The Grayzone entered the carefully concealed offices of a covert, British government-backed propaganda mill that is at the center of an international scandal the mainstream media refuses to touch.
By Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal
Recent hacked documents have revealed an international network of politicians, journalists, academics, researchers and military officers, all engaged in highly deceptive covert propaganda campaigns funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), NATO, Facebook and hardline national security institutions.
This “network of networks”, as one document refers to them, centers around an ironically named outfit called the Integrity Initiative. And it is all overseen by a previously unknown England-based think tank registered in Scotland, the Institute for Statecraft, which has operated under a veil of secrecy.
The whole operation appears to be run by, and in conjunction with, members of British military intelligence.
According to David Miller, professor of political sociology in the school of policy studies at the University of Bristol and the director of the Organization for Propaganda Studies, the Integrity Initiative “appears to be a military directed push.”
“The most senior government people are professional propagandists and spooks,” Miller explained. “The ‘charity’ lead on this [Chris Donnelly] was also appointed as a colonel in military intelligence at the beginning of the project — a truly amazing fact that suggests this is a military intelligence cut out.”
A minister for the UK FCO has officially confirmed that it has been funding the Integrity Network.
In addition to conducting diplomacy, the FCO oversees both the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) the UK equivalent to the National Security Agency, and the Secret Intelligence Services (SIS) commonly known as MI6.
SOURCE: National Intelligence Machinery, UK government briefing November 2010
The think tank that oversees the Integrity Initiative, the Institute for Statecraft, has also received funding from the British Army and Ministry of Defense.
Mark Curtis
✔
@markcurtis30
This is pretty major. UK govt admits that not only the Foreign Office but also the Army and the Ministry of Defence have funded the Institute for Statecraft, the body behind anti-Corbyn propaganda. https://bit.ly/2PBekNm
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The entire extremely shady enterprise, as Miller explained, is an elaborate front for the British military-intelligence apparatus. Its covert coordination with friendly politicians and mainstream journalists recalls the Cold War-era intrigue known as Operation Mockingbird.
That scandal involved the unmasking of “more than 400 American journalists who…in the past twenty-five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency,” as Carl Bernstein revealed in a 1977 Rolling Stone report.
The exposing of the Integrity Initiative has just scratched the surface of what appears to be a much more sophisticated, insidious, and extremely online version of Operation Mockingbird. With new internal documents appearing each week through a hacker’s organization called Anonymous Europe, the revelations are yielding one of the most potentially explosive national security scandals in recent times.
But even as members of Britain’s parliament thunder with demands for official accountability, the UK and US mainstream media still strangely refuses to touch the story.
Smearing left-wing political figures in NATO member states
The Integrity Initiative claims that it is “counter[ing] Russian disinformation and malign influence,” and indeed, the main players behind it appear intent on hyping the Russian threat to justify ramped up military budgets and a long-term war footing.
Above: An Institute for Statecraft memo emphasizes the need for “ramping up” anti-Russian messaging
But the Integrity Initiative has also trained its fire on perceived subversives inside NATO member states, including the UK.
An article attacking left-wing activists that was listed in the “Recent Posts” section of the Integrity Initiative website
The Integrity Initiative waged a successful covert campaign to destroy the appointment of Pedro Baños to Director of Spain’s National Security Department on the bogus grounds that he was “pro-Kremlin,” thus interfering in the affairs of a fellow EU and NATO member. It carried out the hit job through a hand-picked “cluster” of Spanish politicians and operatives to flood social media and sympathetic outlets with messages demonizing Baños.
Above: an Integrity Initiative document detailing how the group’s clusters destroyed a Spanish national security appointee.
The Integrity Initiative appears to have employed the same tactics to smear left-wing journalists and political figures across the West, including the leader of the UK’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn.
Ben Norton
✔
@BenjaminNorton
· Nov 27, 2018
Replying to @BenjaminNorton
A British government-funded disinformation organization is retweeting outrageous smears of anti-war journalists @RaniaKhalek, @TheWarNerd, and Corbyn adviser Seumas Milne, amplifying the lies of "leftist" imperialists Alexander Reid Ross and Pat Hilsman https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1067209279550251008 …
Ben Norton
✔
@BenjaminNorton
This UK government-funded, bogus McCarthyite "monitoring group" the Integrity Initiative repeatedly smeared Jeremy Corbyn, while it claims to "defend democracy against disinformation."
These are effectively state-sponsored attacks on Corbyn and the left.http://archive.li/JJW1S pic.twitter.com/sUP3C9SJ1I
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Member of Parliament Chris Williamson – a close ally of Corbyn – is now openly and indignantly calling for “a public inquiry into the Integrity Initiative and similar information war efforts being funded by our government.”
It is not necessarily illegal for the FCO to direct propaganda towards its own citizenry, according to Miller of the Organization for Propaganda Studies. However, he said that “it is not legal for ministers to effectively direct a charity. Thus, if the MoD through military intelligence are effectively running a charity, that would be contrary to law.”
An abandoned mill in Scotland covers for an active office in London’s “Temple”
To conceal its potentially illegal activities, the Institute for Statecraft has employed a web of deceptions. Not only did they hide their government funding, the outfit listed a fake location as its address.
Mohammed Elmaazi, a co-author of this piece, discovered the elaborately hidden location of the Institute for Statecraft inside a posh warren of barristers’ offices in London. Elmaazi’s swift ejection from the premises confirmed the lengths that this shadowy organization continues to go to to avoid public scrutiny.
The Institute for Statecraft, is a registered charity in Scotland, whose registered office is listed as being an old mill in Fife Scotland involved in the “manufacture of wood and other products.” David Scott of UK Column news, visited the registered office in Fife only to find a “an empty, semi-derelict, partly demolished, building.”
The partially demolished address at Gateside Mills. Photo: David Scott
While the address in Fife, Scotland appears to be a derelict building, the London address listed in the hacked documents is fully operational, so far as Elmaazi could tell.
He located the offices belonging to The Institute for Statecraft at the Embankment at Two Temple Place in London. It shares offices in the basement of a “spectacular neo-gothic mansion” which is owned or leased by The Bulldog Trust, an organization dedicated to “promoting culture and philanthropy”. This area, known as “the Temple,” is filled with barristers’ chambers and used to serve as the precinct for the Knights of Templar.
A Christmas themed projection lights up the walls of 2 Temple Place. Photo: Mohamed Elmaazi
Elmaazi found the offices on December 6, having nearly given up and becoming convinced that he would discover nothing more than was found at the derelict house in Fife. When he arrived at the location, preparations were underway for some sort of Christmas-themed event to be held in the main building on the ground floor. But upon discovering the signs pointing downstairs to the basement, Elmaazi found himself staring at a door with a sign that read, “The Institute for Statecraft / The Fore.”
Photo: Mohamed Elmaazi
No comment
Elmaazi rang the Institute for Statecraft’s doorbell and was eventually let in by a well-dressed elderly gentleman in a beige overcoat. The man claimed that he worked neither at The Institute nor at The Fore but at “another organization.” He then called out for “Charles.” Having walked in, Elmaazi could see a few smaller offices to the side, with a larger planned office with tables and computers around the corner.
A man whom Elmaazi presumed was “Charles” came around the corner and called out, “Yes?” He seemed somewhat confused by the journalist’s presence, understandably so as he was there without an appointment. When “Charles” confirmed that he worked with the Institute for Statecraft, Elmaazi identified himself as a journalist and asked if he would be willing to be interviewed. The request was met with a curt refusal.
“Charles” then guided Elmaazi sternly with his hand back to the entrance. When the journalist repeated his request, he was met with stone silence. And that was that.
A “Charles Hart” is listed as the chairman of the Institute for Statecraft, but no photo is available to confirm that Hart was the same “Charles” that Elmaazi met.
The neocon connection
Two buildings away from the Institute for Statecraft, separated only by the home of British American Tobacco, lies the offices of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). This think tank is key organ of the Western foreign policy establishment, pushing military interventionism and promoting the Saudi-backed Syrian opposition-in-exile.
Among the funders of IISS is the Smith Richardson Foundation.
This foundation also happens to be a supporter of the Integrity Initiative, providing it with £45,000 (about $56,600 USD) for covert propaganda activities in Europe and the US.
The Smith Richardson Foundation was founded by billionaire heir to the Vicks fortune, H. Smith Richardson, in 1935. In 1973, the founder’s son, Randolph Richardson – a free market fundamentalist and long-time patron of neoconservative ideologue Irving Kristol – inherited the organization.
Kristol’s son, William Kristol, is a co-founder of the Project for a New American Century which openly called for the US to assert itself as the single global hegemon following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Recipients of funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation include a who’s who of neoconservative and militaristic right-wing institutions. The foundation has bankrolled neoconservative outfits like the American Enterprise Institute (to the tune of nearly $10 million since 1998), the Hudson Institute, the Institute for the Study of War, Freedom House, the Hoover Institution, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, along with Democratic Party-aligned think tanks like the Center for New American Security and the Center for American Progress.
“To say the [Smith Richardson] foundation was involved at every level in the lobbying for and crafting of the so-called global war on terror after 9/11 would be an understatement,” wrote Kelley Vlahos in a profile of Nadia Schadlow, a former Trump administration deputy national security advisor who previously worked as the senior program director for Smith Richardson.
Smith Richardson complements a roster of international funders backing the Integrity Initiative’s parent organization:
HQ NATO Public Diplomacy, £12,000 for each inaugural workshop = £168,000
Partner institutions £5,000 for each inaugural workshop = £70,000
NATO HQ for educational video films – free provision of camera team
Lithuanian MOD to provide free all costs for their stratcom team for a monthly trip to support a new hub/cluster creation and to educate cluster leaders and key people in Vilnius in infowar techniques = £20,000
US State Dept, for research and dissemination activities (excluding any activity in USA) = £250,000
Smith Richardson Foundation, £45,000 for cluster activities in Europe and USA
Facebook, £100,000 for research and education activities
German business community, £25,000 for research and dissemination in EU countries
A covert asset in the Bernie campaign?
Elmaazi, the co-author of this piece, was not the only reporter to gain momentary access to the Institute for Statecraft’s hidden location at 2 Temple Place. On December 11, five days after Elmaazi’s visit, Kit Klarenberg of Sputnik Radio entered the covert propaganda mill’s neo-gothic offices. As soon as he identified himself as a journalist, he was angrily ejected by an Institute for Statecraft staffer named Simon Bracey-Lane.
“You need to leave right now!” Bracey-Lane barked at Klarenberg. “You haven’t arranged to see us! Go! Right now! Please leave immediately! Leave!”
Bracey-Lane is a 20-something British citizen with no publicly acknowledged experience in intelligence work. But as Klarenberg noted, there are some unusual details in the young staffer’s bio.
In 2016, Bracey-Lane appeared out of nowhere to work in Iowa as a field organizer for the Bernie Sanders campaign for president.
Simon Bracey-Lane being interviewed in Bernie Sanders’ Iowa field office on January 27, 2016
“I spent a year working, saving all my money, just thought I was gonna go on a two month road trip from Seattle to New York and I thought, you know what? I’m gonna stay and work for the Bernie Sanders campaign,” Bracey-Lane told a reporter for AFP on January 27, 2016.
He said that after he decided to work for Bernie, he first went to England to “get a visa and get everything legal,” then came back to join the campaign in earnest.
Bracey-Lane also claimed to AFP, “I’m not sure there’s a place for me in British politics… I’ve never been struck by an urge to work in my own political system.”
However, a February 1, 2016 profile of Bracey-Lane by Buzzfeed’s Jim Waterson said the Brit-for-Bernie “was inspired to rejoin the Labour party in September [2015] when Corbyn was elected leader. But by that point, he was already in the US on holiday.”
It is clearly odd for Bracey-Lane to tell one reporter that he had never had any interest in British politics, while claiming to another that he had been eager to support Corbyn before he joined the Bernie campaign. What’s more, as Klarenberg reported, Bracey-Lane went on to establish a get-out-the-vote effort for various progressive politicians and parties in Britain’s 2017 general election, gaining inside access to a wide array of campaigns.
The contradiction in Bracey-Lane’s narrative raises serious questions about his real role on the Bernie campaign, as does his suddenly transition from progressive politics to a staff position at a military-backed propaganda farm that waged a covert information war on Corbyn and other left-leaning politicians across the West.
An Institute for Statecraft document on “roles and relevant experience” of the outfit’s “expert team” notes that Bracey-Lane conducted a “special study of Russian interference in the US electoral process.” The document does not make clear when that study was conducted, however, it is listed directly next to its author’s history of work with the Bernie campaign.
“At Thanksgiving, I was asked, why are you meddling?” Bracey-Lane remarked to Reuters, referring to his work for Bernie Sanders. “Which is an interesting way to phrase it, but I was happy to answer: it needs meddling with.”
Those comments take on an entirely different meaning now that the former Bernie field worker has been outed as part of a British military-intelligence influence operation.
In the coming days, the Grayzone will take a closer look at the Integrity Initiative’s activity inside the US, and whether it is interfering in American politics as it has done in other NATO member states.
Mohamed Elmaazi obtained his LLB from SOAS and Masters in International and Comparative law from the American University in Cairo. He worked in human rights law for a number of years before shifting to journalism. He occasionally reports for The Real News Network and currently contributes to Open Democracy, The Canary, and the Grayzone. You can follow him on Twitter @MElmaazi
Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of books including best-selling Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, The Fifty One Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza, and The Management of Savagery, which will be published later this year by Verso. He has also produced numerous print articles for an array of publications, many video reports and several documentaries including Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie and the forthcoming Killing Gaza. Blumenthal founded the Grayzone Project in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America’s state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2018 1:59 pm Post subject:
Secret Scottish-based office led infowars attack on Labour and Jeremy Corbyn
Explosive leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal the organisation’s Integrity Initiative is funded with £2million of Foreign Office cash and run by military intelligence specialists.
A secret UK Government-funded infowars unit based in Scotland sent out social media posts attacking Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.
On the surface, the cryptically named Institute for Statecraft is a small charity operating from an old Victorian mill in Fife.
But explosive leaked documents passed to the Sunday Mail reveal the organisation’s Integrity Initiative is funded with £2million of Foreign Office cash and run by military intelligence specialists.
The “think tank” is supposed to counter Russian online propaganda by forming “clusters” of friendly journalists and “key influencers” throughout Europe who use social media to hit back against disinformation.
The HQ of the Institute for Statecraft in Fife (Image: Sunday Mail)
READ MORE
Derelict Scottish mill is shadowy hub in UK's fight against Putin's propaganda machine
But our investigation has found worrying evidence the shadowy programme’s official Twitter account has been used to attack Corbyn, the Labour Party and their officials.
One tweet quotes a newspaper article calling Corbyn a “useful idiot”, that goes on to state: “His open visceral anti-Westernism helped the Kremlin cause, as surely as if he had been secretly peddling Westminster tittle-tattle for money.”
A message from the UK Government-funded organisation promotes an article that states: “Unlike Galloway (former MP George Galloway) Corbyn does not scream conspiracy, he implies it,” while another added: “It’s time for the Corbyn left to confront its Putin problem.”
A further message refers to an “alleged British Corbyn supporter” who “wants to vote for Putin”.
It is not just the Labour leader who has been on the receiving end of online attacks.
His strategy and communications director Seumas Milne was also targeted.
The Integrity Initiative, whose base at Gateside Mill is near Auchtermuchty, retweeted a newspaper report that said: “Milne is not a spy – that would be beneath him.
“But what he has done, wittingly or unwittingly, is work with the Kremlin agenda.”
Jeremy Corbyn with Seumas Milne, Labour's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications
Jeremy Corbyn with Seumas Milne, Labour's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications (Image: PA)
Another retweet promoted a journalist who said: “Just as he supports the Russian bombardment of Syria, Seumas Milne supported the Russian slaughter of Afghanistan, which resulted in more than a million deaths.”
The Integrity Initiative has been accused of supporting Ukrainian politicians who oppose Putin – even when they also have suspected far-right links.
Further leaked documents appear to show a Twitter campaign that resulted in a Spanish politician believed to be friendly to the Kremlin being denied a job.
The organisation’s “Spanish cluster” swung into action on hearing that Pedro Banos was to be appointed director of the national security department.
The papers detail how the Integrity Initiative alerted “key influencers” around Europe who launched an online campaign against the politician.
In the wake of the leaks, which also detail Government grant applications, the Foreign Office have been forced to confirm they provided massive funding to the Integrity Initiative.
In response to a parliamentary question, Europe Minister Alan Duncan said: “In financial year 2017-18, the FCO funded the Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative £296,500.
“This financial year, the FCO are funding a further £1,961,000. Both have been funded through grant agreements.”
Neil Findlay MSP
Politicians and academics have reacted with fury to news a covert Government-funded unit had been attacking the official opposition in Parliament.
Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “It would appear that we have a charity registered in Scotland and overseen by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator that is funded by the UK Government and is spewing out political attacks on UK politicians, the Labour Party and the Labour movement.
“Such clear political attacks and propaganda shouldn’t be coming from any charity. We need to know why the Foreign Office have been funding it.”
David Miller, a professor of political sociology in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, added: “It’s extraordinary that the Foreign Office would be funding a Scottish charity to counter Russian propaganda which ends up attacking Her Majesty’s opposition and soft-pedalling far-right politicians in the Ukraine.
“People have a right to know how the Government are spending their money, and the views being promoted in their name.”
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The senior manager of the Integrity Initiative appears to be Chris Donnelly. A website biography states he is a graduate of Manchester University and reserve officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps who previously headed the British Army’s Soviet Studies Research Centre at Sandhurst.
Documents passed to the Sunday Mail suggest he was appointed an “Honorary Colonel in Military Intelligence” in 2015 – the year the Integrity Initiative was formed.
Papers we have viewed also suggest senior operative Dan Lafayeedney was an SAS soldier in 1978 and attached to a regiment which ran spy cells in Russia.
After contacting the Integrity Initiative through its website to ask about the Labour attacks, we received a call from spokesman Stephen Dalziel.
He said: “I’m not aware of that. I’m not the one who controls the Twitter account. If it was criticism of one of our politicians, then that shouldn’t be on there.”
When asked about the military background of Integrity Initiative employees, Dalziel denied any secret service involvement.
Gateside Mill in Fife where the Integrity Initiative is based (Image: Garry F McHarg/Sunday Mail)
He added: “Chris Donnelly was in the TA for many years.
“Dan Lafayeedney, who is a Scot, that’s why it is registered in Scotland, was many years ago in the Army.
“I did one year as a TA officer on attachment. The biggest chunk of my career, I was a BBC journalist. Definitely not secret service, I promise you.”
Previous online biographies about Dalziel suggest he spent a year in the British Army in 1981, before joining the Soviet Studies Research Centre at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
The leaked documents show a funding application to the Foreign Office that details the unit’s work.
Further papers reveal a unit in Lithuania which received overseas funding to “support a new hub/cluster creation and to educate cluster leaders and key people in Vilnius in infowar techniques”.
What we do know is that while they were both at Sandhurst, they attended the Herzliya Conference, the so-called ‘Bilderberg of the Levant’. This is the Israeli establishment and military industrial complex meeting for the discussion of Israeli national policy.
On the attendees list, Chris Donnelly did indeed identify himself as being a Senior Fellow at the Defence Academy of the UK. Daniel Lafayeedney did not: he identified himself as representing BICOM, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, a pro-Israeli advocacy organisation with very close links to the UK Conservative Party via Poju Zabludovicz, BICOM’s founder and former chairman, who funded David Cameron’s Tory leadership campaign, as well as former BICOM board member Trevor Pears who also made donations to David Cameron and to Tory constituency offices in the run up to elections. We note the lack of Russian election interference here.
The third director we want to mention here is Oliver McTernan, the co-founder and director of Forward Thinking, an organisation which claims to be working to solve the middle east crisis. Chris Donnelly is also involved with Forward Thinking.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2370405246311300&id=1000 00255436417 _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Matthew J.L. Ehret
Sott.net
Thu, 24 Jan 2019 22:53 UTC
integrity initiative capitol With the near weekly revelations that the British Foreign Office, MI6, and GCHQ have been behind the long standing agenda to undermine the Presidency of Donald Trump and undo the peaceful alliance between nationalist leaders in America, Russia, China and elsewhere, a new focus on the British hand in undermining the United States has become a serious thought for many citizens. In the first week of the new year, fuel was added to this fire when internal memos were leaked from the British-run Integrity Initiative featuring a startling account of the techniques deployed by the anti-Russian British operation to infiltrate American intelligence institutions, think tanks and media.
For those who may not know, the Integrity Initiative is an anti-Russian propaganda outfit funded to the tune of $140 million by the British Foreign office. The January 2019 leak, featuring documents dated to the early period of Trump's election, demonstrate that this organization, already active across Europe promoting anti-Russian PR and smearing nationalist leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn, was intent on spreading deeply into the State Department and setting up "clusters" of anti-Trump operatives. The documents reveal high level meetings that Integrity Initiative Director Chris Donnelly had with former Trump Advisor Sebastien Gorka, McCain Foundation director Kurt Volker, Pentagon PR guru John Rendon among many others.
The exposure of the British hand behind the scenes affords us a unique glimpse into the real historical forces undermining America's true constitutional tradition throughout the 20th century, as Mueller/the Five Eyes/Integrity Initiative are not new phenomena but actually follow a modus operandi set down for already more than a century. One of the biggest obstacles to seeing this modus operandi run by the British Empire is located in the belief in a mythology which has become embedded in the global psyche for over half a century and which we should do our best to free ourselves of.
Debunking the Myth of the "American Empire"
henry wallace
Three times US Vice President Henry A. Wallace (who would have become president at FDR's death but for being ousted by Democratic Party controllers at the last minute in the 1944 primaries)
While there has been a long-standing narrative promoted for over 70 years that the British Empire disappeared after World War II having been replaced by the "American Empire", it is the furthest thing from the truth. America, as constitutionally represented by its greatest presidents (who can unfortunately be identified by their early deaths while serving in office), were never colonialist and were always in favor of reining in British institutions at home while fighting British colonial thinking abroad.1
Franklin Roosevelt's thirteen year-long battle with the Deep State, which he referred to as the "economic royalists who should have left America in 1776," 2 was defined in clear terms by his patriotic Vice-President Henry Wallace who warned of the emergence of a new Anglo-American fascism in 1944 when he said:
"Fascism in the postwar inevitably will push steadily for Anglo-Saxon imperialism and eventually for war with Russia. Already American fascists are talking and writing about this conflict and using it as an excuse for their internal hatreds and intolerances toward certain races, creeds and classes." 3
The fact is that already in 1944, a policy of Anglo-Saxon imperialism had been promoted subversively by British-run think tanks known as the Round Table Movement and Fabian Society, and the seeds had already been laid for the anti-Russian cold war by those British-run American fascists. It is not a coincidence that this fascist Cold War policy was announced in a March 5, 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri by none other than Round Table-follower Winston Churchill.4
The Empire Strikes
cecil rhodes
Cecil Rhodes: part-visionary, part-lunatic
When the Round Table Movement was created with funds from the Rhodes Trust in 1902, a new plan was laid out to create a new technocratic elite to manage the re-emergence of the new British Empire and crush the emergence of American-inspired nationalism globally. This organization would be staffed by generations of Rhodes Scholars who would receive their indoctrination in Oxford before being sent back to advance a "post-nation state" agenda in their respective countries.
As this agenda largely followed the mandate set out by Cecil Rhodes in his Seventh Will who said:
"Why should we not form a secret society with but one object: the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole uncivilized world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, and for the making of the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire?" 5
With the help of an anglophile, racist president in America, leading figures organizing these think-tanks first advanced a program to create a "League of Nations" as the solution to the "nationalist problem" which humanity was told "caused" World War One. Nationalist forces in America rejected the idea that the constitution should be rendered obsolete and the plan for global governance failed. However that did not stop the Round Table Movement from trying again. Leading Round Table controller Lord Lothian (British Ambassador to the USA) complained of the "American problem" in 1918:
"There is a fundamentally different concept in regard to this question between Great Britain and the United States as to the necessity of civilized control over politically backward peoples.... The inhabitants of Africa and parts of Asia have proved unable to govern themselves.... Yet America not only has no conception of this aspect of the problem but has been led to believe that the assumption of this kind of responsibility is iniquitous imperialism. They take an attitude towards the problem of world government exactly analogous to the one they [earlier] took toward the problem of the world war. If they are slow in learning we shall be condemned to a period of strained relations between the various parts of the English-speaking world. [We must] get into the heads of Canadians and Americans that a share in the burden of world government is just as great and glorious a responsibility as participation in the war." 6
sun yat sen
Founding father of the Chinese Republic, China’s 1st President and Lincoln-admirer Sun Yat-sen
A Chinese leader of the American-inspired republican revolution of 1911 named Sun Yat-sen warned of the likes of Lord Lothian and the League of Nations in 1924 when he said:
"The nations which are employing imperialism to conquer others and which are trying to maintain their own favored positions as sovereign lords of the whole world are advocating cosmopolitanism [aka: global governance/globalization - ed.] and want the world to join them... Nationalism is that precious possession by which humanity maintains its existence. If nationalism decays, then when cosmopolitanism flourishes we will be unable to survive and will be eliminated".7
New Name, Same Beast
By 1919, the Round Table Movement changed its name to the Royal Institute for International Affairs (aka: Chatham House) with the "Round Table" name relegated to its geopolitical periodical. In Canada and Australia, branches were created in 1928 under the rubrics of "Canadian and Australian Institutes for International Affairs" (CIIA, AIIA).8 However in America, where knowledge of the British Empire's subversive role was more widely known, the name "American Institute for International Affairs" was still too delicate. Instead the name "Council on Foreign Relations" was chosen and was chartered in 1921.
CFR Rhodes scholars
Rhodes Scholar William Yandall Elliot surrounded by a few of his leading disciples: Sir Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski Samuel Huntington and Pierre Trudeau
Staffed with Rhodes Scholars and Fabians, the CFR (and its International Chatham House counterparts) dubbed themselves "independent think tanks" which interfaced with Rhodes Scholars and Fabians in academia, government and the private sector alike with the mission of advancing a foreign policy agenda that was in alignment with the British Empire's dream of an Anglo-American "special relationship". One such Rhodes Scholar was William Yandall Elliot, who played a major role mentoring Henry Kissinger and a generation of geo-politicians from Harvard, not the least of whom include Zbigniew Brzezinski, Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Samuel (Clash of Civilizations) Huntington.
The Round Table in Canada and the Coup Against FDR
FDR Smedley Butler
FDR and Gen. Smedley Butler
In Canada, five leading Rhodes Scholars9 were busy creating the League of Social Reconstruction as a self-described "Fabian Society of Canada" in 1931 which was meant to be a fascist/technocratic answer to the chaos of "greedy nationalism" that supposedly caused the economic collapse of Black Friday in 1929.10 During the same time in America, a different path to fascism was taken by these networks during the early 1930s. This plan involved installing a General named Smedley Butler into power as a puppet dictator steered by the Anglo-American establishment. Luckily for America and the world, General Butler blew the whistle on the coup against Franklin Roosevelt at the last minute.11
Kissinger's British Takeover of America
Though it took a few assassinations throughout the post war years, Kissinger's takeover of the State Department ushered in a new era of British occupation of American foreign policy, whereby the republic increasingly became the "Dumb Giant" acting as "American Brawn for the British brains" using Churchill's words. While a nihilistic generation of youth was tuning in on LSD, and an old guard of patriots surrounding Wallace and Kennedy had fallen to the "red scare" witch-hunt, geopolitical theory was fed like a sweet poison down the throat of a sleeping nation, replacing a policy of peace and "win-win cooperation" advanced by true nationalist patriots such as FDR, Wallace and the Kennedys, with an imperial clone masquerading as a republic.
Sir Kissinger did nothing less than reveal his total allegiance to the British Empire on May 10, 1981 during a Chatham House conference in Britain when he described his relationship with the British Foreign office in the following terms:
"The British were so matter-of-factly helpful that they became a participant in internal American deliberations, to a degree probably never practiced between sovereign nations... In my White House incarnation then, I kept the British Foreign Office better informed and more closely engaged than I did the American State Department... It was symptomatic".12
During this period, Kissinger worked closely with CIA director George Bush Senior, who was later rewarded for his role in advancing the British-planned first war on Kuwait with a knighthood [2]. This war set the stage for the second wave of Middle East wars beginning with the Anglo-Saudi orchestrated operation known as 9/11 and the ushering in of the new "post-nation state order" by Kissinger and Blair. This was the era which was celebrated by both Kissinger and Bush in sundry places as "the New World Order".13
The Dystopic New World Order Threatened by a New Deal of the 21st Century
Putin y Xi Jinping It is this dystopic geopolitical order that has been challenged by the Russia-China alliance which arose in earnest with Xi Jinping's 2013 announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative as the grand design for large-scale infrastructure projects internationally, and in September 2015 with Vladimir Putin's intervention into Syria that defeated the Hobbesian regime change paradigm which poisoned the West. In 2016, the election of nationalist American President Donald Trump opened the door for the first time in over 50 years to a true national coalition of sovereign nations to eliminate the cancer of colonial thinking forever from the Earth.
It is this same British-run deep state which owns Robert Mueller, who, along with the Integrity Initiative, Five Eyes and other Deep State operatives are dedicated to overthrowing President Trump from office and undoing the great potential now facing the world as outlined by the Schiller Institute and American statesman Lyndon LaRouche: 1) an FDR-style re-organization of the bankrupt banking system and 2) the unleashing of a global New Silk Road as the New Deal of the 21st Century.
Notes
A short list of presidents who died untimely deaths before ending their terms include: William Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Abraham Lincoln (1865), William Garfield (1880), Warren McKinley (1901), William Harding (1923), Franklin Roosevelt (1945), John Kennedy (1963), and Bobby Kennedy (who was destined to become President in 1968). All on this list were in opposition to British financial reforms within and imperial foreign policy without.
July 27, 1936 re-nomination acceptance speech by Franklin Roosevelt
The Danger of American Fascism by Henry Wallace, April 4, 1944
FDR's post-war plans for the internationalisation of the New Deal enunciated by Wallace in his Four Freedoms speech of 1942 were thus undone, as they required an America acting in its sovereign self-interest and peace among Russia, China and the USA.
The Seventh Will by Cecil Rhodes, 1877 cited in Cecil Rhodes, The Round Table Movement and Eugenics, The Canadian Patriot #4, Jan. 2014
Lothian to Lionel Curtis, Oct. 15, 1918, in Butler, Lord Lothian, pp. 68-70
Three Principles of the People, Sun Yat-sen, 1924, copyright 1981, China Publishing Co. p.12
In Canada, the name changed once again to the Canadian International Council which is behind the most vitriolic attacks on China and Trump today. These Chatham House-directed institutions formed a pillar for what became known as the "Five Eyes" in the post-9/11 era.
Escott Reid (intellectual father of NATO), Frank Underhill, Eugene Forsey, F.R. Scott (mentor of future Technocratic reformer of Canada Pierre Trudeau), and David Lewis
The reality was that the great depression was largely manufactured as broker call loans were all called in on the same day resulting in the "controlled demolition" of a speculative bubble carefully built up in the wake of President Harding's early death in 1923 through de-regulation and easy money.
"I appeared before the Congressional Committee, the highest representation of the American people under subpoena to tell what I knew about activities which I believe might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship... the upshot of the whole thing was that I was to pose to lead an organization of 500 000 men which would be able to take over the functions of government" -Gen. Smedley Butler, November 1933.
Reflections on a Partnership: British and American Attitudes to Postwar Foreign Policy, Henry Kissinger, May 10, 1981, Chatham House, Cited in Sir Henry Kissinger: British Agent of Influence, Executive Intelligence Review, Jan. 10, 1997
It was after all, Margaret Thatcher who bragged that she "stiffened the spine" of George Bush on the matter of attacking Kuwait in 1990. Cited in Margaret Thatcher and the limits of the United Nations, Foreign Policy, Apr. 8, 2013
As Franklin Roosevelt famously said "They who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order."
About the author
Matthew J.L. Ehret is a journalist, lecturer and founder of the Canadian Patriot Review. His works have been published in Executive Intelligence Review, Global Research, Global Times, The Duran, Nexus Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, Veterans Today and Sott.net. Matthew has also published the book "The Time has Come for Canada to Join the New Silk Road" and three volumes of the Untold History of Canada (available on untoldhistory.canadianpatriot.org). He can be reached at matt.ehret@tutamail.com _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-i-DpaCljU
“2 Degrees of separation” - a theory whistleblower Nicholas Wilson has, that wherever in the world a financial scandal occurs HSBC is to be found nearby.
Nicholas has been campaigning for 13 years after blowing the whistle on a High Street fraud of excessive bank charges applied to store cards administered by HSBC. He has recently been vindicated by a Financial Conduct Authority ruling and HSBC have had to begin paying back some of the money defrauded from customers. He was dubbed “Mr. Ethical” by his boss at the time for refusing to defraud debtors.
In this first of several interviews for Real Media, he connects Government funding and the security services to the recently revealed psyops outfit, Institute for Statecraft and its ‘integrity initiative’.
He asks whether there might be a connection with the suspicious death of auditor Sergei Magnitsky, who was working for the Hermitage Fund there. HSBC bankrolled and jointly managed the Hermitage Fund with Bill Browder, who appears in Institute of Statecraft’s documents.
Browder, convicted of tax fraud in Russia connected with the Magnitsky affair, has spent years pointing the finger at the Russians over both the killing and the disappearance of nearly quarter of a billion pounds, but a film by Andrei Nekrasov casts suspicion on Browder and HSBC. If the film is to be believed, it would make sense that Browder is involved with a shadowy group set up to counter Russian “disinformation”.
Nicholas Wilson reveals the close associations between HSBC and the UK security forces, and asks whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should be giving public funding to the Institute of Statecraft.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 8:31 pm Post subject:
Charlie Holmes wrote:
The statecraft scandal
It has been revealed that the son of David Hart., Margaret Thatchers Guru is a director of the Institute of Statecraft the organization behind the Integrity Initiative,
The Deepstate think tank which was behind a smear campaign of the labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The activities and indeed the very existence of The Institute for Statecraft came about through a hack which has been attributed "anonymous".
Who ever was responsible for the hack certain authentic documents did become available on the internet during November 2018.
There have also been two other drops the most recent on the 4th of January this year.
These documents reveal that The Institute of Statecraft was funded to the tune of millions by the foreign office, they also list the people involved with setting up and running this seriously shady operation. The documents have been analyzed by numerous internet sleuths who are starting make some revelations.
The names of some very interesting characters have come to light on the various documents. People with links to state institutions including high ranking members of military intelligence.
From a political standpoint, bearing in mind the Corbyn smear campaign, one name certainly stands out a certain "Harry Hart" who at first glance seems rather innocuous he only has one directorship and while all those around him have four christian names and a double barreled surname he is simple Harry Hart, although he does have the distinction of being a resident of Switzerland.
But then again no, add a middle name and he becomes Harry Bimbo Hart, with 15 directorships and a long history of involvement in numerous company's now deceased. Many of these company's he was in the company of his father a certain David Hart, a flamboyant entrepreneur who's wikipedia page describes him as a "political activist" that he was active there is no doubt he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and is billed as the man who helped her crush the miners.
he was also a big fan of Michael Portillo and a true blue tory through and through.
Born in 1944 in London, David Hart was the son of Louis Albert "Boy" Hart, Jewish by birth and the founder and chairman of Henry Ansbacher merchant bank. His mother was Irish, though Hart was baptised into the Church of England. Educated at Eton, he was bullied as "Spiv" or "Jewy Hart" but took retribution on his tormentor and was thence left alone.
David Hart, the Thatcherite banking heir, was a property magnate, defence industry lobbyist who came to prominence as the scourge of Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Miners during the strike of 1984-85.The Old Etonian, who was physically likened to Lord Lucan in his younger years, was also a playwright and farmer and a producer of avant-garde films. He even had time to be bankrupted. Hart was a flamboyant businessman with lavish wealth and a lifestyle to match, entertaining the rich and powerful. He had a talent for political annihilation, masterminding Margaret Thatcher's operation to break the miners' strike from his luxury suite at Claridge's. "It got to the point where she really let me run it," he recalled in 2003.
In 1987, Hart co-founded The Committee for a Free Britain, a right-wing pressure group whose first public act was to place advertisements in national newspapers warning of the consequences of a Labour victory in the 1987 election. They then supported a number of controversial government campaigns and policies, including the Education Bill, NHS reforms and the Poll Tax, which it described as a "progressive measure".
(There's a ton of stuff on this guy)
Harry Bimbo, born 23/06/1971 would only have been thirteen or fourteen during the miners strike but his fathers victory could well have affected his political outlook .
He would later partner his father at the CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS LIMITED by the sound of it could well have been a precursor for the Institute of Statecraft another in a long line of Tory establishment think tanks and other such institutions masquerading as charities or community groups. many of which turn out to be very sinister indeed.
It's very apparent that there is nothing new about Statecraft and the Integrity Initiative they are a continuation of Tory Black Op's against the labour party which started directly after WW2 when labour won a surprise landslide election result. This operations continued with the "Wilson Plot" which saw Priminister Harold Wilson hounded out of office.
Harry Bimbo's father took over in the 1970's supporting and advising Thatcher and right about now so Bimbo is simply taking over where his Daddy left off.
The fact that Mr Harry Hart has two profiles on Companies House, both resident inSwitzerland might be of interest to the regulators, if such people actually exist. Although there is nothing unusual about directors using one or more aliases. It is however considered to be rather dodgy.
The labour MP Chris Williamson did some detective work and went up to a semi derelict Mill in Fife, Scotland. Known as Gateside Mills.
He quickly discovered that The Institute of Statecraft was actually based in the 2 temple place London.
by Mike Simons
David Hart, the man who did the dirtiest of Margaret Thatcher’s dirty work in the Great Miners’ Strike of 1984-85, has finally died.
The obituaries described him as colourful, shadowy and a confidant of cabinet ministers. But really he was an example of the vicious, reactionary scum who inhabit the clubs of Mayfair, the officers’ messes of Sandhurst and Chelsea Barracks, and the upstairs rooms of Downing Street.
One of Thatcher’s “Downing Street Irregulars”, Hart’s life shows what goes on beneath the veneer of democracy in Britain.
The son of one of the City’s most prominent bankers, Hart was educated at Eton, like so many of the current cabinet. There he met a set of people who would go on to be prominent in the 1979 to 1997 Tory governments, the media and some of Britain’s biggest businesses.
A right wing libertarian proponent of the free market, he “made” his first million as a property speculator but went bankrupt in 1975, owing almost £1 million to a string of small creditors, including his gamekeeper’s tailor.
To alleviate Hart’s distress at this fall from grace, his mother sent round her butler to look after him and his brother paid off his debts. He inherited money and threw himself into a career as a political fixer.
By 1980 Hart was a member of Thatcher’s inner circle of advisers. He came to public attention in 1984 for his role in creating, funding and organising a group of right wing miners opposed to the strike in defence of jobs.
Hart’s brother was a close friend of Ian MacGregor—then-chairman of the National Coal Board—and Hart became MacGregor’s personal political advisor. Another close friend, Charles Douglas-Home, editor of the Times, gave Hart space in the paper to attack the miners.
Chauffeur
Hart toured the coalfields in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes looking for people to join an
anti-strike movement. Likely candidates were whisked off to be wined and dined in Hart’s suite in Claridges, before being sent back to the coalfield, allegedly with former SAS men as bodyguards, to recruit others.
When the mass back to work movement Hart hoped to trigger didn’t immediately materialise, he funded further legal action against the miners’ union. He arranged for his helicopter to fly writs to the Labour Party conference, where they were served on the miners’ president Arthur Scargill.
Hart’s gang of scabs did not break the Miners’ Strike. But his black operations made it harder to win solidarity for the miners. It also made it easier for the Labour and trade union leaders,who did not want a clear victory for militant industrial action, to leave the miners isolated.
A brilliant, fictionalised account of Hart’s role in the miners’ strike can be found in David Peace’s novel GB84.
After the strike Hart helped found the Campaign for a Free Britain, which among other things brought the leader of the right wing Nicaraguan Contra death squads to Britain. Hart also secretly financed British Briefing, a newsletter edited by a former MI5 officer who had been in charge of “counter-subversion”, which smeared Labour MPs.
He fell from grace when John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher, but re-emerged in 1993 as an adviser to defence secretary Malcolm Rifkind. In 1996 Hart set up and funded “The Shadow Organisation,” the election team for Michael Portillo’s leadership challenge on John Major, which ended in humiliating failure.
He left active politics after Labour’s 1997 election but remained in contact with Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s private secretary. To keep the wolf from the door he acted as a lobbyist for some of the world’s biggest arms companies, including BAE, where Portillo was now a director, and Boeing.
In 2004 an arrest warrant for Hart was issued concerning his alleged involvement in that year’s coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, “masterminded” by his fellow Old Etonian Simon Mann.
The Daily Telegraph said that in Hart’s home, “politicians would find refuge from the drudgery and Formica of constituency surgeries to enjoy sparkling conversation”. To put it another way, he was the scum’s scum.
TonyGosling wrote:
Charlie Holmes wrote:
The statecraft scandal
It has been revealed that the son of David Hart., Margaret Thatchers Guru is a director of the Institute of Statecraft the organization behind the Integrity Initiative,
The Deepstate think tank which was behind a smear campaign of the labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The activities and indeed the very existence of The Institute for Statecraft came about through a hack which has been attributed "anonymous".
Who ever was responsible for the hack certain authentic documents did become available on the internet during November 2018.
There have also been two other drops the most recent on the 4th of January this year.
These documents reveal that The Institute of Statecraft was funded to the tune of millions by the foreign office, they also list the people involved with setting up and running this seriously shady operation. The documents have been analyzed by numerous internet sleuths who are starting make some revelations.
The names of some very interesting characters have come to light on the various documents. People with links to state institutions including high ranking members of military intelligence.
From a political standpoint, bearing in mind the Corbyn smear campaign, one name certainly stands out a certain "Harry Hart" who at first glance seems rather innocuous he only has one directorship and while all those around him have four christian names and a double barreled surname he is simple Harry Hart, although he does have the distinction of being a resident of Switzerland.
But then again no, add a middle name and he becomes Harry Bimbo Hart, with 15 directorships and a long history of involvement in numerous company's now deceased. Many of these company's he was in the company of his father a certain David Hart, a flamboyant entrepreneur who's wikipedia page describes him as a "political activist" that he was active there is no doubt he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and is billed as the man who helped her crush the miners.
he was also a big fan of Michael Portillo and a true blue tory through and through.
Born in 1944 in London, David Hart was the son of Louis Albert "Boy" Hart, Jewish by birth and the founder and chairman of Henry Ansbacher merchant bank. His mother was Irish, though Hart was baptised into the Church of England. Educated at Eton, he was bullied as "Spiv" or "Jewy Hart" but took retribution on his tormentor and was thence left alone.
David Hart, the Thatcherite banking heir, was a property magnate, defence industry lobbyist who came to prominence as the scourge of Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Miners during the strike of 1984-85.The Old Etonian, who was physically likened to Lord Lucan in his younger years, was also a playwright and farmer and a producer of avant-garde films. He even had time to be bankrupted. Hart was a flamboyant businessman with lavish wealth and a lifestyle to match, entertaining the rich and powerful. He had a talent for political annihilation, masterminding Margaret Thatcher's operation to break the miners' strike from his luxury suite at Claridge's. "It got to the point where she really let me run it," he recalled in 2003.
In 1987, Hart co-founded The Committee for a Free Britain, a right-wing pressure group whose first public act was to place advertisements in national newspapers warning of the consequences of a Labour victory in the 1987 election. They then supported a number of controversial government campaigns and policies, including the Education Bill, NHS reforms and the Poll Tax, which it described as a "progressive measure".
(There's a ton of stuff on this guy)
Harry Bimbo, born 23/06/1971 would only have been thirteen or fourteen during the miners strike but his fathers victory could well have affected his political outlook .
He would later partner his father at the CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS LIMITED by the sound of it could well have been a precursor for the Institute of Statecraft another in a long line of Tory establishment think tanks and other such institutions masquerading as charities or community groups. many of which turn out to be very sinister indeed.
It's very apparent that there is nothing new about Statecraft and the Integrity Initiative they are a continuation of Tory Black Op's against the labour party which started directly after WW2 when labour won a surprise landslide election result. This operations continued with the "Wilson Plot" which saw Priminister Harold Wilson hounded out of office.
Harry Bimbo's father took over in the 1970's supporting and advising Thatcher and right about now so Bimbo is simply taking over where his Daddy left off.
The fact that Mr Harry Hart has two profiles on Companies House, both resident inSwitzerland might be of interest to the regulators, if such people actually exist. Although there is nothing unusual about directors using one or more aliases. It is however considered to be rather dodgy.
The labour MP Chris Williamson did some detective work and went up to a semi derelict Mill in Fife, Scotland. Known as Gateside Mills.
He quickly discovered that The Institute of Statecraft was actually based in the 2 temple place London.
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:37 pm Post subject:
The Institute of statecraft scandal
After checking out the documents that were uploaded courtesy of Anonymous I can reveal that Harry Bimbo Hart the son of of David Hart., Margaret Thatchers Guru is a director of the Institute of Statecraft the organization behind the Integrity Initiative,
The Deepstate think tank which was behind a smear campaign of the labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The activities and indeed the very existence of The Institute for Statecraft came about through a hack which has been attributed "anonymous".
There have also been two other drops the most recent on the 4th of January this year.
These documents reveal that The Institute of Statecraft was funded to the tune of millions by the foreign office, they also list the people involved with setting up and running this seriously shady operation. The documents have been analyzed by numerous internet sleuths who are starting make some revelations.
The names of some very interesting characters have come to light on the various documents. People with links to state institutions including high ranking members of military intelligence.
From a political standpoint, bearing in mind the Corbyn smear campaign, one name certainly stands out a certain "Harry Hart" who at first glance seems rather innocuous he only has one directorship and while all those around him have four christian names and a double barreled surname he is simple Harry Hart, although he does have the distinction of being a resident of Switzerland.
But then again no, add a middle name and he becomes Harry Bimbo Hart, with 15 directorships and a long history of involvement in numerous company's now deceased. Many of these company's he was in the company of his father a certain David Hart, a flamboyant entrepreneur who's wikipedia page describes him as a "political activist" that he was active there is no doubt he was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and is billed as the man who helped her crush the miners.
he was also a big fan of Michael Portillo and a true blue tory through and through.
Born in 1944 in London, David Hart was the son of Louis Albert "Boy" Hart, Jewish by birth and the founder and chairman of Henry Ansbacher merchant bank. His mother was Irish, though Hart was baptised into the Church of England. Educated at Eton, he was bullied as "Spiv" or "Jewy Hart" but took retribution on his tormentor and was thence left alone.
David Hart, the Thatcherite banking heir, was a property magnate, defence industry lobbyist who came to prominence as the scourge of Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Miners during the strike of 1984-85.The Old Etonian, who was physically likened to Lord Lucan in his younger years, was also a playwright and farmer and a producer of avant-garde films. He even had time to be bankrupted. Hart was a flamboyant businessman with lavish wealth and a lifestyle to match, entertaining the rich and powerful. He had a talent for political annihilation, masterminding Margaret Thatcher's operation to break the miners' strike from his luxury suite at Claridge's. "It got to the point where she really let me run it," he recalled in 2003.
In 1987, Hart co-founded The Committee for a Free Britain, a right-wing pressure group whose first public act was to place advertisements in national newspapers warning of the consequences of a Labour victory in the 1987 election. They then supported a number of controversial government campaigns and policies, including the Education Bill, NHS reforms and the Poll Tax, which it described as a "progressive measure".
(There's a ton of stuff on this guy)
Harry Bimbo, born 23/06/1971 would only have been thirteen or fourteen during the miners strike but his fathers victory could well have affected his political outlook .
He would later partner his father at the CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS LIMITED by the sound of it could well have been a precursor for the Institute of Statecraft another in a long line of Tory establishment think tanks and other such institutions masquerading as charities or community groups. many of which turn out to be very sinister indeed.
It's very apparent that there is nothing new about Statecraft and the Integrity Initiative they are a continuation of Tory Black Op's against the labour party which started directly after WW2 when labour won a surprise landslide election result. This operations continued with the "Wilson Plot" which saw Priminister Harold Wilson hounded out of office.
Harry Bimbo's father took over in the 1970's supporting and advising Thatcher and right about now so Bimbo is simply taking over where his Daddy left off.
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:53 pm Post subject:
There appear to be two main players fronting the Statecraft Institution. Daniel Layfayeedney (Dan The Man)and Christopher Nigel Donnelly. (CND)
While the career of (CND) is pretty much straight forward he has worked in the Military for most of his life. Is listed as a high ranking Civil Servant at Companies House.
Slighty shady but pretty much straight forward.
On the other hand (dan the man) is anything but straight forward. Seems to have had a rather adventurous life. Married a woman 17 years his junior at the age of 50.
Certain a man capable of looking after himself in a physical altercation. It is rumored that he was a mercenary for the apartheid regime n South Africa.
Let's start with Dan the Man ..
Daniel Layfayeedney .. Originally Daniel Edney DATE OF BIRTH 19 12 1946
aname which he made up by joining first wife's surname, to his own.
First Wife Regine Marie Léontine Lafaye, she is from Lagrasse in France
Son Pierre Lafayeedney , played Rugby for Watsonians, Edinburgh based RFC
Son Jean-Louis G Lafayeedney DATE OF BIRTH 11 /01/1980
daughter Arlette Marie Léontine Lafayeedney
At some time or other all of his family have been involved in his business dealings also and including The Institute of Statecraft, his son, Jean-Louis G Lafayeedney was involved there for some years.
His second wife : Fiona Katherine Adelaide Gatty, has also featured prominently in his business affairs and also has her own career in Charity Shops.
So I have no qualms about mentioning them.
The persona around Dan the man is rather strange his background is not at all clear, as though he was kinda invisible for a while.
In fact one theory has it that he was a mercenary in South Africa and had to leave in 1993 when the Apartheid Regime collapsed.
Craig Murray states "Daniel Lafayeedney, formerly of D Squadron 23rd SAS Regiment and later of Military Intelligence (and incidentally born the rather more prosaic Daniel Edney)"
There are supposed records that show that his Children went to school in Scotland around that time.
There appears to be no trace of daniel Edney on the net and I didn't find his family roots,but I think his brother emigrated to Alberta, Canada. Almost certain.
There is no record of his business dealings in the 1990's or at least not until 1999, this I am not sure about.
He and most of his family, including his new wife Fiona Gatty appear on the scene in Gateside Mills .. between 1999 and 2001.
It appears that his offspring all grew up an went to school in Edinburgh, Regine Lafaye still resides there now.
If he did arrive back in the UK (Scotland) in 1993 he didn't hang around with his family planning arrangements because Hector John Lafayeedney was born on 7 December 1996 to Dan the Man and Fiona Katherine Adelaide Gatty, a descendant of William the conquerer no less .. or as Ian Drury would say "A nice bit of Posh" !!
He was 50 at the time and she 33, 17 years his junior.
More than a dozen addresses appear on the various documents relating to his business life, there are fairly evenly divided between Oxford and Scotland, with a few others dotted about around the country. But it's very difficult to work out exactly where Dan the Man put his feet up in front of the telly and supped his morning cuppa.
His daughter Arelette married the Duke of Somersets Son Sebastion in 2006, they divorced in 2011. She still uses the name Arlette Seymour of Facebook.
Arlette has or had two property / real estate company's in La Grasse and now lives in Hong Kong.
His second wife Fiona Gatty was more involved, she is also involved in the Charity Circus and works at Oxford UNI.
Together they share at least half a dozen addresses in Oxford. But through her own words on Facebook I can confirm that she (they) lived at 28 Wytham Cottages up until April of 2017 she reminisces about lot's of happy memories there so I think she lived there for a while. She appears to have been at this address for some years until 2009
FIONA GATTY 35 NORHAM ROAD OXFORD QX2 6SQ WRITER / INVESTER Date of Birth 18/04/1963.
So I would say that it is safe to day that Dan the man lived in Oxford for a number of years
Dan the man likes to use 73, Banbury Road Oxford, does he have the flat above Hunters the Estate Agents .. ?
There is no record of his earlier life and no casual mentions of him in the press / media I would say he was involved with something fairly hush hush.
He is a member of the advisory committee forThe Pluscarden Programme for the Study of Global Terrorism and Intelligence" at the extremely dodgy St Antony's College, Oxford. Pluscarden was also the name of one of his companies. The Address 50 Lothian .. is boiler room for offshore shell companies.
It's rather strange that he would be involved in an international Program studying terrorism and intelligence and he owns a company with the same name.
But that's not the only peculiar coincidence he also set up up a company called "The Council for Foreign Relations" at his derelict mill in Scotland,
He has one or two dodgy connections in this sector. His business dealings have been very "gung ho" and in one controversy a High Court Judge described him as being extremely dodgy and untrustworthy. .
The Institute for Statecraft was nearly struck off on two occasions, both he and his latest wife have somewhat dubious business dealings.
So I what do I think about Dan the Man, he's 72 so he's no spring chicken and he has certainly been around a bit.
He's certainly a Military man and knows how to look after himself when it comes to the crunch he's a bit of a tasty geezer.
There are reports that his Business deals were rather shady and he was also extremely pushy .. In your face !!
He supposedly made a lot of money out of his business deals but nearly all of his companies keeled over fairly fast and although they took a while to actually go under they were always pretty much on the rocks. Some of his companies seem to be a complete waste of time, pointless. Which obviously makes one wonder ?
He is a fellow of tSt Anthony's College Oxford which is a pretty dubious set up. He's on on the advisory committee of the Pluscarden Program where the dude in charge is Professor Michael Kaser just check the kink and you'll see where he is at, NATO, OECD his been to Chatham House he luvs it .. https://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/people/michael-kaser
So Dan the man is a bit of spooky military muscle man peddling propaganda ..
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 7:48 am Post subject:
Diretors of Statecraft January 2019
LESLIE SIMM
WELLESEY HOUSE
ANSTI SALISBURY
WILTSHIRE ENGLAND
SP3 5PR
DATE OF BIRTH 12/10/1952
Civil Servant
LAFAYEEDNEY, DANIEL
50 LOTHIAN ROAD FESTIVAL SQUARE
EDINBURGH SCOTLAND
EH3 9WJ
Appointed: 08/11/2011
British -Date of Birth 19 / 12 / 1946
Change of address, there has been quite a bit of activity at Companies House since Christmas.
COOKE, ANTHONY RODERICK CHICHESTER BANCROFT MR
2 TEMPLE PLACE
LONDON ENGLAND WC2R 3BD
Appointed 01/09/2017
BRITISH
Country/State of Residence:ENGLAND
DONNELLY, CHRISTOPHER NIGEL MR
3 HIGH HUNDHOWE BOWSTON,
BURNESIDE KENDAL
CUMBRIA LA8 9AB ENGLAND
Appointed : 23/11/2006
BRITISH
Country/State of Residence:ENGLAND
HART, HARRY MR
2 TEMPLE PLACE LONDON
ENGLAND WC2R 3BD
Appointed 01/09/2017
BRITISH
Date of Birth 2 June 1971
Country/State of Residence: SWITZERLAND
MATTHEWS, PHILIP MR
2 TEMPLE PLACE LONDON ENGLAND WC2R 3BD
Appointed 01/09/2017
BRITISH
Date of Birth September 1953
Country/State of Residence: ENGLAND
MCTERNAN, OLIVER JAMES
MONTERNAY COURVAUDON
CALVADOS FRANCE 14260
Appointed 27/02/2008
BRITISH
Country/State of Residence: FRANCE
NAGY-MOHACSI, PIROSKA MS
2 TEMPLE PLACE
LONDON
ENGLAND WC2R 3BD
Appointed 01/09/2017
HUNGARIAN
Country/State of Residence: ENGLAND
SZUSTERMAN, JULIA CELIA DR
6TH FLOOR GRANVILLE HOUSE
132 SLOANE STREET
LONDON SW1X 9AX
ENGLAND
Appointed: 01/08/2011
Date of Birth 19/09/1947
BRITISH
Country/State of Residence: ENGLAND
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 8:19 am Post subject:
These two Documents make interesting reading.
The Directors Report for the Institute of StateCraft 23 November 2016
Financial Statement from the Institute of Statecraft 2 November 2017
Which also includes "The Trusties Report" .. where they explain what they are up to
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 8:42 am Post subject:
Oliver James McTernan
Co-Founder and Director, Forward Thinking
Formerly, Senior Adviser, Club of Madrid. 2000-03, Visiting Fellow, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. May 2002, initiated and participated in the first official high-level post conflict talks between NATO and the government in Belgrade; 25 years as Executive Committee Member, Pax Christi International, responsible for the movement's East-West Dialogue programme during the Soviet period. Director and Co-Founder, Forward Thinking. Author, Violence in God's Name, exploring the roots of violence within each of the major faith traditions. Broadcasts on radio and TV and contributes articles to the UK and international press. Recipient, International Gold Medallion (1998) for outstanding contribution to interfaith understanding.
INSTITUTE of STATECRAFT
MCTERNAN, OLIVER JAMES
Oliver James McTernan Edit Profile
https://prabook.com/web/oliver_james.mcternan/278522 http://www.stfrancisnottinghill.org.uk/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/religion_and_e thics/newsid_8898000/8898122.stm
priest
Oliver James McTernan, Irish, British Priest. Ordained priest, 1972. Member Catholic Institute International Relationships, Association Christian Broadcasters.
Background
McTernan, Oliver James was born on July 10, 1947 in Manor Hamilton, Leitrim, Ireland. Arrived in England, 1957. Son of James and Catherine McTernan.
Education
Diploma philosophy, English College, Lisbon, Portugal, 1968. Diploma theology, St. Edmund's College, 1971.
Career
Assistant parish priest, St. John's Church Islington, London, 1972-1981; parish priest, St. Francis of Assisi Pottery Lane, London, since 1981. Member Executive Committee Pax Christi International, Brussels, since 1983. Trustee, dir.CHAS Housing Aid Society, London, 1985-1995. Founder, director St. Francis and St. Sergius Trust Fund, London, Moscow, since 1993.
Achievements
• Ordained priest, 1972.
Works see the attached PDF
MONTERNAY COURVAUDON
CALVADOS FRANCE 14260
Appointed 27/02/2008
Date of Birth: 10/07/1947
BRITISH
Country/State of Residence: FRANCE
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 8:45 am Post subject:
I messed that up and cut n'pasted a loada * into his address..
This is his address from Compnies House doc relative to Deep Statecraft
INSTITUTE of STATECRAFT
MCTERNAN, OLIVER JAMES
MONTERNAY COURVAUDON
CALVADOS FRANCE 14260
Appointed 27/02/2008
Date of Birth: 10/07/1947
BRITISH
Country/State of Residence: FRANCE
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 8:11 pm Post subject:
OK this is the last of the Oliver Mcternan unofficial biog.
I thought I would bosch this one up as it is quite amusing that "Dan the Man" Layfayeedney and his Partner Chris Donnolly would set up a fake "Council of Foreign Relations" in his semi derelict Mill .. in a remote part of Scotland.
I suppose it takes all sorts ..
So I'll add a few photo's and the relevant Companies House Documents
For the Highland version of the CFR..
Mcternan may well have realized how ridiculous it was, in any case he bailed out in 2014.. However he was there for four years.
Dan the mans son, Jean Louis Layfayeedney was also on board for a while.
Jean Louis was also involved in The Institute of State Craft.
Lesley SIMM was previously involved with both.
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 9:00 pm Post subject: Institute of Statecraft - Harry (Bimbo) Hart
I would say that it is 99% certain that the person listed as Harry Hart a director of the Institute for Statecraft is the son of Margaret Thatchers Guru, David Hart (deceased). There are two persons listed with the name Harry Hart at Companies House, one is the Harry Hart of Statecraft .. date of Birth 23 /06/1971 .. Resident in Switzerland. The other is Harry Bimbo Hart .. date of birth 23 /06/1971 Resident in Switzerland. Just a coincidence ..
David Hart was an advisor to Madam Thatcher. So was the co founder of the Institute of Statecraft .. Christopher Nigel Donnelly (CND) . One would image that they knew each other. Quite possible then that (CND) also knew David Harts son. Harry. It would appear that The Institute of Statecraft is a Tory think tank. So it's not at all surprising that they would be right up for smearing Jeremy Corbyn.
MR HARRY HART 23 /06/1971
MRS TASMIA ISABELLA HART (wife / sister / no relation ?)
54A ELIZABETH STREET
LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
SW1W 9PB
Son of --
DAVID HART
There were many, however, notably in the Tory party, who detected a whiff of sulphur about Hart. His enemies likened him to Rasputin and accused him of being an agent of the CIA, the KGB, Mossad, or of all three — charges which had the great merit of being impossible to disprove.
That Hart’s name rarely appeared in the press without the epithets “shadowy” or “sinister” rather betrayed the fact that he was neither. He was not a man to downplay his influence, so even his friends never knew how much was genuine and how much Walter Mitty. For all his admirers, there were always those who struggled to take him seriously.
David Hart was born on February 4 1944. His Jewish father, Louis “Boy” Hart, was chairman of Henry Ansbacher, the merchant bank. His mother was Irish, and Hart himself was baptised into the Church of England.
DAVID HART worked in companies ARCADIA LAND LIMITED, BAYIN LIMITED, CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS LIMITED, CHADACRE FARMS LIMITED, CHADACRE RESTORATIONS LIMITED, FEDERAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED, FEDERAL HOLDINGS LIMITED, LONDON & SUFFOLK (FARM HOLDINGS) LIMITED, THE CHADACRE PLAYERS COMPANY LIMITED, ARCADIA LAND (BIRMINGHAM) LIMITED, LONDON & SUFFOLK (FARMING) LIMITED, DAVID HART COMPANY LIMITED, ARKADY CHARTERS LIMITED, CHADACRE ESTATE LIMITED, FEDERAL AVIATION LIMITED as COMPANY DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR.
CHADACRE FARMS LIMITED
CHADACRE ESTATE LIMITED
FEDERAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED
FEDERAL AVIATION LIMITED
THE CHADACRE PLAYERS COMPANY LIMITED
CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS LIMITE D
CHADACRE RESTORATIONS LIMITED
DAVID HART COMPANY LIMITED
ARKADY CHARTERS LIMITED
ARCADIA LAND LIMITED
FEDERAL HOLDINGS LIMITED
ARCADIA LAND (BIRMINGHAM) LIMITED
LONDON & SUFFOLK (FARMING) LIMITED
LONDON & SUFFOLK (FARM HOLDINGS) LIMITED
BAYIN LIMITED
Address
CHADACRE FARMS LIMITED
C/O CW FELLOWES LIMITED
TEMPLARS HOUSE LULWORTH CLOSE
CHANDLERS FORD
HAMPSHIRE
SO53 3TL
Previous Addresses
WYETH HOUSE
HYDE STREET
WINCHESTER
HAMPSHIRE SO23 7DR
Changed 20 Dec 2001
CLARENDON HOUSE
HYDE STREET
WINCHESTER
HAMPSHIRE SO23 7DX
Changed 21 Oct 1999
75/83 BUCKINGHAM GATE
LONDON
SW1E 6PD
Changed 8 Oct 1997
124 FINCHLEY ROAD
LONDON
NW3 5JE
Changed 2 Jun 1996
AQUIS COURT
31 FISHPOOL STREET
ST ALBANS
HERTFORDSHIRE AL3 4RF
Changed 5 Feb 1991
David and Hart .. had numerous companies registered at the aptly named Templars House .. google the address and a lot of stuff comes up..
C/O CW FELLOWES LIMITED
TEMPLARS HOUSE LULWORTH CLOSE
CHANDLERS FORD
HAMPSHIRE
SO53 3TL
Harry Hart has also been very busy in Scotland, seems to be popular with Tory activists. In fact it appears to be a theme.
There is also a picture of harry's house in a Knightsbridge Mews .. 5 minites walk from Harrods ..
Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 11 Location: Near Dodgybonsi, Tuscany, Italy
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 1:15 pm Post subject: Institute for Deep Statecraft - Dodgy Dan Lafayeedney
The Institute for Deepstatecraft
13 Dodgy Dan Lafayeedney
It appears that his surname was originally Edney, and that he took the middle name Lafaye on marriage to his first wife Regine Lafaye, some time before October 1978 when as Daniel Lafaye Edney aged 32 years, he was commissioned into the Territorial Reserve Special Air Service Regiment, Group A (23 SAS) as 2nd Lt. on probation. 19 months later, still holding the rank of 2nd Lt on probation and now known as Daniel Lafaye-Edney, he resigned his commission. Although there is no record in the Gazette of any further military service or promotion, in 2004 he appears in the St Antony’s College Record as "Major Daniel Lafayeedney".
23 SAS was was formed as a Territorial Army (part-time military reservists) unit in 1959 by renaming the Reserve Reconnaissance Unit, which had in turn been formed from MI9, a unit with expertise in escape and evasion during the Second World War. It is now, like Specialist Group Military Intelligence, part of the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade.
Some time before March 1996 Lafayeedney appears to have formed a relationship with Fiona Katherine Adelaide Gatty, who is listed in an online directory of the peerage as the mother of Lafayeedney’s youngest son born in December 1996. Fiona Gatty describes herself as "an Art Historian specialising in late 18th- and early 19th-century French aesthetics with an extensive finance and business background in the high net worth family business and entrepreneurial sector." She holds a post-doctoral research fellow post in Somerville College Oxford and is Program Officer for the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Lafayeedney and other members of his family have over the years held directorships of the property company set up in 2001 that owns the Gateside Mills site. Of the two current directors, one is Fiona Gatty who holds 19% of the equity.
13.1 High Court case in 2006
Lafayeedney’s business activities as a property developer led to an acrimonious case which came before the High Court in 2006 in which he attempted to deny the claim of Mr Garry Bramley that there was a written agreement on a 50/50 split of the profits on a property deal for which Bramley had lent Lafayeedney £350,000. The judge made adverse comments on Lafayeedney’s testimony:
there were certain specific matters, identified in Section B2 below, where I am bound to conclude that Mr Lafayeedney was not telling me the truth.
The judge commented with evident distaste on the business model for Lafayeedney’s property deals:
However it appears that the real profit was made from the complex inter-company arrangments, whereby it was the off-shore vehicle that sold the site to the Housing Association, thus sheltering the profit on the sale from any liability to Capital Gains Tax.
This had led to an Inland Revenue investigation into Lafayeedney’s affairs in 2004. The judge commented unfavourably on the character of both men:
In my judgement, it was entirely in character that each man, during their oral evidence, made allegations or insinuations of criminal conduct on the part of the other. For example, Mr Bramley alleged that, at one meeting Mr Lafayeedney explored with him the possibility of an innocent third party taking the consequences of the Inland Revenue investigation, whilst, for his part, Mr Lafayeedney said that Mr Bramley told him that he had not paid tax in 16 years.
In the same year (2006), he was described as a Scottish ‘multi-millionaire property developer’, in an account of his daughter’s marriage to Lord Seymour, heir to the Duke of Somerset.
14 Other companies directed by Donnelly and Lafayeedney
Donnelly and Lafayeedney share directorships in other companies. Some of these companies have filed dormant accounts but appear to have been active. These include several Scottish Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) are different to Limited Partnerships in England and Wales: a registered Scottish Limited Partnership can hold assets in its own name, as well as owning assets, entering into contracts, borrowing money and owning property. A Scottish Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) differs from an SLP in that each partner is afforded limited liability protection against any debts, losses or lawsuits as a result of malpractice. Although the ability to manage the business as a partnership means that any agreement between members does not have to be disclosed publicly, the LLP is required to publish annual accounts. Scottish general partnerships have a separate legal personality, but partners are jointly and severally liable to creditors for all the partnership’s debts.
Although SLPs and Scottish LLPs can be set up only in Scotland, they are regulated by UK law and the Scottish Government has no powers to regulate them. A press release from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 12 April 2018 noted that although Scottish Limited Partnerships are used by legitimate businesses, there was "growing evidence SLPs have been exploited in complex money laundering schemes". The Business Minister Andrew Griffiths was quoted as saying that although the UK has taken a leading role in the fight against money laundering, "Scottish Limited Partnerships are being abused to carry out all manner of crimes abroad – from foreign money laundering to arms dealing." Other investigations have documented that Scottish Limited Partnerships carried out such activities even when they were filing accounts as dormant companies.
The companies in which Lafayeedney and Donnelly have been involved include:
14.1 Pluscarden Investments LLP (2005-2010)
Pluscarden Investments LLP was registered in Glasgow as a Scottish LLP on 12 October 2005 with Daniel Lafayeedney and Fiona Gatty as directors, and dissolved on 19 February 2010. This LLP does not appear on the Companies House register but can be found by searching www.duedil.com. The establishment of this company may be related to the Pluscarden Programme at Oxford over the same time period, for which these two individuals donated funds to St Antony’s College. Fiona Gatty mentions on her CV her role in what may be an earlier company with a similar name: "Pluscarden Investments – Self Employed Corporate Finance Business Partner (May 1995 – April 2007)". Pluscarden Abbey is a Benedictine monastery on the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland.
14.2 ISG Corporate LLP and ISG Corporate Limited (2009 to present)
ISG Corporate LLP was incorporated in Glasgow as a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) on 19 August 2009, with the office of the law firm Burness LLP as registered address. The two founding Designated Members of ISG Corporate LLP were partnerhips with registered address as Gateside Mills: Pluscarden Associates Partnership and Pluscarden Investments Partnership. These entities are presumably Scottish general partnerships as they are not listed as companies. Accounts for the LLP as a dormant company were filed for the years ending 31 August 2010 and 31 August 2011. On these filed accounts, the signature for Pluscarden Associates Partnership is that of Chris Donnelly and the signature for Pluscarden Investments Partnership is that of Pierre Lafayeedney, Daniel Lafayeedney’s second son. On 30 December 2011 ISG Corporate LLP was renamed to Innovation Services General LLP and a new limited company (not an LLP) was formed with the name ISG Corporate Limited, with Donnelly and Daniel Lafayeedney’s eldest son Jean-Louis Lafayeedney each holding half the equity. Innovation Services General LLP filed accounts for a dormant company until it was dissolved on 1 February 2013. ISG Corporate Limited is still active with registered address as Gateside Mills, having filed accounts for a dormant company for every year since it was incorporated.
Until 18 January 2011 the company name of what is now the Institute for Statecraft was The Institute for Statecraft and Governance for which the acronym ISG was used in the report of its partner charity Active Change Foundation (Figure 1). From 19 August 2009 when ISG Corporate LLP was founded, the name of this LLP could easily have been confused with this acronym for the charity Institute of Statecraft and Governance. This may explain why the name of the Institute for Statecraft and Governance was changed to the Institute for Statecraft on 18 January 2011, and why ISG Corporate LLP was later renamed to Innovation Services General LLP.
14.3 Council on Foreign Relations LLP (2010 to present)
A company named Council on Foreign Relations was incorporated as a Scottish LLP in February 2010, five months after the Institute was registered as a Scottish charity. The Scottish LLP has filed accounts as a dormant company since it was set up in 2010. Its registered address is the derelict Gateside Mills building, same as the Institute for Statecraft. The three current directors are Chris Donnelly, Daniel Lafayeedney and Jean-Louis Lafayeedney (Daniel’s 38-year old son by his first marriage, now based in Hong Kong). Oliver McTernan (see above) and Lesley Simm were directors from 2010 to 2013. Simm, now retired, was a civil servant at the Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group with a specialism in Islamist movements. This Scottish LLP has the same name as the US think-tank CFR founded in 1921, but has no connection with it (confirmed to us by CFR’s General Counsel).
14.4 Techfin London Limited (2014-2016)
Techfin London Limited was incorporated in August 2014 with Donnelly and Lafayeedney as two of five directors. It filed no accounts, leading to compulsory strike-off in March 2016
15 St Antony’s College Oxford and the Pluscarden Programme for the Study of Global Terrorism and Intelligence
On the current website of St. Antony’s College Oxford, Lafayeedney is listed as a ‘benefactor.’
The co-founder and Director of The Institute for Statecraft, has wide experience in international affairs, working with both the UK and foreign Governments. As Senior Associate Fellow at the Advanced Research and Assessment Group at the Defence Academy of the UK (2004- 2010) he specialised in the development and implementation of capacity-building projects for high-level governance of the security sector in European and middle-Eastern countries, and in supporting the development of counter-radicalisation programmes for at-risk ethnic communities in the UK. His military service, legal background and career as an entrepreneur have given him an understanding of the importance of the link between business and national security.
He is a Senior Member, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, Member of The Law Society of Scotland holds a degree in Scots Law from the University of Aberdeen and a Diploma in International Comparative Law from San Diego University, USA.
His position from 2004 as Senior Associate Fellow at ARAG would have put him close to Donnelly, who had set it up.
From enquiries among those involved we have established that the funding for the Pluscarden Programme was donated by Daniel Lafayeedney and Fiona Gatty. Daniel Lafayeedney was on the Management Committee, though in the College Record he does not appear as Director as is stated in his biographic sketch on the College website. Fiona Gatty (under her married name MacLeod) appears on the Advisory Committee. On her CV she lists her role in the Pluscarden programme as co-founder and member of Advisory Committee as from 2004 to 2013.
As the Inland Revenue had begun an investigation into Lafayeedney in 2004, this might not have been the best time for him to make a substantial donation to an Oxford college. The Pluscarden Programme for the Study of Global Terrorism and Intelligence began in 2005. The academic director was Steve Tsang, a China specialist. A report of its first year of operation is available in the St Antony’s College record. The level of activity of the Pluscarden Programme appears to have been modest: during its first year it held two seminars per term and a large international workshop in December Delegates had to pay a £400 registration fee for the workshop. The first annual Pluscarden conference was designated by NATO as one of its Advanced Research Workshops, entitled ‘The Changing Face of Intelligence’ held over two days in December 2005.
Pluscarden’s meetings during its first year included three Israelis with an academic or military background as speakers or session chairs: Professor Yoram Dinstein, General Yaa’cov Amidor, Professor Itzik Ben-Israel. Lafayeedney attended the Herzliya Conference in Israel on 21-24 January 2007, and his affiliation was given as BICOM (Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre), an active pro-Israeli lobbying group underwritten by Chaim "Poju" Zabludowicz, a London-based property developer. The attendance list also included Donnelly and Zabludowicz. Other than a document from the Italian Senate dated 2017 that links the Institute of Statecraft with the Herzliya Institute of Counter-Terrorism in a NATO-supported research project, there is no other evidence that Lafayeedney or Donnelly were supporters of pro-Israeli organizations.
In the photo's you will find .. Hector Layfayeedney who is obviously a true blue. and retweets anti Corbyn video's. The Lovely Arlette Layfayeedney who was married to the Duke of Zomersets son Seb, she still uses the Seymour moniker on her face book page. 73 Banbury Road, presumably the Flat above Hunters the Estate agents where Dodgy Dan carried out is dubious affairs .. and a mug shot of dan the man in person ..
Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative
Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, Piers Robinson
Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media
1 Summary
2 Release of documents relating to the Integrity Initiative
3 Sources of funding for the Integrity Initiative
3.1 FCO-led Russian Language Programme
3.2 Co-funding
4 The offices and team of the Integrity Initiative
4.1 Offices and team
4.2 UK Cluster
5 Relationships of the Integrity Initiative to other organizations
5.1 Partner organizations listed on the Integrity Initiative website
5.2 Other organizations listed as associated with the Integrity Initiative
6 Role of the FCO and the Ministry of Defence in the Integrity Initiative
6.1 FCO staff associated with the Integrity Initiative
6.2 Ministry of Defence and military personnel named in documents
7 Operations in UK politics and media
7.1 UK journalists named in documents
7.2 Attempt to influence the House of Commons Defence Committee
7.3 Twitter account
8 Links of the Integrity Initiative with extremism in the Baltic States and Ukraine
8.1 Holocaust revisionism
8.2 Neo-Nazism
9 Promotion of hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Balkans
10 Activities of the Integrity Initiative in the US
11 History of the Institute for Statecraft
11.1 Founding
11.2 Youth work
11.3 EU lobbying
12 Christopher Nigel Donnelly
12.1 Military intelligence role
13 Daniel Lafayeedney
13.1 High Court case in 2006
14 Other companies directed by Donnelly and Lafayeedney
14.1 Pluscarden Investments LLP (2005-2010)
14.2 ISG Corporate LLP and ISG Corporate Limited (2009 to present)
14.3 Council on Foreign Relations LLP (2010 to present)
14.4 Techfin London Limited (2014-2016)
15 St Antony’s College Oxford and the Pluscarden Programme for the Study of Global Terrorism and Intelligence
16 Charities with Donnelly and Lafayeedney as trustees
16.1 Forward Thinking
16.2 Active Change Foundation
17 Charitable status of the Institute of Statecraft
17.1 Publicly declared charitable purposes and privately stated objectives
17.2 Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s criteria for making a complaint:
Acknowledgements
Appendix – list of documents released up to 20 December 2018
First tranche released 5 November 2018
Second tranche of documents released 29 November 2018
Third tranche released 13 December 2018
This is work in progress: we welcome corrections, comments and further information. We can be contacted at piers.robinson@sheffield.ac.uk. Comments can be posted at Tim Hayward’s blog
1 Summary
The Integrity Initiative now accounts for most of the budget of a Scottish-registered charity named the Institute for Statecraft founded by Daniel Lafayeedney and Chris Donnelly in 2006. Most of the overt funding for this programme — about £2.6 million / year — comes from the Conflict Security and Stability Fund’s Russian Language Programme, now merged with a secret Counter Disinformation and Media Programme. Office space in central London and most of the staff salaries, appear to be provided as a covert benefit in kind.
A close examination of past and present posts held by individuals associated with the Integrity Initiative indicates that specialists in military intelligence and other senior military personnel with responsibility for StratCom (strategic communication) operations are closely involved in the programme.
The activities of the Integrity Initiative include:
setting up covert networks ("clusters") of journalists, academics and military/foreign service StratCom practitioners in each country including the UK: "The programme has begun to create a critical mass of individuals from across society (think tanks, academia, politics, the media, government and the military) whose work is proving to be mutually reinforcing."
covert manipulation of the public sphere, including campaigns to smear and suppress dissenters and block their appointment to public office. The "silencing of pro-Kremlin voices on Serbian TV" is listed as an "achievement".
overt attacks on British politicians, academics and other critics of UK government policies, most notably on the Leader of the Opposition and his staff.
in the Baltic states and Ukraine, working closely with organizations and governments that foment hatred of ethnic Russian minorities and encourage Holocaust revisionism.
promotion of a hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Balkans.
These activities:
are not the charitable purposes set out in the Institute of Statecraft’s constitution, and are not charitable purposes in general.
violate the accepted principle that government funding may not be used for partisan political purposes.
indicate that the Government has misled the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about the scope of the Russian Language Programme of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund.
indicate that military units specialized for information warfare are now participating in covert manipulation of political discourse at home, subverting parliamentary government.
have contributed to narrowing the range of public discourse so as to marginalize reality-based evaluation of policy options for relations with Russia and evidence-based assessment of events in which Russian involvement is alleged.
There are serious concerns about the transparency of the Institute for Statecraft (formerly the Institute of Statecraft and Governance):
Its registered corporate address is a derelict building in rural Scotland which is being demolished
In a High Court judgement in 2006 against Lafayeedney, the judge commented adversely on his probity and his business methods.
The filed accounts show unexplained "defects" for the year ending 23 November 2010. After the Board had approved accounts showing income of £158,470, Lafayeedney filed accounts for a dormant company. The accounts were amended more than a year later by Donnelly who filed the accounts that the Board had approved.
Donnelly and Lafayeedney have on at least two occasions set up Scottish Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) with names that could easily be confused with existing charities or foundations. Thus in 2009 they set up ISG Corporate LLP at a time when the acronym ISG was used for the Institute of Statecraft and Governance by a charity with which it was in partnership, and in 2010 they set up Council on Foreign Relations as an LLP, with a name that is identical to that of a respected US foreign policy think tank.
Scottish Limited Partnerships and LLPs are notorious as a vehicle for non-transparent financial transfers.
2 Release of documents relating to the Integrity Initiative
A first tranche of documents relating to the Integrity Institute were released on 5 November 2018. The documents lay unnoticed for two weeks until 23 November, when a story on RT brought them to attention. A second tranche of documents was released on 29 November and a third tranche on December 13. The documents were represented as the result of a hack though it is possible that this disguises a leak by an insider. All documents are in PDF format with no metadata such as timestamps or authors preserved.
In response to the first tranche, the Integrity Institute confirmed that a leak of documents occurred, and described the documents as follows:
Although it is clear that much of the material was indeed on the Integrity Initiative or Institute systems, much of it is dated and was never used. In particular, many of the names published were on an internal list of experts in this field who had been considered as potential invitees to future cooperation. In the event, many were never contacted by the Integrity Initiative and did not contribute to it.
The Integrity Initiative has not asserted that any of the released documents were faked or tampered with. There are no internal signs that the documents have been tampered with although they contain minor mistakes such as misspelt names.
A full list of all documents released so far, with annotations, is given in the Appendix.
3 Sources of funding for the Integrity Initiative
The domain name integrityinitiative.net was first registered on 22 June 2015.
In the year to 23 November 2015 the Institute received £46,639 descibed as ‘funding from FW Investments Partnership, Foreign Office, Centre for Naval Analysis [a US-government funded think tank], CAFOD for various national and international initiatives’.
In the year to 23 November 2016 the Institute received:
£87,250 unrestricted funds, described as ‘designated funds for various UK security, NHS, Royal Navy, NATO, Ukrainian and Russian research programmes’
£33,441 descrived as ‘funding from Dulverton Trust and the FCO for a national and international programme’
There is no explicit mention of support for creation of the Integrity Initiative until the year to 23 November 2017 when the Institute received £307,000 from a "private donor" for the Integrity Initiative, and the first £124,567 from the Foreign Office grant of £250,000 for the financial years 2017/18.
A document dated 14 March 2017 is a draft bid for MoD funding for the period 2017-2019, evidently based on discussions with MoD officials. As the first application to the FCO is dated only six weeks later, it appears likely that the outcome of these discussions was that Donnelly was advised to apply through the FCO rather than directly to MoD.
3.1 FCO-led Russian Language Programme
The applications to the FCO request funding from the Russian Language Strategic Communication Programme. This appears to be the Russian Language Programme of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund, described in the Government’s response on 20 July 2017 to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s report on the UK’s relations with Russia published four months earlier:
The FCO-led Russian Language Programme brings together expertise from the FCO, MOD, and DFID as well as external experts to co-ordinate a set of projects worth some £70m over four years. These projects seek to enhance independent media; to engage with Russian speakers; and to expose Russian Government disinformation.
Through this programme, the Government is working with a range of partners to enhance the quality of public and independent Russian language media so that it is able to provide Russian-speakers with reliable access to accurate information. The type of support given includes mentoring with UK media organisations; consultancy on programming; funded co-productions and support for regional Russian language media initiatives.
The anti-Russian tone of the material produced by the Integrity Initiative and its partner organizations, including promotion of what appears to be a hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church, would be unlikely to find ready welcome among Russian speakers. Yet the title of the programme and the Government’s description make clear that the stated remit of the programme was to counter disinformation and provide reliable information in the Russian language. Without Parliamentary oversight, this remit appears to have been changed to include operations in other languages including English-language media in the UK. As the application from the Institute of Statecraft to this programme was dated 23 April 2017 and this Government response was dated 20 July 2017, it is clear that the Government misled the Foreign Affairs Committee by describing the Russian Language Programme as aimed at Russian speakers and as targeting Russian language media.
In an attempt to explain this away, Sir Alan Duncan, the Minister of State at the Foreign Office gave a misleading reply to a parliamentary question.
In April 2016 we launched a new four year strategic communications and media development programme authorised by the National Security Council, called the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme. The former Russian Language Programme was amalgamated into this. The funding provided to the Institute for Statecraft was funded from the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme.
Duncan does not say when the Russian Language Programme was amalgamated into the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme, and does not explicitly say that all funding to the Institute was provided from this programme although this would be a natural reading of his reply. This document shows that the Russian Language Programme, one of the components of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund, was still current in the financial year 2017-18 with annual expenditure of £8 million. The first year of funding for the Integrity Initiative must therefore have been awarded from this programme, as implied by the application for 2017/18. It is difficult to read Duncan’s answer as anything but an attempt to mislead without actually telling a lie. Duncan was criticized by MPs for misleading them further by attempting to maintain that the Integrity Initiative’s Twitter account was not included in the activities funded by the FCO grant.
In answer to another question requesting a list of grants funded by the Russian Language Programme, Sir Alan Duncan replied:
Information about individual projects within the Programme will not be published, as this information could then be used to actively attempt to disrupt and undermine the Programme’s effectiveness.
In the CSSF summaries for the year 2018-19 neither the Russian Language programme nor the new Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme are listed, implying either that the Counter Disinformation programme is not part of the CSSF or that it is secret. It his however possible to identify recipients from tables of the FCO’s monthly expenditure which show recent spending of between £100,000 and £200,0000 per month on the Institute for Statecraft, although these do not identify the programme from which this funding is coming.
The total cost of the project for the financial year 2017-18 was given as £582,635 of which £480,6352 was from FCO and the rest from NATO, "partner institutions" and the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence. The budget projection for 2018-19 gives a budget of £1.96 million for the funding requested from the FCO for 2018-19. The answer to a parliamentary question confirmed that this was awarded in full by the Foreign Office.
3.2 Co-funding
Co-funding of the Integrity Initiative for 2018-19 is listed:
Funding from HQ NATO Public Diplomacy, £12,000 for each inaugural workshop = £168,000
Funding from partner institutions £5,000 for each inaugural workshop = £70,000
Funding from NATO HQ for educational video films – free provision of camera team
Funding from Lithuanian MOD to provide free all costs for their stratcom team for a monthly trip to support a new hub/cluster creation and to educate cluster leaders and key people in Vilnius in infowar techniques = £20,000
Funding from US State Dept, £250,000 for research and dissemination activities (excluding any activity in USA)
Funding from Smith Richardson Foundation, £45,000 for cluster activities in Europe and USA
Funding from Facebook, £100,000 for research and education activities
Funding from German business community, £25,000 for research and dissemination in EU countries
This would give a total income of £2.6 million for 2018-19. As discussed below, this does not include office costs, for which no funding source is given. The accounts filed for the years ending 23 November 2016 and 23 November 2017 state that the Institute of Statecraft had no employees during 2015, 2016 or 2017, implying that another agency was employing them and seconding them to work on the programme. The budget submitted to the FCO for 2018/19 for the Integrity Initiative includes salary costs for only four staff including Donnelly, though another document lists 18 individuals as the "Temple Place resident team".
The State Department quite properly stipulates that the grant funding it provides may not be spent within the United States. The UK FCO appears to have no such scruples about funding covert political activities within the UK.
The handbook instructs staff to say if asked about funding that:
The IfS gets its funding from multiple sources to ensure its independence. These include: private individuals; charitable foundations; international organisations (EU, NATO); UK Govt (FCO, MOD)
There is no other mention in the documents of funding from the UK MoD. The plan is that the "clusters" should eventually be sustained by longer-term funding from NATO and the Atlantic Treaty Association:-
HQ NATO PDD [Public Diplomacy Division] has proved a reliable source of funding for national clusters. The ATA [Atlantic Treaty Association] promises to be the same, giving access to other pots of money within NATO and member nations.
The role of NATO here is not one of collective defence, but instead one of covert political manipulation within its member countries.
4 The offices and team of the Integrity Initiative
4.1 Offices and team
The Institute for Statecraft has an office at Two Temple Place, a historic building completed in 1895 by William Waldorf Astor and now owned by a charity, the Bulldog Trust. There is office space in the basement, shared by the Fore (a project initiated by the Bulldog Trust) and the Institute for Statecraft. Based on the footprint of the building, this would be about 4000 square feet of offices. The budget documents for the Integrity Initiative do not include any provision for office costs. This suggests that office rental costs are being covered by some other agency in the public or private sector and that for some reason this is being concealed. 2000 square feet of fully serviced office space in central London would cost about £180,000 per year, so this is a substantial benefit in kind. For the office team, the operation is being run on a tight budget — economy-class flights and only £70/night for hotels or AirBnB.
The "Temple Place resident team" of the Institute for Statecraft is listed as
Simon Bracey Lane, Stephen Dalziel, Maria de Goeij, Nico de Pedro, Yusuf Desai, Chris Donnelly, Euan Grant, Charlie Hatton, Chris Hernon, Todd Leventhal, Victor Madeira, Johanna Moehring, Ben Robinson, Greg Rowett, Keith Sargent, Jon Searle, Guy Spindler, James Wilson.
"Specialist team members" are listed as
Eduard Abrahamyan, Diane Allen, Jamal Al-Tahat, Josh Arnold-Foster, Barrie Axford, Anne Bader, Qique Badia-Masoni, Oleksandr Danylyuk, Martin Dubbey, Harold Elletson, Perry Fawcett, Mark Galeotti, Babak Ganji, Francis Ghiles, Keir Giles, Glen Grant, Roger Golland, Jon Hazel, Steve Johnson, Phil Jolley, Stephen Jolly, Ren Kapur, Dan Kaszeta, Dmytro Kolomoiets, Karel Kullamaa, Birgy Lorenz, John Lough, Tim Reilly, Alan Riley, Andy Settle, James Sherr, Andrew Shortland, Luis Simon, Henry Strickland, Tomas Tauginas, Jason Wiseman, Sir Andrew Wood.
(SC) is appended to the names of Donnelly, Hazel, Kapur.
(DV) is appended to the names of Allen, Arnold-Foster, Fawcett, Golland, Johnson, Jolley, Settle, Shortland.
[Update 29 December 2018] These acronyms are used for levels of security vetting:
Security Check (SC): determines that a person’s character and personal circumstances are such that they can be trusted to work in a position which involves long-term, frequent and uncontrolled access to SECRET assets.
Developed Vetting: (DV) in addition to SC, this detailed check is appropriate when an individual has long term, frequent and uncontrolled access to ‘Top Secret’ information.
The names listed as "Team" in the Integrity Initiative Handbook dated 30 May 2018 are almost the same as the names listed as "Temple Place Resident Team" for the Institute of Statecraft, with a few additional names from the "Specialist Team members" list. This indicates that almost all core staff of the Institute for Statecraft are working on the Integrity Initiative programme.
On another "specialist and core" list the additional names Jonathan Chetwynd (possibly Chetwynd-Palmer, ex-army based in South Africa), Sean Cronin (possibly Cronin-Nowakowski, ex-army now KPMG) appear.
In addition to Donnelly and Lafayeedney, at least eight others on the team have a military background or have worked at the Defence Academy research unit that Donnelly headed.
4.1.1 Team members with military background (excluding founders Donnelly and Lafayeedney)
Stephen Dalziel – his bio includes a year on a TA attachment in the Army, followed by six years at the Soviet Studies Research Centre, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst where Donnelly was also based. From 1988 to 2004 he worked at the BBC as a Russian Affairs analyst, followed by five years as Executive Director of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce while also working for and starting a consultancy firm.
Tim Reilly – "Arctic/Russia-China specialist". Commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1984 and served till 1990. He subsequently worked on business development in emerging markets including Russia. An article he published in March 2017 advocated a realist approach to post-Brexit relations with Russia.
Alex Finnen – Executive Officer, Specialist Group Military Intelligence. Born in June 1952, he served at first in the Corps of Royal Engineers (Territorial Army), where he was promoted to Captain in 1994 and then Major in 1999. He transferred to the Intelligence Corps as Major on 1 June 2005. In 2010 he was awarded The Efficiency Decoration (Territorial) Medal. In 2014 he was listed as with the Parachute Regiment. In 2016 he was again listed with the Intelligence Corps. In his civilian role he is described as a ‘retired member of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) who, since retiring, has served on a variety of contracts with the EU and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).’ There is no mention of Finnen in the Directory of British Diplomats based on officially published data. In 2007 he was Deputy Head of the OSCE presence in Albania. A biographical note records that he served as Director General for Elections in Bosnia. He has provided electoral advice to FCO, DFID and the UK Ministry of Defence for a range of countries from 1996 to date. He has a doctorate and is an Honorary Associate Fellow of the Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society at Oxford Brookes University.
Glen Grant, – former British Army Lt-Colonel and artillery expert in the Joint Intelligence Cell during the 1991 Gulf War, who provides somewhat unrealistic military advice to the Kiev government.
Diane Allen – "former Royal Signals and currently Intelligence Corps reserve Lt Col; former CO Specialist Group Military Intelligence; worked with the Land Information Assessment Group and developing infowar capacity with the Army’s 77 Brigade" Awarded an OBE in June 2018.
Jonathan Hazel – Intelligence Corps. Mentioned in dispatches as Captain (1993), Colonel in the Intelligence Corps by 2010 when he was the author of The Conflict With Extreme Islamism – How To Compete In The Global Information Environment (2010).
4.1.2 Team members with defence (non-military) background
Of the non-military team members, two have worked at the Advanced Research Assessment Group at the Defence Academy, headed by Donnelly from 2003 to 2007, and two others have worked in defence-related roles:
Anne Bader – formerly served as a Senior Research Fellow and Director, Advanced Research Assessment Group.
James Sherr – Between 1995-2008 he was a Fellow at the Advanced Research & Assessment Group.
Stephen Jolly – was director of communications at MoD from December 2012 until June 2015. He left this role to take a research assignment as a senior research fellow in Military Information Operations at the Defence Academy on behalf of the MoD. According to Jolly he ‘trained as a special operations reservist/officer cadet with 15 (UK) Information Support Group, the UK military’s tri-service psychological operations unit. As a result, between 1999-2001, he held a Visiting Fellowship in Psychological Warfare at the International Centre for Security Analysis, King’s College London. It was in this capacity that he was commissioned by the International Public Relations Association to write the 2000 Mardin Essay on Psychological Warfare and Public Relations.’ A 2011 biographical note states that Jolly ‘was formerly an instructor on the Military Information Support Operations Course at the UK’s Defence Intelligence & Security School, Chicksands (1997-2001).’
Julian Lindley-French holds many honorary or visiting appointments:
Currently Senior Fellow at the Institute of Statecraft London, Director of Europa Analytica, Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, a member of the Strategic Advisory Group at the Atlantic Council in Washington, Visiting Programme Director at Wilton Park, Honorary Fellow of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter. He is also a Member of the Strategic Advisory Panel of the UK Chief of Defence Staff.
4.1.3 Team members with no defence background
Simon Bracey Lane – described as "US & election campaign specialist". In 2016 Bracey Lane was working in a field level position in Bernie Sanders’s Iowa campaign headquarters. His bio is given on the website for the Adventium meeting.
Simon Bracey Lane has three years of elections experience in both the US & the UK. He has managed the distribution of communications for the Integrity Initiative cluster system and for the last year been developing the Integrity Initiative’s presence across Europe & the US. He has worked specifically to counter malign interference in Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Lithuania and the US. This work includes the commissioning of several papers, building discussion events and the formation of a media observatory.
Chris Hernon – formerly a team manager at BBC monitoring, appears to have responsibility for social media.
Professor Alan Riley – expertise on the energy market
Victor Madeira – expertise given as "Intelligence and National Security, Orthodox Church". A bio announcing his appointment as a lecturer at the University of Buckingham stated:
Dr Victor Madeira comes to us from Cambridge (where he has been a lecturer and tutor for four years, working with Professor Christopher Andrew and Sir Richard Dearlove) and the Institute for Statecraft in London, directed by Chris Donnelly, where he is a Senior Fellow working on 21st Century security architecture.
Guy Spindler – Chief Operating Officer, on the website of the Institute of Statecraft. He has broad responsibilities including information security. He appears on a list of MI6 officers released in 1999 with the annotation "Guy David St. John Kelso Spindler: 87 Moscow, 97 Pretoria; dob 1962."
Harold Elletson – former MP and sometime MI6 agent who supervises the German Cluster. According to a report in 2002 "when Elletson became an MP in 1992, John Major personally authorised the intelligence service to continue using him as a ‘secret contact’."
Charlie Hatton – expertise described as Marketing, PR, Project Development & Management, International relations – English and Italian
Johanna Moehring – Military Power and Influence campaigns of part of a wider strategy – French, German, English, Russian
Todd Leventhal – State Department official whose role is described above
Martin Dubbey – Managing director of Harod Associates, involved in preparing anti-doping case against Russian athletes. Also sole director of Astutus Intelligence, where Philip Matthews (Trustee of the Institute of Statecraft) was director from 2015 to 2016.
4.2 UK Cluster
The UK Cluster document lists the following groups, indicating that the Integrity Initiative’s ambitions extend to other policy issues including NHS reform:
GIG (Governance and Integrity Group) – one name
NHS Reform Group – no names yet
Communication Engagement & Dialogue Group – no names yet
Defence Acquisition Reform Group – no names yet
Office Core Team – Fellows
Office Core Team – Associates
UK General – Inner Core – Russia
UK General – Inner Core – Military & Defence
UK General – Outer Core – Russia
UK General – Outer Core – Military & Defence
UK Journalists
From the expenditure records and budgets it appears that most cluster members who were not employees of the Institute were unpaid, except for a few consultancy payments for specific tasks such as preparing a report. A more subtle incentive to take part in such a scheme would have been the advantages of being on the inside, networking with senior government officials and military intelligence specialists. All concerned would know that this would open doors to future posts, consultancies and grant funding. On this basis, participants in such a network could reasonably be expected to declare their membership as a competing interest, whatever their personal motives for participating.
We have established that some of those included on the cluster lists had simply been on email lists, usually because they had attended a meeting organized by the Institute for Statecraft. However it is still relevant to study the identities and affiliations of these individuals because this may reveal what groups the Integrity Initiative was trying to draw into its network.
The procedure for the initial cluster foundation workshop is described in the budget document for 2018/19 as follows:
Connect cluster members, create internal national network, formally introduce them to the Integrity Initiative aims, practices and methodologies, establish target programme for research, dissemination and events.
New cluster able to self-organise. Increased coordination and shared best practice from cluster individuals and organisations working at the forefront of efforts countering RU disinfo, increased resource material for an Int’l audience.
Initial group of at least 8 members between core hub and network. Members agree team roles and start putting structures in place. Start exchanges of information with other clusters. Begin work on research and dissemination activities
5 Relationships of the Integrity Initiative to other organizations
The partner organizations of the Integrity initiative make up a nexus of NATO-connected think tanks including the Centre for European Reform, the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society and the Atlantic Council. Many individuals from these think tanks are also listed in the "Clusters".
5.1 Partner organizations listed on the Integrity Initiative website
Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB)
The Beacon Project – link beaconproject.info leads to "site under construction". The domain name was registered on 19 April 2016 in Bratislava. This appears to be a project announced by the International Republican Institute in April 2016 that has never gone live.
Centre for European Policy Analysis (Washington DC) – Mission is "to promote an economically vibrant, strategically secure, and politically free Europe with close and enduring ties to the United States." Edward Lucas is a Senior Vice-President.
European Values (Czechia) – "non-governmental policy institute defending liberal democracy" led by Jakub Janda who is named in the documents as a member of one of the ‘clusters’.
Kremlin Watch (Czechia) – a strategic program of the European Values Think-Tank
Political Capital Policy Research and Consulting Institute (Hungary)
University of Macedonia Public Opinion Research Unit
Res – Public Affairs. Corporate Affairs GmbH (Berlin)
5.2 Other organizations listed as associated with the Integrity Initiative
StopFake – there are multiple references to working with them in the 2018 application and budget plan:
We also worked with Stopfake in Ukraine, examining the excellent work done on this by them and their partners
We also arranged for the Lithuanian team to provide training on a regular basis for all our cluster leaders in the methodology of tracking and exposing Russian malign influence and disinformation, and linked them directly to the Ukrainian Stopfake leadership and to the UK LSE team (whom we took to Vilnius) to exchange practical experience.
Provide guest articles from Ifs and our clusters for StopFake’s printed material published and distributed along the contact line in Eastern Ukraine
Sending cluster members to educational sessions abroad (IREX, Detector Media,StopFake, EUvsDisinfo, LT MOD Stratcom)
A modular training programme (based on IREX/StopFake material) that adapts media source examples as needed to be most relevant and accessible across our cluster network
StopFake received direct funding of £80145 from the FCO in April 2018.
Henry Jackson Society – Drew Foxall is listed as Inner Core: Russia
Atlantic Treaty Association and Atlantic Council The Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) is described by NATO as
an umbrella organisation for the separate national associations, voluntary organisations and non-governmental organisations that formed to uphold the values of the Alliance after its creation in 1949. The Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA) is the youth branch of the ATA and was formed in 1996.
The Atlantic Council is the US affiliate of the ATA. Four individuals with Atlantic Council email addresses are listed: Anders Aslund, Elizabeth Braw, Robert Nurick and Ben Nimmo.
In an "impact assessment" dated 19 April 2016 of what was then called the "Institute of Statecraft Project on Russian Influence", Nimmo is named as sole author of 12 of 22 outputs, and one has Nimmo and Edward Lucas as joint authors. Nimmo appears on a "production schedule" as scheduled to produce 10,000 words on "Mapping Russia’s whole influence machine" by end of June 2016. Nimmo was receiving a monthly consultancy fee of £2500 in January 2016, and in August 2016 he invoiced the Institute for Statecraft for £5000 for "August work on Integrity Initiative". He is co-founder with Graham Brookie of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Lab, which received £450,000 from the Foreign Office in August 2018
The cluster leader Savo Kentera is listed as President of Atlantic Council Montenegro.
Centre for European Reform – Ian Bond, director of foreign policy
Royal United Services Institute – Igor Sutyagin
Chatham House – Three individuals with Chatham House emails are listed: James Nixey, Orsyia Lutsevych, James Sherr
European Council on Foreign Relations – Four individuals with ECFR emails are listed: Nika Prislan, Borja Lasheras, Kadri Liik, Manuel Lafont Rapnoul. The European Council on Foreign Relations receives direct funding from the FCO.
Hermitage Fund Two emails: William Browder, Vadim Kleiner
6 Role of the FCO and the Ministry of Defence in the Integrity Initiative
6.1 FCO staff associated with the Integrity Initiative
Three of those listed in the UK Cluster have held posts in or as director of the FCO’s Eastern Research Group:
Duncan Allan – a bio gives his most recent FCO post as Principal Research Analyst, Eastern Research Group. "A member of the FCO’s Research Analysts since 1989, I’ve spent my career following the countries of the former Soviet Union, in particular Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. I’ve completed full postings and spells of temporary duty in Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia. I’ve also been seconded to FCO policy departments and the Cabinet Office". He retired from the FCO in 2017, and is now director of Octant Research & Analysis Ltd and Associate Fellow on the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. In October 2018 Allan published a paper with Chatham House on the Salisbury poisonings calling for more confrontational responses by the UK government to the attack on the Skripals which he attributed to the Russian state.
Craig Oliphant – head of the Eastern Research Group until he left the FCO in 2010, now Senior Adviser at a London-based NGO, Peaceful Change Initiative.
Alan Parfitt – Head of the FCO Eastern Research Group as of August 2017. He has held this position since at least 2010.
Four have experience in communications:
Catherine Crozier – listed on the Government Communication Service ‘people finder’ website as a Strategic Communications Advisor, Ministry of Defence.
Andy Pryce – Head of ‘Counter Disinformation and Media Development’ at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, a position he does not advertise on his LinkedIn page, which lists the following previous postings:
British Resident Commissioner, British High Commission, Castries – Sep 2013 – Jun 2015. Responsible for UK relations with St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Deputy Consul General British Consulate General Houston – Feb 2009 – Sep 2013. Leader on development and delivery of British Government strategy across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Head of Public Affairs, British Embassy Washington – Oct 2007 – Feb 2009. Led UK public advocacy in the US; thoroughly modernised UK outreach; integrated social media campaigning, direct mail with traditional diplomacy.
Head of EU Affairs, British Embassy Helsinki – Dec 2003 – Oct 2007. Led UK EU advocacy in Finland during UK and Finnish Presidencies of the EU.
Deputy Programme Manager Foreign and Commonwealth Office – 2002 – 2003 Led project to design, develop and deliver paradigm shifting new Intranet for British Foreign Service.
Richard Slack – In 2011 Slack was listed as based in the British Embassy in Baghdad and in 2015 he was listed as Head of Communications at the British Embassy in Kabul. His current role is unclear.
Joanna Szostek – now Lecturer in Political Communication, University of Glasgow. Previously based at Royal Holloway in the University of London, Szostek conducted a three-year fellowship from the European Commission on ‘the reception of rival narratives about international politics among different groups of Ukrainians’. The project incorporated a secondment to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office from April to August 2017, during which she attended a seminar at the Institute of Statecraft.
The remaining one is Claire Lawrence, UK ambassador to Lithuania since 2015.
Of the four listed FCO staff who are to some extent specialists in communications, Crozier has left to work at the MoD, Szostek is an academic who was only briefly seconded to the FCO as part of a research project (Szostek), Slack has held a recent post that was at only mid-level seniority, and Pryce appears not to have held any previous posts in communications, his most recent posting being to the Caribbean.
The title of "Head of Counter Disinformation and Media Development’ appears in the public domain for Pryce only in relation to events at which he has appeared, for example at Stratcom DC organised by the Atlantic Council or in the press. On his own LinkedIn page he refers to himself only as a ‘diplomat’ and a ‘senior strategic advisor’. As noted above, in a written answer to a parliamentary question in December 2018 the FCO stated:
In April 2016 we launched a new four year strategic communications and media development programme authorised by the National Security Council, called the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme.
This programme had not previously been mentioned in public. Pryce’s job title suggests that he is the programme officer for this scheme.
6.2 Ministry of Defence and military personnel named in documents
6.2.1 Key to acronyms
The acronyms embedded in the local-parts of the MoD email addresses listed in the documents give some clue to the scale and diversity of StratCom operations now overseen by the Ministry of Defence.
SGMI – Specialist Group Military Intelligence, based at at Denison Barracks, Hermitage, Thatcham, Berkshire. SGMI is part of the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade which became operational on 1 September 2014. Among the other units in 1 ISR are 21 and 23 Special Air Service Regiments, 1-7 Military Intelligence Battalions, the Land Intelligence Fusion Centre and the Defence Cultural and Linguistic Support Unit. Overall it has 3,300 Regular and 3,000 Reservist personnel. According to the Army "approximately 55% of the Intelligence Corps is employed within the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Brigade".
77X – 77th Brigade also based at Denison Barracks and responsible for "information activity". According to an FoI disclosure the 77th Brigade (in mid 2018) included 203 Regular Army posts of which 190 were filled and 271 Reserve posts of which 150 were filled, making a total strength of 340 personnel.
PJHQ – Permanent Joint Headquarters, based in Northwood
J2 – operational intelligence division of PJHQ
CGS – office of Chief of General Staff (head of the Army)
MSE – Military Strategic Effects, part of the Operations Directorate in Whitehall. This branch was established around 1999 to 2000 when it was named Targeting and Information Operations. It was renamed Military Strategic effects in 2013. In mid 2018, according to an FoI disclosure, it contained 34 staff. From March 2014 to July 2015 it was headed by Chris Brazier, from then till March 2018 by Commodore Jonathan Burr, and since then by Air Commodore Nigel Colman.
FSECC – Full Spectrum Effects Coordination Cell, a cross-department group set up in 2015 and overseen by a senior Tasking and Oversight Board chaired by Gwyn Jenkins (Deputy National Security Adviser for Conflict, Stability & Defence). The cell is based in MoD in Whitehall and works, according to a former member ‘in co-operation with the Cabinet Office, HMT, FCO, DfID, Home Office, GCHQ, MI5 and SIS, principally against ISIL/Daesh.’
6.2.2 MoD affiliations
David Fields – his LinkedIn profile states that he was "Part of a small team which wrote the UK Ministry of Defence’s strategic approach towards Russia." but is no longer employed by the MoD.
Joseph Walker-Cousins appears in three of the documents: under Saudi Arabia in the xcountry document, and in two other lists that include military officers working closely with the Integrity Initiative.
He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant (on probation) in the Honourable Artillery Company on 1 April 2002 with seniority backdated, and the next day resigned his commission. The reporting of these events in the Gazette was delayed. His LinkedIn profile records that he worked as an intern in the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza from September 2002 to February 2003, then immediately resumed his Army career as "Liaison Officer, British Army Reserves (including multiple tours in Iraq)" between Feb 2003 and Feb 2005. In December 2003 he joined the TA Intelligence Corps as Second Lieutenant. On 2 August 2006 he was promoted to captain in the TA Intelligence Corps. Information about his recent military career is available from a drunk driving case which came to court in May 2015. Major Alex Finnen, his superior officer, provided a character reference, telling the court that "Capt Walker-Cousins was due to be promoted this year but that ‘would definitely not be happening’ as a result of his actions.
In civilian life his LinkedIn profile records that he worked at Aegis Defence Services from Feb 2005 to May 2006, and then joined the regular Army as ‘Senior Staff Officer’ in September 2006 in Kabul. He was stabilisation adviser to the UK’s special envoy in Benghazi from 2011 to 2012 and head of the British Embassy Office in Benghazi from 2012-2014. Since April 2014, while still a reservist in the Intelligence Corps he has held the post of Director, Middle East Business Development for KBR, which holds the Operational Support Capability Contract for the Ministry of Defence.
On 13 March 2015 he contributed an article on Libya to The Guardian. On 17 November 2015 he was appointed as specialist adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigation of the British role in the attack on Libya, and made which included his position with KBR and his military status as ‘Staff Officer, MENA Region, British Army Reserve’. In March 2018 he contributed an article extolling Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s "transformation of the Saudi economy" to the Institute for Statecraft’s website. He did not reveal his affiliation to the Intelligence Corps in any of these contributions.
Lt Col Giles Harris – Army Strategic Engagement Team, Ministry of Defence.
Charlie Hornick email local-part CGS-CIG-SO1b – US army officer seconded to the office of the Chief of the General Staff, who has recently warned of the Russian threat.
Arron Rahaman email local-part OpsDir-MSE-StratComEurope – an online bio gives his current post as Strategic Communication Adviser (NATO and European Policy), Ministry of Defence. He is aged 32 and has a degree in marketing but no military experience.
Nick Washer email local-part FSECC-1 UK Inner Core: Defence.
Nick Smith email local-part FSECC-4 UK Inner Core: Defence.
Joe Green email local-part PJHQ-J2-OPS-SO1-1. SO1 is staff officer level 1, equivalent to Lt Col.
Paul Kitching email local-part PJHQ-J2-EURASIA-SO3-3. is staff officer level 3, equivalent to Captain
Brigadier Chris Bell, commander of 77 Brigade. His predecessor, Alastair Aitken, also appears on the list with a private email address.
The involvement of these senior officers from military intelligence and information warfare units suggests that the MoD rather than the FCO is driving the Integrity Initiative programme. It is also of interest that reservists in Military Intelligence appear to be working under civilian cover without disclosing their intelligence background, though this can sometimes be found by searching the London Gazette.
Further evidence of the close links of the Integrity Initiative Programme with senior officers in military intelligence units comes from the schedule for the visit of Ukrainian special forces officers in July 2016, organized by the Institute for Statecraft. They had briefings or workshops with 3 Military Intelligence Battalion, HQ Field Army, 77 Brigade, Specialist Group Military Intelligence, NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre, and a final meeting with PJHQ staff who came to the Institute for Statecraft. The participants listed for 77 Brigade were the Commander, the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff.
6.2.3 Relation to the MoD’s StratCom programme on the Syrian conflict
Kevin Stratford-Wright was a Lt-Colonel in the British Army till 2012, where his last position was as Head of Information Operations for the regional HQ in Afghanistan. From his LinkedIn page we have a description of an MoD StratCom programme between 2012 and 2015 that was "the UK’s largest of its kind since the Cold War", and has become "a template for activity elsewhere".
UK Ministry of Defence – Strategic Communications Programme Manager: June 2012 – June 2015 (3 years 1 month) London, United Kingdom
Established a Strategic Communications programme to support UK government policy in a conflict zone.
– Developed strategy and plans.
– Engaged across the UK government (and internationally) to win support and approvals and to secure funding.
– Developed Statements of Requirement in partnership with selected enabling-contractors.
– Monitored and coordinated multiple project strands and reported on their activities and impact across UK government and to international partners.
– Generated year on year efficiency savings through constructive engagement with enabling contractors.
– The programme has been recognised as the UK’s largest of its kind since the Cold War. Its approach has also recently become a template for activity elsewhere (accepted by both UK government and international partners).
From the timing and scale of this StratCom programme, the "conflict zone" can only be Syria. In 2012 Stratford-Wright was working in the Targeting and Information Operations (TIO) unit of the Ministry of Defence that was renamed Military Strategic Effects in 2013. As Stratford-Wright noted, his approach has become "a template for activity elsewhere". One feature of the MoD’s Syria StratCom operation has been the outsourcing, via the FCO and the Conflict Security and Stability Fund, of activities to "enabling contractors": companies or nonprofit foundations set up by former military officers. The media operation for the "moderate armed opposition" was outsourced in late 2013. Although the tender document was issued by the FCO, metadata reveal that it was created on Stratford-Wright’s computer. The contract was eventually passed to a spin-out company named InCoStrat set up by Paul Tilley, another former Lt Colonel who had worked with Stratford-Wright in the MoD as a StratCom specialist. The White Helmets operation was set up by James Le Mesurier with funding from the Conflict Security and Stability Fund to Mayday Rescue, a nonprofit foundation registered in the Netherlands.
7 Operations in UK politics and media
7.0.1 Covert funding of academics
Monthly expenditure records for the Integrity Initiative over the period December 2015 to January 2016 show payments to two UK-based academics:
Professor Andrew Wilson of UCL was paid £900 in March 2016 for his "Active Measures" paper
Professor Julian Lindley-French was paid £285 for his blog "Speaking Truth unto Power". Lindley-French records that he is a member of the Chief of the Defence Staff’s Strategic Advisory Panel – it is not clear whether members of this panel have to declare competing interests.
We have not been able to find any public disclosure of this funding. So far expenditure records have been released only for these four months: it is unlikely that these four months were the only period in which covert payments to UK academics were made.
7.1 UK journalists named in documents
The Times – Deborah Haynes (now with Sky News), David Aaronovitch, Dominic Kennedy
The Guardian – Natalie Nougayrede, Carole Cadwalladr
The Economist – Edward Lucas
FT – Neil Buckley
BBC – Jonathan Marcus
Paul Canning – blogger with a focus on Ukraine, who has contributed to The Guardian
David Leask – Chief Reporter, Herald Scotland
Borzhou Daragahi – The Independent – appears as the only individual listed under "Turkey" in the document xcountry.pdf that tabulates countries and election dates.
We have asked journalists listed in the documents whether they have had any contact with the Integrity Initiative. It may be relevant that the Integrity Initiative Handbook states that members of clusters are ‘to sign code of conduct & non-disclosure’.
Their responses can be grouped into four categories
7.1.1 I know nothing
David Aaronovitch – When asked over Twitter whether he knew of or had had contact with Integrity Initiative, Institute for Statecraft or the UK Cluster, Aaronovitch replied
I have never heard of any of these three exotic entities. I think you have been hoaxed.
Jonathan Marcus (BBC) – the BBC provided a statement to the Scottish Sunday Mail (print edition 16 December 2018) that
neither Marcus nor the BBC knew of the list of journalists, nor did he or the BBC consent to be part of any so-called cluster.
7.1.2 I attended a meeting or was on an email list, but was not involved
Borzou Daragahi:
‘I do receive their emails‘
‘it goes to my junk email account‘
‘I systematically subscribe to think tank email newsletters‘
7.1.3 I am proud to be associated with them, there was nothing improper
Edward Lucas – has written a commentary with title ‘West is Once Again Failing the Test Set by Russian Aggression’. published on the Integrity Initiative website on 26 November 2018. In an article on RT on 23 November 2018, he was quoted as writing:
I have not been paid by the institute. But I applaud their work in dealing with the Chekist regime’s pernicious information and influence operations’]
He did not confirm or deny the existence of a network, responding to questions on Twitter with:
I don’t see why one lot of people have to explain being on lists compiled by another lot of people
David Leask – has been open about working with the Integrity Initiative. He has published two articles quoting "a spokesman for the Integrity Initiative", one on the visit of Andriy Parubiy and one on Russian media coverage of the Salisbury poisonings. He has endorsed the output of the twitter account @initintegrity and others associated with the Integrity Initiative such as Nimmo. He responded to the release of documents with a 12 tweet thread on Twitter., acknowledging contact with the Integrity Initiative but denouncing Sputnik for "insinuation that I work for for or with a Nato/UK black ops".
Leask’s description of the Integrity Initiative as "a network of researchers and journalists seeking to counter Russian propaganda and boost media literacy" confirms the existence of a network. In response to further questions, Leask asserted that government funding of the Integrity Initiative was "hardly a secret". On this he was mistaken. The official summary of the Russian Language Programme does not list the recipient "implementing organizations" stating that "Information has been withheld from publication on security grounds". Although the government funding of £1.96 million for the Integrity Initiative in the current financial year is now a matter of public record following a parliamentary question, this information was not in the public domain until the documents were released on 5 November 2018. The source of funding for the Integrity Initiative was not mentioned on its public website. It would have been possible for a diligent researcher to infer the total FCO spending on the Institute for Statecraft by going through the monthly expenditure tables for the FCO, but this would not have revealed the specific funding for the Integrity Initiative programme. The accounts filed at Companies House show FCO funding of £124,567 for the year ending 23 November 2017, but not the £1.96 million awarded for the current financial year.
The Integrity Initiative documents include notes of a meeting with Leask on 27 March 2018, allegedly taken by Guy Spindler, Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for Statecraft. The main focus of the interview is on Leask’s assessment of the prospects for the Scottish independence movement. The meeting finishes with a briefing on the misuse of Scottish Limited Partnerships as vehicles for money-laundering, which Leask’s own investigative reporting has helped to expose. It is not clear whether he is aware of the unusual use of this business structure by the founders of the Institute for Statecraft.
7.1.4 No response or refusal to answer
Deborah Haynes – no response.
Three of Haynes’s stories between 2016 and 2018 can be linked to internal documents of the Integrity Initiative: – For the visit of Ukrainian special forces officers organised by the Institute of Statecraft, a two-hour meeting with Haynes was scheduled at the Institute of Statecraft’s office in 2 Temple Place on 11 July 2016. Haynes wrote a story based on this meeting that appeared in The Times on 11 August 2016. Haynes was the only journalist scheduled for a meeting with the Ukrainian officers: all their other meetings were with military officers except for one with the House of Commons Defence Committee.
The draft application for MoD funding dated 20 March 2017 lists under "Success so far" (for the Integrity Initiative) the lead front-page story by Haynes in The Times on 17 December 2016 with title "Russia waging cyberwar against Britain".
A document entitled "Representative selection of Integrity Initiative staff 2018 presentations and media interviews on Russian disinformation and malign influence" lists under the outputs of Victor Madeira a report in the Times on 9 March 2018 by Fiona Hamilton, David Brown and Deborah Haynes with the title "Spy mystery: Sergei Skripal’s contact with MI6 in Spain suggests links to Litvinenko case". Victor Madeira is briefly quoted:
Victor Madeira, a senior fellow at the Institute for Statecraft in London, said yesterday that links with organised crime were entirely possible. Russia was a mafia state where organised crime and the authorities overlap, he said.
It may be relevant that Haynes is listed as an honorary member of the Pen & Sword club, whose main mission is "the promotion of media operations as a necessary and valued military skill in the 21st century." This may be an appropriate aspiration for military officers, but not for journalists. The club has 334 members, including Steve Tatham (listed in the UK cluster), Paul Tilley and the former BBC correspondent Mark Laity. Almost all other members have a military background or are NATO officials.
Dominic Kennedy – In response to an email asking whether he had heard of or was involved with the Integrity Initiative, Kennedy stated that he had not read the leaked documents, but did not answer the question.
On 14 April 2018 Haynes and Kennedy launched an attack on members of the Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media in the Times, including a front-page article, a two-page spread and an anonymous editorial. Two members of the Working Group hold posts at the University of Edinburgh. Unable to find anything tying them to Russia, Kennedy attempted to suggest that the university was under Russian influence (based on a grant from the Russian cultural institute Russkiy Mir), and even that the city of Edinburgh was a base for Russian influence (based on the presence of Sputnik’s office).
Neil Buckley (FT) – No response when asked over Twitter whether he had had contact with the Integrity Initiative.
Carole Cadwalladr – Identified in the third tranche of leaked documents as scheduled to talk at an event at the Frontline Club in early November 2018, co-organised by the Integrity Initiative and Foreign Desk Ltd. She confirmed that she had spoken at the event and did not receive a fee, but did not answer a question on whether she had been involved with the Integrity Initiative or its parent the Institute for Statecraft.
Natalie Nougayrede – No response when asked over Twitter if she was involved with the Integrity Initiative. She appears also in the French cluster list. In the same list, with a note that he is Nougayrede’s partner, is Nicholas Roche, whose current post is Director of Strategy at the Directorate of Military Applications of the French Atomic Energy Commission. It may be relevant that in May 2013, when she was editor of Le Monde, Natalie Nougayrede had a role in information operations in Syria. Under her direction, two Le Monde journalists acted as couriers to transfer samples provided by the opposition, allegedly from chemical attacks, to French intelligence agents in Jordan. Le Monde was then given the scoop of reporting that these samples had tested positive for sarin at the French chemical weapon detection lab at Le Bouchet.
7.2 Attempt to influence the House of Commons Defence Committee
Two of the Committee’s Specialists – David Nicholas and Eleanor Scarnell — are listed in the UK Cluster. Two current members of the Committee — Julian Lewis, the chair and John Spellar — appear in the "NGW seminars invitation list" document, along with Scarnell and Nicholas. This suggests that the Integrity Initiative has attempted to influence this committee. Another indication of this is that several members of the Integrity Initiative team testified to the House of Commons Defence Committee between 1 March 2016 and 19 April 2016 on "Russia: implications for UK defence and security". For the visitors from the Ukrainian special forces, the Institute of Statecraft had scheduled a meeting with the Defence Committee on 12 July 2016.
7.3 Twitter account
Although the Twitter account @initintegrity accounts for only a very small proportion of the activity of the programme, it is relevant because unlike the covert activities of "networks" the output of the Twitter account is direct evidence that the programme is being used for partisan political purposes. Labour MPs and officials have expressed outrage that the Twitter account has been used to attack the Leader of the Opposition and his staff.
8 Links of the Integrity Initiative with extremism in the Baltic States and Ukraine
Some activities of the Integrity Initiative in the Baltic states and Ukraine, where people who consider themselves Russian make up large minorities, appear likely to foment sectarian hatred and civil conflict.
8.1 Holocaust revisionism
The Integrity Initiative works closely with the Lithuanian government and armed forces. The officially-encouraged spread of Holocaust revisionism in the Baltic States has been documented in detail by the magazine Defending History. Lithuania and Latvia have passed laws that limit discourse about the Holocaust in their territories and deny the role of local helpers in the Nazi genocide. In Ukraine a law passed in 2015 assigned officially protected status to the OUN and other organizations that collaborated with the Nazis and played a key role in the mass murder of Jews.
Both the Lithuanian and Latvian governments promote the double genocide version of Holocaust revisionism, which equates the (undisputed) political repression in the Baltic states during the years of Soviet rule to the genocide directed against the Jewish populations of those countries. In November 2010 the UK ambassador to Lithuania (Simon Butt) drafted and sent a letter to the the President of Lithuania, co-signed by the ambassadors of Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, that expressed concern over the growing manifestations of antisemitism and denounced the "double genocide" version of history unequivocally:
Spurious attempts are made to equate the uniquely evil genocide of the Jews with Soviet crimes against Lithuania, which, though great in magnitude, cannot be regarded as equivalent in either their intention or result.
In May 2011 it was announced that Butt had retired from the Diplomatic Service (at the age of 53) and would be replaced as ambassador to Lithuania by David Hunt.
The Integrity Initiative documents report that Lithuanian armed forces have been training the British Army’s 77th Brigade:
Lithuania has become particularly important in our network due to its expertise in dealing with Russian malign influence and disinformation. We currently have four centres of expertise in Lithuania. Since 2015 we have had a close link with the Lithuanian Armed Forces Stratcom team, currently drawing on their expertise, with the support of the Lithuanian Chief of Defence, to educate other national clusters on effective methodologies for tracking Russian activities. We initiated a link between this team and the UK 77 Bde, resulting in 77 Bde adopting the Lithuanian techniques.
8.2 Neo-Nazism
As documented above, the Integrity Initiative works closely with StopFake, which has downplayed or denied resurgence of Nazism in the Baltic states and Ukraine. For instance in this article StopFake defends military boot camps for children run by the Azov Battalion. The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014, and its first commander was Andriy Biletsky, who previously headed the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine. The US Congress has banned the use of US aid for provision of "arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion".
StopFake has defended Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy against French commentators who have denounced him as a Nazi. When Parubiy visited Scotland, David Leask, one of the journalists listed by Integrity Initiative on its social media team, reported in almost identical terms to the earlier StopFake defence of Parubiy following his visit to France that ‘Parubiy is now "on the centre-right" in Ukrainian politics’. As the centre ground in Ukrainian politics is now aligned with policies that in most other European countries would be identified as those of the extreme right, it is difficult to dispute the assertion that Parubiy is on the centre-right in Ukrainian politics. A detailed study by Katchanovski (2015, updated 2018) has implicated Parubiy’s group in what is now widely held to have been a false flag massacre of Maidan protesters on 20 February 2014.
9 Promotion of hate campaign against the Ru _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Briefing note on the Integrity Initiative
Paul McKeigue, David Miller, Jake Mason, Piers Robinson
Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media
1 Summary
2 Release of documents relating to the Integrity Initiative
3 Sources of funding for the Integrity Initiative
3.1 FCO-led Russian Language Programme
3.2 Co-funding
4 The offices and team of the Integrity Initiative
4.1 Offices and team
4.2 UK Cluster
5 Relationships of the Integrity Initiative to other organizations
5.1 Partner organizations listed on the Integrity Initiative website
5.2 Other organizations listed as associated with the Integrity Initiative
6 Role of the FCO and the Ministry of Defence in the Integrity Initiative
6.1 FCO staff associated with the Integrity Initiative
6.2 Ministry of Defence and military personnel named in documents
7 Operations in UK politics and media
7.1 UK journalists named in documents
7.2 Attempt to influence the House of Commons Defence Committee
7.3 Twitter account
8 Links of the Integrity Initiative with extremism in the Baltic States and Ukraine
8.1 Holocaust revisionism
8.2 Neo-Nazism
9 Promotion of hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Balkans
10 Activities of the Integrity Initiative in the US
11 History of the Institute for Statecraft
11.1 Founding
11.2 Youth work
11.3 EU lobbying
12 Christopher Nigel Donnelly
12.1 Military intelligence role
13 Daniel Lafayeedney
13.1 High Court case in 2006
14 Other companies directed by Donnelly and Lafayeedney
14.1 Pluscarden Investments LLP (2005-2010)
14.2 ISG Corporate LLP and ISG Corporate Limited (2009 to present)
14.3 Council on Foreign Relations LLP (2010 to present)
14.4 Techfin London Limited (2014-2016)
15 St Antony’s College Oxford and the Pluscarden Programme for the Study of Global Terrorism and Intelligence
16 Charities with Donnelly and Lafayeedney as trustees
16.1 Forward Thinking
16.2 Active Change Foundation
17 Charitable status of the Institute of Statecraft
17.1 Publicly declared charitable purposes and privately stated objectives
17.2 Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s criteria for making a complaint:
Acknowledgements
Appendix – list of documents released up to 20 December 2018
First tranche released 5 November 2018
Second tranche of documents released 29 November 2018
Third tranche released 13 December 2018
This is work in progress: we welcome corrections, comments and further information. We can be contacted at piers.robinson@sheffield.ac.uk. Comments can be posted at Tim Hayward’s blog
1 Summary
The Integrity Initiative now accounts for most of the budget of a Scottish-registered charity named the Institute for Statecraft founded by Daniel Lafayeedney and Chris Donnelly in 2006. Most of the overt funding for this programme — about £2.6 million / year — comes from the Conflict Security and Stability Fund’s Russian Language Programme, now merged with a secret Counter Disinformation and Media Programme. Office space in central London and most of the staff salaries, appear to be provided as a covert benefit in kind.
A close examination of past and present posts held by individuals associated with the Integrity Initiative indicates that specialists in military intelligence and other senior military personnel with responsibility for StratCom (strategic communication) operations are closely involved in the programme.
The activities of the Integrity Initiative include:
setting up covert networks ("clusters") of journalists, academics and military/foreign service StratCom practitioners in each country including the UK: "The programme has begun to create a critical mass of individuals from across society (think tanks, academia, politics, the media, government and the military) whose work is proving to be mutually reinforcing."
covert manipulation of the public sphere, including campaigns to smear and suppress dissenters and block their appointment to public office. The "silencing of pro-Kremlin voices on Serbian TV" is listed as an "achievement".
overt attacks on British politicians, academics and other critics of UK government policies, most notably on the Leader of the Opposition and his staff.
in the Baltic states and Ukraine, working closely with organizations and governments that foment hatred of ethnic Russian minorities and encourage Holocaust revisionism.
promotion of a hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Balkans.
These activities:
are not the charitable purposes set out in the Institute of Statecraft’s constitution, and are not charitable purposes in general.
violate the accepted principle that government funding may not be used for partisan political purposes.
indicate that the Government has misled the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about the scope of the Russian Language Programme of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund.
indicate that military units specialized for information warfare are now participating in covert manipulation of political discourse at home, subverting parliamentary government.
have contributed to narrowing the range of public discourse so as to marginalize reality-based evaluation of policy options for relations with Russia and evidence-based assessment of events in which Russian involvement is alleged.
There are serious concerns about the transparency of the Institute for Statecraft (formerly the Institute of Statecraft and Governance):
Its registered corporate address is a derelict building in rural Scotland which is being demolished
In a High Court judgement in 2006 against Lafayeedney, the judge commented adversely on his probity and his business methods.
The filed accounts show unexplained "defects" for the year ending 23 November 2010. After the Board had approved accounts showing income of £158,470, Lafayeedney filed accounts for a dormant company. The accounts were amended more than a year later by Donnelly who filed the accounts that the Board had approved.
Donnelly and Lafayeedney have on at least two occasions set up Scottish Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) with names that could easily be confused with existing charities or foundations. Thus in 2009 they set up ISG Corporate LLP at a time when the acronym ISG was used for the Institute of Statecraft and Governance by a charity with which it was in partnership, and in 2010 they set up Council on Foreign Relations as an LLP, with a name that is identical to that of a respected US foreign policy think tank.
Scottish Limited Partnerships and LLPs are notorious as a vehicle for non-transparent financial transfers.
2 Release of documents relating to the Integrity Initiative
A first tranche of documents relating to the Integrity Institute were released on 5 November 2018. The documents lay unnoticed for two weeks until 23 November, when a story on RT brought them to attention. A second tranche of documents was released on 29 November and a third tranche on December 13. The documents were represented as the result of a hack though it is possible that this disguises a leak by an insider. All documents are in PDF format with no metadata such as timestamps or authors preserved.
In response to the first tranche, the Integrity Institute confirmed that a leak of documents occurred, and described the documents as follows:
Although it is clear that much of the material was indeed on the Integrity Initiative or Institute systems, much of it is dated and was never used. In particular, many of the names published were on an internal list of experts in this field who had been considered as potential invitees to future cooperation. In the event, many were never contacted by the Integrity Initiative and did not contribute to it.
The Integrity Initiative has not asserted that any of the released documents were faked or tampered with. There are no internal signs that the documents have been tampered with although they contain minor mistakes such as misspelt names.
A full list of all documents released so far, with annotations, is given in the Appendix.
3 Sources of funding for the Integrity Initiative
The domain name integrityinitiative.net was first registered on 22 June 2015.
In the year to 23 November 2015 the Institute received £46,639 descibed as ‘funding from FW Investments Partnership, Foreign Office, Centre for Naval Analysis [a US-government funded think tank], CAFOD for various national and international initiatives’.
In the year to 23 November 2016 the Institute received:
£87,250 unrestricted funds, described as ‘designated funds for various UK security, NHS, Royal Navy, NATO, Ukrainian and Russian research programmes’
£33,441 descrived as ‘funding from Dulverton Trust and the FCO for a national and international programme’
There is no explicit mention of support for creation of the Integrity Initiative until the year to 23 November 2017 when the Institute received £307,000 from a "private donor" for the Integrity Initiative, and the first £124,567 from the Foreign Office grant of £250,000 for the financial years 2017/18.
A document dated 14 March 2017 is a draft bid for MoD funding for the period 2017-2019, evidently based on discussions with MoD officials. As the first application to the FCO is dated only six weeks later, it appears likely that the outcome of these discussions was that Donnelly was advised to apply through the FCO rather than directly to MoD.
3.1 FCO-led Russian Language Programme
The applications to the FCO request funding from the Russian Language Strategic Communication Programme. This appears to be the Russian Language Programme of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund, described in the Government’s response on 20 July 2017 to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s report on the UK’s relations with Russia published four months earlier:
The FCO-led Russian Language Programme brings together expertise from the FCO, MOD, and DFID as well as external experts to co-ordinate a set of projects worth some £70m over four years. These projects seek to enhance independent media; to engage with Russian speakers; and to expose Russian Government disinformation.
Through this programme, the Government is working with a range of partners to enhance the quality of public and independent Russian language media so that it is able to provide Russian-speakers with reliable access to accurate information. The type of support given includes mentoring with UK media organisations; consultancy on programming; funded co-productions and support for regional Russian language media initiatives.
The anti-Russian tone of the material produced by the Integrity Initiative and its partner organizations, including promotion of what appears to be a hate campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church, would be unlikely to find ready welcome among Russian speakers. Yet the title of the programme and the Government’s description make clear that the stated remit of the programme was to counter disinformation and provide reliable information in the Russian language. Without Parliamentary oversight, this remit appears to have been changed to include operations in other languages including English-language media in the UK. As the application from the Institute of Statecraft to this programme was dated 23 April 2017 and this Government response was dated 20 July 2017, it is clear that the Government misled the Foreign Affairs Committee by describing the Russian Language Programme as aimed at Russian speakers and as targeting Russian language media.
In an attempt to explain this away, Sir Alan Duncan, the Minister of State at the Foreign Office gave a misleading reply to a parliamentary question.
In April 2016 we launched a new four year strategic communications and media development programme authorised by the National Security Council, called the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme. The former Russian Language Programme was amalgamated into this. The funding provided to the Institute for Statecraft was funded from the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme.
Duncan does not say when the Russian Language Programme was amalgamated into the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme, and does not explicitly say that all funding to the Institute was provided from this programme although this would be a natural reading of his reply. This document shows that the Russian Language Programme, one of the components of the Conflict Security and Stability Fund, was still current in the financial year 2017-18 with annual expenditure of £8 million. The first year of funding for the Integrity Initiative must therefore have been awarded from this programme, as implied by the application for 2017/18. It is difficult to read Duncan’s answer as anything but an attempt to mislead without actually telling a lie. Duncan was criticized by MPs for misleading them further by attempting to maintain that the Integrity Initiative’s Twitter account was not included in the activities funded by the FCO grant.
In answer to another question requesting a list of grants funded by the Russian Language Programme, Sir Alan Duncan replied:
Information about individual projects within the Programme will not be published, as this information could then be used to actively attempt to disrupt and undermine the Programme’s effectiveness.
In the CSSF summaries for the year 2018-19 neither the Russian Language programme nor the new Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme are listed, implying either that the Counter Disinformation programme is not part of the CSSF or that it is secret. It his however possible to identify recipients from tables of the FCO’s monthly expenditure which show recent spending of between £100,000 and £200,0000 per month on the Institute for Statecraft, although these do not identify the programme from which this funding is coming.
The total cost of the project for the financial year 2017-18 was given as £582,635 of which £480,6352 was from FCO and the rest from NATO, "partner institutions" and the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence. The budget projection for 2018-19 gives a budget of £1.96 million for the funding requested from the FCO for 2018-19. The answer to a parliamentary question confirmed that this was awarded in full by the Foreign Office.
3.2 Co-funding
Co-funding of the Integrity Initiative for 2018-19 is listed:
Funding from HQ NATO Public Diplomacy, £12,000 for each inaugural workshop = £168,000
Funding from partner institutions £5,000 for each inaugural workshop = £70,000
Funding from NATO HQ for educational video films – free provision of camera team
Funding from Lithuanian MOD to provide free all costs for their stratcom team for a monthly trip to support a new hub/cluster creation and to educate cluster leaders and key people in Vilnius in infowar techniques = £20,000
Funding from US State Dept, £250,000 for research and dissemination activities (excluding any activity in USA)
Funding from Smith Richardson Foundation, £45,000 for cluster activities in Europe and USA
Funding from Facebook, £100,000 for research and education activities
Funding from German business community, £25,000 for research and dissemination in EU countries
This would give a total income of £2.6 million for 2018-19. As discussed below, this does not include office costs, for which no funding source is given. The accounts filed for the years ending 23 November 2016 and 23 November 2017 state that the Institute of Statecraft had no employees during 2015, 2016 or 2017, implying that another agency was employing them and seconding them to work on the programme. The budget submitted to the FCO for 2018/19 for the Integrity Initiative includes salary costs for only four staff including Donnelly, though another document lists 18 individuals as the "Temple Place resident team".
The State Department quite properly stipulates that the grant funding it provides may not be spent within the United States. The UK FCO appears to have no such scruples about funding covert political activities within the UK.
The handbook instructs staff to say if asked about funding that:
The IfS gets its funding from multiple sources to ensure its independence. These include: private individuals; charitable foundations; international organisations (EU, NATO); UK Govt (FCO, MOD)
There is no other mention in the documents of funding from the UK MoD. The plan is that the "clusters" should eventually be sustained by longer-term funding from NATO and the Atlantic Treaty Association:-
HQ NATO PDD [Public Diplomacy Division] has proved a reliable source of funding for national clusters. The ATA [Atlantic Treaty Association] promises to be the same, giving access to other pots of money within NATO and member nations.
The role of NATO here is not one of collective defence, but instead one of covert political manipulation within its member countries.
4 The offices and team of the Integrity Initiative
4.1 Offices and team
The Institute for Statecraft has an office at Two Temple Place, a historic building completed in 1895 by William Waldorf Astor and now owned by a charity, the Bulldog Trust. There is office space in the basement, shared by the Fore (a project initiated by the Bulldog Trust) and the Institute for Statecraft. Based on the footprint of the building, this would be about 4000 square feet of offices. The budget documents for the Integrity Initiative do not include any provision for office costs. This suggests that office rental costs are being covered by some other agency in the public or private sector and that for some reason this is being concealed. 2000 square feet of fully serviced office space in central London would cost about £180,000 per year, so this is a substantial benefit in kind. For the office team, the operation is being run on a tight budget — economy-class flights and only £70/night for hotels or AirBnB.
The "Temple Place resident team" of the Institute for Statecraft is listed as
Simon Bracey Lane, Stephen Dalziel, Maria de Goeij, Nico de Pedro, Yusuf Desai, Chris Donnelly, Euan Grant, Charlie Hatton, Chris Hernon, Todd Leventhal, Victor Madeira, Johanna Moehring, Ben Robinson, Greg Rowett, Keith Sargent, Jon Searle, Guy Spindler, James Wilson.
"Specialist team members" are listed as
Eduard Abrahamyan, Diane Allen, Jamal Al-Tahat, Josh Arnold-Foster, Barrie Axford, Anne Bader, Qique Badia-Masoni, Oleksandr Danylyuk, Martin Dubbey, Harold Elletson, Perry Fawcett, Mark Galeotti, Babak Ganji, Francis Ghiles, Keir Giles, Glen Grant, Roger Golland, Jon Hazel, Steve Johnson, Phil Jolley, Stephen Jolly, Ren Kapur, Dan Kaszeta, Dmytro Kolomoiets, Karel Kullamaa, Birgy Lorenz, John Lough, Tim Reilly, Alan Riley, Andy Settle, James Sherr, Andrew Shortland, Luis Simon, Henry Strickland, Tomas Tauginas, Jason Wiseman, Sir Andrew Wood.
(SC) is appended to the names of Donnelly, Hazel, Kapur.
(DV) is appended to the names of Allen, Arnold-Foster, Fawcett, Golland, Johnson, Jolley, Settle, Shortland.
[Update 29 December 2018] These acronyms are used for levels of security vetting:
Security Check (SC): determines that a person’s character and personal circumstances are such that they can be trusted to work in a position which involves long-term, frequent and uncontrolled access to SECRET assets.
Developed Vetting: (DV) in addition to SC, this detailed check is appropriate when an individual has long term, frequent and uncontrolled access to ‘Top Secret’ information.
The names listed as "Team" in the Integrity Initiative Handbook dated 30 May 2018 are almost the same as the names listed as "Temple Place Resident Team" for the Institute of Statecraft, with a few additional names from the "Specialist Team members" list. This indicates that almost all core staff of the Institute for Statecraft are working on the Integrity Initiative programme.
On another "specialist and core" list the additional names Jonathan Chetwynd (possibly Chetwynd-Palmer, ex-army based in South Africa), Sean Cronin (possibly Cronin-Nowakowski, ex-army now KPMG) appear.
In addition to Donnelly and Lafayeedney, at least eight others on the team have a military background or have worked at the Defence Academy research unit that Donnelly headed.
4.1.1 Team members with military background (excluding founders Donnelly and Lafayeedney)
Stephen Dalziel – his bio includes a year on a TA attachment in the Army, followed by six years at the Soviet Studies Research Centre, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst where Donnelly was also based. From 1988 to 2004 he worked at the BBC as a Russian Affairs analyst, followed by five years as Executive Director of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce while also working for and starting a consultancy firm.
Tim Reilly – "Arctic/Russia-China specialist". Commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1984 and served till 1990. He subsequently worked on business development in emerging markets including Russia. An article he published in March 2017 advocated a realist approach to post-Brexit relations with Russia.
Alex Finnen – Executive Officer, Specialist Group Military Intelligence. Born in June 1952, he served at first in the Corps of Royal Engineers (Territorial Army), where he was promoted to Captain in 1994 and then Major in 1999. He transferred to the Intelligence Corps as Major on 1 June 2005. In 2010 he was awarded The Efficiency Decoration (Territorial) Medal. In 2014 he was listed as with the Parachute Regiment. In 2016 he was again listed with the Intelligence Corps. In his civilian role he is described as a ‘retired member of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) who, since retiring, has served on a variety of contracts with the EU and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).’ There is no mention of Finnen in the Directory of British Diplomats based on officially published data. In 2007 he was Deputy Head of the OSCE presence in Albania. A biographical note records that he served as Director General for Elections in Bosnia. He has provided electoral advice to FCO, DFID and the UK Ministry of Defence for a range of countries from 1996 to date. He has a doctorate and is an Honorary Associate Fellow of the Centre for Global Politics, Economy and Society at Oxford Brookes University.
Glen Grant, – former British Army Lt-Colonel and artillery expert in the Joint Intelligence Cell during the 1991 Gulf War, who provides somewhat unrealistic military advice to the Kiev government.
Diane Allen – "former Royal Signals and currently Intelligence Corps reserve Lt Col; former CO Specialist Group Military Intelligence; worked with the Land Information Assessment Group and developing infowar capacity with the Army’s 77 Brigade" Awarded an OBE in June 2018.
Jonathan Hazel – Intelligence Corps. Mentioned in dispatches as Captain (1993), Colonel in the Intelligence Corps by 2010 when he was the author of The Conflict With Extreme Islamism – How To Compete In The Global Information Environment (2010).
4.1.2 Team members with defence (non-military) background
Of the non-military team members, two have worked at the Advanced Research Assessment Group at the Defence Academy, headed by Donnelly from 2003 to 2007, and two others have worked in defence-related roles:
Anne Bader – formerly served as a Senior Research Fellow and Director, Advanced Research Assessment Group.
James Sherr – Between 1995-2008 he was a Fellow at the Advanced Research & Assessment Group.
Stephen Jolly – was director of communications at MoD from December 2012 until June 2015. He left this role to take a research assignment as a senior research fellow in Military Information Operations at the Defence Academy on behalf of the MoD. According to Jolly he ‘trained as a special operations reservist/officer cadet with 15 (UK) Information Support Group, the UK military’s tri-service psychological operations unit. As a result, between 1999-2001, he held a Visiting Fellowship in Psychological Warfare at the International Centre for Security Analysis, King’s College London. It was in this capacity that he was commissioned by the International Public Relations Association to write the 2000 Mardin Essay on Psychological Warfare and Public Relations.’ A 2011 biographical note states that Jolly ‘was formerly an instructor on the Military Information Support Operations Course at the UK’s Defence Intelligence & Security School, Chicksands (1997-2001).’
Julian Lindley-French holds many honorary or visiting appointments:
Currently Senior Fellow at the Institute of Statecraft London, Director of Europa Analytica, Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the National Defense University in Washington, a member of the Strategic Advisory Group at the Atlantic Council in Washington, Visiting Programme Director at Wilton Park, Honorary Fellow of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter. He is also a Member of the Strategic Advisory Panel of the UK Chief of Defence Staff.
4.1.3 Team members with no defence background
Simon Bracey Lane – described as "US & election campaign specialist". In 2016 Bracey Lane was working in a field level position in Bernie Sanders’s Iowa campaign headquarters. His bio is given on the website for the Adventium meeting.
Simon Bracey Lane has three years of elections experience in both the US & the UK. He has managed the distribution of communications for the Integrity Initiative cluster system and for the last year been developing the Integrity Initiative’s presence across Europe & the US. He has worked specifically to counter malign interference in Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Lithuania and the US. This work includes the commissioning of several papers, building discussion events and the formation of a media observatory.
Chris Hernon – formerly a team manager at BBC monitoring, appears to have responsibility for social media.
Professor Alan Riley – expertise on the energy market
Victor Madeira – expertise given as "Intelligence and National Security, Orthodox Church". A bio announcing his appointment as a lecturer at the University of Buckingham stated:
Dr Victor Madeira comes to us from Cambridge (where he has been a lecturer and tutor for four years, working with Professor Christopher Andrew and Sir Richard Dearlove) and the Institute for Statecraft in London, directed by Chris Donnelly, where he is a Senior Fellow working on 21st Century security architecture.
Guy Spindler – Chief Operating Officer, on the website of the Institute of Statecraft. He has broad responsibilities including information security. He appears on a list of MI6 officers released in 1999 with the annotation "Guy David St. John Kelso Spindler: 87 Moscow, 97 Pretoria; dob 1962."
Harold Elletson – former MP and sometime MI6 agent who supervises the German Cluster. According to a report in 2002 "when Elletson became an MP in 1992, John Major personally authorised the intelligence service to continue using him as a ‘secret contact’."
Charlie Hatton – expertise described as Marketing, PR, Project Development & Management, International relations – English and Italian
Johanna Moehring – Military Power and Influence campaigns of part of a wider strategy – French, German, English, Russian
Todd Leventhal – State Department official whose role is described above
Martin Dubbey – Managing director of Harod Associates, involved in preparing anti-doping case against Russian athletes. Also sole director of Astutus Intelligence, where Philip Matthews (Trustee of the Institute of Statecraft) was director from 2015 to 2016.
4.2 UK Cluster
The UK Cluster document lists the following groups, indicating that the Integrity Initiative’s ambitions extend to other policy issues including NHS reform:
GIG (Governance and Integrity Group) – one name
NHS Reform Group – no names yet
Communication Engagement & Dialogue Group – no names yet
Defence Acquisition Reform Group – no names yet
Office Core Team – Fellows
Office Core Team – Associates
UK General – Inner Core – Russia
UK General – Inner Core – Military & Defence
UK General – Outer Core – Russia
UK General – Outer Core – Military & Defence
UK Journalists
From the expenditure records and budgets it appears that most cluster members who were not employees of the Institute were unpaid, except for a few consultancy payments for specific tasks such as preparing a report. A more subtle incentive to take part in such a scheme would have been the advantages of being on the inside, networking with senior government officials and military intelligence specialists. All concerned would know that this would open doors to future posts, consultancies and grant funding. On this basis, participants in such a network could reasonably be expected to declare their membership as a competing interest, whatever their personal motives for participating.
We have established that some of those included on the cluster lists had simply been on email lists, usually because they had attended a meeting organized by the Institute for Statecraft. However it is still relevant to study the identities and affiliations of these individuals because this may reveal what groups the Integrity Initiative was trying to draw into its network.
The procedure for the initial cluster foundation workshop is described in the budget document for 2018/19 as follows:
Connect cluster members, create internal national network, formally introduce them to the Integrity Initiative aims, practices and methodologies, establish target programme for research, dissemination and events.
New cluster able to self-organise. Increased coordination and shared best practice from cluster individuals and organisations working at the forefront of efforts countering RU disinfo, increased resource material for an Int’l audience.
Initial group of at least 8 members between core hub and network. Members agree team roles and start putting structures in place. Start exchanges of information with other clusters. Begin work on research and dissemination activities
5 Relationships of the Integrity Initiative to other organizations
The partner organizations of the Integrity initiative make up a nexus of NATO-connected think tanks including the Centre for European Reform, the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society and the Atlantic Council. Many individuals from these think tanks are also listed in the "Clusters".
5.1 Partner organizations listed on the Integrity Initiative website
Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB)
The Beacon Project – link beaconproject.info leads to "site under construction". The domain name was registered on 19 April 2016 in Bratislava. This appears to be a project announced by the International Republican Institute in April 2016 that has never gone live.
Centre for European Policy Analysis (Washington DC) – Mission is "to promote an economically vibrant, strategically secure, and politically free Europe with close and enduring ties to the United States." Edward Lucas is a Senior Vice-President.
European Values (Czechia) – "non-governmental policy institute defending liberal democracy" led by Jakub Janda who is named in the documents as a member of one of the ‘clusters’.
Kremlin Watch (Czechia) – a strategic program of the European Values Think-Tank
Political Capital Policy Research and Consulting Institute (Hungary)
University of Macedonia Public Opinion Research Unit
Res – Public Affairs. Corporate Affairs GmbH (Berlin)
5.2 Other organizations listed as associated with the Integrity Initiative
StopFake – there are multiple references to working with them in the 2018 application and budget plan:
We also worked with Stopfake in Ukraine, examining the excellent work done on this by them and their partners
We also arranged for the Lithuanian team to provide training on a regular basis for all our cluster leaders in the methodology of tracking and exposing Russian malign influence and disinformation, and linked them directly to the Ukrainian Stopfake leadership and to the UK LSE team (whom we took to Vilnius) to exchange practical experience.
Provide guest articles from Ifs and our clusters for StopFake’s printed material published and distributed along the contact line in Eastern Ukraine
Sending cluster members to educational sessions abroad (IREX, Detector Media,StopFake, EUvsDisinfo, LT MOD Stratcom)
A modular training programme (based on IREX/StopFake material) that adapts media source examples as needed to be most relevant and accessible across our cluster network
StopFake received direct funding of £80145 from the FCO in April 2018.
Henry Jackson Society – Drew Foxall is listed as Inner Core: Russia
Atlantic Treaty Association and Atlantic Council The Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) is described by NATO as
an umbrella organisation for the separate national associations, voluntary organisations and non-governmental organisations that formed to uphold the values of the Alliance after its creation in 1949. The Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA) is the youth branch of the ATA and was formed in 1996.
The Atlantic Council is the US affiliate of the ATA. Four individuals with Atlantic Council email addresses are listed: Anders Aslund, Elizabeth Braw, Robert Nurick and Ben Nimmo.
In an "impact assessment" dated 19 April 2016 of what was then called the "Institute of Statecraft Project on Russian Influence", Nimmo is named as sole author of 12 of 22 outputs, and one has Nimmo and Edward Lucas as joint authors. Nimmo appears on a "production schedule" as scheduled to produce 10,000 words on "Mapping Russia’s whole influence machine" by end of June 2016. Nimmo was receiving a monthly consultancy fee of £2500 in January 2016, and in August 2016 he invoiced the Institute for Statecraft for £5000 for "August work on Integrity Initiative". He is co-founder with Graham Brookie of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Lab, which received £450,000 from the Foreign Office in August 2018
The cluster leader Savo Kentera is listed as President of Atlantic Council Montenegro.
Centre for European Reform – Ian Bond, director of foreign policy
Royal United Services Institute – Igor Sutyagin
Chatham House – Three individuals with Chatham House emails are listed: James Nixey, Orsyia Lutsevych, James Sherr
European Council on Foreign Relations – Four individuals with ECFR emails are listed: Nika Prislan, Borja Lasheras, Kadri Liik, Manuel Lafont Rapnoul. The European Council on Foreign Relations receives direct funding from the FCO.
Hermitage Fund Two emails: William Browder, Vadim Kleiner
6 Role of the FCO and the Ministry of Defence in the Integrity Initiative
6.1 FCO staff associated with the Integrity Initiative
Three of those listed in the UK Cluster have held posts in or as director of the FCO’s Eastern Research Group:
Duncan Allan – a bio gives his most recent FCO post as Principal Research Analyst, Eastern Research Group. "A member of the FCO’s Research Analysts since 1989, I’ve spent my career following the countries of the former Soviet Union, in particular Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. I’ve completed full postings and spells of temporary duty in Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia. I’ve also been seconded to FCO policy departments and the Cabinet Office". He retired from the FCO in 2017, and is now director of Octant Research & Analysis Ltd and Associate Fellow on the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. In October 2018 Allan published a paper with Chatham House on the Salisbury poisonings calling for more confrontational responses by the UK government to the attack on the Skripals which he attributed to the Russian state.
Craig Oliphant – head of the Eastern Research Group until he left the FCO in 2010, now Senior Adviser at a London-based NGO, Peaceful Change Initiative.
Alan Parfitt – Head of the FCO Eastern Research Group as of August 2017. He has held this position since at least 2010.
Four have experience in communications:
Catherine Crozier – listed on the Government Communication Service ‘people finder’ website as a Strategic Communications Advisor, Ministry of Defence.
Andy Pryce – Head of ‘Counter Disinformation and Media Development’ at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, a position he does not advertise on his LinkedIn page, which lists the following previous postings:
British Resident Commissioner, British High Commission, Castries – Sep 2013 – Jun 2015. Responsible for UK relations with St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Deputy Consul General British Consulate General Houston – Feb 2009 – Sep 2013. Leader on development and delivery of British Government strategy across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.
Head of Public Affairs, British Embassy Washington – Oct 2007 – Feb 2009. Led UK public advocacy in the US; thoroughly modernised UK outreach; integrated social media campaigning, direct mail with traditional diplomacy.
Head of EU Affairs, British Embassy Helsinki – Dec 2003 – Oct 2007. Led UK EU advocacy in Finland during UK and Finnish Presidencies of the EU.
Deputy Programme Manager Foreign and Commonwealth Office – 2002 – 2003 Led project to design, develop and deliver paradigm shifting new Intranet for British Foreign Service.
Richard Slack – In 2011 Slack was listed as based in the British Embassy in Baghdad and in 2015 he was listed as Head of Communications at the British Embassy in Kabul. His current role is unclear.
Joanna Szostek – now Lecturer in Political Communication, University of Glasgow. Previously based at Royal Holloway in the University of London, Szostek conducted a three-year fellowship from the European Commission on ‘the reception of rival narratives about international politics among different groups of Ukrainians’. The project incorporated a secondment to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office from April to August 2017, during which she attended a seminar at the Institute of Statecraft.
The remaining one is Claire Lawrence, UK ambassador to Lithuania since 2015.
Of the four listed FCO staff who are to some extent specialists in communications, Crozier has left to work at the MoD, Szostek is an academic who was only briefly seconded to the FCO as part of a research project (Szostek), Slack has held a recent post that was at only mid-level seniority, and Pryce appears not to have held any previous posts in communications, his most recent posting being to the Caribbean.
The title of "Head of Counter Disinformation and Media Development’ appears in the public domain for Pryce only in relation to events at which he has appeared, for example at Stratcom DC organised by the Atlantic Council or in the press. On his own LinkedIn page he refers to himself only as a ‘diplomat’ and a ‘senior strategic advisor’. As noted above, in a written answer to a parliamentary question in December 2018 the FCO stated:
In April 2016 we launched a new four year strategic communications and media development programme authorised by the National Security Council, called the Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme.
This programme had not previously been mentioned in public. Pryce’s job title suggests that he is the programme officer for this scheme.
6.2 Ministry of Defence and military personnel named in documents
6.2.1 Key to acronyms
The acronyms embedded in the local-parts of the MoD email addresses listed in the documents give some clue to the scale and diversity of StratCom operations now overseen by the Ministry of Defence.
SGMI – Specialist Group Military Intelligence, based at at Denison Barracks, Hermitage, Thatcham, Berkshire. SGMI is part of the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade which became operational on 1 September 2014. Among the other units in 1 ISR are 21 and 23 Special Air Service Regiments, 1-7 Military Intelligence Battalions, the Land Intelligence Fusion Centre and the Defence Cultural and Linguistic Support Unit. Overall it has 3,300 Regular and 3,000 Reservist personnel. According to the Army "approximately 55% of the Intelligence Corps is employed within the 1st Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Brigade".
77X – 77th Brigade also based at Denison Barracks and responsible for "information activity". According to an FoI disclosure the 77th Brigade (in mid 2018) included 203 Regular Army posts of which 190 were filled and 271 Reserve posts of which 150 were filled, making a total strength of 340 personnel.
PJHQ – Permanent Joint Headquarters, based in Northwood
J2 – operational intelligence division of PJHQ
CGS – office of Chief of General Staff (head of the Army)
MSE – Military Strategic Effects, part of the Operations Directorate in Whitehall. This branch was established around 1999 to 2000 when it was named Targeting and Information Operations. It was renamed Military Strategic effects in 2013. In mid 2018, according to an FoI disclosure, it contained 34 staff. From March 2014 to July 2015 it was headed by Chris Brazier, from then till March 2018 by Commodore Jonathan Burr, and since then by Air Commodore Nigel Colman.
FSECC – Full Spectrum Effects Coordination Cell, a cross-department group set up in 2015 and overseen by a senior Tasking and Oversight Board chaired by Gwyn Jenkins (Deputy National Security Adviser for Conflict, Stability & Defence). The cell is based in MoD in Whitehall and works, according to a former member ‘in co-operation with the Cabinet Office, HMT, FCO, DfID, Home Office, GCHQ, MI5 and SIS, principally against ISIL/Daesh.’
6.2.2 MoD affiliations
David Fields – his LinkedIn profile states that he was "Part of a small team which wrote the UK Ministry of Defence’s strategic approach towards Russia." but is no longer employed by the MoD.
Joseph Walker-Cousins appears in three of the documents: under Saudi Arabia in the xcountry document, and in two other lists that include military officers working closely with the Integrity Initiative.
He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant (on probation) in the Honourable Artillery Company on 1 April 2002 with seniority backdated, and the next day resigned his commission. The reporting of these events in the Gazette was delayed. His LinkedIn profile records that he worked as an intern in the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza from September 2002 to February 2003, then immediately resumed his Army career as "Liaison Officer, British Army Reserves (including multiple tours in Iraq)" between Feb 2003 and Feb 2005. In December 2003 he joined the TA Intelligence Corps as Second Lieutenant. On 2 August 2006 he was promoted to captain in the TA Intelligence Corps. Information about his recent military career is available from a drunk driving case which came to court in May 2015. Major Alex Finnen, his superior officer, provided a character reference, telling the court that "Capt Walker-Cousins was due to be promoted this year but that ‘would definitely not be happening’ as a result of his actions.
In civilian life his LinkedIn profile records that he worked at Aegis Defence Services from Feb 2005 to May 2006, and then joined the regular Army as ‘Senior Staff Officer’ in September 2006 in Kabul. He was stabilisation adviser to the UK’s special envoy in Benghazi from 2011 to 2012 and head of the British Embassy Office in Benghazi from 2012-2014. Since April 2014, while still a reservist in the Intelligence Corps he has held the post of Director, Middle East Business Development for KBR, which holds the Operational Support Capability Contract for the Ministry of Defence.
On 13 March 2015 he contributed an article on Libya to The Guardian. On 17 November 2015 he was appointed as specialist adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigation of the British role in the attack on Libya, and made which included his position with KBR and his military status as ‘Staff Officer, MENA Region, British Army Reserve’. In March 2018 he contributed an article extolling Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s "transformation of the Saudi economy" to the Institute for Statecraft’s website. He did not reveal his affiliation to the Intelligence Corps in any of these contributions.
Lt Col Giles Harris – Army Strategic Engagement Team, Ministry of Defence.
Charlie Hornick email local-part CGS-CIG-SO1b – US army officer seconded to the office of the Chief of the General Staff, who has recently warned of the Russian threat.
Arron Rahaman email local-part OpsDir-MSE-StratComEurope – an online bio gives his current post as Strategic Communication Adviser (NATO and European Policy), Ministry of Defence. He is aged 32 and has a degree in marketing but no military experience.
Nick Washer email local-part FSECC-1 UK Inner Core: Defence.
Nick Smith email local-part FSECC-4 UK Inner Core: Defence.
Joe Green email local-part PJHQ-J2-OPS-SO1-1. SO1 is staff officer level 1, equivalent to Lt Col.
Paul Kitching email local-part PJHQ-J2-EURASIA-SO3-3. is staff officer level 3, equivalent to Captain
Brigadier Chris Bell, commander of 77 Brigade. His predecessor, Alastair Aitken, also appears on the list with a private email address.
The involvement of these senior officers from military intelligence and information warfare units suggests that the MoD rather than the FCO is driving the Integrity Initiative programme. It is also of interest that reservists in Military Intelligence appear to be working under civilian cover without disclosing their intelligence background, though this can sometimes be found by searching the London Gazette.
Further evidence of the close links of the Integrity Initiative Programme with senior officers in military intelligence units comes from the schedule for the visit of Ukrainian special forces officers in July 2016, organized by the Institute for Statecraft. They had briefings or workshops with 3 Military Intelligence Battalion, HQ Field Army, 77 Brigade, Specialist Group Military Intelligence, NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre, and a final meeting with PJHQ staff who came to the Institute for Statecraft. The participants listed for 77 Brigade were the Commander, the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff.
6.2.3 Relation to the MoD’s StratCom programme on the Syrian conflict
Kevin Stratford-Wright was a Lt-Colonel in the British Army till 2012, where his last position was as Head of Information Operations for the regional HQ in Afghanistan. From his LinkedIn page we have a description of an MoD StratCom programme between 2012 and 2015 that was "the UK’s largest of its kind since the Cold War", and has become "a template for activity elsewhere".
UK Ministry of Defence – Strategic Communications Programme Manager: June 2012 – June 2015 (3 years 1 month) London, United Kingdom
Established a Strategic Communications programme to support UK government policy in a conflict zone.
– Developed strategy and plans.
– Engaged across the UK government (and internationally) to win support and approvals and to secure funding.
– Developed Statements of Requirement in partnership with selected enabling-contractors.
– Monitored and coordinated multiple project strands and reported on their activities and impact across UK government and to international partners.
– Generated year on year efficiency savings through constructive engagement with enabling contractors.
– The programme has been recognised as the UK’s largest of its kind since the Cold War. Its approach has also recently become a template for activity elsewhere (accepted by both UK government and international partners).
From the timing and scale of this StratCom programme, the "conflict zone" can only be Syria. In 2012 Stratford-Wright was working in the Targeting and Information Operations (TIO) unit of the Ministry of Defence that was renamed Military Strategic Effects in 2013. As Stratford-Wright noted, his approach has become "a template for activity elsewhere". One feature of the MoD’s Syria StratCom operation has been the outsourcing, via the FCO and the Conflict Security and Stability Fund, of activities to "enabling contractors": companies or nonprofit foundations set up by former military officers. The media operation for the "moderate armed opposition" was outsourced in late 2013. Although the tender document was issued by the FCO, metadata reveal that it was created on Stratford-Wright’s computer. The contract was eventually passed to a spin-out company named InCoStrat set up by Paul Tilley, another former Lt Colonel who had worked with Stratford-Wright in the MoD as a StratCom specialist. The White Helmets operation was set up by James Le Mesurier with funding from the Conflict Security and Stability Fund to Mayday Rescue, a nonprofit foundation registered in the Netherlands.
7 Operations in UK politics and media
7.0.1 Covert funding of academics
Monthly expenditure records for the Integrity Initiative over the period December 2015 to January 2016 show payments to two UK-based academics:
Professor Andrew Wilson of UCL was paid £900 in March 2016 for his "Active Measures" paper
Professor Julian Lindley-French was paid £285 for his blog "Speaking Truth unto Power". Lindley-French records that he is a member of the Chief of the Defence Staff’s Strategic Advisory Panel – it is not clear whether members of this panel have to declare competing interests.
We have not been able to find any public disclosure of this funding. So far expenditure records have been released only for these four months: it is unlikely that these four months were the only period in which covert payments to UK academics were made.
7.1 UK journalists named in documents
The Times – Deborah Haynes (now with Sky News), David Aaronovitch, Dominic Kennedy
The Guardian – Natalie Nougayrede, Carole Cadwalladr
The Economist – Edward Lucas
FT – Neil Buckley
BBC – Jonathan Marcus
Paul Canning – blogger with a focus on Ukraine, who has contributed to The Guardian
David Leask – Chief Reporter, Herald Scotland
Borzhou Daragahi – The Independent – appears as the only individual listed under "Turkey" in the document xcountry.pdf that tabulates countries and election dates.
We have asked journalists listed in the documents whether they have had any contact with the Integrity Initiative. It may be relevant that the Integrity Initiative Handbook states that members of clusters are ‘to sign code of conduct & non-disclosure’.
Their responses can be grouped into four categories
7.1.1 I know nothing
David Aaronovitch – When asked over Twitter whether he knew of or had had contact with Integrity Initiative, Institute for Statecraft or the UK Cluster, Aaronovitch replied
I have never heard of any of these three exotic entities. I think you have been hoaxed.
Jonathan Marcus (BBC) – the BBC provided a statement to the Scottish Sunday Mail (print edition 16 December 2018) that
neither Marcus nor the BBC knew of the list of journalists, nor did he or the BBC consent to be part of any so-called cluster.
7.1.2 I attended a meeting or was on an email list, but was not involved
Borzou Daragahi:
‘I do receive their emails‘
‘it goes to my junk email account‘
‘I systematically subscribe to think tank email newsletters‘
7.1.3 I am proud to be associated with them, there was nothing improper
Edward Lucas – has written a commentary with title ‘West is Once Again Failing the Test Set by Russian Aggression’. published on the Integrity Initiative website on 26 November 2018. In an article on RT on 23 November 2018, he was quoted as writing:
I have not been paid by the institute. But I applaud their work in dealing with the Chekist regime’s pernicious information and influence operations’]
He did not confirm or deny the existence of a network, responding to questions on Twitter with:
I don’t see why one lot of people have to explain being on lists compiled by another lot of people
David Leask – has been open about working with the Integrity Initiative. He has published two articles quoting "a spokesman for the Integrity Initiative", one on the visit of Andriy Parubiy and one on Russian media coverage of the Salisbury poisonings. He has endorsed the output of the twitter account @initintegrity and others associated with the Integrity Initiative such as Nimmo. He responded to the release of documents with a 12 tweet thread on Twitter., acknowledging contact with the Integrity Initiative but denouncing Sputnik for "insinuation that I work for for or with a Nato/UK black ops".
Leask’s description of the Integrity Initiative as "a network of researchers and journalists seeking to counter Russian propaganda and boost media literacy" confirms the existence of a network. In response to further questions, Leask asserted that government funding of the Integrity Initiative was "hardly a secret". On this he was mistaken. The official summary of the Russian Language Programme does not list the recipient "implementing organizations" stating that "Information has been withheld from publication on security grounds". Although the government funding of £1.96 million for the Integrity Initiative in the current financial year is now a matter of public record following a parliamentary question, this information was not in the public domain until the documents were released on 5 November 2018. The source of funding for the Integrity Initiative was not mentioned on its public website. It would have been possible for a diligent researcher to infer the total FCO spending on the Institute for Statecraft by going through the monthly expenditure tables for the FCO, but this would not have revealed the specific funding for the Integrity Initiative programme. The accounts filed at Companies House show FCO funding of £124,567 for the year ending 23 November 2017, but not the £1.96 million awarded for the current financial year.
The Integrity Initiative documents include notes of a meeting with Leask on 27 March 2018, allegedly taken by Guy Spindler, Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for Statecraft. The main focus of the interview is on Leask’s assessment of the prospects for the Scottish independence movement. The meeting finishes with a briefing on the misuse of Scottish Limited Partnerships as vehicles for money-laundering, which Leask’s own investigative reporting has helped to expose. It is not clear whether he is aware of the unusual use of this business structure by the founders of the Institute for Statecraft.
7.1.4 No response or refusal to answer
Deborah Haynes – no response.
Three of Haynes’s stories between 2016 and 2018 can be linked to internal documents of the Integrity Initiative: – For the visit of Ukrainian special forces officers organised by the Institute of Statecraft, a two-hour meeting with Haynes was scheduled at the Institute of Statecraft’s office in 2 Temple Place on 11 July 2016. Haynes wrote a story based on this meeting that appeared in The Times on 11 August 2016. Haynes was the only journalist scheduled for a meeting with the Ukrainian officers: all their other meetings were with military officers except for one with the House of Commons Defence Committee.
The draft application for MoD funding dated 20 March 2017 lists under "Success so far" (for the Integrity Initiative) the lead front-page story by Haynes in The Times on 17 December 2016 with title "Russia waging cyberwar against Britain".
A document entitled "Representative selection of Integrity Initiative staff 2018 presentations and media interviews on Russian disinformation and malign influence" lists under the outputs of Victor Madeira a report in the Times on 9 March 2018 by Fiona Hamilton, David Brown and Deborah Haynes with the title "Spy mystery: Sergei Skripal’s contact with MI6 in Spain suggests links to Litvinenko case". Victor Madeira is briefly quoted:
Victor Madeira, a senior fellow at the Institute for Statecraft in London, said yesterday that links with organised crime were entirely possible. Russia was a mafia state where organised crime and the authorities overlap, he said.
It may be relevant that Haynes is listed as an honorary member of the Pen & Sword club, whose main mission is "the promotion of media operations as a necessary and valued military skill in the 21st century." This may be an appropriate aspiration for military officers, but not for journalists. The club has 334 members, including Steve Tatham (listed in the UK cluster), Paul Tilley and the former BBC correspondent Mark Laity. Almost all other members have a military background or are NATO officials.
Dominic Kennedy – In response to an email asking whether he had heard of or was involved with the Integrity Initiative, Kennedy stated that he had not read the leaked documents, but did not answer the question.
On 14 April 2018 Haynes and Kennedy launched an attack on members of the Working Group on Syria Propaganda and Media in the Times, including a front-page article, a two-page spread and an anonymous editorial. Two members of the Working Group hold posts at the University of Edinburgh. Unable to find anything tying them to Russia, Kennedy attempted to suggest that the university was under Russian influence (based on a grant from the Russian cultural institute Russkiy Mir), and even that the city of Edinburgh was a base for Russian influence (based on the presence of Sputnik’s office).
Neil Buckley (FT) – No response when asked over Twitter whether he had had contact with the Integrity Initiative.
Carole Cadwalladr – Identified in the third tranche of leaked documents as scheduled to talk at an event at the Frontline Club in early November 2018, co-organised by the Integrity Initiative and Foreign Desk Ltd. She confirmed that she had spoken at the event and did not receive a fee, but did not answer a question on whether she had been involved with the Integrity Initiative or its parent the Institute for Statecraft.
Natalie Nougayrede – No response when asked over Twitter if she was involved with the Integrity Initiative. She appears also in the French cluster list. In the same list, with a note that he is Nougayrede’s partner, is Nicholas Roche, whose current post is Director of Strategy at the Directorate of Military Applications of the French Atomic Energy Commission. It may be relevant that in May 2013, when she was editor of Le Monde, Natalie Nougayrede had a role in information operations in Syria. Under her direction, two Le Monde journalists acted as couriers to transfer samples provided by the opposition, allegedly from chemical attacks, to French intelligence agents in Jordan. Le Monde was then given the scoop of reporting that these samples had tested positive for sarin at the French chemical weapon detection lab at Le Bouchet.
7.2 Attempt to influence the House of Commons Defence Committee
Two of the Committee’s Specialists – David Nicholas and Eleanor Scarnell — are listed in the UK Cluster. Two current members of the Committee — Julian Lewis, the chair and John Spellar — appear in the "NGW seminars invitation list" document, along with Scarnell and Nicholas. This suggests that the Integrity Initiative has attempted to influence this committee. Another indication of this is that several members of the Integrity Initiative team testified to the House of Commons Defence Committee between 1 March 2016 and 19 April 2016 on "Russia: implications for UK defence and security". For the visitors from the Ukrainian special forces, the Institute of Statecraft had scheduled a meeting with the Defence Committee on 12 July 2016.
7.3 Twitter account
Although the Twitter account @initintegrity accounts for only a very small proportion of the activity of the programme, it is relevant because unlike the covert activities of "networks" the output of the Twitter account is direct evidence that the programme is being used for partisan political purposes. Labour MPs and officials have expressed outrage that the Twitter account has been used to attack the Leader of the Opposition and his staff.
8 Links of the Integrity Initiative with extremism in the Baltic States and Ukraine
Some activities of the Integrity Initiative in the Baltic states and Ukraine, where people who consider themselves Russian make up large minorities, appear likely to foment sectarian hatred and civil conflict.
8.1 Holocaust revisionism
The Integrity Initiative works closely with the Lithuanian government and armed forces. The officially-encouraged spread of Holocaust revisionism in the Baltic States has been documented in detail by the magazine Defending History. Lithuania and Latvia have passed laws that limit discourse about the Holocaust in their territories and deny the role of local helpers in the Nazi genocide. In Ukraine a law passed in 2015 assigned officially protected status to the OUN and other organizations that collaborated with the Nazis and played a key role in the mass murder of Jews.
Both the Lithuanian and Latvian governments promote the double genocide version of Holocaust revisionism, which equates the (undisputed) political repression in the Baltic states during the years of Soviet rule to the genocide directed against the Jewish populations of those countries. In November 2010 the UK ambassador to Lithuania (Simon Butt) drafted and sent a letter to the the President of Lithuania, co-signed by the ambassadors of Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, that expressed concern over the growing manifestations of antisemitism and denounced the "double genocide" version of history unequivocally:
Spurious attempts are made to equate the uniquely evil genocide of the Jews with Soviet crimes against Lithuania, which, though great in magnitude, cannot be regarded as equivalent in either their intention or result.
In May 2011 it was announced that Butt had retired from the Diplomatic Service (at the age of 53) and would be replaced as ambassador to Lithuania by David Hunt.
The Integrity Initiative documents report that Lithuanian armed forces have been training the British Army’s 77th Brigade:
Lithuania has become particularly important in our network due to its expertise in dealing with Russian malign influence and disinformation. We currently have four centres of expertise in Lithuania. Since 2015 we have had a close link with the Lithuanian Armed Forces Stratcom team, currently drawing on their expertise, with the support of the Lithuanian Chief of Defence, to educate other national clusters on effective methodologies for tracking Russian activities. We initiated a link between this team and the UK 77 Bde, resulting in 77 Bde adopting the Lithuanian techniques.
8.2 Neo-Nazism
As documented above, the Integrity Initiative works closely with StopFake, which has downplayed or denied resurgence of Nazism in the Baltic states and Ukraine. For instance in this article StopFake defends military boot camps for children run by the Azov Battalion. The Azov Battalion was founded in 2014, and its first commander was Andriy Biletsky, who previously headed the neo-Nazi group Patriot of Ukraine. The US Congress has banned the use of US aid for provision of "arms, training or other assistance to the Azov Battalion".
StopFake has defended Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy against French commentators who have denounced him as a Nazi. When Parubiy visited Scotland, David Leask, one of the journalists listed by Integrity Initiative on its social media team, reported in almost identical terms to the earlier StopFake defence of Parubiy following his visit to France that ‘Parubiy is now "on the centre-right" in Ukrainian politics’. As the centre ground in Ukrainian politics is now aligned with policies that in most other European countries would be identified as those of the extreme right, it is difficult to dispute the assertion that Parubiy is on the centre-right in Ukrainian politics. A detailed study by Katchanovski (2015, updated 2018) has implicated Parubiy’s group in what is now widely held to have been a false flag massacre of Maidan protesters on 20 February 2014.
'In many shadowy corners dotted around the globe, an extremely peculiar organisation seemingly operates. Dubbed ‘Citizens=Network’, individuals connected to the entity have established dozens of companies in a number of countries dating back to the 1970s.
However, few if any citizens of any state anywhere will have ever heard of the initiative. I’d certainly be entirely unfamiliar if it weren’t for the groundbreaking work of independent researcher Harvey Duke, who for several years has diligently probed the group’s activities the world over. What he’s found beggars belief and boggles the mind in the absolute extreme – although clarity on the organisation's raison d'etre and modus operandi still remains elusive after almost a decade of determined digging.
They’re Behind You!
What Harvey can tell me is most of the companies set up by Citizens=Network don’t appear to do much in the way of business, and they’re run by the same small group of directors, usually lying dormant until being dissolved a few years later, with no record of trading or financial transactions. Even more curiously, several directors - some of whom have been setting up companies since the 1970s and 1980s - use conflicting dates of birth in company registrations too, which is illegal under UK law when done knowingly.
“They look like fronts, but fronts for what?” he asks....' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
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