Theresa May Says "Enough Is Enough" - We Agree - Remove Her From Office
Some links on Britain - the terror attacks and the upcoming election:
BBC: British rebels attack Theresa May's strongholds in London
That is what the headline of BBC should have been yesterday and today. That is the way it reported when the "rebels" were "Syrians" and the attacks occurred in Damascus. Was that not objective? Why change it now?
Related to the Manchester attack John Pilger asks: What did the Prime Minister Know? (vid)
He points out, as we did, that Theresa May was Home Secretary when control orders were lifted to allow Libyan Takfiris move from Britain to Libya to destroy that country. Half of those came back, well trained, and one killed 22 people in Manchester. A blowback from May's personal decision to sent well known terrorists into British proxy wars. Now she says there is "too much tolerance of extremism"? Who tolerated these?
The current Home Secretary is no better: Amber Rudd Prevents Independent Candidate Questioning Arms Sales to Saudi Sponsors of Terrorism
That is the typical response of authoritarian rulers when their shady deals are openly discussed and their competence is questioned: more censorship: Theresa May calls on internet companies to eradicate 'safe spaces' for extremism in wake of London Bridge terror attack
Is the London Bridge a web server? Were the "safe spaces" on the internet used to attacked it? Or are the "safe spaces" the ones used to question Britain's and May's lucrative love affair with terrorist financing Wahhabi nuts in Saudi Arabia and Qatar? For an even deeper dive read You Can’t Understand ISIS If You Don’t Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia
May's collusion with the terror sponsors is not allowed to be officially known or discussed: Home Office may not publish terrorist funding report amid claims it focuses on Saudi Arabia - Inquiry is thought to focus on Saudi Arabia, which the UK recently approved £3.5bn worth of arms export licences to.
It would be bad for business to publicly acknowledge the real sources of Takfiri terrorism. A few dozens Brits here and there, in Manchester and London, will have to die every now and then to keep the shareholders of BAE Systems and other British arm producers happy. Jermey Corbyn would likely change that. He called for an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia.
London attack: Theresa May says 'things need to change' Prime Minister Theresa May: 'enough is enough' (vid)
We hope that the British voters will agree with her. Thinks need to change. Enough is enough. Vote May out of office. End the cushy relations with the medieval dictatorships of the Arab peninsula.
A change of leadership in Britain is well possible if the young Labour voters turn out in large numbers. Those British who want to end the terror against others and against themselves must now help to achieve that.
Posted by b on June 4, 2017 at 17:31 UTC | Permalink
next page »"Enough is enough. Vote May out of office. End the cushy relations with the medieval dictatorships of the Arab peninsula."
I agree b, but I don't think that can happen. The UK appears lost to me. There are few real men and even less sane people in the UK. I suppose that something could wake them up, but I don't really see that happening. The same goes for Germany, France, and Sweden.
At this point, I don't see Western Civilization surviving in most of Europe. (would be happy to be wrong of course)
Posted by: Mark Stoval | Jun 4 2017 18:01 utc | 2
The last link - "well possible" - appears to be broken.
Posted by: Norumbega | Jun 4 2017 18:02 utc | 3
Ending terror is not a truly responsible slogan. As recently as 100 years ago, a terrorist would typically be an anarchist for a "less civilized part Europe". Times change, and so do terrorists. Small scale terrorism is not particularly different from other forms of random violence: 1% the population has some mental problems, and 1% of those may have dangerous tendencies, and once you have such dangerous modes of thinking, you latch to some cause. It can be the horror of abortion, inhuman employers (in USA there is an expression "going postal"), women etc. War news concerning "your people" can easily focus obsessive thinking.
So while having pet cobras is a very dangerous habit indeed and one should stop it, winding that danger down will be at best slow and gradual. There is no proper exorcism ritual. Humane policies can help much more than closing "safe spaces on the internet (recall pre-internet terrorism), but promising that they can "end the problem" is just mimicking the traditional dishonest rhetoric.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2017 18:10 utc | 4
Regardless of the fallout from the latest London bridge events, as close to the election as they are, the most likely result, should the polls reflect public sentiment, will produce a hung Parliament, that is no single party obtaining sufficient support to form its own government. If this is the case, the Conservatives (should they have the greater numbers) will be given first option to form a coalition. If no coalition then Labour will have the opportunity to form the government. I suppose should Labour form a coalition first having greater numbers than any possible Conservative coalition, then they are awarded the government - this remembered from discussions from another election resulting in a hung Parliament some years ago.
It is unlikely any great change in economic policy will be effected differing greatly from the present. No viable alternative to neoliberalism exists and it is (too) early times to be finding sufficiently trained personnel to man any heterodox theoretical policy; the educational system has produced only one Steve Keen to date and to govern one needs a battalion of such expertise at minimum and the intellectual support they require. TINA applies - unfortunately.
Posted by: Formerly T-Bear | Jun 4 2017 18:18 utc | 5
Posted by: Mark Stoval | Jun 4, 2017 2:01:21 PM | 2
I am French and I agree. Every time there is an attack, people change their profile picture on Facebook to something with a flag or dumb « Je suis... » statements, light candles, exchange teary smileys and sing « Imagine ».
One wonders what it would take for them to snap awake. I mean, we're bombed in the streets when we're not even at war! And we know who does it! (Saudis/Qatar). Do we have a death wish or something? Is this a symptom of civilizational collapse? (Please don't answer that).
Posted by: Lea | Jun 4 2017 18:18 utc | 6
What are the chances of Labour winning the elections? I havent followed the trend lately.. txs.
Posted by: Lozion | Jun 4 2017 18:20 utc | 8
End the cushy relations with the medieval dictatorships of the Arab peninsula.
While this point is important, it is by no means a necessary whole prescription. Ending cushy relations with multiculturalism and contemporary Western "liberalism" who are fast turning Europe into cloaca could be a good start. The issue of Islam (mostly of Sunni variety) is not going anywhere.
Posted by: SmoothieX12 | Jun 4 2017 18:28 utc | 9
@Piotr Berman.
Ending terror is not a truly responsible slogan. As recently as 100 years ago, a terrorist would typically be an anarchist for a "less civilized part Europe".
You may start with Dostoevsky's Writer's Diary with his take on the fate of simple Russian soldier Foma Danilov and, of course, on the issue of thousands upon thousands Russians being taken into slavery in the areas of Southern Urals and other adjacent to Middle Asia areas. Typically, burning villages, killing men, raping women and other things of this type. In my humble opinion--qualifies as terrorism just fine. So, let's be very specific about terrorism of what kind.
Posted by: SmoothieX12 | Jun 4 2017 18:34 utc | 10
@Mark Stoval
At this point, I don't see Western Civilization surviving in most of Europe.
Europe, sadly, is done. We are witnessing merely the carrying out of the body.
Posted by: SmoothieX12 | Jun 4 2017 18:36 utc | 11
Ending terror starts with asking a number of people to officially condamn djihad. If you ask the attackers, none of them are "terrorists", they are doing djihad as revenge for the death of these and those kids, women, muslims etc. It has nothing to do with great plans of organizing a world caliphate led by Baghdadi or anyone else, and nothing to do with their supposed 'hatred of our values'.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 4 2017 18:43 utc | 12
kudos b... keep on hitting on this.. mays support for terrorism as you have articulated is a good place to start any movement to end terrorism... until this connection is driven home, there will be more of the same...
in other news, i see saudi arabia has built a wall around a shite city to prevent people from leaving... this is a country that has the full support of the usa/uk... why is that??
@1 persiflo.. interesting rumour..
@2 mark stoval.. i tend to agree.. when does this same disease inflict the usa/canada?? or has it already happened?
Posted by: james | Jun 4 2017 18:49 utc | 13
YouGov's latest poll has the Tory lead at just three points over Labour and TRNN excellent pieces on Theresa May. Regardless which party win it will be hung parliament.
https://yougov.co.uk/news/categories/politics/
03 Jun 2017
Con: 43.2%
Lab: 37.8%
LD: 7.9%
UKIP: 3.6%
June 1, 2017
UK Election Polls Tighten to Three Points Between May and Corbyn
June 2, 2017
Poll Finds British Agree that UK Foreign Policy Contributes to Terrorism
June 2, 2017
Poll Finds British Agree that UK Foreign Policy Contributes to Terrorism
Posted by: OJS | Jun 4 2017 18:50 utc | 14
The Intercept: Saudi Arabian gifts for British Conservatives
New figures released by British Parliament show that, at a time when U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s ties to Saudi Arabia have become an election issue, conservative government officials and members of Parliament were lavished with money by the oil-rich Saudi government with gifts, travel expenses, and consulting fees.
Corbyn: Difficult talks with Saudis needed after London terror attack
Posted by: somebody | Jun 4 2017 19:01 utc | 15
London Attack: People had to Throw Chairs at Terrorists After Unarmed Policemen Ran Away
All three attackers whose identity remains unknown were later shot dead by the police.
the first thing you need to do to construct your narrative is kill the perps.
it seems clear that the tory response to the surfacing of their crimes in aid of terrorism and terrorists is fascism. this is what the british public needs to protect itself from, a fascist tory government. they have already brought the terrorism home, now they feel they must protect it and themselves from the wrath of the people of britain. i hope that sinks in by thursday.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2017 19:06 utc | 16
@1
there are rumours in the middle east and elsewhere that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was actually of Jewish descent.That's an old rumour, as Mina showed a few days ago, based on nothing more than speculation.
Posted by: Laguerre | Jun 4 2017 19:12 utc | 17
Corbyn:
"We do need to have some difficult conversations starting with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that have funded and fuelled extremist ideology,"
Posted by: Anonyous | Jun 4 2017 19:13 utc | 18
Re Mark Stoval and SmoothieX12 | Jun 4, 2017 2:36:30 PM | 11
PCR agrees, see The Collapse of France http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/29/collapse-france-paul-craig-roberts/
Posted by: Perimetr | Jun 4 2017 19:16 utc | 19
@Mark Stoval 2
At this point, I don't see Western Civilization surviving in most of Europe.You're an American, I guess. Only Americans talk like that. And what's this obsession with "real men"? Isn't it "real men" - and their proclivity to start wars bombing the Middle East back to the Stone Age - who are a major cause of the problem?
Posted by: Laguerre | Jun 4 2017 19:22 utc | 21
Posted by: persiflo | Jun 4, 2017 1:55:04 PM | 1
Sidenote: there are rumours in the middle east and elsewhere that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was actually of Jewish descent.
So fucking what? A lot of Christians and Jews converted to Islam particularly in Palestine and Medina was home to three Jewish tribes in the time of Muhammad. Or are you suggesting that Wahhabism is a Jewish or Rothschild plot to dominate the World?
Posted by: Ghostship | Jun 4 2017 19:25 utc | 22
@11 smoothie
What would it take to allow a mass repatriating program in Europe following the inevitable conclusion of MENA wars inflicted by the global elite? We are seeing diminished immigration numbers here in the states as the writing is on the wall and Latinos are probably better off, spiritually and materially, back in their home nations. I don't believe it is out of the question that the global economy will suffer calamity in the coming years and antiglobalist fervor will reach its peak. At that time, it will be in the interest of immigrants to GTFO because we know how a bad economy = inhospitable environment for their plight. Europe is not doomed. The global financiers and their one-worlder scheme is doomed. I thought that "more interesting times" would be scary for us Americans, but I now I believe that that is the last chance for bringing us together. The Tower of Babel always comes crashing down. Make sure we the elite are under it this time.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jun 4 2017 19:26 utc | 23
Correction:
"Make sure the elite are under it this time."
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Jun 4 2017 19:27 utc | 24
"Home Office may not publish terrorist funding report amid claims it focuses on Saudi Arabia"
If Corbyn had any sense he would make a big deal of this: "I demand that the Government immediately make public this information on the sources of financing of the terrorism that is striking our country with such calamitous consequences".
Posted by: Madeira | Jun 4 2017 19:28 utc | 25
Writer's Diary Volume 1: 1873-1876 Kindle Edition
by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Author), Kenneth Lantz (Editor, Translator), Gary Saul Morson (Introduction)
Posted by: okie farmer | Jun 4 2017 19:42 utc | 26
These kinds of incidents are impossible to fully prevent.
You just need few guys willing to commit suicide by cop. And to run amok beforehand, just for hell of it.
It is amazing actually that those things do not happen more often. Judging from those reality shows and YouTube videos lots of people are quite willing to do crazy things for money, fame or just out of boredom.
Posted by: hopehely | Jun 4 2017 19:49 utc | 27
London 'attack.' Abundantly clear from the images is that a huge Armed to da Teeth Po-lice Force paraded some 10-12 hours after all was over.
This show of Menacing State Domination is a total waste of money and time, over-the-top security theatre! Parade organised to be as scary as possible, squadrons armed to the teeth. The target ain't dead ‘terrorists’..
The show is implemented to terrify the public, make eveyone flip out (TV blaring at the same time), encourage other attacks (woow look at the attention you will get, might even be paid for it..) while at the same time smoothly stating we are upping the defense of the defenseless, terrified public, whom we have to protect, the police have new gear, new powers, etc.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/04/run-hide-tell-do-terror-attack/
I find it very strange that in F, GB whenever there is a ‘terror’ attack the authorities -mostly police- tell everyone to run away, as far and fast as possible (see Nice, was very typical) while not saying to where, or indicating a direction, or why. Imho a method of inducing fear and providing some reels for the TV, and of course, the future personal stories ‘omygod we was in danger my little darling baby i had to run with her..’ Doesn’t happen, afaik, for now, in Spain, Italy, Greece, or Switz ..when there is a catastrophe of some kind, ppl run towards it, to help, and not away. I have seen it many times. Over and over.
Plus a ‘terror’ attack justifies ‘anti-terrorism’ raids all over the place who knows for what or why, under the cover of hysteria anything goes.
Posted by: Noirette | Jun 4 2017 19:50 utc | 28
20
That is the tip of the iceberg. Saudi investments in Britain reach 60 billion pounds
Referring to the large expansion that has occurred in trade and investment cooperation between the Gulf and Britain in education, defense and other investment activities, the minister noted that Saudi investments in the UK are huge and the Kingdom's participation in such and other international forums is due to the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, which has adopted policies that encourage marketing and investment opportunities. This is in line with Saudi Vision 2030, the minister added. He mentioned that Saudi investments in the UK amounted to nearly 60 billion pounds in various domains.
Saudis donate most to British Universities
Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has been the largest source of donations from Islamic states and royal families to British universities, much of which is devoted to the study of Islam, the Middle East and Arabic literature.A large share of this money goes toward establishing Islamic study centres. In 2008, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, donated £8m each to Cambridge and Edinburgh for this purpose.
Oxford has been the largest British beneficiary of Saudi support. In 2005, Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the late crown prince, gave £2m to the Ashmolean Museum. In 2001, the King Abdulaziz Foundation, a royal charity, gave £1m to the Middle East Centre.
...
While Islamic studies is the most popular target for donors, support is certainly not restricted to the subject. The Saïd Business School, at Oxford university, was set up by Wafic Said, a Syrian-Saudi businessman, with a £23m initial donation.
Donations are not the only financial links to the Gulf. According to the Observatory for Borderless Higher Education, of the 200 branch campuses opened by universities around the world, 37 are in the UAE and 10 are in Qatar.
University College London has an archeology campus in Qatar. Bolton, Heriot-Watt, the London Business School, Manchester Business School, Cass Business School and Middlesex have bases in Dubai or neighbouring Ras al-Khaimah.
These satellite campuses have two purposes: for countries that need to expand their higher education rapidly, it allows them to build capacity. For the university – if they can make them work – it allows them to tap potentially lucrative markets.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 4 2017 19:56 utc | 29
Posted by: Ghostship | Jun 4, 2017 3:25:48 PM | 22
So fucking what?
I guess the point is that he was not an Arab.
A lineage is quite important in that part of the world. That is why they have so tight control over women btw, to ensure the purity of blood line is not compromised.
Posted by: hopehely | Jun 4 2017 19:57 utc | 30
re 30
The Jews of Medina were Arabs, just of Jewish religion. And what are you, some sort of 1930s nazi, talking about racial purity?
Posted by: Laguerre | Jun 4 2017 20:03 utc | 31
Laguerre
Sorry??? Where did I speak of anything related?? I just pointed to you that his possible relation with the Brits had been already at stake during the Lebanese war. Don't feed the troll and don't morph into one, please.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 4 2017 20:10 utc | 32
Need a job in Aleppo?
http://www.myunjobs.com/job/162882-France:-Responsable-S%C3%A9curit%C3%A9-Volant
Posted by: Mina | Jun 4 2017 20:28 utc | 34
Mina, maybe I misunderstood. I understood you to say that Saddam's investigation of the "Jewish" origins of ibn Abd al-Wahhab was not new, but just repeated an idea which was around in Lebanon in the 70s.
Posted by: Laguerre | Jun 4 2017 20:42 utc | 35
Britain's Deep State is just as entrenched and reform-resistant as that of the US. Even if May is voted out, very little will change in UK's foreign policy calculus, unless the status quo simply can't continue. Brexit may very well be the only viable catalyst for a new course, as German-French blackmail is likely to lead to a complete breakdown in EU-UK relations, with the latter scrambling for new friends. That's why I hope that May wins, and with the victory get the mandate for "hard" Brexit. If she loses, the speed with which Corbyn will morph into another Tony Blair will astonish his moronic supporters.
Posted by: telescope | Jun 4 2017 20:46 utc | 36
@ Laguerre 21
"Western Civilization"? As Ghandi answered to the question of "What do you think of Western Civilization?" "I think it's a good idea..."
@Mark Stoval 2
At this point, I don't see Western Civilization surviving in most of Europe.
You're an American, I guess. Only Americans talk like that. And what's this obsession with "real men"? Isn't it "real men" - and their proclivity to start wars bombing the Middle East back to the Stone Age - who are a major cause of the problem?
Posted by: Laguerre | Jun 4, 2017 3:22:12 PM | 21
Posted by: kgw | Jun 4 2017 21:10 utc | 37
Posted by: telescope | Jun 4, 2017 4:46:39 PM | 36
No blackmail needed, just existing obligations. Lots of commonly funded institutions, pensions for EU employees, British expats (pensioners) in Europe on European health service, expat pensions, EU citizens in Britain pensions and of course access to the EU and British markets with supply chains reaching across borders.
What you wish will result in Britain being completely dependent on the US (Blair) and groveling for Gulf money (they already do this
with increasing urgency).
Or, do you think the Commonwealth has been waiting?
Posted by: somebody | Jun 4 2017 21:20 utc | 38
Sidenote: there are rumours in the middle east and elsewhere that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was actually of Jewish descent.
So fucking what? A lot of Christians and Jews converted to Islam particularly in Palestine and Medina was home to three Jewish tribes in the time of Muhammad. Or are you suggesting that Wahhabism is a Jewish or Rothschild plot to dominate the World?
==========
Actually, I read the "rumour" on some website of Indian Muslim. The story is very elaborate with the conclusion that Wahhabism is a Jewish plot to eradicate true Islam from the Arabian Peninsula and, with luck, elsewhere. In the story, a sheikh from Najd fled to Basrah, now in Iraq, because of internal strife in his tribe -- that is consistent with the Saudi story, and -- here is a discrepancy -- the person who returned later, got into alliance with ancestors of the house of Saud, spread a new doctrine and helped in the conquest of Najd -- was not the exile, but an impostor who was a Jewish merchant from Basrah. And till today, his descendants who have a grip on the religious affairs in KSA (which is true) are crypto-Jewish (according to the story). As it started in early 18-th century, there were no suggestions to any relationship with Rotschilds. It so happens that Rotschilds really have Saudi connections, remember that they are a bit invisible because they are private bankers, working with huge private accounts like those of Saudi. However, now I do not remember details: a Rotschild maiden marrying a Saudi prince or vice versa.
Regardless if the "sensational details" are true or false, it is worth to know that Wahhabism IS NOT A MEDIEVAL DOCTRINE, it is as medieval as neo-Gothic buildings on American university campuses: a recreation of the past as imagined much, much later. As is the case with Christian fundamentalism.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2017 21:24 utc | 39
Jeremy Corbyn; On the Right Side of History
https://youtu.be/il_A5rRk3ME
Posted by: okie farmer | Jun 4 2017 21:30 utc | 40
39
It is pick your enemy. This is the Osman empire version
Memoirs of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy to the Middle East or Confessions of a British Spy
s a document purporting to be the account by an 18th-century British agent, Hempher, of his instrumental role in founding the conservative Islamic reform movement of Wahhabism, as part of a conspiracy to corrupt Islam. It first appeared in 1888, in Turkish, in the five-volume Mir'at al-Haramayn of Ayyub Sabri Pasha (who is thought to be the actual author by at least one scholar).[1] It has been described as "apocryphal",[2] a "forgery", "utter nonsense",[3] and "an Anglophobic variation on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".[2] It has been widely translated and disseminated, is available on the internet,[3][4][5][6] and still enjoys some currency among some individuals in the Middle East and beyond. In 2002, an Iraqi military officer recapitulated the book in a "top secret document".
Posted by: somebody | Jun 4 2017 21:38 utc | 41
If [May] loses, the speed with which Corbyn will morph into another Tony Blair will astonish his moronic supporters.
Posted by: telescope | Jun 4, 2017 4:46:39 PM | 36
All bow to the wisdom of telescope (except the morons, of course). Actually, there are only faint signals in that direction. Corbyn, unlike some other members of the Labour Party, did not parachute to his PM district from a lucrative carrier as a shill of a pharmaceutical company but was a party activist for decades, and he have shown a remarkable consistency in his public views, and very small attachment to earthly delights. By the way of contrast, Tony Blair started as a semi-vertebrate, "soft left", and his evolution into a spineless but rigid crustacean did not remove a lot of calcium from his inner skeleton.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jun 4 2017 21:39 utc | 42
There is a chance to evict her from Downing Street Number 10. If you're able to vote, vote against her! This time it matters.
Posted by: Pnyx | Jun 4 2017 21:44 utc | 43
8 police fired 50 bullets to stop London attackers, shot & wounded member of public - police chief
The eight armed police officers responded with such extreme force as they believed the suspects had explosive ‘suicide belts’ strapped to their bodies. Police later determined that the ‘explosive devices’ were, in fact, fakes.
Reminds me of a similar case in the US not too long ago:
The FBI ultimately gave Medina a fake bomb and arrested him.
Except that this time the assailants were cut loose. So, who provided the fake wests and who stands to benefit the most from the attack this close to the election?
Posted by: never mind | Jun 4 2017 21:46 utc | 44
Here we go again...with false flag events.
I've stopped reading about this Theater of Absurdity some time ago. But b and obviously commentators are deeply into "terrorist" attack. Obviously Group Thinking in works, do not want to paraphrase Nietzsche's mass lunacy quote which is recognizable here. Perhaps it is just solidarity tribal syndrome of the author and his commentators. Where ID or bank card or passport have been found this time, anybody know this pesky detail?
The late Eqbal Ahmed is his lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXt1s38SzpA
classified terror and terrorism nicely.
1. State terrorism - The highest costs
2. Religious terrorism - Second highest costs
3. Crime terrorism
4. Pathological terrorism
5. Political terror of private groups
Western world and in particular its Anglo-Saxon component, along with Zionist settler-state, can be found in all these five categories. Wahhabi's KSA is one or two. It is obvious that State or (Western) Nation terrorism is the cause of the terror domestically and abroad. And that fact should be stressed, domestic terrorism of militarized police and Intell agencies. Or maybe I am wrong domestic population is just seeking for more "securitu"?
One of the main goals of these "attacks" is diverting attention from death tool that countries of Western Asia paid in flesh and blood as well as in devastation of infrastructure and economy overall which is lasting for couple decades. All this inflicted by Western so-called civilization.
: FB Ali | Jun 4, 2017 2:19:37 PM | 7
So sorry if I am not "balanced" do me favor and call me radical.
Posted by: Neretva_43 | Jun 4 2017 21:46 utc | 45
@41 sb
i wonder if your mr. hempher might not just be a reference to harry st. john philby ...
You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia
Paradoxically, it was a maverick British official, who helped embed the [wahabist ikhwan] gene into the new state. The British official attached to Aziz, was one Harry St. John Philby (the father of the MI6 officer who spied for the Soviet KGB, Kim Philby). He was to become King Abd al-Aziz's close adviser, having resigned as a British official, and was until his death, a key member of the Ruler's Court. He, like Lawrence of Arabia, was an Arabist. He was also a convert to Wahhabi Islam and known as Sheikh Abdullah.St. John Philby was a man on the make: he had determined to make his friend, Abd al-Aziz, the ruler of Arabia. Indeed, it is clear that in furthering this ambition he was not acting on official instructions [n.b. the author, alastair crokke is a 'retired' m16 agent]. When, for example, he encouraged King Aziz to expand in northern Nejd, he was ordered to desist. But (as American author, Stephen Schwartz notes), Aziz was well aware that Britain had pledged repeatedly that the defeat of the Ottomans would produce an Arab state, and this no doubt, encouraged Philby and Aziz to aspire to the latter becoming its new ruler.
It is not clear exactly what passed between Philby and the Ruler (the details seem somehow to have been suppressed), but it would appear that Philby's vision was not confined to state-building in the conventional way, but rather was one of transforming the wider Islamic ummah (or community of believers) into a Wahhabist instrument that would entrench the al-Saud as Arabia's leaders. And for this to happen, Aziz needed to win British acquiescence (and much later, American endorsement).
“This was the gambit that Abd al-Aziz made his own, with advice from Philby,”
notes Schwartz.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2017 22:01 utc | 47
That s not what i said and i ve never heard anything about aw being jewish i.e. in this context of jewish descent. If you look carefully almost anyone in the middle east has a jewish or a christian ancestor.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 4 2017 22:09 utc | 48
@39 pb 'Wahhabism is a ... plot to eradicate true Islam from the Arabian Peninsula'
You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia
Like Taymiyyah before him, Abd al-Wahhab believed that the period of the Prophet Muhammad's stay in Medina was the ideal of Muslim society (the “best of times”), to which all Muslims should aspire to emulate (this, essentially, is Salafism).Taymiyyah had declared war on Shi'ism, Sufism and Greek philosophy. He spoke out, too against visiting the grave of the prophet and the celebration of his birthday, declaring that all such behavior represented mere imitation of the Christian worship of Jesus as God (i.e. idolatry). Abd al-Wahhab assimilated all this earlier teaching, stating that “any doubt or hesitation” on the part of a believer in respect to his or her acknowledging this particular interpretation of Islam should “deprive a man of immunity of his property and his life.”
One of the main tenets of Abd al-Wahhab's doctrine has become the key idea of takfir. Under the takfiri doctrine, Abd al-Wahhab and his followers could deem fellow Muslims infidels should they engage in activities that in any way could be said to encroach on the sovereignty of the absolute Authority (that is, the King). ...
Abd al-Wahhab demanded conformity – a conformity that was to be demonstrated in physical and tangible ways. He argued that all Muslims must individually pledge their allegiance to a single Muslim leader (a Caliph, if there were one). Those who would not conform to this view should be killed, their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated, he wrote. The list of apostates meriting death included the Shiite, Sufis and other Muslim denominations, whom Abd al-Wahhab did not consider to be Muslim at all.
... sounds like 'a ... plot to eradicate true Islam from the Arabian Peninsula' to me.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2017 22:10 utc | 49
I wouldn't pick Corbyn. Look at all the hyaenas in his party. Change through voting is delusional.
Oh -- and the London Bridge is a big hoax. Bad Police-actors with camouflage pants, no CCTV, only emergency lights, same as it ever was...keep the MIC happy, vrate chaos, legitimize war and now oppress the Internet.
Posted by: slirs | Jun 4 2017 22:11 utc | 50
persiflo #22
Excellent point. I think it would be accurate to say that every native family in the Levant and rest of the Arab world are of Jewish descent. When the Islamic Arab armies conquered the Levant in the later part of the first millennium they were not a proselytizing religious movement. They encouraged the locals to keep their religion because they couldn't collect taxes from Muslims, but they could from the Christians, Jews and Pagans. As time went on many of the merchants converted to avoid taxation. Even as late as 11th century when the Crusaders establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem over half of the native population were either Jews or followers of that rabbi Jesus Christ.
Posted by: ToivoS | Jun 4 2017 22:16 utc | 51
@28 noirette, 'Abundantly clear from the images is that a huge Armed to da Teeth Po-lice Force paraded some 10-12 hours after all was over.'
your point is well-taken. the police were running away during the attack itself - probably in response to their own directions? - the parade afterwards was to terrify the brits. not unlike boston after the marathon bombing, or france ... fascism is on the rise worldwide. the elite have been exposed and they need to keep 'control', no matter what it takes ... and in fact increased control is always welcome in the case of oligarchic rule. yet an additional feature of coddling tory terrorists ... the blowback of the blowback, as it were. having their tory cake ... and eating it, too.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 4 2017 22:20 utc | 52
@Mina | Jun 4, 2017 6:09:04 PM | 48
Were the Babylonians, Summers, Akkadians, ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, the Hittites, the Nabateans also "jews" and "Christians"?
Posted by: Neretva_43 | Jun 4 2017 22:21 utc | 53
Why necessary jewish descent? There were plenty of religions back then.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 4 2017 22:23 utc | 54
Posted by: jfl | Jun 4, 2017 6:01:00 PM | 47
Minus two centuries.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 4 2017 22:29 utc | 55
@1 There were similar rumours about JC being of Jewish origin.
Posted by: Paul Cockshott | Jun 4 2017 22:29 utc | 56
It is not only business interest i.e. money that is in common between West and KSA and GCC for that matter. Somehow Medievalism is attributed to the KSA and rightly so, however the West is full of Medievalists notably the US and the UK. While the important states of EU are nominally parliamentary so-called democracies there are nothing but tribal/clan societies.
Finally both sides were ally in fighting nationalistic leaders (Nasser, Saddam, Ghadaffi) in West Asia and Norht Africa and various resistance movements in that region. Just to limit the story to that region, OK. So we have medievalist in robes from 15th century but also medievalists in silk ties and leather shoes. The same mindset.
Posted by: Neretva_43 | Jun 4 2017 22:33 utc | 57
One can not find a society that is more savage and medieval than it is Israel, followed by the USA, and the UK.
Posted by: Neretva_43 | Jun 4 2017 22:38 utc | 58
"Forbidden Fruit"
There is a catchy SKA song calling Theresa May ‘Liar, Liar’ at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxN1STgQXW8
It has reached No 1 in iTunes UK Music charts.
Yet most commercial radio stations such as CapitalFM and Heart are (still) refusing to play it.
UK barflies on MOA might like to make up for this shortcoming
by distributing the clip to their colleagues... (Assuming it stays up)
Every little helps :-)
Posted by: DavidKNZ | Jun 4 2017 22:44 utc | 59
Damn b, you nailed it with this piece! Not only May is guilty of aiding and abetting these terrorist scum-bags, but the whole of the western empire along with her.
Posted by: ben | Jun 4 2017 23:22 utc | 60
Must agree with ben @60. But there are so many more guilty of so many deaths, and they all must be brought to the bar of justice and given an opportunity to explain their barbarous acts before being sentenced to Transportation to the middle of Greenland's ice sheet without any means of survival.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 4 2017 23:36 utc | 61
P. S.-Has anyone one noticed these "terrorist" attacks often happen just before elections?
As the poster @ 45 opined, false flag anyone?
Regardless, the fact remains, the corporate western empire, funds, and trains these people
to destabilize countries who balk at being assimilated into the empire.
Posted by: ben | Jun 4 2017 23:46 utc | 62
@55 sb,
well, hempher was an apocryphal story, a prophesy. and st. john philby its realization.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 5 2017 0:10 utc | 63
IMO this entire 'jewish descent' line is just another divisive furphy. This nonsense is contemptible because it advances the agenda of both nazi racists and freedom hating butchering zionists who love anything that promotes the zionist 'jews are special' while the nazis get to push their 'all jews are forked tongued double agents n commies' nonsense.
The only way that a semite such such as al-Wahhab wouldn't have some jewish antecedants would be if people believed the nonsense that in AD 70 after the romans chased the ruling elite outta Jerusalem, all of the Jordan Valley including Palestine stood empty of all non Roman humans.
AFAIK most of the indigenous population of the Jordan Valley stayed right where they were, the nomads continued their well worn routes through the seasons and the agrarians kept growing and harvesting, breeding and herding on their land - for them upping sticks & shuffling off to eastern europe or spain or wherever would have seemed a lunatic move. Why would they do such a thing?
I doubt the arrival of a new boss made SFA difference to them.
The shift from judaism to islam was prolly less confronting than the move to xtianity given that both xtians and islamists have incorporated most of the jewish superstitions into their own nonsense and islam gained more traction a whole lot faster than xtianity did.
It is impossible to know from this distance but the fact that the Prophet was a much more ardent proselyzer than christ would have had a bit to do with that, plus of course the Prophet had sons to continue to 'spread the word' by conquest and christ didn't also would have ensured many former jewish families swapped their beliefs.
Organised religions of these sorts have always been more about supporting the powerful than liberating the ordinary citizens, so shifting from judaism to islam would likely have been regarded by the population as commonsense more than confronting.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 5 2017 0:55 utc | 64
Posted by: ben | Jun 4, 2017 7:46:07 PM | 62
false flag anyone?
It can't be a false flag if there were no flags at all.
However, the act was genuine, people got hurt and killed, and random and nondiscriminatory nature of it pretty much fits definition of terrorism, as the act of violence with intent to instill fear. Now who might be behind it, hoo nose.
Posted by: hopehely | Jun 5 2017 0:56 utc | 65
The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.
People may or may not become injured or be killed during a FF event.
Posted by: fast freddy | Jun 5 2017 1:27 utc | 66
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 4, 2017 8:55:27 PM | 64
You guys really underestimate how lineage is important in certain circles. It gives certain people (nobles, 'blue blood') legitimacy to hold power. For example, the king of Jordan bases his God given royal right by claiming direct lineage to Prophet Mohammed. Now imagine if someone sends his DNA to my ancestry dot com and it turns out that he is 20% English 70% German and 10% lizard. His royal career in Jordan would be over quite soon, but his chances for the throne in Westminster palace might jump up considerably...
The same thing with that Wahabi dude. The guy was probably able to recite his lineage bin this bin that ibn left ibn right all back to dinosaurs just to show and prove that he comes from the glorious great tribe of al-Usrah. Now someone says he is not from them but from the obscure little tribe of el-Shlomo. Ouch. His prestige is gone pronto and disappeared like fart in the wind.
Posted by: hopehely | Jun 5 2017 1:30 utc | 67
@ mina and others.. i regret even responding to what looked like trollish commentary @1.. however, i am happy that @39 piotr articulates what he does in the last sentence @39.. bottom line, wahabbism is a disease and it is being allowed to spread on the planet thanks these whack jobs from saudi arabia/qatar and the petrodollars they spend on madrassas around the globe... the uk/usa is still a okay with it all.. that is the sick part in all this.. that is why i am given to referring to this couple - uk/usa as warmongers of the first degree..
@56 paul... good response!! i detect a theme here, lol..
@57/58 Neretva_43.. looks that way to me too..
@64 debs.. agree with your last sentenc, which i quote "Organised religions of these sorts have always been more about supporting the powerful than liberating the ordinary citizens, so shifting from judaism to islam would likely have been regarded by the population as commonsense more than confronting."
that is so true.. unfortunately many folks seem to prefer slavery to freedom... organized religion has a lot of adherents...
@67 hopehely... there are a lot of stupid people everywhere... if folks are fooled so easily by appearances, they can just as easily be fooled by lineage, ancestry and all that blather too... some folks make a big deal of this - folks who like to be ruled over, or held slaves to this or that doctrine... it is hard to help someone who is that thick...
Posted by: james | Jun 5 2017 1:47 utc | 68
What's striking about this attack is the contrast with the Manchester bombing.
Manchester was carefully planned over weeks or months. And it was timed to occur on a special day (the 4th anniversary of the Rigby killing").
But this London attack could've been planned in a matter of days. In fact, it seems likely that planning started AFTER embarrassing info came to light about the Manchester bomber's connection to MI6.
With that in mind, we may well ask: cui bono? Media chatter seem to be that this kind of attack can't be prevented. In which case, the attack helps May. And who can best protect the country? Again, the attack helps May as conservatives are traditionally viewed as strong on defense.
We will know more when the attacker identities are released. Will they be released before the election?
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jun 5 2017 2:36 utc | 69
enough is enough ,
but she isnt talking about Mosul !
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47176.htm
Posted by: denk | Jun 5 2017 2:47 utc | 70
Bingo! Nice work, b.
Your...
BBC: British rebels attack Theresa May strongholds in London
Posted by: b | Jun 3, 2017 9:11:29 PM | 19
...in the Open Thread went right over my head.
Sorry you had to spell it out in this thread, but thanks bigly for doing so. Vampire-ish Christian Colonialism seems to have reached the final stage of chewing its own head off.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 5 2017 3:02 utc | 71
I suggest revisiting Terry Gilliam's 1985 film "Brazil".
The world of Brazil shows a totalitarian society in which freedom has been forfeited for a false promise of protection from terrorist attacks. Gilliam shows how the threat of terrorism is manipulated by the state as a means of political control over the population. The threat of terror is created by the internal security police in order to generate public acceptance of totalitarian police powers.Review at http://oilempire.us/brazil.html
Posted by: Bolt | Jun 5 2017 3:16 utc | 72
jfl @49
That Philby connection is interesting, I read
Truman soon brought in John Foster Dulles as advisor to the State Department, and Allen Dulles as the CIA’s director of covert operations. Under-Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett (Averell Harriman’s partner and client to the Dulles brothers in the Hitler-buildup) ran the U.S. negotiations for the Atlantic Alliance. Under heavy British pressure, Congress voted for the United States to join NATO in 1949. Kim Philby, a Soviet agent still working for the British, then came to Washington as Ambassador Franks’s first secretary and as the MI6 liaison with the CIA. Philby fed Soviet paranoia with accounts of evil American deeds, thus cementing the Cold War Anglo-American alliance. Sir Oliver Franks went back to London to become chairman of Lloyds Bank.at the Saker in the historical piece about he deep state vs Russia and wonder if the Philby pere et fils were working towards some other long term agenda.
Posted by: Bolt | Jun 5 2017 4:00 utc | 74
interesting development with regard to qatar and the gcc's... looking for a possible scapegoat saudi arabia??
Posted by: james | Jun 5 2017 4:17 utc | 75
#75
This is very interesting indeed. What was most strange is that the Saudis accused Qatar of supporting Al qaida and ISIS and that was the reason they were cutting relations! Now Qatar has definitely been supporting the Muslim Brotherhood while the Saudis backed the former two groups. Maybe Trump put the screws to the Saudis over their support for the terrorist and this is their way to deflect the pressure.
Poor Huffpost Arabic seems to be an extention of Al jazeera based in Qatar. What is poor Ariana going to do now?
Posted by: ToivoS | Jun 5 2017 5:37 utc | 76
@ Bolt 72
Brazil. One of the all time greats, Gilliam the visionary was in top form with Brazil. Parallels indeed can be drawn in the public enemies required for the full on security state, and i would hazard a guess that 'managed blowback' or 'controlled blowback' is sitting neatly in the glossary of terms in a well referred to manual...listed near 'strategic adversary' most likely.
Posted by: MadMax2 | Jun 5 2017 6:12 utc | 77
So again the perpretators were known before
Under Theresa May's watch.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 5 2017 6:46 utc | 78
UK has for years been justifying its relationship with Saudi Arabia by saying UK gets intelligence benefits. In other words, UK does arms deals with Saudi and the flip side is Saudi government ensures that the word goes out to Wahabist contacts that UK is not to be touched by 'terrorism'. This understanding is clearly breaking down because Mosul is about to fall and ISIS operatives on the ground are feeling betrayed. May will be furious with Saudi especially in the light of recent arms deals. Qatar's diplomatic isolation is a symptom of all these pressures. Basically, the war in Syria/Iraq is forcing Saudi Arabia into a corner. Which way will they turn ? Cranking up the pressure to suppress ISIS or back the Wahabist religious authorities in KSA ?
Posted by: aniteleya | Jun 5 2017 6:50 utc | 79
Repeating Libya they now annex Yemen through diplomatic resolutions
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40155829
Posted by: Mina | Jun 5 2017 7:48 utc | 80
With the huge Qatari financial interests in Europe the most interesting will be to read how the grievances against it are reported in some private media whose owner have direct jointventures with Qatar
Posted by: Mina | Jun 5 2017 7:51 utc | 81
79
That is one way to understand it Fox News: ISIS's real target: Saudi Arabia
It does not explain Western support and use of Al Quaeda and ISIS though.
This here is another view: How the UK became a Saudi client state after 1973
Yet Britain did not only support Saudi foreign policy in the Middle East. Crown Prince Fahd’s October 1975 visit to Britain came at a time when the Foreign Office was briefing ministers to regard the Saudis ‘as valuable interlocutors’ for ‘exchanging views … on a wide range of world (as distinct from purely Middle Eastern) problems, including East–West relations and the world economic and monetary situation (with particular reference to a new international economic order)’. This was now a global strategic alliance. And British planners could have had no illusions about just who the Saudis were otherwise supporting in their foreign policy. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Saudi Arabia financed, among others, the Palestinian terrorist group headed by Abu Nidal, Islamic militants opposed to Qadafi in Libya, Uganda’s bloodthirsty dictator Idi Amin, Muslim rebels in the Philippines and the brutal Siad Barre regime in Somalia.
Seems like Trump has contracted US foreign policy to Saudi, too
Posted by: somebody | Jun 5 2017 7:58 utc | 82
Hilarious, if dwarf states such as ksa and uae can cut diplo rel and air traffic with qatar coz it supports terrorism why cant france the uk and germany cut relations with qatar and ksa?
Posted by: Mina | Jun 5 2017 8:11 utc | 83
It would be a big economic advantage to UK/Europe/US if the Gulf sheikdoms were taken over and the oil money was spent on Arab consumber demand.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 5 2017 8:31 utc | 84
- Don't count on Corbyn to completely abolish arms sales to the Middle East.
- Is Corbyn strong enough to reign in all the covert actions of the british secret services ? I highly doubt it.
Posted by: Willy2 | Jun 5 2017 8:39 utc | 85
29 year old father of two. Sounds like another sleeper cell.
The guy was said to be "euphoric" days before the attack. So like I mused @69, they were activated AFTER embarrassing info about the Manchester attacker came to light, threatening May's election.
Teresa May will benefit and will probably join in sending troops to ME (Corbyn probably wouldn't), just as KSA, Israel, and other 'Assad must go!' countries want.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jun 5 2017 9:12 utc | 86
@41 @55 sb, @47 @63
well, it's not long so i actually read the thing Memoirs of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy to the Middle East ... it certainly does not seem to have been written by a brit, it certainly does seem to be have been written by an apologist for ottoman empire, blaming the brits for all its own incoherence and incohesion.
the russians are coming!
just like clinton/cis/the dnc. plus ca chamge, as noirette might say. empire on its deathbed to empire on its deathbed.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 5 2017 10:16 utc | 88
Posted by: Mina | Jun 5, 2017 4:11:57 AM | 83
The irony being of course that 11000 US military personnel are stuck in a country that is being cut off by US allies.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 5 2017 10:32 utc | 89
Heard elsewhere: Qtar is to blamed for congratulating Rohani for his reelection
Maybe now that Putin had found out how to coerce Turkey and Qatar into a solution with the Iranians in Syria, someone decided to pull out the plug?
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/270238/Egypt/Politics-/UPDATED-Six-Arab-governments,-including-Egypt,-cut.aspx
Posted by: Mina | Jun 5 2017 10:35 utc | 90
@79 sb
on the 'fox news' article ... it seems to have come from 'the arabia foundation' ... which seems to be a property of the saudi royals.
thanks for the links to mark curtis, though. he seems to be heads up ... for an 'ex-' mi6 officer. although there often seem to be one or two bizarre 'blindsposts' or omissions in his tales.
Posted by: jfl | Jun 5 2017 10:38 utc | 91
james #75... Yes, agree, the Qatar thing is most puzzling.
Saudi Arabia, ok (and perh Trump's thumbscrew in evidence, as TS suggests)... growing antagonism between KSA & Q [was offered a job in Q once and my research put me off, but for quite some time, Doha struck me as an enormous DC project, a sort of Bondsteel on the Gulf, DC being jealous about the mutual lovey-dovey between KSA and Whitehall].
However, strange bedfellows in this aggreement: KSA? foe; Egypt? friend; Bahrain? kind-of foe, with potential friend in the "masses"; UAE? like Egypt, appears to be moving into friend territory; Yemen? like Bahrain, foe at the official top, friend in various other layers.
Using friend, foe here from our geopolitical perspective, of course.
Posted by: Petra | Jun 5 2017 11:21 utc | 92
Islam is War. Tremendous consequences flow from this simple reality for anything that is not Islam. Until Coburne or any other aspiring leader acknowledges the elephant in the room, they are unfit for office. Waiting for a leader.
Posted by: Northern Observer | Jun 5 2017 12:51 utc | 93
An Examination of the London Bridge Fake Terror Attack
http://www.newnationalist.net/2017/06/05/an-examination-of-the-london-bridge-terror-attack/
Posted by: thenewnationalist | Jun 5 2017 13:25 utc | 94
This website is adamantly in favor of Brexit. Why would you want the candidate most devoted to carrying out Brexit to lose then?
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jun 5 2017 13:57 utc | 95
- One commentator even suggested that even when Mrs. T. May wins the upcoming election then she won't be prime minister for too long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOGaNtRXZII
Posted by: Willy2 | Jun 5 2017 15:17 utc | 96
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jun 5, 2017 9:57:28 AM | 95
Only geopolitical hawks who think BREXIT would weaken the European Union vs Russia and antiglobalist ethnonationalists.
Brexit was the failed EU refugee policy's fault as English people felt they had no control of their borders (and the labour market). Apart from it being a finance conspiracy as finance did not want to be regulated by the EU.
Both Corbyn and May will do BREXIT but on different terms. Both parties Labour and Conservatives are split on BREXIT.
Posted by: somebody | Jun 5 2017 15:30 utc | 97
- The former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has analyzed her body language and he doesn't like what he sees.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/05/the-art-of-negotiation/
Posted by: Willy2 | Jun 5 2017 15:34 utc | 98
@92 petra... we will have to wait and see how this qatar thing unfolds.. might indicate wheels coming off ksa.. i sure hope so... i read a quote yesterday at craig murrays site.. i am going to see if i can find it right now and share it.. first though i see he has an article up - The Qatar Conundrum saying much as i did - pot calling kettle black..
the book author listed below is actually christopher davidson.. looks like a good read...
"Mike
June 4, 2017 at 23:15
According to Christopher Stephens writing in Shadow Wars – The Secret Struggle for the Middle East, Britain has been colluding with radical Islam for at least 120 years:
Excerpt from Chapter 3 – sub-heading: Searching for an Islamic State – Britain’s Caliphate
Forged through conquest, the Saudi-Wahhabi entity was also brutally sectarian, repeatedly attacking Shia communities along the coastline of the Persian Gulf in the 1790s, and pillaging Shia shrines in Iraq in 1801 and 1802. In Karbala, scene of an ancient battle between the Sunni caliph and the Shia, represented by the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, the Saudis slaughtered most of the town’s population, destroyed the dome over the grave of one of Shiism’s founders, and ‘looted property, weapons, clothing, carpets, gold, silver and precious copies of the Qur’an’. The smashing of the Karbala dome along with others in Mecca has been described as the ‘signature activity’ of Wahhabism at the time.
Despite such barbarity, by 1899 the Saudis were being encouraged by Britain to use its protectorate of Kuwait as a launch pad to further their campaign against rival tribes and the Ottomans. Capturing Riyadh in 1902, Ibn Saud and his Wahhabi militia, the Ikhwan, quickly went on to conquer most of the other central and eastern parts of Arabia. Signing a treaty with Ibn Saud in 1915, Britain ‘formally recognized [him] as the independent ruler… under British protection. In return he undertook to follow British advice.’ Remarkably, in 1917, a year after the Sykes–Picot agreement had already promised Arabia to the Hashemites, and at exactly the same time that both Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot visited Mecca to discuss their plans with Hussein, Britain had also decided to put Ibn Saud on a handsome monthly retainer of £5,000. Described as a ‘Bedouin chief for hire’, his son Faisal was even invited to take a tour around London.
With the First World War drawing to a close it still seemed Hussein was in pole position, as his monthly retainer was £12,000, and an estimated £11 million – an enormous sum for that time – had been transferred to the Hashemite coffers. Having coordinated much of the Arab Revolt via their man on the ground, Colonel Thomas Lawrence, or ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, Britain’s Cairo-based Arab Bureau continued to back the Mecca plan on the basis they would be best placed to oversee the process of switching the caliphate from Turkish to Arab control. The bureau chief, David Hogarth, was unequivocal in his views, having described the Saudi pretenders as having a ‘fanatical creed unsuited to most of the Islamic world’. With the Ottoman Empire all but finished by 1919, Hussein duly pleaded with Hogarth and others to ensure that Ibn Saud’s power was held in check and that the Ikhwan was destroyed, because it was a ‘political society in the cloak of religion’. By the end of the year it seemed London was heeding such calls and was prepared to fulfil the Sykes–Picot promises, as at one point even the Royal Air Force was used to support Hussein’s attempts to roll back the Saudis.
In many ways, however, Britain’s actions against the Ikhwan were just part of a ‘friendly rivalry’, as London secretly continued to back both sides at the same time. The India Office in particular seemed to favour Ibn Saud over Hussein on the basis that the Ikhwan’s ferocity would help ward off other rival powers from entering the Persian Gulf. Although posthumously transformed into the blond-haired, blue-eyed Hollywood hero of the Arab people, even Lawrence was wholly at ease with the duplicitous double game. Commenting in a secret intelligence report on the British plan, he described Hussein as ‘beneficial to us, because [he] marches with our immediate aims, the break-up of the Islamic “bloc” and the defeat and disruption of the Ottoman Empire, and because the states he would set up would be as harmless to ourselves as Turkey was’. The ideal scenario for Lawrence, it seemed, was ‘if properly handled [the Arab states] would remain in a state of political mosaic, a tissue of jealous principalities incapable of cohesion, and yet always ready to combine against an outside force’. He also later explained that ‘Hussein was ultimately chosen because of the rift he would create in Islam. In other words, divide and rule.’ The India Office similarly noted the advantages of such a strategy, with one report stating: ‘What we want… is not a united Arabia, but a weak and disunited Arabia, split up into little principalities so far as possible under our suzerainty.’ On the subject of manipulating dangerous elements such as the Ikhwan , Lawrence was also quite comfortable, pointing out that when a ‘Wahhabi-like Muslim form of Bolshevism’ had welled up in southern Iraq, it was easily put down by British aircraft and on-the-ground spotters.
The Saudi-Wahhabi killing spree that ensued as Lawrence’s ‘tissue of jealous principalities’ continued to pull each other apart led to an estimated 400,000 dead with 40,000 public executions, 350,000 amputations, ‘scorched-earth’ battlefields, and the displacement of an estimated one million persons, most of whom fled to neighbouring countries. With the Ikhwan responsible for much of the carnage, Ibn Saud claimed to his British employers that they were operating independently of his control. Perceptive British officials however stated that ‘[Ibn Saud] does not want it to be known that he himself is at the bottom of the whole thing, and is fostering and guiding the movement for his own ends.’ As colonial secretary, Winston Churchill was similarly well aware of the reality, having informed parliament at the time that the Ikhwan was ‘austere, intolerant, well-armed, and bloodthirsty… they hold it as an article of duty as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children… men have been killed for smoking a cigarette.’ Moreover, Churchill had earlier warned of the dangers of using such extremist Islamist militias in Britain’s wars in Sudan, having written that ‘no stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Muhammadism is a militant and proselytizing faith.’ He also claimed it led to a ‘fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog’.
——————
There’s no way we can believe politicians when they act shocked by terrorism either at home or abroad – ‘we’ have been stoking or waging a war of terror for centuries."
Posted by: james | Jun 5 2017 16:10 utc | 99
Brexit is nothing more then the British self-proclaimed elites their reaction to my plan "how to colonize the UK". If you think the people voted for Brexit you are still a gullible fool and underestimate the powers of Mi5 to manipulate any election. The Rothschild-Zionists that control the UK are afraid of the Muslims. And my plan is a perfect plan to destroy the British elite and its people in the long run. My plan is also already 6 years old. I posted it on 10.000 places now.
https://www.liveleak.com/c/Andrew_Parker_Mi5
Read my plan "How to colonize the UK: Muslims" and you know why Brexit happened!
Posted by: Thucydides | Jun 5 2017 16:21 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Sidenote: there are rumours in the middle east and elsewhere that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was actually of Jewish descent.
Posted by: persiflo | Jun 4 2017 17:55 utc | 1