ran for US president in 2012, Ron Paul made a point of emphasizing the concept of blowback (which the CIA had written about) in some of his speeches. UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn recently had the courage to state the obvious in Britain: “Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries, such as Libya, and terrorism here at home”. When a poorer and less militarily developed nation is picked on and attacked by a rich bully nation, the former is likely to harbor resentment and a desire to retaliate in the future. many North Koreans still hate the US for carpet bombing into oblivion after WW2. Therefore, Western foreign meddling, assassination and invasion has made America the new “Satan” and enemy #1 for many people around the world, and has become one of the motivations for attacks on England, France and Germany. Thus, the US is far more likely to be attacked than if it had not intervened.

5. Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. Flat out false. While Iran may support Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran has nothing on Saudi Arabia, who funds a pervasive network of extremist Wahhabi Islam schools (madrases) worldwide. It is utterly ridiculous and beyond hypocritical that Saudi Arabia now accuses Qatar of terrorism. Israel has also been behind many so-called “Muslim” and “Arab” terror incidents. Israel and Saudi Arabia now form a dark alliance – with the assistance of the US Empire, the biggest purveyor of war (and terrorism through funding it) the world has ever known. The US Government learned its tricks from the UK Government, both of which have been tools in the hands of the New World Order. The US alternatively backs and then disowns “terrorists” or local fighters in certain areas (e.g. Central America or the Middle East) as the NWO agenda dictates. Once a group has outlived its usefulness, the nomenclature changes from “freedom fighters / liberators” to “enemy combatants / terrorists”.

6. Russia is the biggest threat the Western world is facing. Not true. At every turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps insisting that Russia does not view the US an as enemy, that the 2 great nations were on the same side for both world wars and that mutual cooperation is the only way forward. The US ignominiously lied after the collapse of the Soviet Union by promising Russia that NATO would not expand eastwards – and meanwhile keeps adding numerous Eastern and Central European nations to its alliance such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic (1999), then Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2002-2004), Albania and Croatia (2009) and Montenegro (2017). Russophobia is a convenient political tool to justify NATO, get people scared and allow bigger domestic military budgets in Western nations. It’s also a handy scapegoat for the Democrats to use in trying to account for the election loss of the incredible corrupt Hillary Clinton. Trump saw the obvious truth that it’s better for everyone if the US and Russia get along – before the Deep State got to him.

7. Israel is only defending itself. False. Israel attacked its neighbors even before it gained official statehood in 1948, attacked Egypt to begin the 6 Day War in 1967, attacked Lebanon in 1982 and has been seizing Palestinian land ever since its inception. There’s noting “defensive” about raw, naked aggression. The truth is that Zionism is a colonial endeavor. Look at the quotes of early Zionists like Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the main men behind the expansionist, militaristic and anti-Arab form of Israeli nationalism that now dominates the Likud Party and Israeli politics. Take a look at what Jabotinsky, as well as former Israeli prime Ministers David Ben Gurion and Ariel Sharon, have said about Zionism and the fact that it is intimately bound up with colonialism, eviction and expropriation:

Conclusion: Geopolitical Modern Day Propaganda is Rife

Modern day propaganda in the sphere of geopolitics is dangerously widespread. With people buying into the lies, distortions and disinformation listed above, conflict and war is much more likely to be started. Stay tuned for part 2.

*****

Makia Freeman is the editor of alternative media / independent news site The Freedom Articles and senior researcher at ToolsForFreedom.com, writing on many aspects of truth and freedom, from exposing aspects of the worldwide conspiracy to suggesting solutions for how humanity can create a new system of peace and abundance.

Sources:

*http://www.newsweek.com/israel-secretly-paying-salaries-syrian-rebels-golan-heights-627155

*http://www.globalresearch.ca/going-after-the-islamic-state/5401439

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbmczLdvZVY

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2NkjNvwuaU

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/top-10-proofs-isis-us-israeli-creation/

*http://www.activistpost.com/2017/06/russia-threatens-shoot-down-us-jets.html

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/soros-hack-top-10-machinations/

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfG1myglfhY

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/ngos-choice-tool-subversion-nwo/

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/mass-migration-to-europe-in-line-with-nwo/

*http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/june2017/2017/05/jeremy-corbyns-speech-terrorism-will-do-him-more-good-harm

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/north-korea-provocation-background/

*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-yousaf-butt-/saudi-wahhabism-islam-terrorism_b_6501916.html

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/zionism-vs-islam/

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/israel-and-saudi-arabia-best-friends/

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/2017-nwo-anniversaries-2/

*http://freedom-articles.toolsforfreedom.com/trumps-first-100-days/

Western hypocrisy is a symptom of western selfishness

I am not Irish but I question what Britain is doing in Ireland. There is no Northern Ireland. Ireland is Ireland. Northern Ireland is under British occupation with help from Irish traitors. But what do I know? Get out of Ireland Britain and take your pathetic Irish Christian Jihadists with you.

Source: Western hypocrisy is a symptom of western selfishness

theduran.com

Adam Garrie

June 11, 2017

The western mainstream media once again ignore killing abroad in order to focus on non-issues at home.

Britain’s recent election makes for an insightful case study of western hypocrisy. Because Britain’s ruling neo-con Conservative party (in reality a neo-liberal party with a misleading name) did not win enough votes to form a government on its own. Instead, it will have to rely on the support of the openly sectarian Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from Northern Ireland. For the record, I would be equally opposed to a UK government relying on the support of openly sectarian Catholic parties from Northern Ireland.

But mainstream British opinion has reacted to the reality that the Conservative party will only be able to (barely) govern with DUP assistance in a manner that underlines a deep metaphysical crisis in the western psyche.

The Democratic Unionist Party is worrying as it was one of the only parties in the UK Parliament at the time whose entire Parliamentary membership voted in favour of the illegal war on Iraq.

The Democratic Unionist Party also enjoys close links with Zionist organisations who publish the most extreme variety of anti-Palestinian propaganda.

Northern Irish Protestant militants who at various times had associations with the party even smuggled Israeli arms into Britain for mane years.

Failing to learn their lessons, all DUP MPs voted for illegal strikes on Syria in 2015.

It is fair to say that the DUP is among the most pro-war parties in all of the United Kingdom. However, this fact has been totally ignored by the British mainstream media, many of whom are only now bothering to find out who the DUP are, although their homework has been incomplete at best.

The British mainstream media have been focusing on the DUP’s social policy which tends to be on the extreme side of social-conservatism and I speak as a social conservative myself, one who believes that liberal social values are a kind of deeply sick neurosis. But a party which takes a firm sectarian line on religion, seeks to politicise the private medical procedure of abortion and a party founded by a man who believes dancing is sinful, is too much even for me.

However, these issues are local matters that the Northern Irish voters have to contend with. If they want a party that enforces a ‘no dancing’ piece of legislation, they are welcome to it.

The problem is when such a party has a say in foreign policy, something which affects those far from the disputed province of Northern Ireland. But the liberals in Britain simply do not care how much the DUP votes in favour of slaughtering Iraqi and Syrian children. They do not care that they supported creating a jihadist failed state in Libya, they do not care that they believe that Palestinians are ungodly, they simply are worried that the DUP might turn dance halls, homosexual facilities and abortion clinics into Protestant churches, something that is incredibly unlikely.

The DUP is not in a position to implement its extreme Protestant agenda on Great Britain, but in a tight vote on going to yet another illegal war, their members of Parliament could push the vote over the edge in favour of more bombing, more killing, more instability and more illegality.

This is the real worry, but for the British mainstream media, they are focused on issues which will never come to pass and never effect anyone outside of some parts Northern Ireland. The issues that will effect the wider world and as a result cause ore terrorist blow-back in Britain, are totally ignored.

It is this selfish attitude that has doomed the west to failure at home and danger abroad.

Meet the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Britain’s loyal fundamentalists in Ireland

What are the followers of this medieval party called? Dupes?

Also, rhetorically speaking, what is England doing on Irish soil? Why are these Irish cretins following a foreign Nazi family?

Source: Meet the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Britain’s loyal fundamentalists in Ireland — Puppet Masters — Sott.net

RT
09 Jun 2017  

© Toby Melville / Reuters

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) holds the key to Theresa May remaining in Downing Street but what do we know about this Protestant party drawn from the pro-union side of Northern Ireland’s deeply sectarian political spectrum?

As Britons scramble to learn about the party that will prop up May’s mandate to execute Brexit, a swathe of the online conversation has focused on the party’s past comments on homophobia, Islam and creationism.

The DUP was at the center of a bloody sectarian divide during Northern Ireland’s Troubles – a conflict involving rival paramilitary groups and the British Army which claimed more than 3,000 lives over 30 years.

https://www.sott.net/embed/fXJV6MvDFqF4gt3nlp-ZxUeuwOJ

https://www.sott.net/embed/4J_ggxzPtTK_1Bd1vHCkiXVl0RD

The Conservatives and the DUP won’t form a formal coalition government but the latter will support the government regardless.

“We want there to be a government. We have worked well with May. The alternative is intolerable. For as long as Corbyn leads Labour, we will ensure there’s a Tory PM,” a DUP source was cited as saying in by the Guardian.

Comment: What a telling statement. They detest Corbyn for class reasons, not ethno-religious ones. Corbyn, being protestant English, should be an acceptable leader for them, right? No! He’s ‘of that same mindset we’ve always fought against.’

That statement, incidentally, is the real source of the Irish civil war and subsequent ‘troubles’: most Irish people have known for a long time that the unionists tend towards irrational right-wing extremism. The bigots leading them would sooner destroy the UK than allow a decent government in power.

The party is the creation of firebrand Protestant Evangelical Minister Ian Paisley. Reverend Paisley also founded the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and was characterized by his entrenched Unionist views and his hostile opposition to the Catholic Church.

In its early years, the party was heavily involved in a campaign against homosexuality and fiercely opposed gay rights.

Paisley, who was famed for his extraordinarily fiery speeches, routinely preached against homosexuality and the party picketed gay rights events as part of their ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy’ campaign.

The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful as homosexuality was decriminalized in 1982.

Paisley became infamous in 1988 when, as a member of the European Parliament for Northern Ireland, he caused uproar by interrupting an address by Pope John Paul II. During his protest he shouted: “I refuse you as Christ’s enemy and Antichrist with all your false doctrine,” while brandishing posters reading: “Pope John Paul II ANTICHRIST.”

The party has been the largest in Northern Ireland since the Stormont assembly election in 2007.

That election saw a greater polarization in Northern Ireland politics with the electorate shifting their votes towards the hardline Nationalist and Unionist parties (Sinn Fein and the DUP) at the expense of more moderate groups such as the the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

At the age of 81 Paisley and the DUP gained worldwide praise for taking the astounding step of sharing power in the Northern Ireland government with bitter enemies Sinn Fein.

This arrangement was characterized by Paisley sharing the job of leading the government with Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, who was once a leader in the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Paisley was succeeded as DUP leader and first minister by Peter Robinson. Robinson’s term was marred by a high profile scandal in which his wife, Iris Robinson, had an affair with a teenager and procured £50,000 in loans for the teen to open a restaurant.

Comment: Classic fundie hypocrisy!

She also failed to declare her interest in the restaurant, despite serving on the council which leased the premises to her lover. Before the scandal broke Iris Robinson had famously said that “gays are more vile than child abusers.”

She was expelled from the party as a result of the scandal and she retired from politics.

Similar views on homosexuality have been expressed by others in the deeply Christian party. Paisley’s son, Ian Jr, who is also a DUP politician, gained notoriety for saying he was “repulsed by gay and lesbianism.”

Peter Robinson himself came in for severe criticism for saying he “wouldn’t trust Muslims devoted to Sharia Law, but I would trust them to go to the shops for me,” and for backing a pastor who labelled Islam “satanic”.

Ahead of the election the party was backed by the Loyalist Communities Council, which is an umbrella body comprised of three of the main Loyalist Paramilitary groups, the Ulster Defence Association, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando. The party’s leader, Arlene Foster, was criticized for being slow to distance the DUP from the paramilitaries.

The DUP support for the Tories looks set to have implications for the Brexit negotiations. In the wake of last year’s Brexit vote, it campaigned against affording a “special status” for Northern Ireland after the UK leaves the EU. Sinn Fein, its ideological antithesis, has repeatedly called for special status.

Comment: This alliance – and possibly the Union itself with it – has nowhere to go but down.

The media tried to smear Corbyn by calling him an “IRA terrorism supporter”. It didn’t work, and now the Tories are planning on forming a government with Loyalist terrorism supporters. Here’s the former leader of the ‘democratic’ unionist party:

Peter Robinson ca. 1980

 

Britain In Chaos — Hung Parliament, Pound Falls, Brexit in Tatters

Source: Britain In Chaos — Hung Parliament, Pound Falls, Brexit in Tatters – Darkmoon

With permission from Darkmoon

http://www.darkmoon.me

By LUCY SKIPPING

June 9, 2017

Ten Million Brits cry, “This is not our country anymore!”
as these two Zionist puppets fight for the upper hand

I wake up this morning to scenes of total chaos. The first thing I do is throw a few clothes on and stagger off to Wetherspoons, my local pub restaurant in the little market town of Newton Abbot in the south of England. Here I intend to grab a light continental breakfast and catch up on the television news.

I am greeted by the Pub Philosopher, nicknamed Redneck Ron, who is surrounded as usual by his coterie of foul-mouthed fans. Redneck Ron (‘RR’ for short) has seldom been known to utter a sentence without the F-word in it.

RR says to me as I totter into the pub:

“Come and join us, bitch! So what do you think of the f***ing election, huh? Me and my buddies here are all thinking of emigrating to f***ing Antarctica. You comin’?”

I join RR at his table, not because I like the guy and his subhuman  clique but because I like mixing with them lower classes. I’m an awful snob. I get a perverse delight from rubbing shoulders with the common people and getting to know how they think and speak.

Soon I am sipping my coffee and learning all about the general election.

“I think this country would be a lot better off if all you horrid people pushed off to the South Pole,” I remark pleasantly. “Only trouble is, the penguins will not be too pleased at the new arrivals!”

RR grins, baring his yellow fangs. He is in late sixties and is not at all put out by my rudeness. Politeness from me he would regard as a serious threat. Foul language wrapped in smiley badinage is the only language he understands.

“You wanna hear about the f***ing elections? Listen up good, bitch. Cos you ain’t heard nothing yet. That f***ing twat Theresa May has ended up with a f***ing hung parliament. She needed 326 seats to get a f***ing majority and she ain’t got that. She’s only got 318!”

“Too bad,” I sigh. “Goodbye, Theresa!”

“Nope, it ain’t goodbye. Not by a long chalk! The weak c**t is hanging on grimly to power. She’s gotta cosy up to the DUP and she’ll have a working majority if the DUP give her their full support.”

One of the fan club, a well-nourished lady in her forties who has just worked her way through a 2000 calorie English breakfast, chirps up: “Wot’s the DUP, Ron?”

Ron glares at Well Nourished Lady.

“DUP stands for ‘Democratic Unionist Party’. Doncha know that, silly bitch? Them’s the Northern Ireland blokes wot want to remain in the Union with the Brits. And they’re strongly pro-Brexit. They won 10 seats.”

“Yeah…?”

“So if they join Theresa and her Tories, with their 10 seats, that gives Theresa a working majority. Theresa needs 326 seats to get a government that works. She’s got 318. Not enough!”

“Right. So if DUP give her their 10 seats she’s got 318 plus ten. That’s 328 seats, right?

Ron looks at Well Nourished Lady in mock stupefaction.

“You never told me you was a f***ing mathematical genius,” he says.

Well Nourished Lady looks pleased.

The facts, I was to learn over breakfast, are these. The Conservatives have captured 44 per cent of the vote, Labour 41 per cent. With the help of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland, the Conservatives will be able to form a working government. Just about. But it’s not going to be easy. Because the Northern Ireland party is going to exact a stiff price for its support.

Theresa May, who seemed to be in an almost invincible position only six weeks ago, with a huge lead in the polls, took a gamble by calling a general election. She thought she would win easily. That it would be a piece of cake. Her gamble failed spectacularly. She has lost all authority. All her charisma, such as it was, has evaporated in a puff of smoke. She is now a lame duck prime minister.

Later today, Theresa will have tea and cucumber sandwiches with the Queen of England. This is a time-honoured tradition. The PM pops over to Buckingham Palace and tells her Majesty: “Hey, Queen, I’ve got a working government. So it’s full steam ahead. I’ve just come to tell you this.”

And the Queen nods politely and says: “Well done, Theresa! You have my blessings. So off you go and get on with it!”

Not those exact words maybe, but something like it.

Meanwhile, back at the chalkface among the rabble, it’s all gloom and doom as the pound plummets and Brexit lies in tatters. Redneck Ron and his rotten borough are up in arms. “Wot we got here? More of them f***ing n*****s pouring in from Africa and wotnot, it ain’t our f***ing c***ry any more!”

Right. That’s about it. The Brits are not happy bunnies this morning. Gnashing of teeth has reached epidemic proportions. Rope sales have soared as more Brits plan to hang themselves. Most popular google search engine question from UK this morning: “How do I tie a noose?”

The only winners in this election? I won’t mention their names. Ron and his rabble ain’t got a clue who they are. They think all their miseries spring from “them rich toffs”.

If only they knew!

Even with Increased Surveillance, UK Terror Attacks Are Likely to Rise

Source: Even with Increased Surveillance, UK Terror Attacks Are Likely to Rise – VICE

http://www.vice.com

Aris Roussinos

Jun 5 2017

Armed police in London Bridge on Sunday. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/PA Images

Experts say we’ll see at least another 15 years of attacks on European soil, and that—in the grand scheme of things—there’s little authorities can do.

Three terror attacks in the UK in as many months: Westminster, Manchester, and now London again. As the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate loses its hold on its heartlands of eastern Syria and northern Iraq, disaffected young European Muslims drawn to its nihilistic vision are increasingly conducting the group’s murderous revenge on the streets of European cities.

Following each incident, this year the government has called for increased online surveillance, despite the UK already having some of the widest-ranging surveillance powers of any democratic state. In a speech on Sunday morning, Theresa May again pressed the point, saying there has been “far too much tolerance of extremism” in the UK and that “we need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorist planning.”

While this may have some popular support—a survey immediately after the Manchester attack saw 68 percent of respondents backing wider state powers to intercept encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and Telegram—the tactic has been criticized by internet freedom campaigners Open Rights Group as having the potential to “push these vile networks into even darker corners of the web, where they will be even harder to observe.” Furthermore, it is as yet unclear what, if anything, such powers could have done to prevent any of the incidents this year, with MI5 currently undertaking inquiries into both the Westminster and Manchester attacks. 

While it’s true that the Islamic State has utilized the internet to a degree unprecedented by any other terrorist group, both to radicalize vulnerable individuals and to actively direct attacks, terrorism analysts are divided on the utility of further surveillance powers.

On the one hand, the ungoverned space of the internet—like the ungoverned spaces of Afghanistan, northern Syria, and the Sahel in the offline world—have given jihadist groups a safe haven to organize. As the Norwegian scholar of jihadism Professor Thomas Hegghammer notes, “What many don’t realize is that the jihadis have had their online freedoms and capabilities vastly expanded during the past five years. What governments are talking about is scaling some of these recent gains back. Of course it won’t solve everything and of course, we will not be able to remove everything, but it will help, for sure.”

On the other hand, as Professor Peter Neumann of Kings College London’s International Center for the Study of Radicalization notes, citing the specific cluster of ISIS fighters tied to Manchester and Portsmouth that he has studied for years, “Face-to-face relationships remain key. All the evidence shows that. Clusters like in Manchester or Portsmouth exist because people have known each other for years, from school, playing football, etc. Mobilization into violent extremism takes lots of trust and confidence, which usually comes from having close personal relationships.” 

That is to say, widening the internet surveillance dragnet may help to some degree, but it’s not going to solve the problem entirely. Worryingly, the jihadist terrorist threat is already far outside the abilities of the state’s security services to adequately monitor. Roughly 850 British Muslims have joined the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, around half of whom may already have returned. Security services might have successfully thwarted 18 terror plots since 2013—five between the Westminster and Manchester attacks alone—but Britain now contains 23,000 potential jihadist terrorists, while the state only has the resources to monitor 3,000 at any one time. The Manchester attacker himself was reported to the security services at least five times by the local Muslim community, yet was not monitored due to the lack of resources.

Police cordon off the area around London Bridge on Sunday. Photo via NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images

Increasing the amount of electronic data to comb through for evidence of terror plots would be impossible without a vast corresponding growth of Britain’s security services, to a level unimaginable in any non-totalitarian state, which would in itself lead to further disaffection of British Muslims, creating a feedback loop of distrust and potential radicalization. 

And yet, it is unclear what other options there are. The threat is certainly not dissipating. If anything, the Westminster, Manchester, and London Bridge attacks offer a dark glimpse of Europe’s future.

As Professor Neumann notes: “We are dealing with a generational mobilization; the consequences of what’s happened over the past five years in Syria haven’t even ended yet. The consequences of Syria will play out in the 2020s and 2030s. We are still at the very beginning.”

In his scholarly assessment of future jihadist activity in Europe, Professor Hegghammer agrees, predicting that the threat “will continue to increase for as long as the activists that were recruited in the early 2010s are politically active—that is, for another 15 to 20 years.” Speaking to VICE, he adds that the next 15 to 20 years is “the period in which we can expect the hundreds of radicals who were imprisoned in the mid 2010s to be politically active. I expect them and their friends to be the jihadi entrepreneurs of the 2020s.”

The uncomfortable reality is that the security of civilians in Europe is now dependent as never before on the stability of the Middle East. As long as the wider region’s chaotic bloodbath spirals on, providing space for terrorist groups to organize and inspiring a small minority of Muslims in the West to kill at home, ordinary people in Britain and the rest of Europe can expect to live in the shadow of jihadist terror. Yet, there is no reason to think that the Middle East’s turmoil will end anytime soon.

So what, if anything, can be done? 

For Professor Neumann, author of Radicalized: New Jihadists and the Threat to the West, current counterterrorist (or CT) policy is broadly working, but requires upgrading: “Security services and police need more capacity, and Prevent needs to be revamped,” he says. “As always, good CT is a balance of repression and prevention. Let’s not forget, the problem in France and Belgium is still worse than in the UK. The UK is doing a lot of things well, even though it doesn’t look that way a few days after an attack. Not everything needs to be changed.”

Searching for possible solutions, Professor Hegghammer urges: “An EU-led ‘Marshall plan’ for improved education in immigrant-heavy areas; much more money for regular youth work; a scaling back of recent jihadi capability gains on the internet; longer sentences for terrorism-related crimes, especially recruitment. Laws against foreign fighting, of all ideological varieties. Biometrics at the EU’s outer borders. All of this will just be mitigation, though. The problem will only go away if and when there is a broad mood shift in the Muslim world toward rejecting militant Islamism; when it’s seen as distinctly uncool, even among the counter culturally inclined, like neo-Nazism in Europe today. If such a shift ever comes, it will come unexpectedly. Zeitgeist shifts cannot be predicted.”

He continues: “The long-term outcome of this is predictable: very large security services and a tense atmosphere, a bit like France today, but permanently. To me, that’s an incentive to start thinking outside the box. Are there things, both on the soft and the hard side, that we have previously dismissed as being excessive or unrealistic? Maybe we can look at them again.”

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LISTEN: The British Dream – Voices from Manchester Following the Terror Attack

 

https://oembed.vice.com/hpBYtcZ?playerjs=true

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A decade ago, when terrorist threats to the West were delivered from Osama bin Laden on VHS tapes, rather than disseminated on social media, the founder of al Qaeda promoted a strategy of stoking civilizational conflict between the West and the Islamic world by first extinguishing the “gray zone”—the world of coexistence between Muslim minorities and non-Muslim majorities in the West—through targeted atrocities designed to stoke mistrust, majoritarian backlashes, and ultimately hatred between the two communities. It is a policy al Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State’s forebear, perfected in stoking civil war between Sunni and Shia communities in Iraq, and it is this policy that is now being applied to Europe.

With each atrocity carried out by a tiny subset of Europe’s growing Muslim minority, voices on the right calling for the collective punishment of Islam as a whole—from mass internment of terrorist suspects to mass deportation—grow in power. Right-wing populist parties, such as Poland’s Law and Justice Party, use the attacks to justify their refusal to permit any Muslim immigration, arguing that Western Europe’s openness to the Islamic world is killing its own citizens. Early on Sunday morning, Donald Trump used the London Bridge attack to promote the need for his Muslim travel ban.

As Professor Hegghammer warns, “Continuing as we do today—with small, incremental policy adjustments—arguably has a predictable outcome. It is a Europe with much larger intelligence services, an entrenched Muslim economic underclass, and more anti-Muslim sentiment.”

Professor Neumann concurs on the risk to Europe’s internal stability, noting: “The real risk of terrorism is not physical, but psychological, and political. Look how polarized French society has become, not least because of terrorism. Extremists from all sides are egging each other on, society becomes more polarized, and the result is a shrinking space in the middle. That’s the real danger for European democracy.” 

Europe’s ability to maintain social harmony while under assault from Islamist terror and the inevitable backlash it is designed to provoke should not be taken for granted and represents the primary threat to the next generation. May’s semi-futile security theater of internet surveillance is, then, a partial solution at best—a knee-jerk reaction to a mounting threat that no European government currently knows how to curtail.

Beyond all the newspaper editorials and Twitter scandals as Britain’s commentariat class grapples with the dark new reality, we are left with two options: to carry on as normal and hope for the best, or hunker down and await the worst.

Follow Aris Roussinos on Twitter.

Secret dossier on UFO sightings in Britain to be released after the election

Source: Secret dossier on UFO sightings in Britain to be released after the election — RT UK

RT UK

22 May, 2017

© Markus Obländer / Global Look Press

A dossier of secret government files believed to contain evidence of UFO sightings and cover-ups, which has been kept secret for almost 50 years, is set to be released after June’s general election.

According to German paranormal news website Grenzwissenschaft-aktuell, the documents will reveal sightings of UFOs over almost five decades, from the 1970s, and be published by the National Archives. 

Alien hunters hope the files will show a number of high-profile incidents have been covered up, including an alleged UFO sighting in Rendlesham Forest in 1980, dubbed ‘Britain’s Roswell.’

A number of servicemen reported seeing lights in the forest near RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. The disputed sightings, which are said to have lasted for three nights in December of that year, occurred when Britain was on high alert during the Cold War.

At the time, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the event posed no threat to national security, and it was therefore not investigated.

The secret papers were meant to be released in 2013, but 18 documents were withheld.

The latest publication date was set for March this year, but that date passed with no information given.

A spokesperson for the National Archives told Grenzwissenschaft-aktuell: “Due to the upcoming election here in the UK and the rules relating to the government departments during the pre-election period, the files will not be released until after the election.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Nick Pope, who worked for the MoD investigating UFO sightings until 2009, said: “There’s no smoking gun in these files that will confirm the existence of aliens, but there are plenty of fascinating UFO reports and MoD policy documents, so these really are the real-life X-Files.

“The delay has been a comedy of errors though, I think it’s more bureaucracy than conspiracy.”

Read more

Mysterious crop patterns appear near Stonehenge (VIDEO)

READ MORE: I Want to Believe: UFOs over Stonehenge, Parliament in UK’s last ‘X-files’ release

‘WikiLeaks staff are in danger’: Pilger, Kiriakou discuss Assange’s ongoing legal battle

Release Assange ye pathetic lying scumbags! 

“The difference is that Assange and the WikiLeaks staff are doing what journalists no longer do; they are the agents of people not power. They deserve our support.”

Source: ‘WikiLeaks staff are in danger’: Pilger, Kiriakou discuss Assange’s ongoing legal battle — RT News

RT News

20 May, 2017

Investigative journalist John Pilger & CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou discuss the challenge facing Assange © Neil Hall / Reuters

As Julian Assange enjoys “victory and vindication” following the closure of the Swedish prosecutors’ investigation, both he and his supporters know the fight is far from over.

“I welcome the Swedish prosecutor’s decision to end its investigation of Julian Assange,” John Kiriakou, a former CIA Counterterrorism Officer and whistleblower told RT. “We should not celebrate yet, however.”

“The governments of the United Kingdom and the United States have plotted against Mr. Assange for the past seven years, trying to silence him for his exposure of their crimes.”

Kiriakou, who was the first to acknowledge the CIA’s use of torture, spoke up because he believed the use of torture was “immoral, unethical and illegal.” He served 30 months for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by confirming the name of an officer involved in the CIA’s secret rendition program, and was released in 2015.

RT‏Verified account @RT_com

‘Today is an important victory for me and for the UN human rights system’ – Assange https://on.rt.com/8c3g

“The Swedish government has taken itself out of the equation,” he continued. “But I believe that if Mr. Assange were to leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, he would still be arrested on trumped up national security charges and extradited to the United States, where he would find it utterly impossible to receive a fair hearing.”

The Courage Foundation, an international organization supporting  whistleblowers and truth tellers, has turned its focus to WikiLeaks and its staff, following the release of whistleblower Chelsea Manning on Wednesday.

Manning provided WikiLeaks with some of its most explosive revelations, including the ‘Collateral Murder’ video, the War Logs, State Department emails and decades of US embassy cables. 

“What Chelsea [Manning] endured awaits another Courage Foundation beneficiary, Julian Assange, should he step outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London,” investigative journalist John Pilger told RT earlier this week.

“Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks staff are in danger,” Pilger continued. “WikiLeaks has been so successful in informing people all over the world of the surveillance and war state constructed by rapacious power that it is now fulfills the role of free journalism that the corporate media falsely claims for itself.”

“The DOJ [Department of Justice] has been running an unprecedented and wide-ranging investigation into WikiLeaks for its publishing and sourcing work since 2010,” the Courage Foundation explained. “It has involved paid informers, illegal interrogations in Europe and secret search warrants. Recently CIA Director Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks a ‘hostile intelligence service.’”

“Recent reports cite Cablegate, the Iraq and Afghan War Logs and Vault 7 publications as well as WikiLeaks’ work in getting NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum, as key to the investigation,” the foundation added.

“Free journalism is, by definition, a threat to those forces that secretly order, control and blight people’s lives,” Pilger said. “If Julian Assange was the editor of the New York Times doing his job as the US Constitution says he can, he would not be living in two small rooms, denied sunlight.”

“The difference is that Assange and the WikiLeaks staff are doing what journalists no longer do; they are the agents of people not power. They deserve our support.”