Oakeshott gave evidence + statement to Sunday Times in Nov 2017.
This is letter from editor Martin Ivens. He’s left but @ShippersUnbound is still there. Does he know what happened? Can new editor @EmmaTuckerST find out?
Did Oakeshott change mind? Did govt ministers intervene?
Theresa May got it. She tried to warn us. Listen to this speech again. She said it all here.
She called Putin’s invasion of Crimea what it was. She calls out ‘election meddling’. And its attacks on our information space.
Her cabinet colleagues - Johnson & Williamson - didn’t.
Johnson was asked about Russian interference by @RhonddaBryant just 2 weeks earlier. ‘Not a sausage,’ he replied.
This is not true. Theresa May isn’t just calling out Putin in that speech. She’s calling out her own foreign minister.
Johnson’s failure to take action against Russian £ even now is a national security risk & we need to know what happened in Nov 2017 when FBI revealed London investigation, when Theresa May warned us, when Sun Times spiked explosive scoop.
Where was NCA? Where was MI5/6?
Britain’s national security apparatus was paralysed by a failure of leadership. The Russia Report told us that explicitly. And our political leadership was paralysed by Brexit.
I think @theresa_may got it. And I suspect she has answers.
The evidence suggests Johnson directly involved in covering up Russian interference. New docs I published yesterday reveal Williamson’s involvement.
This is photo of Johnson in Congress with Mifsud who head of FBI called ‘a Russian agent of influence’
Will Sunday Times tell us why it spiked its story? I hope so. It had explosive story about Brexit funder as 'Russian agent of influence' 3 days after Theresa May's speech on Russia dominated the front pages.
We know Johnson had already tried to bury the story once. Did he again?
Why did Arron Banks state on oath that Wigmore gave emails to Sunday Times in June 2018? When ST editor confirms he has them in Nov 2017?
Nov 14, 2017: Theresa May dominates front pages with speech saying Russia has attacked our elections.
Nov 17, 2017: Sunday Times indemnifies Oakeshott over explosive story of Brexit funder as "Russian agent of influence"
Nov 19, 2017: This is Sunday Times front page.
To be clear, I am not trying to lay blame with Sunday Times or even Oakeshott. I don't know what happened. There were other forces at work here at highest levels of govt.
But I do think @ShippersUnbound & others can help expose what happened here. And hope they will.
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Woke Andrew Neil might be the worst Andrew Neil yet
This was your contribution to Russia investigation, @afneil. You provided air cover for Banks & Wigmore when we revealed they sent documents about an indicted money launderer working for LeaveEU to the Russian embassy & then denied it when asked by MPs. Take a bow.
Um, @LeaveMnsLeave, the Farage-Tice Brexit vehicle, appears to have deleted its tweets & closed its account earlier. And it now seems to have been squatted by someone who’s retweeting me. 😂
Paging @Turloughc! Do you remember the Brexit Party’s PayPal grift? The dodgy af scheme that @Turloughc & @BylineTimes exposed? That was @LeaveMnsLeave. This is feeling less & less coincidental…
Williamson was appointed Sec for Defence on Nov 2 2017. Days after FBI revealed it was investigating suspected Russian assets/agents operating in London. Some of these had met Foreign Office officials. These including Johnson, then Foreign Secretary 2/ theguardian.com/politics/2017/…
Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese professor, was just one of these. Johnson denied meeting him until a photo emerged. Mifsud subsequently vanished without trace.
Days later, Theresa May made her landmark speech: "Russia we know what what you are doing" 3/
So, do I have this straight? The best known oligarch in Britain & billionaire owner of Chelsea FC who tried to sue investigative journalist @CatherineBelton for writing about his close relationship with Vladimir Putin..he *still* hasn’t been sanctioned?
Unbelievable. Even for Britain. Boris Johnson, who says he’s doing everything humanly possible in this unprecedented crisis, has given him a head start to let him liquidate his assets first?
Could Johnson be an even bigger hypocrite? Yes. The man who suppressed the Russia report, is rolling in Russian cash & has failed to sanction Abramovich is using Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to put out jingoistic films portraying himself as hero of the hour
Why wouldn’t he use nukes, she argues. He’s already used polonium. He’s already used novichok. Why wouldn’t he reach back into his arsenal of extreme weird inhumane banned weaponry?
Hill is such a sober, rational, careful figure. Anyone who saw her evidence to Congress knows how impressive she is. She’s saying the world has to get its shit together & act collectively now because this is 1939. He is Hitler. And he’s not going to stop at Ukraine
I think we may look back on this as the first Great Information War. Except we're already 8 years in.
The first Great Information War began in 2014. The invasion of Ukraine is the latest front. And the idea it doesn't already involve us is fiction, a lie.
1/
It was Putin's fury at the removal of President Yankovych in Feb 2014 that kicked everything off. Information operations were first crucial step in invasion of Crimea & Donbass. A deliberate attempt to warp reality to confuse both Ukrainians & the world.
2/
This was not new. The Soviets had practiced "dezinformatsiya" for years. But what was new in 2014 was technology. Social media. It was a transformative moment. "Hybrid warfare" on steroids: a golden Willy Wonka ticket to manipulate hearts & minds. Almost completely invisibly.
3/