This Stuff Is Important

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. Again. As, in the words of The Washington Post, an austere religious scholar, how might I appropriately mourn a fellow austere religious scholar?

But how was and is there a so-called Islamic State at all? Where did it come from? It came from the removal of, for all its faults, the bulwark against such things in Iraq. And we fought IS in Iraq while supporting it in Syria, where Shamima Begum went in order to join it.

On which note, as Peter Hitchens writes today:

Here’s a curious story, that for some reason the BBC and the major international news agencies have not covered, though they definitely know about it. Did Britain, France and the USA have right on their side when we bombed Syria in April 2018 – supposedly in response to a poison gas attack by the Damascus regime? Or was the action rash and lawless?

In fact, we and the other countries did not actually wait for any investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – the recognised international watchdog. So imagine how awkward it would have been if the OPCW (which receives much support from Paris, London and Washington) had reported that claims of a poison gas attack were untrue, or at least unproven. Our bombing would then have been illegal. 

And imagine the relief in those capitals when the OPCW duly reported that it was reasonable to conclude that chlorine gas had been used. It was a pretty weak conclusion (and the original, more serious claim, that sarin had been used, was dismissed). 

And imagine the rage and upset in those same capitals when a whistleblower at the OPCW leaked information suggesting that this conclusion may have been wrong, and that gas cylinders supposedly dropped by helicopter could in fact have been placed at the scene by hand. Since the only people in the conflict who have helicopters are the Syrian state, this detail is pretty crucial. 

He said this rather important information had been mysteriously left out of the official report. Last week, a former boss of the OPCW, Jose Bustani, backed the whistleblower, and publicly accused the organisation of ‘irregular behaviour’ during its investigation. 

Mr Bustani said he had long held doubts about the alleged attack in Douma, on the outskirts of Damascus, saying: ‘I could make no sense of what I was reading in the international press. Even official reports of investigations seemed incoherent at best.’ We have had quite enough wars on false pretences. It costs lives, including those of our soldiers. This stuff is important.

And: 

I would be ashamed of myself if I did not mention the treatment of Julian Assange, a person I do not know and do not especially like. Yet his crimes, and those alleged against him do not seem to me to justify his being held in Belmarsh high-security prison as if he were a violent criminal. A free country should not behave like this.

The only MPs to have supported Assange are Chris Williamson and Kelvin Hopkins, both of whom are permanently "suspended" from the Labour Party; Ann Clwyd and Ronnie Campbell, both of whom are retiring; and my friend, Grahame Morris. Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration.

After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.