I hope Gaza at least teaches many more people in the UK 4 things. 1. Our political leaders are a bunch of warmongering thugs. That’s obvious and has been for around 500 years. It’s been suppressed by complicit journalists and academics.

2. The system is oligarchic more than… … democratic (this PM is not even elected; there’s no hope of holding ministers to account for war crimes: the system is set up to avoid that.) Influencing UK foreign policy in a serious way is impossible through the formal system, which is designed to keep the public out

Short 🧵on the UK's new ‘integrated review". Which is based on a myth, that Britain “supports the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law”.

This is how the UK establishment projects itself. It is routinely not true.

👉bit.ly/3JClHDf The review confirms the UK establishment is terrified of China since it challenges Anglo-American power.

China’s expansion entails “the redistribution of global power away from G7 economies”, the review says. This is making it “more difficult to maintain the UK’s strengths”.

Thread on the UK's 42 coups/overthrows in 27 states since 1945, which include intell operations, assassinations and covert/overt military interventions.

Not an exhaustive list perhaps; those we @declassifieduk have found. More details below

declassifieduk.org/britains-42-co… Overthrowing govts is as British as afternoon tea. Worst cases in early postwar years are Guyana, Iran, Guatemala, Congo, Brazil - these were clearly progressive govts seeking positive change, esp for the poor. The UK, with US, opposes alternative development models, then as now.

The role of corporate media is now to report Liz Truss' speech earnestly and solemnly, which, after you read it, you might think would be a bit of a task, since it's genuinely hilarious, even by foreign office standards. I think she thinks she's Reagan.

gov.uk/government/spe… "Countries must play by the rules", Truss stated, which is amusing enough. Then repeated her call for a "Network of Liberty", which involves UK deepening support for dictatorships. Then came: "I share your fundamental belief in sovereignty, in fair play and the rule of law". 🤣

The dirty secret of 9/11 for the UK is that its intelligence and ‘security’ agencies collaborated with Islamist extremist/terrorist groups both before and after the attacks.

Here's a thread on some of the most important episodes. bit.ly/3E1USDM 2/In 1999 Kosovo war UK trained KLA militants, who worked closely with al-Qaida. Training took place at camps where jihadist fighters also had their military centre. One KLA unit at the time was led by the brother of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden’s deputy. bit.ly/3yUQ5Ap

50 years ago today, Idi Amin seized power in Uganda, a coup immediately welcomed by UK, declassified files show. UK backed/armed Amin's regime as the terror began, only later withdrawing support. It's important to understand why - thread bit.ly/39YjeQF UK diplomats backed Amin knowing he was "corrupt and unintelligent" with "something of the villain about him and he may well be quite unscrupulous and indeed ruthless". They had no illusions about who he was and consciously preferred him to his predecessor Milton Obote.

2021 is a year of several anniversaries in UK foreign policy.

1951 - Attlee's Labour govt begins covert planning to overthrow Musaddiq in Iran, carried out by MI6 and CIA two years later. bit.ly/2LcT3wO 1961 - UK govt fabricates a threat to Kuwait from Iraq to keep Kuwait, and its oil, within its orbit.
bit.ly/2LaQVG3

Thread on 6 different rules if you want to succeed as a corporate journalist in the 'mainstream' OR as an independent journalist providing a public service. Referring mainly to covering UK policies affecting the wider world. For corporate journalists:

1. Focus on revealing crimes/abuses by enemies designated by the UK state (Russia, China etc) and ignore or downplay those of the UK.

2. Focus mainly on pursuing your career, and serving power.

In case the penny hasn't dropped yet about the true nature of British power and political system, some thoughts based on recent case studies. My contention is that UK democracy is largely an illusion - a nice idea to justify current governance - and that #theukisanoligarchy 2003 Iraq war showed that a tiny cabal around the PM could lie its way to invading a foreign country, dismissing majority public opinion and intern'l law, and garner the support of virtually the entire mainstream media and political class with no comeback after killing up to 1m

UK authorities told the British public at least *8 times* from January to *mid-March* that the threat from Covid-19 was "low". See the thread. And see the critical article by @pmillerinfo for @declassifieduk

bit.ly/39sH3h9 1/ On 20 January Public Health England’s Dr Nick Phin said in a press release that the risk to the UK population from coronavirus was “very low”. bit.ly/3bAiOz6

Just to be clear, media campaign against Corbyn went far beyond anything against any previous Labour leader. It was surely the biggest propaganda campaign in UK history. Key to this is agenda-setting: shaping what people think *about* (and what they don’t). See thread. Media search using Factiva: articles in UK national press (not broadcast) from Corbyn elected leader 12 Sept 2015 to 12 Dec 2019 election, mentioning:

“Corbyn and IRA” – 3,001
“Corbyn and antisemitism” - 12,700
“Corbyn and [exact phrase] ‘threat to national security’” - 233

Extent of media propaganda against Corbyn. Factiva media search covering 45 days since election was called to today. Articles in UK national press (not broadcast):

"Corbyn and antisemitism" -1,247
'Johnson and Islamophobia' - 159

“Corbyn and IRA” – 253
“Johnson and Yemen” - 16 On “Corbyn and antisemitism”, around half the articles since election was called are in Times & Telegraph. They are followed by S*n, Guardian/Observer and Mail.

“Corbyn and IRA” campaign has been led by S*n, followed by Times and Telegraph

The Assange extradition raises 3 fundamental issues beyond freedom of the media which, IMO, every member of the public should be concerned about, if we want to secure democracies that defend the public interest against arbitrary state power. See next tweets. 1/In Assange extradition, Trump is asserting the US right to prosecute a *non-US* person, *not in the US*, under US laws. This is amazing. By the same argument, Russia or Saudi could prosecute a journalist (or blogger) in London, Washington or Canberra for revealing their crimes.

Iran holding Razanin Ratcliffe is illegal/wrong and UN calls for her release. Problem is that UK govt stance on her case is undermined by its failure to uphold the same principles in the case of J.Assange, whose release the UN also calls for but which UK rejects. Next 3 tweets UK govt “have repeatedly asked the Iranians to release Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds” and state ”the importance of abiding by agreements and international norms” – similar norms demanded by UN which the UK rejects in the case of J.Assange. bit.ly/2H2tL1X

4 tweets on the UK govt-funded 'Integrity Initiative' and the “Conflict Fund” that has supported it. 1/The govt was forced to admit in parliament that its ‘Conflict Fund’ funds the Integrity Initiative. But there is no mention of this funding I can find in any of the govt documents previously made public on the Fund. I think we know why that is. bit.ly/2uaoGfv

#DECLASSIFIED. Wilson’s Labour govt of the late 1960s covertly supplied massive quantities of arms to help the Iraq regime slaughter Kurds, as village after village was being destroyed. An episode written out of history. goo.gl/cGnKxc #DECLASSIFIED. UK files/articles on Egypt highlight the illegality of the 1956 invasion, secret collusion with Israel, lying in parliament, collusion with Muslim Brotherhood, and attempts to ‘get rid’ of Nasser. goo.gl/piJPo5

New information from parliament on UK support for Israel, none of which likely to appear in UK ‘mainstream’ media due to the de facto media blackout on critical reporting of this special relationship. See next 5 tweets 1/UK has made no representations or sought assurances from Israel about UK arms to kill Palestinians. Would be most basic thing to do given any concern about Palestinian lives. The UK is totally supporting Israel, whatever it does. goo.gl/istW8g

Major news on the 2017 Manchester bomber and UK govt support for groups connected to him. Would perhaps be lead news in the media but only on another planet. See next 4 tweets 1/ Govt admits (for 1st time) it “likely” had contacts with Libyan Islamic Fighting Group & 17 February Martyrs' Brigade in Libya war of 2011. *These were the groups with which Manchester bomber Salman Abedi and his father reportedly fought in 2011*. goo.gl/NUG1RE

Some revealing answers in parliament on UK policy in the Middle East yesterday. See next 7 tweets. 1/ UK has provided £32m for Syria’s armed opposition from 2011-17 (Note the year – 2011). Beneficiaries have apparently included Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham – even these groups the govt refers to as “moderate”. goo.gl/Rzw7Kg