And not just Hitchens
Peter Hitchens(C), Jeremy Corbyn(R) © Facebook / AFP
As unlikely as these two are for bedfellows, add my name to the list, and, I think, the Chancellor of Austria. There is reason to suspect any operation that casts a country or its leader into a bad light. False flag operations are an easy way to manipulate governments, media, and gullible people into demonizing players on the international stage. The race to condemn leads to actions that are premature, may be completely in error and extremely dangerous.
I don't believe for a minute that Syria's Assad had anything to do with chemical weapons being used in Khan Sheikhoun. Not that he is not capable of such evil, but that it would have been colossally stupid of him to do so. Assad is many things, but stupid is not one of them. It was easily a false flag operation to turn the US against Assad, but that aspect has never been investigated because nobody wants to know the truth. It doesn't fit with western ambitions.
As the Russian spy poisoning saga rages on, Jeremy Corbyn has found an unlikely ally amongst the media establishment... Mail columnist Peter Hitchens, who leapt to defend Corbyn’s cautious approach.
Corbyn has copped considerable flak from both sides of the House over his unwillingness to blame Russia in the poisoning that left ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in intensive care. At least 16 Labour MPs have signed a motion backing PM Theresa May’s hard-line stance against the Kremlin, in defiance of their own party leader.
In an op-ed for Mail on Sunday, Hitchens backed Corbyn’s position that the UK should go through the appropriate avenues of international law before proportioning blame. He reminded readers of the danger of rushing into conflict – just as the UK has done in the past.
“The treatment of Jeremy Corbyn, both by politicians and many in the media, for doing what he is paid for and leading the Opposition, seems to me to be downright shocking,” Hitchens wrote.
“Mr Corbyn has earned the right to be listened to, and those who now try to smear him are not just doing something morally wrong. They are hurting the country. Look at our repeated rushes into foolish conflict in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. All have done us lasting damage.”
Hitchens also called into question the UK’s infatuation with hating Russia, pondering if it is the fear – or mystery – of the unknown that fuels the negativity. Or perhaps Brexit has something to do with it?
“I sense an even deeper and more thoughtless frenzy over Russia, a country many seem to enjoy loathing because they know so little about it,” he wrote. “I have already been accused, on a public stage, of justifying Moscow’s crime in Salisbury. This false charge was the penalty I paid for trying to explain the historical and political background to these events. I wonder if the bitterness also has something to do with the extraordinarily deep division over the EU, which has made opponents into enemies in a way not seen since the Suez Crisis.”
Over the weekend, Corbyn addressed Labour’s regional conference at Newcastle University on Saturday. He reiterated his call for a de-escalation of tensions with Moscow as the spiraling diplomatic disaster enters its second week.
Evidence before accusations:
Austria asks for full-fledged Skripal investigation
Police officers get dressed in protective suiting at a car recovery depot in Norton Enterprise Park,
where Sergei Skripal's car was originally transported, in Salisbury, Britain, March 13, 2018.
© Henry Nicholls / Reuters
It’s premature to pin the blame in the Skripal poisoning case without first conducting a proper investigation, Austria’s foreign minister has said. The UK has already picked Russia as a boogey man in the incident.
Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Karin Kneissl said that she viewed the poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, as “abhorrent.” However, unlike its British counterparts, Austria wants to have the full picture before casting blame on someone specifically.
"Our position is: First there is the need to establish a full picture of events in joint cooperation with the Chemical agency [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)] and all those involved” the foreign minister said.
Kneissl’s cautionary remarks come less than a week after a French government spokesperson said it was too early to discuss retaliatory measures against Russia, as its involvement in the case has yet to be established.
“We don't do fantasy politics. Once the elements are proven, then the time will come for decisions to be made,” the spokesperson told a press conference shortly after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would be expelling 23 Russian diplomats over the poisoning.
The French government's position on the matter quickly took a U-turn, however, with the Elysee Palace releasing a follow-up statement declaring Russia’s culpability in the attack. "France shares Britain's assessment that there is no other plausible explanation and reiterates its solidarity with his ally," the statement said.
One wonder what kind of arm-twisting went on for that to happen so quickly?
On Monday, the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council released a statement hailing the UK’s “commitment” to work closely with the OPCW, and calling on Russia to “provide immediate, full and complete disclosure of its Novichok program” to the organization.
Novichok is a Soviet-era nerve agent allegedly used in the March 4 incident. The UK has so far failed to send a formal inquiry to Moscow about the case, although Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that London will soon provide the OPCW with samples of the nerve agent used in the case. Johnson had earlier accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the attack.
Moscow has countered that view. “The fact, that they [UK officials] categorically reject to file an official request and deliberately and arrogantly fan anti-Russian rhetoric in the public sphere bordering on hysteria, indicates that they clearly understand they have no formal pretext to go down a legal road,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
On Monday, Johnson doubled down on his inflammatory rhetoric, describing Russian denials of responsibility in the nerve agent attack as "increasingly absurd."
This absurd anti-Russia hysteria has one goal and one only - to sell weapons! And, perhaps, to give NATO a raison d'être. NATO has forgotten its mandate to ensure peace with Russia and has instead become the aggressor causing a spectacular arms build-up and threatening peace the likes of which we haven't seen in more than half a century.
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