AMERICAN DUPLICITY

EDITOR—Johnson was appointed by the Attorney General to be a “special advocate” in around 2007, Declassified understands. These are specially vetted barristers who act for the purpose of hearing secret evidence in a closed court.

Special advocates “must undergo and obtain Developed Vetting (the highest level of HM Government security clearance) prior to their appointment”, government guidance states.  Developed Vetting is required for individuals having “frequent and uncontrolled access to TOP SECRET assets or require any access to TOP SECRET codeword material”. 

In 2016, Johnson acted as a special advocate in the case of Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a Libyan national who accused the UK government and MI6 of participating in kidnapping him and his pregnant wife, Fatima Bouchar. The UK government later apologised for its actions that contributed to Belhaj and Bouchar’s rendition, detention and torture.

PAUL EDWARDS—The third man, alive in spite of The Empire is, without any close rival, the greatest journalist in this world since Tom Paine.  Julian Assange, besides being everything the American press is not—a journalist who goes after truth no matter whose ox is gored, or what the cost to himself—is a monumental hero.

Founder of Wikileaks, he was first targeted by The Empire for release of the notorious “Collateral Murder” video, made by an America helicopter as it strafed and killed unarmed Iraqi civilians and children and two Reuters journalists while the pilot joked on audio about his murders.  This one video—though he released much more on American barbarity in Iraq— did more to sicken the world at U.S. brutality and atrocity, than any other piece of information in the entire course of that hideous, criminal war.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—It’s a horrific thing, burning alive. I suspect that pretty much everyone who’s ever self-immolated has had serious regrets about it within the first few seconds. There’s simply nothing one can do to prepare oneself for the experience of that kind of pain, or for how long it can take them to lose consciousness after it’s started. At that point the only comfort they could possibly offer themselves is that it can’t go on forever.

KIT KLARENBERG—A major component of the Integrity Initiative scandal was the organisation’s construction of cloak-and-dagger “clusters”. These were – and may well remain today – clandestine networks of journalists, scholars, politicians and military and intelligence operatives, which the Initiative could mobilise to disseminate black propaganda, therefore influencing policy and perceptions, targeting domestic and overseas adversaries. One little-known example of the potency of clusters was an aggressive campaign to falsely connect Julian with the Kremlin.

EDITOR—Laith reminds the audience that Israel appears committed to a reckless expansion of the war and that the Zionists are not only bombing Lebanon, but recently completely destroyed the South African embassy in Damascus as payback for its dragging Israel before the ICJ.