Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY [LINK | Article]
Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
Operation Telic = British military ops, invasion of Iraq 2003 to withdrawal of troops 2011.
British deployed 46,000 troops at outset of illegal invasion.
[EDIT: Wikipedia entry refers to initial troops but does not mention huge number of British troops sent to Iraq since 2003. The Op Telic report refers to circa 80,000 British troops since February 2003 to (presumably) 2006 date of report (page 9). Wikipedia info is from a 2011 BBC article that summarises the Iraq illegal war, and this article also only mentions the 46,000 UK troops, which may well have been the initial invasion force - but there is at least a total of 80,000 if not more British troops having been deployed to Iraq, judging by the 2006 report. That's a stunning number. But almost 50k soldiers sent to illegally invade another country is pretty impressive, as well. So is spending £9.24 billion at taxpayer expense, while ONE MILLION BRITONS rely on FOOD BANKS and while the ESSEX POLICE DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN UNDERFUNDED for years, risking public safety. Wow. ]
Bulk of the British military mission ended by 2009. Small number of British navy personnel remained to 2011. British continue to remain involved in training and advisory mission in Iraq.
Totalcost of war to British taxpayer at £9.24 billion. [Wikipedia]
But there would be interest on that, so that can't be the full total. Unless it's fixed interest credit from the bankers to the British? LOL
"US will have spent almost $802bn (£512.8bn) on funding the war by the end of fiscal year 2011" [BBC] That's obscene. America's infrastructure is crumbling.
Summary / Understanding of WikiLeaks Overview / Introduction ... and limited skimming of report:
Report reveals
UK govt secretly planning illegal Iraq war during 2002 Blair govt kept pending invasion ('TELIC') secret
/ those privy were only inner circle officers & officials
/ until 3 months prior to invasion of Iraq
US 'ideological agenda' dominated / UK working to US timetable [not sure what that is, apart from American capitalists wanting to illegally invade and rob Iraq].
UK secrecy meant that:
1. military at large kept uninformed (to late 2002) 2. contractors vital to reconstruction & stabilisation of Iraq not contacted until end of invasion (Apr. 2003)
Limited discussion and scope of planning re the following, as result:
- strategy
- logistics, resources etc
- undertaking establishment of interim government
- undertaking reconstruction
- executing non-military tasks
Further: little finance requested for reconstruction purposes at commencement of post combat ops
UK focus was therefore on resourcing Security Line of Operations (spending millions) and virtually nothing on the economic aspect, even though security depends on maintaining economic stability. [Not sure what 'Security Line' of ops is. Assume it is just gaining control of the country? ]
Geneva Conventions are applicable to states (and their agents), as well as the military. UK breached Geneva Conventions.
Looks like US wasn't so big on being restricted by obligations of international law and human rights law, in terms of the onus to exercise proportionality and to limit 'collateral damage'.
Interrogation of high value detainees was also an issue for UK staff embedded with coalition units in Iraq. Not quite clear to me in which way (but I'm not familiar with this kind of thing). Sounds like the interrogators needed lawyers.
US and UK had no plan for contending with post Iraq invasion insurgency. Americans thought they knew better and did not take suitable early counter-measures to Iraqi insurgency suggested in mid-2003 by the more savy British imperialist masters, who are widely experienced at invasion and suppression of local populations (and at recognising and quelling local uprisings), due to a history of hundreds of years of aggressive imperialist military activity (examples of British imperialist counter-insurgency experience: Northern Ireland, Malaya and Kenya). [British Malaya = Malay States (Malay Peninsula) + Singapore + Straits Settlements ]
British applied techniques used in Northern Ireland to 'intelligence cells' in Iraq and some battle groups in Iraq used trained personnel, experienced in Northern Ireland (eg. info ops, psyops, media ops).
Not quite clear to me what 'intelligence cells' are, but I guess it's there in the report. Dictionary look-up would indicate that these are 'terrorist cells' (ie probably small groups of organised Iraqi resistance to invasion of their homeland [tfd]). The dictionary meaning needs changing, by sound of things. It should be 'resistance cells'.
Those that took part described Iraq as exactly like Northern Ireland. So what does that say about the British in Ireland? [Ireland that's now been defeated by bankers and losing its culture and its mother tongue.]
Note: increase in violent incidents (late 2003) led to locals being able to gain support for insurgency. That probably explains why insurgencies need to be suppressed quickly: so support for insurrection does not spread. Same goes for sh*tty local economy: if economy is bad, locals will support insurgents. That's where what I guess is money for bribes and money for pumping into the local economy is handy. UK didn't come prepared for that.
Note: in the case of invasions or military interventions in failing or fragile states, such interventions will cause collapse of government. Invaders need to be prepared to take on the work of government and invader military is not the best man for the job, unless it is for very short periods of time. And maintaining various structures and stability is complicated: there's government, humanitarian aid, the justice system and info ops that are on the agenda for future planning of invasions.
LMAO ... capitalist invaders haven't got it right, after all the invasions committed in the name of US-Anglo Capitalism. UK Capitalist report suggests that post invasion responsibilities need to be divvied up between the invaders before the invasion. Basically, if the invaders don't coordinate their post invasion and military conflict control & stabilisation efforts with one another, re-establishing the state functions that they destroyed will take longer and that will mean taking longer to pull out troops (probably making voters at home unhappy).
Re-establishing stability in destroyed nations takes years. First 3 months of invasion are critical for the invaders, in terms of winning over the invaded masses.
British soldiers became habituated to violence due to acceptance of high levels of violence, profoundly changing British soldiers that served in Iraq.
British investigating in Iraq did a lame job of finding abuse: out of 191 cases investigated, despite rising violence, classed only 5 cases as deliberate abuse.
[*Not sure if 'TELIC' is also an acronym for something and, if so, what.]
[*that's how I understood the WikiLeaks introduction to the leaked report ... but that's not necessarily 100%, as I haven't yet read much of this kind of material. ]
MoD admits troops assaulted nine Iraqi civilians at food depot
The Ministry of Defence has admitted nine Iraqi men suffered unlawful assaults while being detained by British troops, it has been revealed.
The men are bringing a claim for civil damages against the MoD for physical and sexual abuse they say they suffered at Camp Bread Basket, a food distribution depot near Basra, in May 2003.
Three soldiers from the 1st Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were court martialled, jailed and expelled from the Army in February 2005 for mistreating suspected looters in the incident, which led to the head of the Army apologising to the people of Iraq.
On A Tangent: *Enjoy reading the military tactical sort of info, but the same Capitalist Forces war machinery, that is applied by Capitalist government to invade and pillage foreign nations, can be applied to domestic populations in event of domestic insurrection. That means domestic populations are really just another occupied people, who must do as the occupiers demand ... and domestic populations are empty-handed and they rely completely on the Capitalists (eg. urban populations dependent upon retail logistics etc, LIKE A BIG CAPITALIST FARM & MAN IS THE DOMESTICATED FARM ANIMAL, FOR THE CAPITALIST FARMER'S PROFIT. That is why there is never change, why hard-won gains for working classes can be wound back by politicians, why the masses are exploited (eg. crumbling infrastructure, services under-funded, medical services privatised etc, while the MASSES are indebted for GENERATIONS to bankers to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars spent by CAPITALIST-CONTROLLED GOVERNMENTS on WARS OF AGGRESSION ABROAD, primarily and vastly for the benefit of the wealthy capitalist class). AND DUE to the fact that helpless domestic populations areOCCUPIED BY CAPITALISTS AND THEIR FORCES, all European domestic populations have their homelands invaded as a top-down implemented program of invasion — they can do nothing about. For an example of how ineffectual protest is in what they refer to as 'democracy', look at the 1980s British miners' strikes and look at the might of the state: police. And that is just the police. The state also has the military, that is well armed, experienced, habituated to violence and killing.
CAPITALIST FARM HANDLERS AT WORK
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
Ambassador Bremer, please give us our medal back
By Jon Perr
Wednesday Jun 18, 2014 · 4:31 AM AEST
"This weekend, the architects of President Bush's disastrous Iraq war fanned out in what might be deemed Operation Iraqi Blame Shift. But of all the Republican efforts to make Barack Obama's the face of Bush's failure, perhaps none is more pathetic than that of L. Paul Bremer. On television and in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal, Bremer blamed President Obama for the explosion of sectarian conflict unleashed by the removal of Saddam Hussein. That is about as disgusting a charge as Ambassador Bremer could make. After all, as Viceroy of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer almost single-handedly destroyed the infrastructure of the Iraqi government and military. And for that, George W. Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In his WSJ op-ed, Bremer writes about the implosion of Iraq as if we were never there. Arguing for a perpetual American military presence ...
... with his aggressive de-Baathification of the government, privatization of state-owned businesses and the disbanding of the 400,000 man Iraqi army in May 2003, L. Paul Bremer was a one-man Sunni insurgency-generating machine. Or as Republicans are so fond of saying, he built that. "
Listening to this right now ... even though I'm personally not remotely into the humanitarian, universalist philosophy of WikiLeaks.
Still interesting in a number of respects. And nobody deserves an illegal invasion, illegal war, looting, destruction, theft of national treasures, killings of civilians etc, committed in Iraq by theUS-ANGLO CAPITALIST serving governments (and that of allied capitalist).
*LOL .. the way George Galloway says 'ruse' ... rrrrrrrruse.
I'm completely brain dead today. I keep replaying this and listening to it, but nothing sinks in.
Ken Livingston
nickname: 'Red Ken'
Labour Party ARTICLE - RT Tories seize on Zionism comments, unrepentant Livingstone sets out to foil newts
Published time: 29 Apr, 2016 12:08 EXTRACT
Anti-Semitism is an internal “virus” the Labour Party must treat, according to London Mayor Boris Johnson. But a defiantKen Livingstone says he will present evidence of his claims once he’s dealt with his garden pond.
The outgoing mayor appeared to be attempting to cast accusations of Labour anti-Semitism wider on LBC radio Thursday evening when he said that anti-Jewish prejudice is common in the party. [ie Johnson]
He opined that “there’s plainly some sort of virus of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party that needs to be addressed” before attempting to connect Labour’s mayoral candidate Sadiq Khanwith the row currently engulfingKen Livingstone.
“It seems to me there’s an ideological continuum between the views of Ken Livingstone about Israel and the position of Jeremy Corbyn and indeed the views of their candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan,” he said.
Johnson himself has repeatedly been cast as having dubious views on race. Last Friday he was attacked from political left and right for referring to US President Barack Obama’s Kenyan heritage.
The mayoral campaign run by his fellow Tory Zac Goldsmith has been accused of being colored by “dog whistle” Islamophobia in recent weeks.
For his part, Livingstoneremains unrepentant and, in his only direct comment on the issue to the Evening Standard on Friday morning, stated “everything I said yesterday was true and I will be presenting the academic book about that to the Labour Party inquiry.” [Comment: Got to be kidding. A time/resource wasting 'Labour Party inquiry' on this?]
The Standard speculated that the book in question was 2002’s ‘51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis’ by American-Jewish writer Lenni Brenner, which details the Haavara relocation accord struck between the Nazi regime and German Zionist leaders in 1933. ...
George Galloway says Livingstone 'zionist' suspension part of ‘slow motion coup’
Published time: 29 Apr, 2016 11:55
EXTRACT
London mayoral candidate George Galloway put forward a fiery defense of suspended Ken Livingstone, arguing the former mayor’s comments on a Nazi-Zionist accord on relocation were a matter of “historical fact.”
Speaking at length about the Haavara Agreement reached on 25 August 1933 between Germany’s Zionist leaders and its fascist politicians, Galloway told Sky News Livingstone had fallen victim to an “entirely synthetic crisis.”
“Ken Livingstone said absolutely nothing wrong, everything he said was the truth: historical fact, proven. I’ve got the books, so should you,” he argued.
It demonstrates the ludicrous lengths scumbag politicians will go to, to create a drama that smears and fetters their political opponents (who are just as unappealing as the finger-pointers), and how these politicians exploit the ignorance of the public to sway public opinion in favour of their political agendas.
In my view, it also demonstrates how mainstream politics is hijacked and dominated by minority interests.
Neither the left nor the right appeals. If I had to (hypothetically) pick, I'd probably go with the right, although they're despicable. But the tears-shedding universalist left are even more despicable. So the choice is: despicable or despicable.
While politicians on both sides are arguing nonsense, setting up nonsense inquiries, are highly invested in minority interests, and are publicly grovelling and appeasing one minority or other with regularity, who is prioritising the interests of ordinary Britons?
Transcript [ Confirm Audio / Video For Quotation Purposes ]
The Truth Seeker Daniel Bushell RT News
Daniel Bushell RT News
Stunning fakery in the alleged chemical weapons attack, according to a former UK ambassador.
Coming up.
Other narration:
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is accused of staging chemical weapons attack.
The CIA admits planting CNN reporters.
And international lawyers call for journalists inciting violence to be expelled.
Daniel Bushell RT News
August 2013.
NATO leaders can't get the public on side for the imminent bombing of Syria.
Suddenly, BBC says it was filming a small rural hospital and a game-changing atrocity happens right there, the moment they were filming.
CUTS TO FILM CLIP: 'Syria Crisis', Ian Pannell, BBC (August, 2013)
BBC Narrator
Ian Pannell
"... we were filming the doctors working at this hospital when victims of an incendiary bomb attack on a school playground started pouring in."
CUTS TO FILM CLIP: 'Syria Crisis', Ian Pannell, BBC (August, 2013)
Female - [kitted up in dramatic face-mask]
"Absolute chaos and carnage here. It must be some sort of napalm."
[At issue: BBC footage August 2013 vs BBC Footage September 2013]
Daniel Bushell RT News
But a highly sceptical public stayed hostile to military intervention.
Exactly one month later, the leaders are trying to pin a chemical weapons attack on Syria, without success.
The BBC airs exactly the same footage, but digitally alters the word 'napalm' for 'chemical weapons', hoping no-one will notice.
CUTS TO FILM CLIP: 'Saving Syria's Children', Ian Pannell, BBC (September, 2013)
Female - [kitted up in dramatic face-mask]
"Absolute chaos and carnage here. It must be some sort of chemical weapon."
Daniel Bushell RT News
Not only did folks notice, but it's unleashed a massive public investigation which made some extremely disturbing findings.
Robert Stuart
This is the total fabrication, from beginning to end, of an atrocity, with BBC 'reporter' Ian Pannell standing amidst a tableau of very bad actors. This is completely beyond the pale'.
Daniel Bushell RT News
This audio analysis by media investigator Robyn Upton shows both versions [of BBC audio] are identical and from the same speech.
The BBC then altered the words from 'napalm' to 'chemical weapon', the EXACT justification NATO was finding difficult prove.
That game-changing allegation was made by two doctors have travelled with the BBC, who claimed the number of sudden casualties is "overwhelming".
What kind of doctor, notes media investigator Robert Stuart, gives interviews when she is surrounded by supposedly seriously burned and dying teenagers.
Translated English overdub:
"Get anyone who isn't a patient out out of here."
Daniel Bushell RT News
When a nurse does finally start to help, her order to "get anyone who isn't a patient out of here" doesn't apply to the cameramen.
Even worse, notes Stuart [Roberts], is the bizarre acting which starts when the man in the centre gives the sign.
'Doctor Rola', on whose sole claim the BBC sends 'napalm chemical weapons' allegations around the world is actually the daughter of Syrian rebel Mousa al-Kardi.
The parallel to the Gulf War and [the testimony of] Nurse Nayirah is stunning.
Congressmen said the nurse's tearful testimony that Iraqis were killing children swung their vote in favour of war.
[Cuts to footage of 'Nurse Nayirah' - 'Lies Pushed US to Bomb Iraq', Courtesy C-Span]
'Nurse Nayirah' tearful footage:
" ... and left the children to die on the cold floor." [sniff, sniff]
Daniel Bushell RT News
Nurse Nayirah became the mainstream's darling, but once the vote had safely passed, she admitted INVENTING the whole thing and was actually the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Washington, lying to get the public to back war.
UK Member of Parliament joins us.
Thank you very much for coming on.
Why do we get almost identical claims before each war, which then prove lies?
George Galloway UK Member of Parliament:
Well, the 'Bush and Blair Corporation' [ie the BBC], as it became in the run-up to the Iraq war, has almost entirely lost its reputation for journalistic integrity.
A full inquiry must be lodged into why the BBC used a piece of material which was not just wrong, but was falsified and falsified with the purpose of propelling out country into war.
That's not what the British public pays its BBC licence fee for, so that it can be tricked into a war.
Daniel Bushell RT News
In a statement, the British Broadcasting Corporation says it stands by its report.
The Syrian opposition denies the allegations.
Investigators such as Robert Stuart note there are many questions sent to the Corporation [BBC] remaining unanswered.
There are also numerous such precedents both in this war and in previous invasions.
'Brilliant' is how a top Western called tricking the public through routine faking of atrocities, commonly aired on mainstream bulletins.
Nightly news shows just a few cases of what happened next, after mainstream cameras ended their reports.
Male Voice
American 'Nightly News':
"It shows people putting on, you know, fake wounds; it shows -- look, there some guys there, there's their head wounds, peace everybody -- you know, we're doing the right thing, we're creating fake propaganda. I mean, it's not even real atrocities so they're lined up; there's another video showing a guy kicking his leg and with a fake blood wound. Here's a guy who wakes up from his funeral. Watch this -- oh, he's awake. He's not even really dead. So, I mean, this is just crazy what goes on. There's another video that was shot of a supposed massacre and it cuts -- you don't see the whole thing. When you go to the Al Jazeera footage it shows real quick clips of a guy kicking his leg and he's got blood coming out. It turned out to be fake blood."
Daniel Bushell RT News
The so-called activists behind the fakes are by far the most popular source of despite them never being verified and regularly disproved as fabrications to justify more NATO arms.
The term 'activist' may sound like a well-meaning Western campaigner or charity, but the Foreign Policy Journal notes it's just newspeak for insurgents.
The official source of Syria casualties, or what mainstream claims is official, is an impressive sounding organisation THE SYRIAN OBSERVATORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.
Reuters exposed the fact three (3) years ago it was not an organisation at all, or even working in Syria.
It's a single pro-insurgent supporter living in Coventry, England.
Here pictured at the Foreign Office after instructions from Britian's Foreign Minister himself.
In leaked footage, ordinary Syrians told the BBC they're tired of its lies and the insurgents they're cheer-leading are a tiny minority led by foreign gangs.
[Cuts to footage: males challenging female American sounding journalist and asserting that Assad is widely supported by most of the 22-million Syrians and that very small minority, number in the thousands, are in opposition.]
Daniel Bushell RT News
Pro-war media is forced to resort to colossal lies since intelligence chiefs reveal to America's top investigative reporter Sy Hersh:
"Obama's cronies are making it up. All the evidence actually points to the jihadis staging the chemical attacks.
SY HERSH Author: 'Whose Sarin?'
The 'attack was not the result of the current regime', the high-level intelligence officer wrote in an email to a colleague. ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”, said a former intelligence official."
Daniel Bushell RT News
The distortion, he said, reminded him of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
[RT on film: 'Wag the Dog', Barry Levinson, New Line Cinema (1997)]
Daniel Bushell RT News
The thought a US President would start a horrific foreign war by staging a pretty female front as a victim made people laugh.
[Cuts to film footage]
[Film: 'Wag the Dog', Barry Levinson, New Line Cinema (1997)]
[Subsequently cuts to:
[Film: 'I Am A Ukrainian', Appleseed Entertainment (2014)]
Daniel Bushell RT News
Meet 'Julia' (if that's her real name), the celebrated face the mass media called the creator of a viral video asking the US to help Ukraine.
It was actually created by the [US] State Department's National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to mask the fact that Washington joined Ukraine thugs and murdered their way to power.
A leaked phone call with EU Foreign [Catherine] Ashton revealed the opposite planned and executed the infamous sniper violence of Kiev, shooting both the police and their own supporters in the back.
A study found a total of 250 mainstream sources lied that the snipers belonged to Yanukovych.
Only seven (7) of the entire mass media even mentioned the bombshell leak, and those that did, framed the report to suggest it couldn't possibly be true.
Former Wall Street Journal editor, Paul Criag Roberts, called the coverage in Ukraine a new low in the history of the mainstream, which is now simply what he described as a ministry of lies.
Investigative reporter John Helmer's uncovered mainstream staging demonstrations and attempts to provoke disorder.
He joins us.
Great to speak to you.
One US scholar notes the coverage has become Orwellian. What's going on?
John Helmer Investigative Reporter
So the weaker your government, the more interested the leader might be in threatening Russia to look strong at home, when it's obvious he's not strong at home and couldn't get re-elected.
That's particularly true of, let's say, the French president, or Prime Minister Cameron at the moment.
Arguably President Obama is not only a lame duck, but having great difficulty in putting together a winning coalition for the Democratic Party's next candidate for president.
When you've got weak political leaders, you need to look stronger than you are in public opinion in the media. So there's this process of misleading and disinforming.
Daniel Bushell RT News
The Senate Committee enquiry revealed CIA running mainstream media in a vast operation known as Mockingbird.
More than 400 journalists and media chiefs claiming to watchdog the government were the exact opposite: joining to mask US government crime at home and abroad.
The operation continues despite [CIA] agency denials.
Counterpunch discovered CIA imposing agents on firms like CNN.
Former CIA [officer] Michael Scheuer notes British media are even closer to intel targets.
Scheuer adds that BBC now takes the lead in regime change operations that cause 'anarchy' and violence.
Let's speak to Francis Boyle, professor of international law at Illinois University.
Great to talk to you.
How can nations stop war media that now perform the CIA's covert operations?
FRANCIS BOYLE PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS
Certainly, have their visas revoked and sent packing home, because I really don't understand why some of these countries keep, you know, European journalist, certainly in the United States, why they let them into the countries; because they're just using their cover to provoke war and military intervention at home.
[Split Screen / Cut to footage: ABCNews #ABCWorldNews - Crisis in Ukraine, Blood in the Streets
LiveCNN - Crisis in Ukraine - Breaking News - 'Putin Threatens More Military Action' | Anderson Cooper depicted]
In addition, Bush junior administration lifted what was supposed to be the previous prohibition that intelligence agents were not supposed to infiltrate the media.
You know, you have to be very careful, certainly dealing with US reporters, whether or not they're intelligence agents.
Daniel Bushell RT News
[???] active units of the military, also known as Wall Street media, show how serious the situation now is. They're policies aren't popular with their own viewers.
Mainstream audiences are in free-fall.
CNN and MSNBC have shed half their entire viewership in the last year alone.
The question is, how many more coups they will stage or help, before they lose the public's trust altogether.
Intelligence agency policies 'failed to protect MPs' from spying
In the last year MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have followed eight different policiesgoverning the interception of parliamentarians communications, court told
Caroline Lucas: MPs need to communicate in private with constituents and whistleblowers
Caroline Lucas argues there is a strong likelihood her communications have been intercepted. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA
Ian Cobain Thursday 23 July 2015 23.42 AEST Last modified on Thursday 23 July 2015 23.45 AEST
The UK’s intelligence agencies have been operating unlawful surveillance policies that have failed to adequately protect the confidential communications of members of parliament, a court has heard.
Officers of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ have been operating under eight different policies in the last 12 months alone, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) heard on Thursday.
Most of these policies have failed fully to comply with the law, or with the 50-year-old political convention known as the Wilson doctrine that was thought to prohibit the agencies from eavesdropping on MPs or members of the House of Lords, Ben Jaffey, counsel for the Green party parliamentarians Caroline Lucas and Lady Jones told the IPT.
The Wilson doctrine is named after the former Labour prime minister Harold Wilson, who told the Commons in November 1966 that parliamentarians would not be spied upon and that if this policy needed be changed for national security reasons, the PM would announce this in due course.
Lucas, Jones and former Respect MP George Galloway argue there is a strong likelihood that their communications have been intercepted as a consequence of the surveillance programmes exposed by the CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The IPT – a secretive court that hears complaints about the UK’s intelligence agencies – is being asked to confirm that the Wilson doctrine has force in law. The parliamentarians also say that agencies have breached the European convention on human rights.
Some elements of the government’s defence against the legal challenge are being kept secret and the court is likely to sit in camera, with the public and media excluded, if it comes to consider evidence of actual surveillance of MPs and peers.
Jaffey told the IPT that MI5 operated one policy governing the interception of parliamentarians’ communications from April 2012 to September 2014, when it was rewritten after Lucas and Jones lodged their challenge. It was rewritten again last February after government lawyers drafted their “open response” – or non-secret defence – to the claim.
David Miliband, when foreign secretary,authorised an MI6 policy which allowed the agency to intercept parliamentarians’ communications without the prime minister being notified, the IPT was told. This policy was rewritten last February, bringing it closer in wording to the MI5 policy.
GCHQ’s policy was rewritten in March this year and again three months later.
Jaffey said the various policies “fail fully to comply with the law and they fail to comply with public statements as to safeguards”.
It was not the parliamentarians’ case that MPs and members of the Lords should never be intercepted, he said, and there may be exceptional national security grounds for doing so.
However, MPs needed to be able to communicate in private with constituents and whistleblowers. He said: “Strict safeguards to protect parliamentary communications are an important bulwark for the protection of the public interest.”
Although the Wilson doctrine requires the prime minister to make a statement if the policy were to be reversed, all three agencies were operating internal policies that did not require them to inform prime ministers that they were intercepting MPs’ communications, the IPT was told.
These were changed only once Lucas and Jones embarked upon their challenge.
When GCHQ rewrote its policy last month, it did so in a way that removed all protection for communications data and for members of the devolved parliament and assemblies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Lucas and Jones argue that intercepts which capture the communications of parliamentarians should require the authorisation of a judge.
EU-NATO IMPERIALISM ❌ 
