MIKE FAULKNER—In his book Spycatcher published in 1987, former MI5 agent Peter Wright claimed that the agency had kept a surveillance file on Harold Wilson who was Labour Prime Minister three times between 1964 and 1976. He was, incidentally, a right of centre social democrat. But the spy agency regarded him as a security risk and suspected that he was a secret Soviet agent. Wright’s book was banned in Britain, though it was brought in from abroad and even from Scotland. In 1987 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told parliament that “The Director General (of MI5)…has advised me that Lord Wilson has never been subject to Security Service investigation or of any form of electronic or other surveillance by the Security Service.”
AMERICAN BRAINWASH
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THE WSWS.ORG EDITORS—The propaganda campaign justifying the attack on Syria was concocted to provide a pretext for a massive military onslaught—not one-off missile strikes.
Facing the prospect of a military rout of its Islamist proxy forces fighting to overthrow the Syrian government, the decision for an escalation was made in Washington and London, and it was left to the CIA, MI6 and their Syrian agents to manufacture a pretext.
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MARGARET KIMBERLEY—Marie Colvin was killed because she was covering a war zone and was embedded with a group devoted to Assad’s overthrow. Ms. Colvin had already lost the sight in one eye after covering another war in Sri Lanka. She knew the risks of her profession and continued to take them. There is no comparison between her death and Murtaja, a man who was trapped in Gaza with 2 million other people and who devoted himself to chronicling their oppression. Some victims are considered worthy and others are thought to be unworthy. Some are ignored and others are elevated so that the rulers can get away with advocating evil deeds.
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The Democratic “Deep State” Takeover and the Moribund State of American Politics
by barbarahav16 minutes readDANNY HAIPHONG—Workers and oppressed people in the American nation-state are compelled to choose between hard right representatives of the White Man’s Republican Party or the Democratic representatives of the war apparatus. Black Americans and union workers have historically held their nose and voted for the Democrats because they represented the “lesser” of two evils. The 2016 elections broke this pattern of behavior, something that no one on the left should grieve. Numerous studies have shown that Black voters and unionized workers ditched the Democrats in high enough numbers to ensure Hillary Clinton’s defeat.
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Deep State Restrained Obama. Will It Restrain Trump? Time to Abandon Mere Hope For Action
by barbarahav16 minutes readBRUCE DIXON—While US presidents come go, there is a permanent layer of cops, spooks, fixers, military types, intelligence professionals, think tankers we can call the deep state, all beholden to the lords of capital, especially the energy industry and America’s galaxy of military contractors. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats, and for all we know some might be nonpartisan. Among them are the people who helped prevent Barack Obama from launching a war in which a dozen nations would have fought and millions might have died, which could easily have escalated into a nuclear conflict between the US, Israel and NATO on the one hand and Russia on the other.