Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 6th March 2026

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UK Column News - 6th March 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's Friday, the sixth of March twenty twenty sixth, just
0:11
Speaker 2: after one o'clock.
0:12
Speaker 1: Welcome to UK Colin News. I'm your host Mike Robinson.
0:14
Speaker 2: Joining me by video link today are Patrick Henningson and
0:18
Speaker 2: Basil Valentine. I Later in the program, Patrick's going to
0:20
Speaker 2: be covering the laying of hands on Trump at the
0:22
Speaker 2: littlet display of Christian Zionist fervor from the United States.
0:26
Speaker 2: I'll be reporting on the British anti terrorist police terrorism
0:30
Speaker 2: of children in the UK, and Basil's going to be
0:33
Speaker 2: reporting on the Starmer government's efforts to cover up Mandelstone's
0:37
Speaker 2: Epstein links. But of course we are going to begin
0:40
Speaker 2: today with Iran and Patrick. What's the lidst.
0:46
Speaker 3: Well, let's just bring us up to date. Thank you
0:51
Speaker 3: very much, Mike, it's great to be with you. We
0:53
Speaker 3: are officially in day seven of the war. And this
0:58
Speaker 3: is a war that we're told now this week by
1:01
Speaker 3: the US administration or noise of being made as such,
1:05
Speaker 3: that this will be months long.
1:07
Speaker 4: There will be a month long campaign.
1:09
Speaker 3: So any ideas about a quick surgical conflict you can
1:15
Speaker 3: put that rest. It doesn't seem like that's going to
1:19
Speaker 3: happen as they're going all the way on this. Now
1:21
Speaker 3: on the political dimension here, the War Powers Act came
1:26
Speaker 3: up to vote in the Senate, in the House and
1:28
Speaker 3: it was defeated. It was defeated by a narrow margin.
1:32
Speaker 3: In the US Senate more or less a whip line vote.
1:36
Speaker 3: Only one Republican Senator, Rand Paul voted for the War
1:41
Speaker 3: Powers Act to restrain the president. And in the House
1:44
Speaker 3: this is an effort sponsored by Thomas Massey and Rocanna,
1:48
Speaker 3: a bipartisan effort.
1:50
Speaker 4: This was also defeated.
1:52
Speaker 3: So you can go and look if you're interested at
1:56
Speaker 3: the individuals who voted. But it's yeah, being held by
2:01
Speaker 3: MAGA as a victory for America, but by everybody else,
2:06
Speaker 3: I don't think it's very popular war looking at the polling.
2:09
Speaker 3: Certainly you couldn't say that generally from the American people.
2:12
Speaker 3: But that's the split we have right now, unfortunately over
2:17
Speaker 3: this conflict.
2:18
Speaker 4: Now, this is a really.
2:20
Speaker 3: Important report and I wanted to highlight this here, Operation
2:24
Speaker 3: Epic Bill and the US protection racket. The golf can't
2:28
Speaker 3: escape now, what is this? The US have basis positioned
2:32
Speaker 3: all over the Persian Gulf. Obviously the golf monarchies. The
2:37
Speaker 3: GCC countries are paying a handsome fee for that privilege.
2:42
Speaker 3: But the question is are the United States providing protection
2:47
Speaker 3: for these countries And looks like right now, based on
2:52
Speaker 3: what we've seen this past week, the US are drawing
2:55
Speaker 3: fire to those golf countries. So there is a kind
2:59
Speaker 3: of a evaluation now taking place. And I think this
3:03
Speaker 3: was Iran's intention, was to impose a cost on these
3:11
Speaker 3: golf countries for hosting US basis which they're using as
3:16
Speaker 3: launching pads to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran. And
3:21
Speaker 3: so the numbers in this article, and this is a
3:25
Speaker 3: great research piece here. If you bring this article back
3:28
Speaker 3: up on screen by Freddie Pontan, it's a very well
3:32
Speaker 3: researched piece and you can just see exactly how the
3:36
Speaker 3: business arrangement is between the US and the Gulf States
3:40
Speaker 3: and the fact that this is now very much an
3:43
Speaker 3: underperforming relationship in fact that you can look at it
3:47
Speaker 3: as a liability. And the numbers are pretty stark on this,
3:51
Speaker 3: and I encourage people to go look at this for
3:54
Speaker 3: themselves because it's very revealing and from a British perspective
3:59
Speaker 3: as well, this can be very enlightening. Now on from
4:04
Speaker 3: that the golf countries, there are reports, and this is
4:07
Speaker 3: really important. We're going to bring up this CNN report here.
4:11
Speaker 3: There are reports that Iran has targeted oil facilities, for instance,
4:16
Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia, and Iran is this is a deputy
4:20
Speaker 3: foreign minister here absolutely categorically denying this, and so this
4:25
Speaker 3: raises a really important and quite profound question, who is
4:31
Speaker 3: attacking these golf countries oil facilities, refineries and so forth.
4:38
Speaker 3: If it's not Iran, who isn't The media has run
4:41
Speaker 3: with the talking point immediately in the reports that it
4:44
Speaker 3: was Iran and Iran's denying. Iran's policy is not to
4:47
Speaker 3: attack these facilities in the Golf states for obvious reasons,
4:52
Speaker 3: because Iran doesn't want to open up the possibility of
4:56
Speaker 3: their own refineries and petroleum infrastructure and energy infrastructure being
5:02
Speaker 3: targeted as well.
5:04
Speaker 4: So that's the big question.
5:06
Speaker 3: So now we're left to try to answer that, and
5:09
Speaker 3: that brings us to this report, and this is again
5:12
Speaker 3: a report by Freddie Pontan up bit twenty first century
5:16
Speaker 3: Wired dot com. Now, in terms of the evidence of
5:19
Speaker 3: this claim, Natucker Carlson is claiming here in this report
5:24
Speaker 3: that he has he has received information or he has
5:29
Speaker 3: seen reports out of the golf that there have been
5:33
Speaker 3: arrests in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in Dohan Riod of
5:39
Speaker 3: Masad agents or people who have been picked up by
5:42
Speaker 3: golf intelligence services here, people who were tasked with carrying
5:46
Speaker 3: out kinetic operations i e. Bombings on their soil the
5:50
Speaker 3: Golf states, and these would be classic false flag attacks,
5:55
Speaker 3: carefully designed to sow confusion and set the countries against
5:58
Speaker 3: each other. The obvious beneficiaries would be Israel and the
6:02
Speaker 3: United States. Now this has also been mentioned in other
6:07
Speaker 3: golf media. We don't see anything reported on this in
6:12
Speaker 3: the Western media, so that's a big problem.
6:15
Speaker 4: So that's I think we're ahead of ourselves here.
6:19
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, but yeah, on the Tucker Carlson report,
6:26
Speaker 3: that's an important question that needs to be asked. So
6:29
Speaker 3: are there false flag attacks being carried out?
6:33
Speaker 4: That's the big question.
6:35
Speaker 3: And with a fog of war, this is going to
6:39
Speaker 3: be a big risk, and it's a reality that we're
6:43
Speaker 3: unfortunately going to have to face not just false flag
6:46
Speaker 3: attacks against maybe US naval assets potentially, but also against
6:51
Speaker 3: more likely against Golf states. And we could even extend
6:54
Speaker 3: that conversation, possibly to Cyprus to orif equatorial. We will
6:59
Speaker 3: talk about that later. So I thought those are really
7:03
Speaker 3: important reports to bring to people's attention, the links of
7:07
Speaker 3: which will be in the show notes for this program today.
7:12
Speaker 3: Now that brings us to the question here on where
7:16
Speaker 3: this conflict is. Now we're in an information war, Let's
7:20
Speaker 3: not fool ourselves. That's as much an important aspect of
7:26
Speaker 3: this as anything. Now, if you look at the reporting
7:28
Speaker 3: on Ukraine over the last four years, you'll see all
7:31
Speaker 3: of the mainstream media, the Western media have gone in
7:34
Speaker 3: with the White House saying that Russia was losing, Russia
7:38
Speaker 3: is on its last legs, the Russian military is falling apart.
7:42
Speaker 3: Those were all lies. But yet those were lies that
7:44
Speaker 3: were disseminated across the entirety of the mainstream and Western media.
7:49
Speaker 3: So what's to say that this isn't happening in this situation,
7:53
Speaker 3: in this war right now? And that's the question I'm
7:55
Speaker 3: going to pose In times of Israel here, US Israel
7:59
Speaker 3: say ran missile missile fired down, most launchers taken out
8:05
Speaker 3: as offensive ramps up. So they're claiming that half that
8:09
Speaker 3: as the B two bombing run happens that half RAN's
8:12
Speaker 3: missile launchers have already been taken out in the first
8:15
Speaker 3: six days. Now, whether you believe that or not is
8:18
Speaker 3: another thing. But what's more important about this story here
8:22
Speaker 3: and this is more or less reflected in the US
8:25
Speaker 3: media coverage as well. So Israel and the US are
8:28
Speaker 3: completely harmonized in terms of information ops public facing information.
8:33
Speaker 3: So the question is why are they now going into
8:38
Speaker 3: a B two bombers. This is high altitude and gravity
8:42
Speaker 3: bombs one thousand, two thousand pounds bombs. These are designed
8:46
Speaker 3: for maximum damage. So what this tells us and what
8:50
Speaker 3: people need to look at, is that a lot of
8:52
Speaker 3: the US precision munitions have been exhausted by this point.
8:57
Speaker 3: Now they're moving to gravity bombs, and this is really
9:02
Speaker 3: disturbing development. And so you're talking about densely populated areas
9:08
Speaker 3: of people that are being bombed in the city like
9:10
Speaker 3: Tronto ten million. This hearkens back to you know Dresden
9:15
Speaker 3: or Operation Rolling Thunder, Vietnam, CAMBODI allows under Lyndon Baines Johnson,
9:21
Speaker 3: or the leveling of Pianyang during the Korean War, or
9:24
Speaker 3: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and you'll see the same talking point.
9:28
Speaker 3: If this war drags on, you know this is this
9:31
Speaker 3: is going to cost too many American lives, or this
9:33
Speaker 3: war is going on too long. We must do something
9:35
Speaker 3: to end the war, to draw a line. And what
9:37
Speaker 3: does that mean. Well, that's another point as well on
9:42
Speaker 3: the nuclear question, which is being talked about more so
9:45
Speaker 3: and again with the times of Israel. Dozens of IRGC
9:48
Speaker 3: officers reportedly flee Lebanon over fears they could be targeted.
9:54
Speaker 3: So again this is part of the overall information ops
9:58
Speaker 3: as well. So Lebanon, will will speak later, has been
10:01
Speaker 3: dragged into this conflict. Here and let's just play this
10:04
Speaker 3: video very briefly. The US is doing a victory lap
10:08
Speaker 3: because they've sunk an Iranian naval frigate. Here is the
10:12
Speaker 3: latest press conference with the Defense Secretary of the Secretary
10:16
Speaker 3: of War, pardon.
10:16
Speaker 5: Me in the Indian Ocean and we'll play it on screen.
10:25
Speaker 5: There an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought
10:31
Speaker 5: it was safe in international waters. Instead it was sunk
10:35
Speaker 5: by a torpedo.
10:37
Speaker 6: Quiet death.
10:39
Speaker 5: The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo
10:41
Speaker 5: since World War II. Like in that war, back when
10:46
Speaker 5: we were still in the War Department, we are fighting
10:49
Speaker 5: to win.
10:54
Speaker 3: Let me just add that was an unarmed ship. It
10:57
Speaker 3: was taken part in a naval exercise invited by the
11:00
Speaker 3: Indian government. The sailors there were hosted beforehand with other
11:04
Speaker 3: international navies during an international naval exercise, and when they
11:09
Speaker 3: departed from the drill from the exercise, the US then
11:14
Speaker 3: targeted it and destroyed it and didn't bother to rescue
11:18
Speaker 3: or make any effort to rescue any of the sailors.
11:22
Speaker 3: So doing a victory lap like this is some great achievement.
11:26
Speaker 3: But this is a war crime basically, So it's pretty
11:30
Speaker 3: breathtaking actually, And there's more to come on this story. Now,
11:35
Speaker 3: here's Pete Hegseth announcing the Scorched Earth campaign which is
11:40
Speaker 3: now beginning over the skies of Iran.
11:43
Speaker 4: But go ahead and roll this.
11:47
Speaker 5: Flying over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital,
11:52
Speaker 5: flying over the RGC Iranian leaders, looking up and seeing
11:59
Speaker 5: only US and Israeli air power, every minute of every
12:05
Speaker 5: day until we decide it's over and Iran we'll be
12:10
Speaker 5: able to do nothing about it. B two's B fifty
12:14
Speaker 5: twos b ones predator drones fighters controlling the skies, picking
12:19
Speaker 5: targets death and destruction from the sky all day long.
12:26
Speaker 5: We're playing for keeps. Our war fighters have maximum authorities
12:30
Speaker 5: granted personally by the President and yours.
12:36
Speaker 4: On every conceivable level.
12:38
Speaker 3: Just that statement alone would be opening arguments for prosecution
12:43
Speaker 3: in a war crimes trial. So we can expand more
12:46
Speaker 3: on that later on. But over to you, Mike, Yes,
12:50
Speaker 3: thank you very much for that.
12:51
Speaker 1: Patrick.
12:51
Speaker 2: No, yesterday afternoon, then the news came that Israel was
12:56
Speaker 2: demanding that people evaciate the south of and then they
13:01
Speaker 2: suddenly decided that that wasn't good enough. They needed people
13:04
Speaker 2: to abandon the south of Beirut as well. And then
13:10
Speaker 2: of course what happened was bombing overnight today. Then as
13:15
Speaker 2: France twenty four is reporting here, they've now expanded this
13:18
Speaker 2: now to the back of Valley, which is to the
13:22
Speaker 2: northeast of Bayrout and of course very close to the
13:26
Speaker 2: Syrian border. So clearly this is continuing to develop and
13:32
Speaker 2: Israel continuing, as Patrick just said, Lebanon being brought into
13:36
Speaker 2: this war. But Basil, let me welcome you to the program.
13:40
Speaker 2: What are your thoughts on this expansion into Lebanon, And
13:43
Speaker 2: I mean, what are Israeli politicians saying about it.
13:48
Speaker 7: Well, it's a characteristic of the genocide in Palestine over
13:51
Speaker 7: the last couple of years that war crimes have been
13:54
Speaker 7: normalized and indeed downplayed by corporate media. And another is
13:59
Speaker 7: now unfolding in Lebanon, as you say, where Israel has
14:03
Speaker 7: ordered half a million people, the entire population of the
14:07
Speaker 7: southern suburbs of Beirut, to leave their homes yesterday and
14:11
Speaker 7: then overnight launched a massive wave of attacks against these
14:16
Speaker 7: civilian areas. At least eleven people have been killed in
14:18
Speaker 7: the last twenty four hours as a result of the bombing.
14:21
Speaker 7: It's worth pointing out that since the November twenty seven,
14:24
Speaker 7: twenty twenty four so called Seaspire Agreement, Israel has committed
14:28
Speaker 7: more violations than any other seaspire in recorded human history,
14:33
Speaker 7: upwards of ten thousand about. The heavy bombing of the
14:37
Speaker 7: Lebanese capital marks a further escalation. Displaced people, obviously, including
14:43
Speaker 7: many women and children, have flood fled with just the
14:45
Speaker 7: clothes they were wearing in a few blankets, and with
14:49
Speaker 7: nowhere to go, are sleeping out in the open while
14:52
Speaker 7: the bombs rained down on their homes. It's worth remembering
14:56
Speaker 7: force displacement is a prohibited act under international humanitarian law
15:02
Speaker 7: and qualifies as a war crime, but not a word
15:05
Speaker 7: from Western politicians only. The United Nations High Commissioner for
15:10
Speaker 7: Human Rights, Ravina sham Dasani, has spoken out saying Israel's
15:14
Speaker 7: military grounding cursions into southern Lebanon, blanket displacement orders for
15:18
Speaker 7: the population of Beirut suburbs, the Bekhar region and the
15:22
Speaker 7: full area to the south of the Litani River are
15:26
Speaker 7: bringing more misery and suffering to an already weary population.
15:31
Speaker 7: She said in an official statement, we urge the parties
15:34
Speaker 7: to step back from the briingcomma major escalation of this
15:37
Speaker 7: conflict in Lebanon. We call instead for urgent de escalation,
15:42
Speaker 7: compliance with their obligations under Security Council Resolution seventeen oh one,
15:47
Speaker 7: and the faithful application of the twenty twenty four ceasefire arrangements.
15:51
Speaker 7: But obviously, with over ten thousand violations thereof, that.
15:54
Speaker 1: Seems wishful thinking.
15:57
Speaker 7: She went on to say the sovereignty of Lebanon and
15:59
Speaker 7: the human rights of its people must be respected. Israeli
16:02
Speaker 7: Defense Minister Israel Katz this morning took a very different position,
16:07
Speaker 7: saying that additional military positions have been taken inside enemy territory,
16:12
Speaker 7: vowing that the campaign will continue until Hezbolla is defeated.
16:18
Speaker 7: So very much major second front ongoing there and developing
16:24
Speaker 7: by the hour.
16:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, but what's the situation with Israeli politicians.
16:32
Speaker 7: Well, we've got a clip I think Yaya Lapid, the
16:36
Speaker 7: leader of the opposition, speaking very frankly, and you get
16:42
Speaker 7: the frankest expressions of Israeli opinion from Israeli media, which
16:46
Speaker 7: of course are invariably underreported or ignored altogether in the
16:50
Speaker 7: West because we have to be shielded from what they say.
16:53
Speaker 7: But he's calling for ethnic cleansing, as we can hear now.
16:58
Speaker 8: Like a bit of a non and and you an
17:03
Speaker 8: internship of and Bevan is the sucure like bass tomato
17:13
Speaker 8: in book for him levanonil ben levanonu isralije.
17:23
Speaker 4: I goo.
17:29
Speaker 8: The can, the Loy statue, name.
17:34
Speaker 9: The garage.
17:36
Speaker 8: And a view with alasm by Africa.
17:41
Speaker 4: Were actually.
17:48
Speaker 7: Yeah, there we go. Well, what more do you need
17:50
Speaker 7: to know? This is obviously part of a wider land grab. Ultimately,
17:55
Speaker 7: as reel I said, it intends to permanently occupy large
17:58
Speaker 7: swaths of other than Lebanon. Doubtless as part of the
18:02
Speaker 7: Greater Israel project.
18:04
Speaker 4: Mike.
18:05
Speaker 2: Indeed, now what about the UK. Then, the main focus
18:09
Speaker 2: of UK's propaganda has been Cyprus, and the Starmer government
18:13
Speaker 2: is announced a further four typhoon jets will be sent,
18:17
Speaker 2: although we actually bess dragon can't get there for at
18:20
Speaker 2: least another week for well, for reasons. But overnight f
18:23
Speaker 2: thirty fives and typhoons has been flying more missions over
18:26
Speaker 2: Qatar and Jordan. And as we'll see here in second,
18:30
Speaker 2: or we'll hear in a second from Basel. But then
18:34
Speaker 2: John Healy has been continuing diplomatic efforts with the initially
18:39
Speaker 2: the E five defense ministers that's France, Germany, Italy, Poland
18:43
Speaker 2: in the UK and then flying out to Cyprus to
18:47
Speaker 2: try to convince Cypriots that Britain has their backs. But
18:51
Speaker 2: let's just bring this defense intelligence released from Wednesday back
18:54
Speaker 2: on screen. And of course that reported the drone strike
18:58
Speaker 2: which is alleged have hit Rif Acriteria was not from
19:03
Speaker 2: Iran after all, it supposedly came from Lebanon, giving Israel
19:07
Speaker 2: justification I suppose, as if it needed for what it's
19:10
Speaker 2: done in the last twenty four hours.
19:12
Speaker 1: But Basil.
19:12
Speaker 2: The question then is why is Cypress so key.
19:17
Speaker 1: Well.
19:17
Speaker 7: When Britain finally left Cyprus in nineteen sixty, it retained
19:21
Speaker 7: two sovereign base areas at Aquatiri and Achilia, as well
19:25
Speaker 7: as the highest point on the island where GCHQ has
19:29
Speaker 7: its listening installation, and they remain technically British territory, much
19:34
Speaker 7: to the irritation increasingly of the Cypriots themselves, with chants
19:40
Speaker 7: of British bases out ringing out in recent days in Limosol,
19:44
Speaker 7: which is the nearest town to Aquatiri, which protests calling
19:48
Speaker 7: for the removal of the UK military bases because they
19:53
Speaker 7: feel they have become a target after the drones struck
19:58
Speaker 7: earlier this week, every possibility of more to follow. Remember
20:04
Speaker 7: that Keir Starmer famously went to a criteria at the
20:08
Speaker 7: height of the genocide and said, you know you're doing
20:12
Speaker 7: great lads, but we can't say what you're doing declassified.
20:17
Speaker 7: Mc kennard have done exhaustive work mapping out the intelligence
20:21
Speaker 7: flights that the UK was running out of AQ on
20:24
Speaker 7: behalf of the Israelis. As I said, the other base
20:28
Speaker 7: is run by GHQ and is an intelligence sharing operation
20:32
Speaker 7: with the Americans and therefore very possibly with the Israelis
20:38
Speaker 7: as well. And all this is naturally intensified debate in
20:44
Speaker 7: Cyprus over the presence of the British military on the island,
20:48
Speaker 7: big campaign now underway. The bases are a remnant of
20:52
Speaker 7: the colonial and imperialist empire of Britain, said Melanice W. Nicolau,
20:57
Speaker 7: who is running for Parliament. And there are protests ongoing
21:02
Speaker 7: outside the base pretty much every day.
21:05
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that, Basil.
21:07
Speaker 2: Now, the other news that has been UK related in
21:11
Speaker 2: particular is covered here by Sky So we've got a
21:15
Speaker 2: headline here saying British warplans should dine multiple drones in Jordan.
21:20
Speaker 2: And well, the question is, Basil, what British assets are
21:24
Speaker 2: there and Jordan, since this is a purely defensive action,
21:27
Speaker 2: according to kir Starmer, what British assets are there in
21:30
Speaker 2: Jordan for them to protect.
21:32
Speaker 7: Well there aren't any, of course, but Jordan borders Israel,
21:36
Speaker 7: so it's a fair enough assumption. And the big, you know, obvious,
21:42
Speaker 7: glaring thing missing from all the reports is that if
21:46
Speaker 7: the UK aircraft are operating over Jordan, then they are
21:50
Speaker 7: doing so to protake Israel.
21:52
Speaker 1: Simple as that.
21:54
Speaker 2: Absolutely and we have the disappointed idealist here on X
21:58
Speaker 2: making that exact point. This whole article manages to avoid
22:01
Speaker 2: stating the obvious, which is that if the ARIF is
22:03
Speaker 2: shooting DIN drones over Jordan, and we're using UK plans
22:06
Speaker 2: and weapons to defend Israel, not UK basis. So this,
22:11
Speaker 2: therefore Basil is not a defensive action in the way
22:14
Speaker 2: that Starmer was suggesting in the House of Commons.
22:18
Speaker 4: No, well, it.
22:18
Speaker 7: Certainly not defending the UK or its interests, or indeed
22:23
Speaker 7: the United States with whom, of course we have a
22:26
Speaker 7: formal defense agreement Brian NATO. But of course, remember the
22:32
Speaker 7: Israeli is our ally and I think in the last
22:36
Speaker 7: few years some joint defense agreements have been signed, haven't they.
22:41
Speaker 2: Well we can talk more about that in extra and
22:45
Speaker 2: so thank you very much for that Basil. Now the
22:47
Speaker 2: question is then, what is the sort of attitude of
22:51
Speaker 2: former British serving officers. Well, here I'm going to show
22:54
Speaker 2: a little bit of video in a second of General
22:58
Speaker 2: Sir Richard Sheriff sorry Sheriff Niddle's ex Deputy Supreme Allied
23:02
Speaker 2: Commander for Europe. He was talking to Sky News about
23:07
Speaker 2: the special relationship. He said it was a fantasy and
23:10
Speaker 2: so on. But he had some particularly strong words to
23:13
Speaker 2: say about Trump and Hexath in particular. Let's just have
23:16
Speaker 2: a brief listen, Yeah, I can so.
23:21
Speaker 1: Kirs Starmer kept talking about the special.
23:23
Speaker 7: Relationship in action, and I was wondering if you thought
23:26
Speaker 7: whether the UK is doing enough, Well, let's.
23:30
Speaker 10: Just squash any idea of a special relationship. It does
23:33
Speaker 10: not exist. It is a complete fantasy. America does what
23:37
Speaker 10: America wants to do, and Britain's got a look after
23:40
Speaker 10: its interest and any relationship with America has gone it
23:43
Speaker 10: based on self interest.
23:46
Speaker 1: So that's the first point.
23:48
Speaker 10: I think. The second point I'd make is that Britain
23:52
Speaker 10: shooting down drones, Britain engaged in offensive or defensive operations,
23:57
Speaker 10: is in videos. Frankly, the fact is that if Britain
24:00
Speaker 10: is involved, our hand is in the Bengal and so on.
24:04
Speaker 10: Out of that is that we should not, in any way,
24:06
Speaker 10: shape or form be involved with the Americans closely, because
24:10
Speaker 10: they are being led by a couple of gung ho
24:13
Speaker 10: nutters like Trump and Hexas without a proper strategy.
24:19
Speaker 1: Patrick.
24:20
Speaker 2: Uh, that's some pretty strong language from somebody like that.
24:26
Speaker 3: M Well, he must, he must, have some quite strong
24:30
Speaker 3: reasons for making a statement like that. And I think
24:33
Speaker 3: of what he's alluding to, there is a type of
24:37
Speaker 3: a holy war. Uh, that's the shape. That's certainly how this,
24:40
Speaker 3: this conflict with Iran is being characterized in American conservative
24:46
Speaker 3: and Republican GOP circles and of course with Christian Zionism
24:51
Speaker 3: as in the ascendency at at the moment.
24:54
Speaker 4: And we're gonna we're gonna sort of demonstrate and.
24:56
Speaker 3: Talk about how serious this is now, just to give
24:59
Speaker 3: you a take, and Andrea, this is from the Oval
25:03
Speaker 3: Office just in the last forty eight hours. Quite stunning,
25:07
Speaker 3: but I think people need to to see this is
25:10
Speaker 3: now standard in Washington.
25:12
Speaker 4: Go ahead.
25:14
Speaker 9: We are honored before your presence today, lifting up the
25:19
Speaker 9: arms of our President. We pray for your continued blessing
25:22
Speaker 9: and favor to rest upon him. We pray for wisdom
25:26
Speaker 9: from heaven to flood his heart, his mind, and the
25:29
Speaker 9: Lord You will guide him in these challenging times that
25:32
Speaker 9: we're facing today. I pray for your grace and your
25:36
Speaker 9: protection over him. I pray for your grace and projection
25:39
Speaker 9: over our troops and all of our men and women's
25:42
Speaker 9: serving our forces. And Father we just pray you will
25:45
Speaker 9: continue to gear our president the strength that he needs
25:49
Speaker 9: to lead our great nation as we come back to
25:52
Speaker 9: one nation under God, individual liberty, and justice for all.
25:57
Speaker 9: We pray your heavily blessing upon him.
26:05
Speaker 3: So this can only be described as a type of
26:07
Speaker 3: Christian nationalists kind of wave, but you know, attach it
26:12
Speaker 3: to overseas wars and wars of conquest, and it's quite
26:16
Speaker 3: a lethal cocktail. So but that you know, we saw
26:20
Speaker 3: even Tulsi Gobbard's posting these uh, these prayer huddles, uh,
26:24
Speaker 3: you know days or you know, right before the war
26:27
Speaker 3: uh was was announced, or when the US went to
26:30
Speaker 3: war a week ago. And so these people are fully
26:33
Speaker 3: in the full knowledge that this conflict was coming. But
26:37
Speaker 3: yet there's this outward display of piety and virtue for
26:41
Speaker 3: the public. There's a performative aspect to this, but it
26:44
Speaker 3: goes even deeper. And I want to draw people's attention
26:47
Speaker 3: to this report again, excellent work by Freddie Ponton here.
26:51
Speaker 3: This is one of the most detailed reports on this
26:55
Speaker 3: topic that's out there right now online. And again we'll
26:58
Speaker 3: we'll leave a link to this the show notes, but
27:01
Speaker 3: and the links outward in this. The research links are
27:04
Speaker 3: embedded in this article are quite extraordinary. Crusader in chief
27:08
Speaker 3: Pete Hegseth's Christian Zionist mission to help Israel confront Iran.
27:14
Speaker 3: It's much more than that. This is a this is
27:16
Speaker 3: the segue to the Greater Israel project, of course, but
27:21
Speaker 3: so but in here as well. Let's look a little
27:24
Speaker 3: bit closer. Now, this is Pete Hegseth. This is the
27:27
Speaker 3: Secretary of War and emblazoned on his chest. And we
27:32
Speaker 3: did a report UK col him approximately a year ago
27:35
Speaker 3: after he's been confirmed as the Defense Secretary at the time.
27:40
Speaker 3: So we were on this topic and showing you these
27:42
Speaker 3: things a year ago. But we'll show you again. And
27:45
Speaker 3: so that is the Cross of Jerusalem. So this is
27:48
Speaker 3: this is crusader iconography that's tattooed onto the body of
27:53
Speaker 3: the current self styled Secretary of War quote unquote Pete Hegseth. There,
28:00
Speaker 3: let's take another look closer at some of the other tattoos.
28:04
Speaker 3: So that's this is him trying to you know, motivate
28:07
Speaker 3: the troops, uh previously in this year. That's a new
28:12
Speaker 3: tattoo he's got there just first on the top of
28:14
Speaker 3: his bicep does void. Okay, This is uh God willeth
28:20
Speaker 3: God will it or rough translation there in Latin and
28:25
Speaker 3: so and again this is something this is crusader slogans
28:30
Speaker 3: and so forth, that he's got tattooed. But below that
28:33
Speaker 3: is a new tattoo in Arabic as you can see.
28:36
Speaker 3: And if you translate that it's uh kafir or infidel, okay.
28:42
Speaker 3: And there's there's other interesting things he's got on his
28:46
Speaker 3: on his body.
28:47
Speaker 4: But I mean that that's that's so.
28:51
Speaker 3: The accusation is that Pete heex that's a religious fanatic,
28:54
Speaker 3: and that he is, you know, somewhat unhinged. I think
28:58
Speaker 3: you can tell that from some of his statements. He
29:00
Speaker 3: has a background. Accusations are alcoholism, not spousal abuse or
29:06
Speaker 3: partner abuse. He had to pay a settlement for some
29:09
Speaker 3: the allegations are some kind of a violent altercation with
29:11
Speaker 3: his previous partner.
29:13
Speaker 4: So he has this kind of checkered past.
29:17
Speaker 3: A former guard at Gitmo Guantanamobey, his highest rank was
29:21
Speaker 3: major in the military, and this is quite extraordinary someone
29:25
Speaker 3: would be promoted as a reservist as a major suddenly
29:30
Speaker 3: overnight after being a Fox News weekend host and suddenly
29:35
Speaker 3: picked out of almost near obscurity to be the head
29:38
Speaker 3: of the Pentagon. And the question is why, And everyone
29:42
Speaker 3: was asking this question at the time. We knew the
29:44
Speaker 3: answer to that at the time, but many were asking
29:47
Speaker 3: the question, why Pete Hegseth when there's probably a few
29:51
Speaker 3: thousand people more qualified, definitely within the US military structure
29:55
Speaker 3: to be the Secretary of Defense, to be in charge
29:57
Speaker 3: of the military in the United States. But why pick
30:00
Speaker 3: someone who's young, inexperienced, and with this problematic personal life
30:07
Speaker 3: and personal history. And the answer is, well, let's just
30:10
Speaker 3: go back to twenty eighteen and he makes a trip
30:14
Speaker 3: to visit settlements in Israel, and this speech he gave
30:18
Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen in Jerusalem here advocating for the rebuilding
30:25
Speaker 3: of a third Temple and the return of the Red Heifer.
30:30
Speaker 3: Believe it or not, Pete Hegseth is a member, if
30:34
Speaker 3: you will of this cult.
30:36
Speaker 4: Go ahead. This is from twenty eighteen.
30:40
Speaker 11: And today Jennifer and I and others had a chance
30:43
Speaker 11: to go see the western wall of the Temple mount
30:46
Speaker 11: The western wall tunnels so much of the old city,
30:51
Speaker 11: and as you stand there, you can't help but behold
30:53
Speaker 11: the miracle before you, and it got me thinking about
30:56
Speaker 11: another miracle that I hope all of you don't see
30:59
Speaker 11: too far away. Because nineteen seventeen was a miracle, nineteen
31:04
Speaker 11: forty eight was a miracle, nineteen sixty seven was a miracle,
31:09
Speaker 11: twenty seventeen, the declaration of Jerusalem of the capital was
31:13
Speaker 11: a miracle. And there's no reason why the miracle of
31:17
Speaker 11: the re establishment of the Temple on the Temple Mount
31:20
Speaker 11: is not possible.
31:27
Speaker 5: I don't know.
31:27
Speaker 6: How it would happen.
31:29
Speaker 11: You don't know how it would happen, but I know
31:31
Speaker 11: that it could happen. That's all I had. And a
31:38
Speaker 11: step in that process, a step in every process, is
31:41
Speaker 11: the recognition that facts and activities on the ground truly matter.
31:46
Speaker 11: And that's why going and visiting Judea in Samaria, understanding
31:49
Speaker 11: that sovereignty, the very sovereignty of Israeli soil, in Israeli
31:56
Speaker 11: cities locations, is a critical next step to showing the
32:00
Speaker 11: world that this is the land for Jews.
32:02
Speaker 5: And the land of Israel.
32:04
Speaker 11: And I believe, as was mentioned, he said, you need
32:07
Speaker 11: to what was mentioned is you need to buy the ticket.
32:11
Speaker 11: Don't just wish for forty years to win the lottery.
32:14
Speaker 11: Buy the ticket. I would submit to you in light
32:17
Speaker 11: of the support you have in Washington, DC, the support
32:20
Speaker 11: you have amongst patriotic Americans, amongst evangelical Christians, amongst believers,
32:26
Speaker 11: amongst Republicans, even amongst some Democrats who can barely say
32:30
Speaker 11: it anymore in Washington. Buy the ticket, take your action,
32:36
Speaker 11: do what needs to be done here in Israel, because
32:38
Speaker 11: I truly believe this is a moment where America will
32:40
Speaker 11: have your back. You have Donald Trump in the White House,
32:44
Speaker 11: you have Mike Pence as Vice President, you have Nikki
32:46
Speaker 11: Haley at the UN You have true believers in Israel
32:49
Speaker 11: and America that have your back.
32:56
Speaker 4: So true believers.
32:58
Speaker 3: So if there's any doubt as to why Hegseth was
33:01
Speaker 3: selected by Mary Maddelson and shortlisted for Trump's transition team
33:06
Speaker 3: for this role, that's your evidence right there. He was
33:09
Speaker 3: identified as a absolute irreplaceable young talent at that very moment,
33:16
Speaker 3: and that's what we're seeing here.
33:17
Speaker 4: Now.
33:19
Speaker 3: This comes at a time where there are report surfacing
33:23
Speaker 3: people complaining to independent groups about proselytizing within the US military.
33:30
Speaker 3: And this is from an Al Jazeera documentary called Praying
33:33
Speaker 3: for Armageddon and just gives you a look into the
33:37
Speaker 3: systemic problem that is developing within the US military command structure.
33:42
Speaker 4: We'll go ahead and roll this.
33:48
Speaker 11: Most of the young people that come into the military
33:50
Speaker 11: are there probably because they're trying to figure out who
33:53
Speaker 11: they are. From an evangelistic standpoint, I've always referred to.
33:57
Speaker 4: Them as ripe as black bananas.
34:03
Speaker 12: Chapels or increasingly coming from the fundamentalist sex. These evangelical
34:08
Speaker 12: fundamentalist chapelains go to some place where basic training graduates
34:13
Speaker 12: and they say beforehand in their meeting, these troops.
34:16
Speaker 4: Are at their most vulnerable.
34:18
Speaker 6: They've been racked and trained to death.
34:21
Speaker 10: Go get them, nothing holds us.
34:27
Speaker 4: We try to reach our recruits immediately.
34:29
Speaker 13: They're four hundred and fifty thousand recruits in the freshman
34:31
Speaker 13: class of this next year's Armed Forces that's going through
34:34
Speaker 13: boot camp. We will touch about two hundred thousand of
34:37
Speaker 13: them this next year.
34:42
Speaker 6: They had something like seventy baptisms at Fort Jackson at
34:46
Speaker 6: the end of basic training exercise, and they proselytize and
34:50
Speaker 6: they get them, They take them down and baptize them,
34:52
Speaker 6: and then they're part of the Christian Nationalists.
35:03
Speaker 3: So you know in This documentary also features Mikey Weinstein.
35:08
Speaker 3: He's the head of an organization called Military Religious Freedom Foundation,
35:13
Speaker 3: where he's lodging the complaints of thousands of US military members,
35:18
Speaker 3: including currently active duty right now, that are saying they're
35:22
Speaker 3: being pressured or they're being persecuted or being given a
35:27
Speaker 3: hard time because they're not Christian enough, and that this
35:30
Speaker 3: is becoming a problem within the ranks of the US military.
35:34
Speaker 3: Under the Trump administration, this has really flourished this type
35:39
Speaker 3: of situation. Here's another clip as well, and I mean
35:43
Speaker 3: this is just we'll leave the link to this documentary
35:45
Speaker 3: in the show notes. It's just required viewing. But this
35:49
Speaker 3: next clip is quite stunning, and you'll see more of
35:52
Speaker 3: the crusader icnography.
35:54
Speaker 4: But go ahead.
35:57
Speaker 10: You know, in the media, we've seen images of Crusader symbols,
36:02
Speaker 10: of Christian symbols, of units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
36:07
Speaker 13: We had one hundred and thirty eight US Marines that
36:10
Speaker 13: came to us in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. They were
36:14
Speaker 13: walking into the villages out there, and the village elders,
36:17
Speaker 13: most of them hadn't even heard of nine to eleven,
36:19
Speaker 13: but they'd heard of what I ended up calling the
36:21
Speaker 13: Jesus Rifle. A company called Trijicon based out of Michigan.
36:26
Speaker 13: They had about a two billion dollar contract to make
36:28
Speaker 13: rifle scopes for our military. On the scopes, if you
36:33
Speaker 13: look closely, were biblical citations from the Book of Matthew
36:37
Speaker 13: Mark Luke John Revelation. It was burned into the scope
36:41
Speaker 13: that think of the optics of American soldiers shooting Muslims
36:46
Speaker 13: in Afghanistan through the scopes that have the New Testament citations.
36:51
Speaker 13: These are air force fighters that can carry nuclear weapons.
36:54
Speaker 13: Complete Crusader iconography, complete with the helmet, the three shaped
37:00
Speaker 13: stars of course, the sword and the crucifix. All stuff
37:05
Speaker 13: like this does is completely motivate the recruiting efforts of
37:09
Speaker 13: Boca Haram, al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. Isis the
37:13
Speaker 13: Majahadeen and the Taliban? How do they refer to America
37:16
Speaker 13: the Crusaders? This doesn't help.
37:35
Speaker 3: So this is how some of these weapons are being
37:38
Speaker 3: marketed right now. So you see a level of religious extremism, fanaticism,
37:43
Speaker 3: and Christian nationalism being infused into the US military, led
37:47
Speaker 3: by a clearly a religious fanatic, Pete Hegseth as the
37:53
Speaker 3: and who renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War.
37:57
Speaker 3: Why would you rename the a department a government department
38:02
Speaker 3: the Department of War unless you're intending on waging wars.
38:06
Speaker 3: And this is exactly what we're seeing now, So it
38:08
Speaker 3: shouldn't surprise anybody what we're all witnessing, what's unfolding now,
38:13
Speaker 3: and this is being portrayed and again in some of
38:15
Speaker 3: these complaints that this is a holy war, that this
38:19
Speaker 3: war against Iran on behalf of Israel from a Christian
38:24
Speaker 3: Zionist point of view, commanders are telling them this is
38:27
Speaker 3: a holy war against Iran. And this is documented now,
38:32
Speaker 3: and this is now finally making the rounds and getting
38:35
Speaker 3: press coverage. It had been under the radar for so long.
38:38
Speaker 3: And another there's many key organizations in one of them
38:44
Speaker 3: here which is featured in this report as well as
38:48
Speaker 3: in Freddie Ponton's report at twenty first century, are the
38:51
Speaker 3: Jewish Institute for National Security of America. And if you
38:55
Speaker 3: go to their website, and it's quite interesting, you see
38:58
Speaker 3: they have these exchange programs, so they're bringing US officers
39:02
Speaker 3: to Israel for indoctrination and then they spend time over there,
39:07
Speaker 3: and the IDF also have outreach organizations. So driving this
39:13
Speaker 3: movement through the American military is also these Israeli organizations
39:19
Speaker 3: that seem to be there to help steer this process.
39:22
Speaker 3: And I personally think this has been a big influence
39:26
Speaker 3: and this is becoming more prevalent within the US military here.
39:30
Speaker 3: But you go to the website, which we've put links
39:34
Speaker 3: in the show notes as well for people to see
39:36
Speaker 3: for themselves. But again go to the twenty first century
39:39
Speaker 3: where I report by Freddie ponton some great journalism that
39:43
Speaker 3: he's put together there, and the evidence is just overwhelming.
39:46
Speaker 3: It's shocking in fact. But over to you, Mike.
39:52
Speaker 1: Patrick, then there's the issue of Perim.
39:57
Speaker 3: Well, Purim, the Jewish holiday and festival. I mean, I
40:04
Speaker 3: think Basil has also been looking in to this connection
40:07
Speaker 3: as well, and certainly this is something too that needs
40:11
Speaker 3: to be explained.
40:12
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, okay, Basil, just very briefly, then if
40:15
Speaker 2: you could just give us a brief explanation of Purhim
40:19
Speaker 2: and why that's relevant to what Patrick's been covering here.
40:23
Speaker 7: Well, Purim celebrates the slaughter of a previous generation of Iranians,
40:29
Speaker 7: supposedly at least as documented in the Book of Esther
40:33
Speaker 7: dating back twenty three hundred years and on Fox News
40:37
Speaker 7: this week, a notable rabbi used the occasion to celebrate
40:44
Speaker 7: and double down on the elimination of these.
40:47
Speaker 1: Negative people in Iran.
40:49
Speaker 7: It's really quite extraordinary stuff, and of course worth remembering
40:53
Speaker 7: that this war itself started just a couple of days
40:55
Speaker 7: before Purim, and people have pointed out that a lot
40:58
Speaker 7: of other wars that Israel has started have had similar timing.
41:03
Speaker 1: But let's roll this clip here from Fox News.
41:07
Speaker 11: In shurin Yadagar and Rabbi high men.
41:10
Speaker 5: So what do you think comes next in Iran? Will
41:12
Speaker 5: we see regime change?
41:14
Speaker 1: Shila?
41:14
Speaker 5: I do think we're going to see regime change. I
41:16
Speaker 5: don't think that we've lost all of these Iranian lives, lost,
41:19
Speaker 5: American soldiers, lost, Israeli lives to remain with the same
41:24
Speaker 5: status quo. Absolutely not, Rabbi.
41:26
Speaker 14: There's definitely going to be a regime change. But I
41:29
Speaker 14: gotta say today, twenty three hundred years ago, the entire
41:33
Speaker 14: Yran negative people were wiped out, and therefore we give
41:37
Speaker 14: presents the name of put Him and everybody of the
41:41
Speaker 14: Nightcat crew.
41:42
Speaker 4: Poor look at this.
41:44
Speaker 11: So there'll be a toast after a genuine one churin.
41:47
Speaker 5: Thank you Rabbi.
41:47
Speaker 1: That's very kind.
41:49
Speaker 9: Oh yes, absolutely there will be a regime change.
41:55
Speaker 7: Absolutely ghoulish if you ask me, yet rated on national
42:01
Speaker 7: television there in the United States.
42:02
Speaker 1: It's the reference to negative.
42:05
Speaker 7: People, you know, that's what they are, so they must
42:08
Speaker 7: all be wiped out.
42:09
Speaker 1: Everybody in agreement about that over a box, yes, Basil,
42:14
Speaker 1: very grim. Okay.
42:15
Speaker 2: Now, UK Column only operates with your help, and if
42:19
Speaker 2: you possibly can help us financially, then please get onto
42:22
Speaker 2: the UK Column website and have a look to see
42:25
Speaker 2: what ways there are.
42:26
Speaker 1: That you can support us.
42:28
Speaker 2: If you can't support us financially, please do share this
42:30
Speaker 2: program and any of our material because that helps us
42:34
Speaker 2: beat the censorship regime. Thank you once again everybody that's
42:38
Speaker 2: helping us in any way. Tonight at seven pm, Charles
42:42
Speaker 2: and I as being to German on the broader implications
42:45
Speaker 2: of the attack on Iran. On Sunday for members only,
42:49
Speaker 2: is part two of the Thousand Words podcast, Doc Malek
42:55
Speaker 2: being the person being painted in this particular occasion, So
43:00
Speaker 2: join that program at seven pm on Sunday four. Fantastic
43:05
Speaker 2: discussion yet again. Now the UK counter Terrorism Police have
43:11
Speaker 2: decided to launch a digital campaign in teenage boys to
43:15
Speaker 2: highlight what they describe as the real world consequences of
43:18
Speaker 2: sharing harmful extremist content online now. Depending on the case,
43:23
Speaker 2: the consequences of being convicted under the Terrorism Act, they say,
43:26
Speaker 2: can include sentences in prison or young Offenders institutions depending
43:31
Speaker 2: on their age, community orders including tagging, curfews, restrictions on movement,
43:36
Speaker 2: confiscation of electronic devices, and long term restrictions on travel
43:42
Speaker 2: to some foreign countries, as well of course, as problems
43:45
Speaker 2: with attending college, university or getting a job.
43:48
Speaker 1: And so on.
43:49
Speaker 2: So anyway, they have produced two videos for sharing on
43:52
Speaker 2: the various platforms, particularly targeting teenage boys.
43:56
Speaker 1: Let's just have a look.
43:57
Speaker 3: At one of them, device take care by the Police.
44:02
Speaker 15: Of them couldn't believe it.
44:04
Speaker 10: I might get from a record and not be able
44:06
Speaker 10: to go to college. I only share a link. I
44:10
Speaker 10: just thought it was funny, but it was terrorist content
44:15
Speaker 10: and that is not a game. It's real life.
44:23
Speaker 2: So let's break on screen the counter terrorism website and
44:27
Speaker 2: just show you what they were saying in this What
44:30
Speaker 2: you share leaves a trace counter terrorism policings. What you
44:33
Speaker 2: share Leaves a Trace campaign is aimed at thirteen to
44:36
Speaker 2: seventeen year old boys at risk of being caught up
44:38
Speaker 2: in terrorist offending. It's been designed in response to increasing
44:41
Speaker 2: numbers of teenage boys being arrested for and convicted of
44:44
Speaker 2: terrorist defenses in the UK, often connected to accessing and
44:48
Speaker 2: sharing extremist content on social media. Campaign is on TikTok
44:52
Speaker 2: and YouTube. As we know they were their large numbers
44:56
Speaker 2: of teenage boys spend their time and our most effective
44:59
Speaker 2: at delivering me just to this audience. So Bazil, just
45:02
Speaker 2: very briefly, I'm looking at this in the context of
45:05
Speaker 2: the prescription of Palestine action, for example. But you know,
45:11
Speaker 2: the style of the videos that these guys are pushing
45:13
Speaker 2: out is in and of themselves fairly terrorizing.
45:19
Speaker 1: Absolutely scary stuff.
45:21
Speaker 7: Mike and I noticed in that statement you read that
45:24
Speaker 7: the word extremist was substituted for terrorists when referring to
45:29
Speaker 7: whatever it was that always are accused of sharing. The
45:33
Speaker 7: idea being that counter narratives which can therefore be characterized
45:39
Speaker 7: as extremist because they go against whatever the government is pushing,
45:45
Speaker 7: can then be further recategorized as terrorists, but in fact
45:49
Speaker 7: they are nothing of the kind. They are simply countered
45:52
Speaker 7: to the official pro genocide narrative that the UK government endorses.
45:58
Speaker 7: Of course, it's really bizarre stuff. And you know that
46:01
Speaker 7: boy interesting notice called act his acting, well, he deserves
46:07
Speaker 7: some kind of award because he's extremely effective, but in
46:10
Speaker 7: a really chilling way. I think it's a child abuse
46:15
Speaker 7: frankly to even put a boy through doing that, spouting
46:20
Speaker 7: that total garbage and simply spreading fear amongst a particularly
46:25
Speaker 7: vulnerable group of teenage boys.
46:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely so clearly designed to shut down spread of information
46:32
Speaker 2: so on and perhaps protest. But the BBC has been
46:36
Speaker 2: up to the same kind of thing.
46:38
Speaker 7: Well, the BBC's are always up to this kind of thing.
46:41
Speaker 7: It's Nick Robinson in this case, who, in a conversation
46:45
Speaker 7: with an Anglo Iranian actress, questioned whether or not anti
46:49
Speaker 7: war protests in Britain should be banned. Believe it or not,
46:55
Speaker 7: he certainly seems to think so. And this is part
46:59
Speaker 7: of a really because later earlier, you know, after that
47:04
Speaker 7: was earlier this week that mooth in Ali was accused
47:09
Speaker 7: in the House of Commons of attending a pro Hamena
47:13
Speaker 7: rally and the Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to rebut
47:19
Speaker 7: the Tory MP who made the accusation, and as a result,
47:25
Speaker 7: Ali has had death threats. Now he was in fact
47:28
Speaker 7: attending a Stop the War cnd rally, but that was
47:33
Speaker 7: deliberately mischaracterized. He's challenged the MP in question to repeat
47:38
Speaker 7: the accusation outside.
47:39
Speaker 1: The House of Commons, which he hasn't done yet.
47:42
Speaker 7: Of course, common community means you can get away with
47:44
Speaker 7: saying pretty much anything. It remains to be seen whether
47:48
Speaker 7: most in Ali gets an apology from Kirs Starmer, who
47:53
Speaker 7: made derogatory remarks about the direction the Green Party was going.
47:58
Speaker 7: The Tory MP question being Alex shellbroke.
48:04
Speaker 1: Yes.
48:04
Speaker 2: Okay, well, let's consider the issue of empire and colonialism
48:08
Speaker 2: for a second. I just wanted to make some comment
48:10
Speaker 2: about this particular article from the Daily Skeptic. It's headlined
48:14
Speaker 2: Lewis Hamilton Africa must unite and take control back from
48:19
Speaker 2: the British. So it's talking about some of the comments
48:22
Speaker 2: that Hamilton has made, but it was promoted in a
48:26
Speaker 2: tweet by Toby Young here posting that Lewis Hamilton says
48:29
Speaker 2: Africa must unite and take back from the French, the Spanish,
48:33
Speaker 2: the Portuguese, and the British apparently unaware that the British
48:36
Speaker 2: Empire withdrew from Africa sixty years ago. And I can't
48:40
Speaker 2: believe that Toby Young is unaware that Hamilton is mostly
48:44
Speaker 2: right on this, and any suggestion that handing over political
48:47
Speaker 2: control the bunch of corrupt puppets means that the British
48:50
Speaker 2: empire withdrew when it Pitty didn't is absurd. For example,
48:54
Speaker 2: this report by Mark Curtis found that one hundred and
48:58
Speaker 2: one companies listed on the London the Stockish Change, mainly British,
49:01
Speaker 2: have mining operations that thirty seven Sub Saharan African countries controlling,
49:05
Speaker 2: and estimated one point zero five trillion dollars worth of
49:09
Speaker 2: resources in just five commodities, oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum,
49:15
Speaker 2: never mind rare earths. Of those one hundred and one companies,
49:18
Speaker 2: one quarter are incorporated in tax havens. And the report
49:21
Speaker 2: goes on to talk about a revolving door between the
49:25
Speaker 2: British political establishment and British mining companies, with at least
49:29
Speaker 2: five British government officials taking up seats on the boards
49:32
Speaker 2: of these mining companies operating in Africa, and they talk
49:37
Speaker 2: about companies like Rio Tinto and glen Core and Vendata
49:41
Speaker 2: Vedanta of course, whose activities have been associated with the
49:45
Speaker 2: displacement of communities. I think Basil was talking about that
49:47
Speaker 2: earlier libor rights violations and environmental degradation and tax avoidance.
49:53
Speaker 2: And this is why Tony Blair, of course, is so
49:56
Speaker 2: determined to compete for influence in subsist sub Saharan Africa
50:01
Speaker 2: in the sahell. So you know this idea that the
50:04
Speaker 2: British Empire ever left is ridiculous politically, perhaps economically, financially
50:11
Speaker 2: absolutely not. Okay, buzzle, We'll just have to move on
50:17
Speaker 2: here for a second because we want to highlight this
50:20
Speaker 2: article in the Canary entitled watch Starmer's Transparency Minister must
50:27
Speaker 2: resign for protecting volunteer And now we're going to show
50:30
Speaker 2: the first minute or so of a video clip here.
50:35
Speaker 2: Let's just watch this, Buzzle, and then we'll get your
50:37
Speaker 2: comments on it.
50:39
Speaker 15: We've identified a major conflict of interest at the heart
50:42
Speaker 15: of the cabin office that requires either a recusal or
50:45
Speaker 15: a resignation. The man at the center of all of
50:47
Speaker 15: this is Chris Ward. He's the government's Minister for Transparency,
50:51
Speaker 15: but he also wears a second hat as the Minister
50:54
Speaker 15: for Government Commercial Function. Right now, he's acting as a
50:57
Speaker 15: one man firewall blocking the truth about Lord Mandelsson and
51:01
Speaker 15: the tech giant Pallanteer because he's curating his own history.
51:05
Speaker 15: Chris Ward must step aside, or he must go. This
51:08
Speaker 15: is how the firewall works. Parliament has ordered the release
51:11
Speaker 15: of every email and whatsapped between Number ten and Peter Mandelsson,
51:15
Speaker 15: but the Government has made Chris Ward the official gatekeeper
51:18
Speaker 15: for those files. Ward is the one scoping the documents.
51:22
Speaker 15: He decides what's relevant and what's sensitive. If he marks
51:26
Speaker 15: a file as a national security risk, it gets buried.
51:29
Speaker 15: And where does it go. It goes to the Intelligence Committee,
51:33
Speaker 15: chaired by Lord Beamish, the person deciding what to hide.
51:37
Speaker 15: Chris Ward is the PM's former right hand man, the
51:40
Speaker 15: person overseeing the secrets. Lord Beamish is a man ennobled
51:44
Speaker 15: by the PM just months ago. It is an oversight,
51:48
Speaker 15: it's a closed loop of loyalty.
51:52
Speaker 2: It's very hard to argue with that basil. An absolutely
51:54
Speaker 2: spectacular report.
51:55
Speaker 1: No that the.
51:58
Speaker 2: Link will be in the show old or ever to
52:00
Speaker 2: watch the full thing, but what are your thoughts?
52:04
Speaker 7: Well, Chris Ward was parachuted into the Brighton kemp Town
52:07
Speaker 7: constituency over the wishes of the local Labor Party because
52:13
Speaker 7: he's had died in the Will Blair eye. What he's
52:16
Speaker 7: done here is failed to designate Pallenteer as a strategic supplier,
52:21
Speaker 7: even though the scale of its annual revenue from the
52:24
Speaker 7: UK Government and the key roles are you supposed to
52:27
Speaker 7: fulfill both mean it should be because under the government's
52:31
Speaker 7: own strategic Supplier risk management rules, any company with more
52:35
Speaker 7: than one hundred million pounds worth of contracts with the
52:37
Speaker 7: UK Government it should be designated as such. So you know,
52:43
Speaker 7: when you stick that together with what we heard in
52:46
Speaker 7: that report about his key role in deciding what and
52:50
Speaker 7: what is and revealed about Peter Mandelson's relationship not only
52:54
Speaker 7: with Pallenteer of course, but with Epstein, then you've got
52:57
Speaker 7: a typical New Labor mess, haven't you? Another farrago of construction,
53:05
Speaker 7: you know, of corruption. So it's hoped that, you know,
53:10
Speaker 7: following McSweeney and the others that have gone that Chris
53:14
Speaker 7: Ward should be certainly should be forced out. But I'm
53:18
Speaker 7: hearing that in Westminster, even though technically out of power,
53:22
Speaker 7: the likes of McSweeney are continuing through Labor together in
53:27
Speaker 7: spite of the enormous pressure it's been under to you know,
53:32
Speaker 7: try and hang on to the reigns of power inside
53:36
Speaker 7: the Labor Party and therefore, you know, in the corridors
53:40
Speaker 7: of government.
53:42
Speaker 2: Thank you, Basil Patrick. Let's come back on to war then, unfortunately,
53:46
Speaker 2: but we need to do this. So you want to
53:49
Speaker 2: have a look at an exercise that was run at
53:53
Speaker 2: the real couple of years after or one year after
53:55
Speaker 2: nine to eleven, certainly, but Iran being the key central theme.
54:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we're going to get into this AI conversation
54:06
Speaker 3: here with the Pentagon, but this is a military exercise
54:10
Speaker 3: here upon the screen that a lot of people will
54:13
Speaker 3: referenced when they're talking about, you know, it should the
54:15
Speaker 3: US or what would happen if the US engaged in
54:18
Speaker 3: a full blown war with Iran and they of course
54:20
Speaker 3: the Millennium Challenge as you mentioned, Mike, of two thousand
54:23
Speaker 3: and two, and it didn't end well for the US military.
54:27
Speaker 3: Now I have to add a very important point here,
54:31
Speaker 3: and this is something that has changed. There's a new
54:34
Speaker 3: variable that wargame that was calculated and ran corporation. These
54:38
Speaker 3: other think tanks, military think tanks as well. They do
54:43
Speaker 3: these type of exercise and wargame exercise the Pentagon as well.
54:46
Speaker 3: But a new variable has come into play, which is
54:49
Speaker 3: that those wargames are predicated on the assumption that the
54:55
Speaker 3: United States or a case of Israel would not go
55:00
Speaker 3: completely scorched earth and have no regard for civilian casualties
55:06
Speaker 3: by bombing densely populated urban areas, you know, because that
55:11
Speaker 3: does change the trajectory of a conflict. And so now
55:16
Speaker 3: you have that variable that has been introduced after October seventh,
55:20
Speaker 3: and that changes these works. So we can't really necessarily
55:24
Speaker 3: reference these war games as being accurate portrayals of what
55:29
Speaker 3: we're seeing now because of this change.
55:32
Speaker 4: In doctrine by the.
55:34
Speaker 3: US and by Israel and by extension US allies including Britain,
55:39
Speaker 3: because as Basil and you both said previously, Britain's deeply
55:44
Speaker 3: involved in the genocide in Gaza as an enabler and
55:48
Speaker 3: a facilitator for Israel. And so that brings us to
55:52
Speaker 3: another new variable, which is that who is making the
55:54
Speaker 3: decisions on targeting is it humans or is it Ai
55:58
Speaker 3: will bring up this report here as is evolving ais
56:02
Speaker 3: as an account I follow on Instagram. Here a study
56:05
Speaker 3: finds chat GPT Claude Gemini deployed tactical nuclear weapons in
56:10
Speaker 3: ninety five percent of twenty one simulated wargame scenarios and
56:15
Speaker 3: never surrendered. Okay, even if their opponents were engaged using
56:21
Speaker 3: any kind of nuclear weapons, it didn't deter the AI
56:24
Speaker 3: from still moving forward to try to find a way here.
56:28
Speaker 3: And so this was done by King's College here and
56:31
Speaker 3: twenty one simulated crisis scenarios designed to mirror military standoffs.
56:37
Speaker 3: The system had to make strategic decisions under pressure, including
56:42
Speaker 3: whether to escalate or step back. In twenty twenty one simulations,
56:46
Speaker 3: at least one model chose to deploy tactical nuclear weapons,
56:49
Speaker 3: which equals ninety five percent of cases. None of the
56:52
Speaker 3: models chose to surrender. Very important here, even when facing
56:56
Speaker 3: heavy losses or risk of retaliation. That's pretty shocking certainly.
57:02
Speaker 3: But so the question is is the current US military
57:06
Speaker 3: devolving these decision making to AI. And we'll go back
57:09
Speaker 3: to to show you the actual paper here. But the
57:12
Speaker 3: paper published by ar xiv suggests that while these models
57:17
Speaker 3: can show structured reasoning and crisis settings, the decisions are
57:20
Speaker 3: often leaned towards escalation rather than restraint. That is the
57:24
Speaker 3: AI quality in decision making. The findings do not mean
57:28
Speaker 3: AI systems are autonomous military actors, but they raise serious
57:32
Speaker 3: questions about how such tools might behave if used in
57:36
Speaker 3: the real world of defense playing decision support. But actually
57:39
Speaker 3: know the controversy with Anthropic AI and the Pentagon Pete
57:45
Speaker 3: Hegseth himself dismissing Anthropic and banning it from government contracts
57:51
Speaker 3: because the owners of that company did not want to
57:54
Speaker 3: be involved in this sort of kill role and allowing
58:00
Speaker 3: AI to make autonous decisions in terms of killing humans,
58:04
Speaker 3: and so they were then ostracized for this, and Sam
58:07
Speaker 3: Altman and open Ay came immediately into the breach there
58:12
Speaker 3: to fill that gap for the Pentagon and Pete Hegseth
58:16
Speaker 3: with no qualms or morals at all about whether that's
58:20
Speaker 3: ethical or not. Here is the paper, just so people know,
58:23
Speaker 3: and we can put a link as well into the
58:26
Speaker 3: show notes of this. This is published up here, and
58:30
Speaker 3: this was published on Cornell University's website. But that's the study, okay.
58:34
Speaker 3: So we have a genuine problem here. If you go
58:37
Speaker 3: to the Joint Operations Center for Gaza, there are US
58:41
Speaker 3: and Israeli commanders there together and this is joint operations,
58:46
Speaker 3: the same with Iran, And so how much of AI
58:48
Speaker 3: is involved in this sort of scorched earth bombing that
58:51
Speaker 3: we're currently watching identifying buildings as potential terrorist targets. So
58:57
Speaker 3: the AI is only as good as the inputs it's
58:59
Speaker 3: getting from the designers of these military operations. And it's
59:05
Speaker 3: it's quite stunning what you're seeing. That healthscape in Gaza
59:08
Speaker 3: that we all know that we've all seen, that's a
59:11
Speaker 3: result largely. My feeling is that's also a result of
59:16
Speaker 3: devolving decision making and targeting to AI systems. That's what
59:20
Speaker 3: you get, and that's exactly what you'll see in Iran,
59:24
Speaker 3: which is unfolding right now. It's absolutely abhorrent on so
59:27
Speaker 3: many different levels, and there needs to be I think
59:31
Speaker 3: a lot more attention brought to this problem. Otherwise, you know,
59:34
Speaker 3: we what we're facing is humanity. I think we're going
59:39
Speaker 3: down a very dark road right now, and this could
59:41
Speaker 3: end in a nuclear or thermonuclear exchange or one way
59:46
Speaker 3: nuclear deployment against Iran if with this over reliant nature
59:52
Speaker 3: with AI.
59:54
Speaker 1: Thanks thank you for that. Patrick.
59:55
Speaker 2: Now let's just put a little bit of made on that.
59:58
Speaker 2: So if we remind ourselves from last week. What Charles
1:00:02
Speaker 2: was reporting this was that the Pentagon had originally threatened
1:00:06
Speaker 2: to cancel Anthropics contract by Friday of the week before
1:00:10
Speaker 2: last if the company didn't lift safeguards, so he met
1:00:14
Speaker 2: with the Anthropic CEO and so on. If you remember,
1:00:18
Speaker 2: we reported that at that point, and then if you remember,
1:00:23
Speaker 2: just one day later, Anthropic effectively reversed that decision and
1:00:27
Speaker 2: made a deal. And as Patrick's just mentioned, Sam Altman
1:00:31
Speaker 2: has also made a deal, saying on X tonight, we
1:00:34
Speaker 2: reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy
1:00:36
Speaker 2: our models in their classified network. Two of our most
1:00:40
Speaker 2: important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and
1:00:44
Speaker 2: human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous
1:00:48
Speaker 2: weapons systems. The Department for War agrees with these principles,
1:00:52
Speaker 2: reflects them in law and policy, and we put them
1:00:55
Speaker 2: in our agreement. So that's all right then as long
1:00:57
Speaker 2: as they so long as the Department of War agreed.
1:01:00
Speaker 2: And then finally he said, we remain committed to serve
1:01:03
Speaker 2: all of humanity as best we can.
1:01:06
Speaker 1: Well, we'll talk much.
1:01:07
Speaker 2: More about this an extra but I have no doubt
1:01:09
Speaker 2: I don't believe a word of that. But I just
1:01:12
Speaker 2: want to finish off with this because the Ernian IRGC
1:01:18
Speaker 2: posted on telegram talking about a couple of issues, but
1:01:25
Speaker 2: related to the use of AI in particular, and the
1:01:28
Speaker 2: fact that they were claiming to have bombed both Amazon
1:01:34
Speaker 2: and Microsoft data centers, and Avison of course did have
1:01:37
Speaker 2: some downtime and so they couldn't really hide what had
1:01:40
Speaker 2: happened to their data center. There's no confirmation either way
1:01:44
Speaker 2: about what's happened with Microsoft. But the question is why
1:01:47
Speaker 2: would these data centers be being targeted by targeted by
1:01:52
Speaker 2: Iran in the first place. And if we just bring
1:01:54
Speaker 2: that one back on screen again for a second, this
1:01:56
Speaker 2: is Microsoft talking about they're the fact that the Microsoft's
1:02:01
Speaker 2: Azure cloud system cloud infrastructure is absolutely used for military purposes. Now,
1:02:08
Speaker 2: if we go back to two thousand and three with
1:02:11
Speaker 2: the Iraq War in two thousand and three, the illegal
1:02:13
Speaker 2: Iraq War in two thousand and three, we had headlines
1:02:16
Speaker 2: like this in the BBC US cautions Iraq on human shields,
1:02:20
Speaker 2: and General Myers was absolutely suggesting that Saddam Hussin was
1:02:26
Speaker 2: responsible for war crimes if he attempted to use people
1:02:30
Speaker 2: to put people in the way of harm in Iraq,
1:02:35
Speaker 2: to try to put convince the United States not to attack,
1:02:38
Speaker 2: and so on. But you know, the question in my
1:02:41
Speaker 2: mind is this issue of dual use is one that
1:02:44
Speaker 2: has been an issue for a very long time. And
1:02:46
Speaker 2: let's bring Ben Wallace on screen here, because he absolutely
1:02:51
Speaker 2: we've quoted him as saying this. We'll ensure that we
1:02:53
Speaker 2: embed duel use at the heart of our capability management processes.
1:02:58
Speaker 2: And this is right through the military industrial complex. At
1:03:01
Speaker 2: the moment, we're seeing civilian telecommunications networks being used for
1:03:06
Speaker 2: military planning and military communications. We're seeing civilian AI systems
1:03:12
Speaker 2: now being used for military purposes, and of course, what
1:03:16
Speaker 2: does that do. That effectively makes us all, as ordinary
1:03:19
Speaker 2: members of the public human shields, because of course any
1:03:24
Speaker 2: opponent in a wars system, a war scenario is going
1:03:29
Speaker 2: to be targeting civilian infrastructure which is being used for
1:03:32
Speaker 2: war purposes. We have all become human shields now. In
1:03:35
Speaker 2: two thousand and three that was considered a war crime
1:03:38
Speaker 2: by the United States and by the United Kingdom governments.
1:03:41
Speaker 2: But somehow it's not a war crime anymore. We'll talk
1:03:44
Speaker 2: more about that in extra but we've got to leave
1:03:47
Speaker 2: it there for today. I want to say thank you
1:03:49
Speaker 2: to Basil and the Patrick for joining me today and
1:03:51
Speaker 2: for everybody that's watched. If your UK Call members stay
1:03:55
Speaker 2: on the livestream for extra. If you're not a member,
1:03:57
Speaker 2: maybe you would consider joining and joining us for news
1:04:01
Speaker 2: extra every time we do a news program. But then
1:04:03
Speaker 2: we don't forget Jerem tonight at seven pm, A thousand
1:04:07
Speaker 2: Words podcasts at seven pm on Sunday, and we'll be
1:04:10
Speaker 2: back for another news program at one pm on Monday
1:04:13
Speaker 2: as usual.
1:04:13
Speaker 1: We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us, Bye bye.