Ex MI6 boss to RUSI: Islamist threat hyped by UK media

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Islamist terror threat to
west blown out of
proportion - former MI6
chief
Richard Dearlove says extremists are
now focused on Middle East and giving
them publicity in west is counter-
productive

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/07/islamist-terror-threat- out-proportion-former-mi6-chief-richard-dearlove

Richard Dearlove said Britons spreading
'blood-curdling' terrorism messages should be
ignored.
Tags: UK security and counter-terrorism ,
UK news, Islam , Religion
Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday 7 July 2014 15.37 BST
The government and media have blown
the Islamist terrorism threat out of
proportion, giving extremists publicity
that is counter-productive, a former
head of Britain's intelligence service
has said.
Sir Richard Dearlove, chief of MI6 at the
time of the Iraq invasion, said that
Britons spreading "blood-curdling"
messages on the internet should be
ignored. He told an audience in London
on Monday there had been a
fundamental change in the nature of
Islamist extremism since the Arab
spring. It had created a major political
problem in the Middle East but the west,
including Britain, was only "marginally
affected".
Unlike the threat posed by al-Qaida
before and in the aftermath of the 9/11
attacks 13 years ago, the west was not
the main target of the radical
fundamentalism that created Isis, (the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant),
Dearlove said.
Addressing the Royal United Services
Institute, the London-based security and
defence thinktank, he said the conflict
was "essentially one of Muslim on
Muslim".
He made it clear he believed the way
the British government and the media
were giving the extremists the "oxygen
of publicity" was counter-productive.
The media were making monsters of
"misguided young men, rather pathetic
figures" who were getting coverage
"more than their wildest dreams", said
Dearlove, adding: "It is surely better to
ignore them."
The former MI6 chief, now master of
Pembroke College, Cambridge
University, was speaking to a prepared
text hours after the ITV programme
Good Morning Britain broadcast an
interview with a Briton who had
appeared in an Isis video saying he was
recruited through the internet and was
prepared to die for his cause.
Abdul Raqib Amin, who was brought up
in Aberdeen, appeared in an online
video last month with two men from
Cardiff urging western Muslims to join
the fighting with Isis. He told Good
Morning Britain: "I left the UK to fight
for the sake of Allah, to give everything
I have for the sake of Allah. One of the
happiest moments in my life was when
the plane took off from Gatwick airport.
I was so happy, as a Muslim you cannot
live in the country of kuffars [non-
believers]."
Amin added: "I left the house with the
intention not to go back, I'm going to
stay and fight until the khilafah [rule of
Islam] is established or I die."
Dearlove said he was concerned about
the influence of the media on the
government's security policy. It was
time to take what he called a "more
proportionate approach to terrorism".
MI5, MI6, and GCHQ devoted a greater
share of their resources to countering
Islamist fundamentalism than they did
to the Soviet Union during the cold war,
or to Irish terrorism that had cost the
lives of more UK citizens and British
soldiers than al-Qaida had done,
Dearlove noted.
A massive reaction after the 9/11
attacks was inevitable, he said, but it
was not inevitable the 2001 attacks
would continue to "dominate our way of
thinking about national security". There
had been a "fundamental change" in the
nature of the threat posed by Islamist
extremists. Al-Qaida had largely failed
to mount the kind of attacks in the US
and UK it had threatened after 9/11.
It was time, he said to move away from
the "distortion" of the post-9/11
mindset, make "realistic risk
assessments" and think rationally about
the causes of the crisis in the Middle
East.
The al-Qaida franchises that had
emerged since had largely "fallen back"
on other Muslim countries, Dearlove
said. What was happening now was a
long-awaited war between Sunni and
Shia Muslims that would have only a
ripple effect on Britain, he suggested.
Pointing the finger at Sunni Saudi
Arabia, Dearlove said the Isis surge in
Iraq had to be the consequence of
"sustained funding".
He made it clear he believed more
attention should be paid to security
threats from Europe and China, which
he warned was heading inexorably into
the paradox of a "strong government
but weak state".

[TonyGosling]

British Jihadis' threat to UK is exaggerated, says report
British Jihadis are motivated by wanting to topple Bashar Assad dictatorship in Syria says group critical of British counterterrorism policy
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/17/british-jihadis-threat-uk -exaggerated-report

Vikram Dodd - The Guardian, Thursday 17 July 2014 16.48 BST - Richard Dearlove

Government and security officials have greatly exaggerated the dangers of British men fighting in Syria and returning to stage terrorist attacks in the UK, a report claims.

Most British "Jihadis" are motivated by wanting to topple the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Assad, says the report by Cage, a group critical of British government counterterrorism policy.

The report says Britain's current policy is "confused and dangerous", and has created a climate of fear for Muslims.

The report is in stark contrast with the warnings from the prime minister, police and security chiefs about the feared dangers of British Muslim men returning from fighting in Syria with the intent and increased know of how to stage terrorist attacks.

The report and its criticism of the west's stance comes after former MI6 head Richard Dearlove warned the Islamist threat of terrorist violence had been exaggerated.

The report from Cage, points out British policy has changed from one time hailing rebel groups: "If it wasn't for the narrow defeat of a government motion in the House of Commons on 30 August 2013, Britain could feasibly have been currently militarily engaged in Syria on the same side as those it now seeks to criminalise upon their return to the UK."

The report, in part based on interviews with those fighting in Syria, says that those who go to fight "feeling that they can do something to aid the cause of those they consider to be their Muslim brothers and sisters, which does not interfere with their legal obligations to their countries of birth or naturalisation."

The report includes a study of 66 people who plotted to attack the UK since 2001, which found only a small minority had "military" links abroad. Just six people had trained overseas, such as camps in Pakistan, and two had fought abroad.

Cage says its analysis shows that the vast majority involved in plots, 58, had no training or experience of fighting in conflicts overseas: "In almost every single case of individuals having fought abroad, there is little to suggest that such training or fighting had resulted directly in the decision to carry out an act of political violence in the UK. What, however, is clear, is the correlation between foreign and domestic grievances against the UK government, and the decision by these men to be involved in some form of plot."

The report says Jihadis in Syria did not want to attack the UK on their return: "Those that were spoken with did not envisage any tensions between travelling to Syria to join the civil conflict, and legal and moral obligations to Britain. However, due to the climate of fear that has been created, it appears that disproportionate measures have been incorporated to reduce the threat from foreign fighters."

Cage has recently claimed it is being targeted and its officials harassed for their views.

One of its most prominent figures, Moazzam Begg, is currently awaiting trial on alleged offences linked to Syria.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/17/british-jihadis-threat-uk -exaggerated-report

[TonyGosling]

Wow - no beating about the bush here

TEN QUESTIONS FOR THE UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov

1. Immediately after the tragedy, the Ukrainian authorities, naturally, blamed it on the self-defense forces. What are these accusations based on?

2. Can Kiev explain in detail how it uses Buk missile launchers in the conflict zone? And why were these systems deployed there in the first place, seeing as the self-defense forces don’t have any planes?

3. Why are the Ukrainian authorities not doing anything to set up an international commission? When will such a commission begin its work?

4. Would the Ukrainian Armed Forces be willing to let international investigators see the inventory of their air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, including those used in SAM launchers?

5. Will the international commission have access to tracking data from reliable sources regarding the movements of Ukrainian warplanes on the day of the tragedy?

6. Why did Ukrainian air traffic controllers allow the plane to deviate from the regular route to the north, towards “the anti-terrorist operation zone”?

7. Why was airspace over the warzone not closed for civilian flights, especially since the area was not entirely covered by radar navigation systems?

8. How can official Kiev comment on reports in the social media, allegedly by a Spanish air traffic controller who works in Ukraine, that there were two Ukrainian military planes flying alongside the Boeing 777 over Ukrainian territory?

9. Why did Ukraine’s Security Service start working with the recordings of communications between Ukrainian air traffic controllers and the Boeing crew and with the data storage systems from Ukrainian radars without waiting for international investigators?

10. What lessons has Ukraine learned from a similar incident in 2001, when a Russian Tu-154 crashed into the Black Sea? Back then, the Ukrainian authorities denied any involvement on the part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces until irrefutable evidence proved official Kiev to be guilty.

http://rt.com/news/173976-mh17-crash-questions-ukraine/

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Michael Fallon hits out at Ashdown's criticism of 'kneejerk' response
Defence secretary warns of 'very real threats' from extremists as he defends Conservative response to terrorism threat
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/31/michael-fallon-paddy-a shdown-kneejerk-terror-response