Sunday 7 July 2013

7/7 London Bombings: Eight Years On - Conspiracy Theories and Conspiracy Facts

July 7th 2013 marks the eighth anniversary of 7/7/2005, the day of the event referred to as the London bombings.  It also happens to coincide with Andy Murray's 7/7 win at Wimbledon, making him the first British man to win Wimbledon for - wait for it - 77 years.  The boy from Dunblane done good.  (The last British person to win Wimbledon was Virginia Wade in the Silver Jubilee year of '77, which was also Wimbledon's centenary year and marked by the queen in attendance at the final for the first time since her coronation.)

In the eight years that have passed since 7 July 2005, superficially, nothing much has changed. The 7/7 narrative stands as it has done since three months after the event occurred, accepted and unchallenged.  Beneath the surface, however, a great deal has changed, albeit not with the official conspiracy theory.  The official 'narrative' of events, aside from amendments the government was forced to make to it as a result of challenges to its authenticity made by J7: The July 7th Truth Campaign, remains unchanged and, unbelievably, unproven to any degree by any of the evidence released since.  

However, in the wider historical and political context of what are routinely dismissed as 'conspiracy theories' about State vaunted narratives, since 2005 a good number of other political challenges to dominant narratives have been revealed to be not as the imaginings of wild-eyed loons, but 'conspiracy facts'.   The tough question here with regard to these new conspiracy fact things is quite where to start with them and at what point to end to ensure that sufficient depth and breadth of coverage has been given to each, and to an exploration of the logical implications that necessarily follow a new understanding of historically significant events.

The Irish Conspiracy Theories

Before Islam featured in earnest in the list of mythical enemies against which we must all unite, its predecessors were the Irish who, the narrative of the time held, were responsible for unleashing untold violence on mainland Britain in service of clearly stated political objectives.  In some cases they did, but many cases tell a different story.  Since 2005 we have learned that the IRA and its political wing, Sinn Fein, were infiltrated to the extent that as many as one quarter of its membership were in some way cooperating, collaborating—nay, conspiring—with the British police, army and security services.  

If the IRA leadership becomes the focus then the level of infiltration by the British State rises to an incredible 50%. So, with regard to the 'Irish enemy' the chances are that they were nowhere near as menacing as made out to be and, in cases where they might have been, the State would have had - at the very least - oversight of any planned activities, through to involvement in those actions against subjects and UK residents.  This is not to say that the IRA didn't conduct attacks, just that politically motivated attacks tend to be aimed at political targets rather than innocent civilians, the latter has overtones of Operation Gladio's strategy of tension.

Consider also that many of the crimes attributed to the IRA, for which people were illegally and unjustly convicted and whose convictions were eventually overturned, and for which they suffered extended periods of imprisonment, have - like the 7/7 bombings - to this day not yet had one person justly and successfully prosecuted for their commission. 

The conspiracy theories about 'Irish terror' of old are the conspiracy facts of today.

The Iraq Conspiracy Theories

It was in 2005 that Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie became Founding Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition that examined the issue of extraordinary rendition and other related issues of State criminality.  Tyrie quoted the 'right honourable' Jack Straw MP as saying:
"Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States… there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom had been involved in rendition."

In late October 2012 Ian Cobain, in his book Cruel Brittainia, disclosed that Britain had been advised "within days" of 11th September 2001 of the American's plans to abduct 'suspects' and transport them to secret military prisons around the world.  Cobain also revealed that "MI5 and MI6 officers carried out around 100 interrogations at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Guantanamo's Camp Seven didn't officially exist for two years owing to a conspiracy to keep its existence secret, and it is there the CIA abuses and violates 'interrogates' its 14 choice alleged 'terrorists' and for which a $49 million request for a Camp Seven revamp has recently been submitted by the United States Southern Command.

In light of these revelations it's worth re-considering Jack Straw's words:
"Unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States… there simply is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom had been involved in rendition."

For the avoidance of doubt and in Straw's own words, everyone was right to believe in the rendition and torture "conspiracy theories"; right to believe "that the officials [were] lying"; right to believe that "[Jack Staw was] lying" and, further, right to believe "there is some kind of secret state which is league with some dark forces in the United States."  

Another so called conspiracy theory was, in a relatively short period of time, exposed as a conspiracy fact.  Better still, we have in the words of Jack Straw official confirmation of the existence of a "secret state" that operates hidden from public view, thereby making the age old "conspiracy theory" about the existence of an international Secret State, officially, a "conspiracy fact".

The Police Infiltrators Conspiracy Theories

Activists, usually of a left-wing persuasion, have long been the common enemy of capitalism and States that exist only to defend capital, property and private interests from those who necessarily have to go without to maintain the imbalance, have routinely been an issue, as far back as the Walsall Anarchists and beyond.  The State tries to persuade us that those that have human rights, workers' rights, animal rights - in fact any sorts of rights that the State, in service of capital, seeks to deny while simultaneously denying it is doing so - are malicious and malevolent people, bent on violence and menace to achieve their goals.  

The reality is very different most of the time, and on the occasions when it isn't, the years since 2005 have revealed many instances when it has been at the behest, not of committed political activists seeking to defend rights, but by State infiltrators who act as the protagonists and provide the means and method by which violent actions can be brought about.

Ongoing revelations about the depth and extent of the infiltration carried out by Bob Lambert, for example - who incidentally also happened to establish the Muslim Contact Unit (MCU) in 2002, whose existence seems to have not been reported until 20 July 2005 before receiving passing mention again in 2013 - offer a small insight into the nature of the State's conspiracy against activists, seekers of justice, the Irish, and now Muslims. Outstanding allegations again Lambert include an act of terrorism, perjury, assuming the identity of a dead child, and we should include his abuse of the women he misled into believing he was something and someone other than he was.

As yet, we have no idea what the real function of Lambert's Muslim Contact Unit, set-up three years before 7/7, might have been.  The parallels between the approach to activists and the way similar methods are applied to alleged 'terrorists' should inform everyone about how the State views challenges to its presumed authority.

Another conspiracy theory confirmed as conspiracy fact, and it's beginning to look like conspiracy is the default mode of operation in many ruling class circles.

And so it goes on

Many political challenges to State positions are often dismissed out of hand at the time as 'conspiracy theories'.  Recently, many of these conspiracy theories have, not for the first or last time, turned out to be 'conspiracy facts'.  And yet these 'conspiracy facts' are not related to relatively insignificant matters.  They relate directly to the dominant narratives championed by the State and the new Ministries of Propaganda formed by State and mainstream media broadcasters.

Conspiracy facts have overturned many received historical narratives intended to nudge the attitudes and opinions of the people in to a political worldview that ensures the status quo goes unchallenged.  As these illusory narratives melt away in tandem with any illusions that may have existed about the nature of the State and it's role in societies, so too melt away the last vestiges of the credibility of the State, its actors and its corporate co-conspirators.

While there may not be much by way of news and information about anything directly connected to the actual crimes that occurred on 7th July 2005, the story is far from over.  Freedom of information requests from concerned subjects insistent on chipping away at the tablet of State lies will continue; undoubtedly many will be refused as has happened in the past, we can but try. 

Eight years on from 7/7, J7's demand for a fully independent public inquiry, held outside of the terms of the Inquiries Act 2005, still stands, with added fervour now that the official Inquests process did not include the deaths of those accused of perpetrating the attacks in its scope.

J7's demand for the State to RELEASE THE EVIDENCE abides.