Masopher's Mind

Back in the early days of MI5 a lot of very competent women buckled down did their job and kept their mouth shut about what was happening. Maybe Eliza Manning-ham could take a page out of these brave women’s book? MI5 was once a secret agency that worked for the government to keep us safe from threats, spies and saboteurs. Some times MI5 made work for itself and I am sure some of the threats were imagined. When Britain became involved in Northern Ireland then the IRA became a problem for the MI5 and now that Britain became involved in Iraq and Afghanistan people who see this as an attack on Islam become a problem.

Eliza Manning-ham was pretty happy to pretend to chase red ghosts and Irish Catholics but the capacity of her agency to interdict the millions of Pakistani and Somali refugee/citizens as a few among them turn violent is lacking. This is because a) red ghosts and Irish dissidents were both easy and notional and b) red ghosts and Irish threats came from somewhere else. The current threats have lived in London and other cities for decades in communities that didn’t care about Britain and Britain didn’t care about them.

Dame Manning-ham in my estimation is giving the game away, not only are the MI5 complicit in harming individuals for no gain, they are ineffectual at penetrating communities or at the very least keeping an eye out for deviations in the communities core behaviours. I dare not under emphasize that properly functioning communities don’t create threats. Also worth mentioning is that a government that exercises responsible control over its public and its policy does not come into conflicts between the two.

I don’t think Muslims have been recently radicalized. These people were radical and were radicalizing due to anomie in their society and the trouble in the countries they feel more attached to. They have been longing for an excuse to strike out against Western society and in case Dame Manning-ham forgets, Terrorists existed long before 9/11.

I’m not entirely sure what politics she is playing at, but it is clearly a deviation from the public service that the security and intelligence services are known for. She is serving special interests and doing damage to the government and her former comrades in MI5.

Iraq was a bad idea? You don’t need to be privy to special knowledge to know that. It was the job of MI6 to give the government the right intel and the governments job to make the right decision. Commenting on policy notably foreign policy is not the business of MI5. If any comment need be made it is the misidentification and ignorance of the threats posed by badly educated under employed marginalized youth with no one to listen to but violent imams.

MI5 should be poking around in the British society, looking for threats and keeping hush, not sticking its nose into foreign policy and politics.

Regarding the “spy swap of Summer 2010”, an interesting few points raised themselves to me.

Finally a few former cold war spies poked their heads above the parapet, mostly those tied back to the Spy museum in Washington DC. All current spies and think tanks remained quiet, except for a few casual opinions floated by the council on foreign relations. Think tanks deal with official policy rather than unofficial channels of information perhaps. I was regaled by a former KGB director as he let the current FSB officials have a full broadside of his disdain. One could tell that he styles himself one of the “true Cheka” and that he thinks the pretenders in Moskow are unprofessional buffoons. As they rightly would be; the KGB had godlike powers in the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Putin, a former KGB chief, has wisely crippled the agency so that he and his successor can sleep relatively peacefully at nights. The KGB was the breeding ground for Soviet Leaders who came to power with a wealth of dirty secrets and shadowy backers from the military and industry.

Nina L. Khrushcheva the great granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was also contacted by one of the Russian spies. Hardly following in her sires footsteps she is a teacher/advisor on Media and Culture in the United States. She was approached by a “heavily accented” “Richard Murphy” who never once spoke or admitted that he was Russian despite Nina’s insistence that he give up the charade! She too seems to think that the FSB has produced some very poor graduates.

The swap itself happened very quickly arranged by Leon Panetta and the head of the Russian FSB. A plane full of Russian Agents left the states and landed in “spy city” Vienna. Another plane containing 4 Russian turncoats (KGB men and scientists who had spied for MI6 and the CIA) landed and the swap occurred, old spies swapped for new spies.

An Iranian spy story also emerged to less fanfare. Months ago an Iranian Nuclear scientist was reported to be kidnapped when visiting Saudi Arabia. He then turned up in the USA with conflicting stories; half the time saying he was kidnapped the otherhalf of the time saying he was seeking asylum. While the Russian spy scandal was going on he turned up at a Pakistani embassy asking to be taken back to Iran. Lots of beating for you when you get home Shahram! The American “backpackers” who are going on leisurely strolls between a country at war and a country that America has no official ties with were probably lumped in on the deal, even though everyone denies this so far.

Castro emerged from his hospital quarters showing final sparks of communist fervour. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez locked up a few of his critics.

MI6 computer nerd Daniel Houghton who was trying to sell secrets to the (Israelis/Russians) is claiming he was acting under orders from schizophrenia induced “voices” probably wont be getting very far. Unlike the more exotic flavours of the cold war mentioned today, Daniel is just some dumb bastard trying to fuck his former employee for something that the Russians/Israelis probably already know or don’t care about.

It used to be a sexy world, but we all have seen what Daniel Craig does now. James Bond and Jason Bourne don’t use gadgets or have surreptitious, exchanges they have superhuman punch-ups. The spies of old probably do belong in the spy museum.

The Honorable Jack Straw and some black chick

Not all my questionable insight comes from a crack smoking demon and happily its not from wikipedia either. I probably could or perhaps should spend more time using the other sources in my arsenal the most distinguished being Chatham House.

I came to know Chatham house for what is did wrong. I came to know it from a criticical paper written by Eli Kedourie an analyst and expert on middle eastern history and affairs. According to Kedourie Chatham House in its hey day as the Royal Institute of International Affairs and its “version” of how people and nations progress is at least partly to blame for the debacle that is Africa and the Middle East now.

I think everyone interested in this boring stuff knows by now how England infiltrated and broke the Ottoman empire apart from the inside, fell to fighting over the spoils and then sort of abandoned them to multinational Oil companies, despots, the French and Russians. The biggest achivements was the breaking apart of greater Syria into Lebanon and Syria and the creation of Israel on top of where a bunch of Arabs were already living. Yeah. Not exacly inconsequential blips in history. There was also the giving the cold shoulder to the French when they built the Suez Canal, a few fights with Afghanistan in which the non Soviet and then Soviet Russinans became involved, the breaking apart of greater India into India Pakistan Kashmir and Bangladesh…

Hmmmm from a certain point of view, Chatham is a hell of a lot more evil than Masopher could ever be…

Well the point is that actions and innaction have far reaching implications. Britain did not maintain its benevolent empire and so Africa and the middle east became the stomping ground of some really messed up ideology and ruthless men promoting same ideology. Now Britain is a second tier (at best) nation and a vassal of the United States, a country which does not have the trust, support or the intentions that Britain has.

Chatham house, like Britain is now in an uneasy retirment mode. Monthly they write some hair raising analysis about the latest troubles in parts of the world. Even though some of its agendas are very much pro-estabishment it no longer takes an active role in shaping the world. However world shapers do pop by to say “Hi”, to stump their books and agendas for those that want to know. I have met some very interesting people many of whom whould have me killed for revealing who they were. But I can safely say I am a more informed idiot because of Chatham.