Notes From The Borderland 11 2016

THE RAZOR ACROSS THE EYEBALL OF MEDIAOCRITY RETURNS: Issue 11

Like an Exocet missile reaching its destination unheralded, here is another edition of the spooks least favourite magazine. We never went away, but were just refining target acquisition software.

Many things can be said about us (and often are), the most apposite is we persevere.

Read a detailed update on the war between Searchlight magazine and the largely victorious Hope Not Hate (HNH) organisation. HNH tentacles now spread far and wide, buoyed by massive grants, including one from a mysterious ‘Housing Trust’, and even (sadly) crowd-funding. We reveal what HNH really stand for–it is neither pretty, radical or particularly anti-fascist.

Elsewhere, we return to the 1999 Soho nail-bombing scandal by way of a lively exchange with Linda Bellos,.

We also comprehensively review investigative (non) developments in the strange death of GCHQ/MI6 worker Gareth Williams, found naked in a hold-all in his bath in 2010. We profile the key cop derailing the investigation, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, and the police squad he founded: the Metropolitan Intelligence Command. A squad that has so far entirely eluded Guardian journalists who supposedly monitor undercover cops. What a surprise (not). While he has since May 2016 been moved to a territorial (rather than strategic) policing role at the Met Police, Hewitt still has questions to answer, as do they generally.

Speaking of the Guardian, we deconstruct their disgraceful hatchet job on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange perpetrated by star journalist Nick Davies regarding allegations of sexual impropriety in Sweden.  If he is the cream of the crop of British ‘investigative journalists’ things are even worse than they appear. Pass the sick-bag.

A book on British Jihadism ‘We Love Death As You Love Life’ by Raffaello Pantucci of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) gets the full NFB treatment: good points noted, questionable assertions challenged, dishonest evasions pinpointed and kow-towing to China noted. RUSI themselves get a mauling. Well deserved and about time too.

As nobody else will do it (at least not in our inimitable manner) we draw together in a critical sense the diverse strands of current MI5/MI6 strategy and concerns, to explore the ‘secret state we’re in’.

Those who ignore their past have no future, thus we are happy to cover the ongoing controversy regarding the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. One thing we are sure of: whoever did it, it wasn’t Libya.

Hand in hand with original research is our usual mix of reviews: ‘100 Years of Militant Anti-Fascism’ by M Testa, the BBC’s London Spy drama series, a Ken Livingstone autobiography ‘You Can’t Say That: Memoirs’ (love him or loathe him a key figure in the Labour Party), and also one by that inveterate old mole-hunter Chapman Pincher ‘Treachery, Betrayal and Cover-ups’.

Usual features include our popular section following up previous stories: not just more dodginess from supposedly ex-MI5 ‘Agent Annie’ Machon, but a startling development concerning Leeds fascist Tony White. Read and all will be revealed, bless.

NFB 11 is a characteristically lovingly-crafted fun-packed issue that will amuse entertain and enlighten readers almost as much as it infuriates those who have been up to no good parapolitically. A subscriber once told us “when I see NFB on the doormat I think ‘about time too’, and then immediately speculate: who’s for it this time?”. In the case of NFB 11, quite a few deserving subjects. Prior NFB readers know what to expect: acerbic, acute, fully-referenced research that puts most ‘investigative journalism’ to shame. If you haven’t met us before, you have a treat in store: prepare to be entranced, and based on precedent you’ll soon be back for more, which is why we still sell back issues in numbers (see below). In short, NFB 11 has something to captivate and perhaps annoy all the family (and the neighbours too).

To whet your appetite check out this interview with our editor: click on the link below.

https://soundcloud.com/paul-stott-8/interview-with-larry-ohara-18-02-2017wma

ISSUE 11 EDITORIAL

“I thought you lot had given up”, “you don’t have a very high internet profile”. Two of the more polite things we have heard recently. Reading this disproves the first hypothesis, and if you check out our revamped web-site you will see the second is an exaggeration.

Last issue exhaustively analysed the bitter dispute between Searchlight and Hope Not Hate (HNH). Heidi and Paul bring the story up to the present day, all the more timely given HNH’s current prominence (and massive crowd-funded/media facilitated cash influx) following the June 2016 murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, a supporter.

Virtually all associated with NFB favour leaving the EU, and always have (see issue 4), from an anti-racist progressive position and therefore dismiss pathetic pro-EU propaganda from whining imperialist losers (many MPs/the BBC/Guardian and similar) depicting all Brexiters as xenophobes/neanderthals and so forth. I have written an update on borderland.co.uk concerning HNH and fascist activities in/around the EU Referendum. More on the struggle to exit the EU (or should I say Glexit: Green Left Exit) another time.

While the 2010 death of MI6/GCHQ worker Gareth Williams and 1999 neo-Nazi nail-bombing campaign have slipped off the media radar, they are still on ours. Following a thread in the Williams case, we uncovered a police squad (now the Metropolitan Intelligence Command) set up by Met Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt that has totally eluded supposedly fearless Guardian journalists dedicated to investigating spy-cops, and everybody else too. The Guardian’s role here is no surprise, they have form for incorporating and neutralising radical investigative initiatives.

Furthermore, while Guardian journalist Nick Davies has won accolades for investigating phone-hacking (on which more elsewhere), his hatchet-job regarding the Swedish sex allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange deserves nothing but contempt. The article explains why.

Core to our remit is examining broader spook actions and narratives. Two contributions do this: one demolishes lies about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, another looks at current strategies. As well as our usual features (two update pages this time) we have reviews, in some cases rather sharp (Livingstone/Pantucci). Something to annoy all the family (and the neighbours too).

CONTENTS

3 Lockerbie: the case unravels Paul Feeney

7 Hope Not Hate vs Searchlight; Fall Out Continues Heidi Svenson/Dr Paul Stott

19 Raffaello Pantucci ‘We Love Death as You Love Life: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists’ Larry O’Hara

31 Spook Update: The Secret State We’re In Larry O’Hara/Dave Hughes

37 Chapman Pincher ‘Treachery, Betrayals & Cover-ups’ Robin Whittaker

38 BBC TV series ‘London Spy’ Verona Silenda

39 Justice Still Denied: Gareth Williams case update  Larry O’Hara

55 Soho nail-bombing: exchange with Linda Bellos  Heidi Svenson

56 The Guardian, Julian Assange and those Swedish rape allegations: an investigation  Larry O’Hara

71 Ken Livingstone ‘You Can’t Say That: Memoirs’  Dr Paul Stott

76 ‘Militant Anti-Fascism: A Hundred Years of Resistance Larry O’Hara

77 Did They Neither Like nor Fancy That?  Heidi Svenson

78 Update Section (stories from past NFB’s) Dave Hughes