Staggering Hypocrisy

The outgoing Head of MI6 Richard Moore has formally admitted in a public speech in Istanbul that MI6 has been cooperating with HTS in Syria - a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act - for years.

The government is arresting little old ladies for holding signs supporting one proscribed organisation, Palestine Action, while it admits it has been actively supporting another proscribed organisation. HTS was proscribed as a division of Al Qaida, as shown on the government website:

As I learnt while in Lebanon, the British support for HTS included intelligence support, training and weapons, based at secret UK bases in the Bekaa valley, including inside the Rayak airbase. It also included support via an NGO named Inter-Mediate, run by current British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, who is Tony Blair's old Downing Street Chief of Staff.