Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN)

"The Muslim Brotherhood is a militant Islamist organization with affiliates in over 70 countries, including groups designated a terrorist organizations by the U.S."

"[Its founder, Hassan al-Banna, said in 1928 that] Jihad is an obligation from Allah [for every Muslim] and cannot be ignored or evaded."

"The Way of Jihad [he wrote]: Jihad means the fighting of the unbelievers and involves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam, including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their place of worship, and smashing their idols."

"This belief was put into action in t he decades that followed as the Muslim Brotherhood's members committed numerous acts of terrorism, including the assassination of Egypt's Prime Minister in 1948."

"This jihadist ideology continues to fuel the Muslim Brotherhood today. The Brotherhood mourned the death of Osama bin Laden and its leaders developed teachings justifying revolutionary violence under sharia law."

"The Brotherhood has preached hatred towards Jews, denied the Holocaust, and called for Israel's destruction."

The Brotherhood has incited violence against Coptic Christians in Egypt amidst a wave of church bombings and other attacks by terrorist groups, including ISIS."

"Yusuf al-Qaradawi, perhaps the Brotherhood's preeminent cleric, issued a fatwa legitimizing  terrorist attacks against American troops in Iraq. And he's also deemed the Holocaust to be a, quote, 'punishment for Jews', and expressed hope that another Holocaust would someday be carried out by his fellow Islamists."  

U.S. House Reform Committee, 2018 ... The Muslim Brotherhood's Global Threat

The US has urged Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to act against terrorism  Reuters

 

Not only are some governments in the West recognizing finally the dire threat to Western civilization posed by the ideological fascism of Islamist fundamentalism espoused by the Muslim Brotherhood, they are now joined by a handful of Muslim countries as well whose governments have taken steps to outlaw their activities on their  soil. Among them is the United Arab Emirates which has been in the vanguard of issuing warnings to the West of the threat posed by this almost 100-year-old totalitarian Islamist group.

 

When President Donald Trump's government made it known it intended to "counter violence and destabilizing activities carried out by terrorist Muslim Brotherhood branches wherever they operate", a few branches of the Brotherhood were named as proscribed targets. A partial, and incomplete decision which should logically have outlawed the entire ideological/religio apparatus. Even that move, however, inspired the UAE to welcome the U.S. designation of several branches as terrorist organizations.

 

Unfortunately Mr. Trump's attention was to focus only on branches of the Muslim Brotherhood located in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, where it originated and from which the government of Egypt itself outlawed the group, which didn't stop it from continuing operations in Egypt. During the Arab Spring, when mobs of Egyptian dissenters called for Hosni Mubarak to step away from the presidency, the Muslim Brotherhood had huge support from the population. As it did from the U.S. Obama administration which chose to abandon its support for President Mubarak, and welcome the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi in his stead.

 

The Muslim Brotherhood is not alone in its "resources that enable them to engage in, support, or justify acts of extremism, hatred and terrorism" as the UAE put it. There is another source of all that the Brotherhood is recognized for, as a threat to Western values, heritage, society, culture and laws, that works studiously to accomplish the very same goal that motivates the Brotherhood. And that is the monarchy of Qatar whose vast riches from oil resources has enabled it to literally buy its way into the United States, furnishing tens of millions to American universities, while inserting itself into the political fabric of the U.S

.

Qatar's then-Emir, Sheikh Hamad, visited the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip in 2012   Reuters

 

Qatar is the Muslim Brotherhood financier, just as it plowed millions upon millions into terrorist group activities, most notably Hamas, in Gaza. The US. State Department itself has recognized Qatar as a chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood for decades. That acknowledgment has come to nothing, despite knowing Qatar finances Islamist jihad and terrorist outfits that exemplify jihadist terrorism.

 

All of this is well known, and recognized, and it cannot have slipped the attention of the U.S. president who nonetheless views Qatar as a U.S. protectorate. Mr. Trump went so far as to issue an order stating the U.S. "shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty or critical infrastructure of the state of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States". This, despite the Qatar funding of terrorism, including al-Qaeda which carried out the 9-11 attacks in New York, Washington/Pentagon and Pennsylvania. The 'art of the deal' enters the picture, with Qatari/U.S. business interests.

 

The Qataris are shrewd enough to know that even American presidents can be 'bought' with extravagantly expensive gifts. Qatar's strategy to undermine the West while funding the Muslim Brotherhood is known, yet its vast wealth and 'investments' abroad have gained it respectability and admiration. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney stated his intention to meet with "the Amir of Qatar, His Highness sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to deepen the relationship between Canada and Qatar".

 

Underlining the fault lines between intelligence and caution in that the West has chosen to blind itself to the reality of extremism that the Muslim Brotherhood and its sponsors represent as a dire threat to all the West holds dear.

 

The Growing Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on Politics, Academia, and Civil Society in Canada

This research report provides a comprehensive analysis of the organization and impact of the Muslim Brotherhood network in Canada. Over a period of decades, Brotherhood-affiliated organizations have managed to develop legitimate ties and wield considerable influence within Canada’s civil, academic, and political spheres. Branches of organizations that have previously been found to be supporting terror organizations such as Hamas continue to operate with impunity, often after rebranding themselves. The report also assesses the impact that these developments have had on Canadian university campuses, with a particular focus on McGill University, Concordia University, the University of Toronto, and York University.

"The ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours, which centres mainly on the country's alleged support for terrorism, represents one of the biggest challenges to the UK’s foreign policy to the Middle East since the Arab Spring. Qatar has been accused by its neighbours of supporting terrorism and there is substantial evidence that the country has long been supporting the Al Nusra Front, designated by the US in 2012 as a foreign terrorist organization and the Al Qaeda branch in Syria. The support has included coordination between Al Nusra commanders and senior Qatari military officials and financiers, financial assistance, and help in creating a new opposition coalition in which Al Nusra was a leading member. Qatar has also found other means to support Al Nusra in the face of the US designation including the facilitation or direct payment of ransom to the group for the released of kidnapped victims and the toleration of private, designated terrorist financiers within the country. The most significant of these financiers is an individual described by the US as a Qatar-based terrorist financier and facilitator who is also the President of an anti-Western political coalition comprised of prominent Salafi and Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders. This coalition includes at least seven leading figures and/or their organizations designated as terrorists by the United States, the EU, and/or the United Nations for their support of Al-Qaeda and related groups. Some of these figures and/or the organization itself have suggested direct attacks on the US and the UK military and the Qatari GAAC President himself has bragged about the close cooperation between GAAC and the violent Iraqi "resistance" against coalition forces."

Committees, Parliament, U.K. 

Girding for Battle in Europe -- the U.K. on Alert

 Credit AP

"[The United Kingdom is set to become] a battle-ready, armour-clad nation. [Britain] cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses." 

"The threat we face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War."

"[Britain is prepared to build] at least six new munitions factories [which the government says will generate over 1,000 jobs and produce] thousands of new long-range weapons [supporting around 800 additional positions]."

"[We will create] an Army which is ten times more lethal by 2035 [through the integration of drones, destroyers, AI, and aircraft across all service branches. We will] end the hollowing out of our armed forces [while delivering] the biggest armed forces pay rise in 20 years."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer 

 

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a visit to BAE Systems' Govan facility on June 2, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Andy Buchanan - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

 A new "hybrid Navy" with Aukus submarines and autonomous vessels that can patrol the North Atlantic

• £15bn to be spent on new nuclear warheads
• Commitment to £1.5bn to build six new factories to enable an "always on" munitions production capacity
• Building up to 7,000 long-range weapons including missiles or drones in the UK, to be used by British forces
• Pledge to set up a "cyber and electromagnetic command" to boost the military's defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace
• Extra £1.5bn to 2029 to fund repairs to military housing
• £1bn on technology to speed up delivery of targeting information to soldiers

Strategic Defence Review (SDR) 

The defence secretary visited defence company BAE Systems in Glasgow with the prime minister earlier   PA Media

 

The plan calls for the United Kingdom to build new nuclear-powered attack submarines, to prepare its army for combat, envisioning a war in Europe. Britain's prime minister informed the public their country was in the process of seriously increasing military spending, a move publicized with the design to alert both Moscow and Washington. He pledged sweeping changes to British defences far in excess of anything undertaken since the collapse over 30 years ago of the Soviet Union.

 

Spurred by the charges levelled by American President Donald Trump that the U.S. would not defend any NATO member that failed to prioritize its military spending, NATO member-countries have been reassessing defence spending, taking into account the grim circumstances of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  A strategic defence review undertaken at the behest of Mr. Starmer, led by a former U.K. defence secretary and NATO secretary-general, George Robertson, led to the U.K. government announcing these plans for the military.

 

In a Europe shaken and transformed by Russia's war in Ukraine and the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump last year, the review lays out the vulnerability of Europe in the unsettling reality that a resurgent Russia under President Vladimir Putin in his goal of re-establishing Russia as a world power with the intention of returning to the days of the USSR and the capture of Russia's near-abroad neighbours in a new rendition of satellite dependents along with the abandonment of its most powerful ally now extending sympathy to Moscow's land claims in Ukraine, the prospect of a future of uncertainty and potential occupation and conflict has fed European paranoia. 

 

UK Ministry of Defence

 

 At the time of the previous major defence review, then-prime minister Boris Johnson stated his confidence that the era of "fighting big tank battles on European land mass" are over. His confidence was betrayed when three months later, Moscow sent its tanks into Ukraine. In a rapidly changing world, where certainties of territorial aggression have once again come to the fore, the current British government is prepared to accept all 62 recommendations in the current review. Its commitment to confront threats looming on land, air, sea and cyberspace is total.

 

Now measures such as increased production of submarines and weapons and "learning the lessons of Ukraine" which took the initiative in defending its sovereignty with a focus on producing its own advanced drone technology to counter Russian forces, to the extent of reaching out to strike targets deep within Russia has inspired other European countries and deepened the commitment of Britain, Germany, and Poland to back Ukraine even more strenuously in an effort to prop up Kyiv, left high and dry by the Trump administration.

 

The U.K. plans to establish a cyber command to counter daily Russia-linked attacks. There is an intention to build up to a dozen nuclear-powered conventionally armed submarines under the AUKUS partnership with Australia and the United States. As well, the government plans to invest 15 billion pounds in Britain's nuclear arsenal; missiles carried on a handful of submarines. Britain's conventional weapons stockpiles will link with six new munitions factories and some 7,000 U.K.-built long-range weapons. 

 

British soldiers from the 16 Air Assault Brigade training in North Macedonia. Pic: AP

 

Abandoning Israel and Acquiescing to Antisemitism

"[The France/Britain/Canada joint statement condemning/warning Israel on Gaza would be] read, amplified and weaponized by those who seek to justify violence and hatred against Jews in Canada."

"When the government of Canada speaks about this conflict, it is not only addressing events in the Middle East -- it is shaping the climate for Jews in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and beyond." 

Jewish Community Council of Montreal

Left to right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the District Court in Tel Aviv on May 19, 2025. (Miriam Alster/Flash90); Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer gestures during a visit in Kingston upon Hull, England, March 13, 2025. (Oli Scarff/Pool Photo via AP); France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the National Contest for Resistance and Deportation event, at the Elysee Palace in Paris on May 7, 2025. (Michel Euler / POOL / AFP); Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a campaign rally in Toronto, on April 4, 2025. (Peter Power/AFP)

It took no time at all in the wake of the initial concern expressed by Israel's allies over the dread events of October 7, 2023 -- when thousands of Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists stormed across from Gaza into southern Israel to rape, maim and murder 1,200 Israeli infants, elderly, families, foreign farm workers and IDF members, taking 250 children, women and men hostage back to Gaza to be kept in inhumane conditions as barter for exchange of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons -- for those allies to turn their backs on Israel. 

 

The kibbutzim that were raided and destroyed by the terrorists were peopled by Israelis who viewed Palestinians sympathetically and hired many at good wages for agricultural work. Their empathy was rewarded in barbaric savagery. The very Palestinians with whom Israelis had forged friendly relations, offering them employment hard to come by in Gaza were among those who helped the terror invaders with hand-drawn maps indicating where Kibbutz security could be found, and some among them accompanied the terrorists as ordinary Palestinian civilians advantaging themselves of the opportunities to loot and destroy.

 

Palestinian terrorists move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7.   Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

That kind of betrayal of the goodwill that was given them was difficult to parse as that part of human nature that is more given to evil than to good. But it is the back-stabbing betrayal of those choosing to counter Israel's response to the horrors of October 7 through its determination to finally destroy the death cult representing Palestinian terrorism in the final realization that it could never be turned around and the necessity of defeating it militarily leading to the Israel Defense Forces hunting down of Hamas operatives shielding themselves from repercussions by melting into the densely populated cities of Gaza and the myriad tunnel system with its stores of weaponry.

 

While Israel faced added assaults from Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Islamic regime in Iran, added to the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza -- defending itself on all fronts, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands critiqued what they characterized as 'group punishment' meted out to Palestinians in the Israeli military actions to root out the terrorists from among the civilians who gave those terrorists the supporting mandate for October 7's atrocities. 

On the streets of Europe and North America a staggering number of Palestinians, Muslim immigrants and hordes of non-Muslim unions, academics, university students and others rallied in support of Palestinian 'liberation' from 'occupation', championing Hamas as 'freedom fighters', and slandering Israel as 'oppressors' of Palestinians whose leaders at every junction, turned down the opportunities given them to bargain in good faith toward an agreement to recognize Israel and form an agreed-upon state of their own. While the world echoed 'two-state solution', Palestinians taunted 'From the river to the sea', 'global Intifada', and 'Final Solution!' alongside 'Jews go back to Poland'.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the fenced in area of an encampment on the University of Toronto campus in Canada on May 2, 2024. Photo by Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images.

Condemning Israel for its purported 'disproportionate' response to an existential threat that Hamas promised to repeat unendingly, France, Canada and the United Kingdom signed a condemnatory statement denouncing Israel for its military action in Gaza, citing the Gaza Health Authority on the toll taken by the Palestinian population as unacceptable to their sense of moral sanctimony. All three have chosen to abandon their own Jewish citizens to the mobs that have howled after them, threatened them and committed unlawful acts that authorities refuse to put a stop to.

 

In Canada, former Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet chose to lend their support to the large and growing Muslim population in Canada unified against Israel in support of the Palestinian claim to Jewish ancestral land as their own, intolerably 'occupied' by Jews. The Trudeau Liberals chose to deviate from Canada's traditional firm alliance with Israel by voting against Israel in UN General Assembly sanctions against the Jewish state. When the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trudeau signalled he would be arrested if he came to Canada.

 

Antisemitism thrived and grew under the Liberal government, and it continues to under its newly-renewed mandate to continue governing under a new prime minister who appointed the same cabinet ministers to variant portfolios, all of whom have lost no time in repeating the slanders of the past against Israel, all of whom are content to allow unbridled chaos on the streets of Canadian cities as Palestinian-organized rallies harass Canadian Jews in front of their synagogues, community centres, old-age homes, parochial schools and residential communities. 

Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney speaks to his supporters after winning the Canadian Federal Election on April 29, 2025 (Photo: Getty Images)

"The Concept of Sex is Binary, a Person is Either a Woman or a Man"

"[The terms] woman [and] sex [in Britain's 2010 Equality Act which bans sex discrimination at work and in society], refer to a biological woman and biological sex."

"[It would make] no sense [for conduct under the Equality Act to be regulated] by reference to categories that can only be ascertained by knowledge of who possesses a [confidential] certificate."

"[The definition of a] woman] under Britain's gender equality law is based on a person's sex assigned at birth]."

"[The definition of sex] in the Equality Act makes clear that the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man. [Provisions of the Act that refer to protections for women] necessarily exclude men". 

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

 

"[The issue of legally defining sex] has been a battleground [and as a result the ruling will probably be seen as] very symbolic, very significant."

"But in some ways, it's quite a specific judgement turning on a particular point of statutory interpretation."

"We'll have to wait and see what the wider symbolic political ramifications [are]."

Colm O'Cinneide, professor of constitutional and human rights law, University College London

For Women Scotland's Susan Smith and Marion Calder celebrated outside court after their appeal was upheld.  Dan Kitwood/GettyImages

 

This was a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, announced on Wednesday. Commenting on the ruling's narrow but "important" implications, professor of constitutional and human rights law Colm O'Cinneide warned that it could affect transgender people's access to specific single-sex services and spaces in the country.

 

 The LGB Alliance advocates for rights of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men, an intervenor in the case as a third party, celebrated the ruling as "a watershed for women and, in particular, lesbians who have seen their rights and identities undermined over the last decade."

 

The advocacy group For Women Scotland responsible for filing the case, stated on social media that its members were "absolutely jubilant". Formed in 2018, in responding to plans by the government of Scotland to give ease to the legal change of one's gender identity through the elimination of a requirement for a medical diagnosis for dysphoria, the group has now seen its campaign through to fruition to their great satisfaction.

 

 Campaigners celebrate on Wednesday, after Britain's top court delivered unanimous judgement that the definition of a woman under equality law refers to "biological sex."

Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images

Reading out the judgement, the five-member court's deputy president Patrick Hodge took care to counsel against the interpretation of the ruling "as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another" -- as, for example, challenging the rights of people assigned female at birth against those of transgender women. Transgender people see protection from discrimination under the Equality Act in other ways; the court's ruling was to prevent that statute from incoherent language undermining its purpose.

 

A complaint had been filed by For Women Scotland in 2022, challenging guidelines on the recognition of transgender people that the Scottish government issued ... which gave rise to For Women Scotland Ltd. v. The Scottish Ministers. A law requiring equal opportunities for women on public boards -- that people issued with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) identifying them as women -- led to the guidelines prompted by a successful legal challenge that the GRC identifies holders as women who should be considered so, for Equality Act purposes. 

These are official documents issued by the British government to a  transgender individual for legal recognition of their gender identity where a Gender Recognition Panel comprised of legal or medical experts evaluates applications. With a GRC people can update their British marriage or civil partnership certification. Only adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria or who have had gender-affirming surgery and lived that gender role for two years are eligible, with the intention of living in the gender for the rest of their lives.

 

The argument For Women Scotland fielded was that the Equality Act protections for women should apply to those whose assigned sex at birth is female, only. People who undergo gender-affirming surgery are provided with specific protections under the act. The group had no intention of altering those protections, but argued that "for women to have full rights and protection it is important that 'sex' is clarified as referring to biology".  

Women's rights activists hold placards outside the U.K. Supreme Court to challenge gender recognition laws, in London, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

 

"This ruling brings clarity and confidence, for women and service providers such as hospitals, refuges, and sports clubs."

"Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this government."

British government statement

Video Game Glorifying Terrorism

"Where are those who carry the explosive belts? Where are them [sic]? Come here, I want an explosive belt to blow up myself over the Zionists!!! It is a jihad, a jihad of victory or martyrdom!" 

"You became a martyr. Rejoice, O mother of the martyr. Rejoice! Prepare your son for his marriage [in paradise], tie the band on all your pain and spread his wedding handkerchief, spread your anger against the oppressor, his injustice must be stopped."

"Allahu akbar. From the river to the sea."

"Today is the Day of Avenge [sic]. I will make you taste the pain and burn you like rats! We are people who never surrender, we either win or become martyrs, and both are victory!"

Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, gameplay

"Fursan al-Aqsa is not a mere 'game', but a display in utter sadism."

"In glorifying the barbaric atrocities of October 7th, the creator is effectively contributing to the recruitment and radicalization of potential terrorists and inciting them to recreate and carry out such gruesome acts of violence."

"This may place both the creator of the game and the distributor Steam, and parent company, Valve, in direct violation of Canada's anti-terror legislation and Criminal Code."

Arson Ostrovsky, chief executive, International Legal Forum (ILF)

"This game does not promote 'terrorism', antisemitism, hate against Jews or any other group, this is a message of protest against the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands. Fursan al-Aqsa is a video game about war like many other games here on Steam [Six days in Fallujah, Call of Duty and others]."

"All the Characters, Art and Storylines depicted in this game are purely the work of fiction. Any similarity to persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The plot of this game is a fictional history inspired by real facts. Even the political and military groups depicted on the game are fictional. In this game, the player does not shoot Israeli civilians, women, children, elderly, only soldiers."

Steam disclaimer

Steam Website Advert

 

In late 2021, prior to the release of this game, Valve was warned by the International Legal Forum (ILF), a global network of lawyers organized to combat antisemitism, that distributing Fursan al-Aqsa could be a "direct violation of United States anti-terror laws and (be) subject to potential civil litigation". That warning doesn't appear to have impressed the distributor of the game, one whit. The video game glorifying the October attack on Israel remains available on the digital distribution service, Steam.

Originally released in 2022, following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel in 2023, an updated version invites players to recreate some atrocities like attacking an Israeli military base with the use of motorized paragliders, the very tactic Hamas engaged in on October 7. In the United Kingdom, the game was pulled from Steam when the country's digital counterterrorism unit contacted the company. The game remains accessible for Canadian users on Steam, and Black Friday sales saw it heavily discounted.

One of the world's largest online gaming marketplaces, Valve Corp., the parent company of Steam, is not interested in explaining itself. Gameplay footage shows militants chanting "Allahu akbar" and "From the river to the sea" on YouTube. Players can dress as kaffiyeh-uniformed terrorists wearing the Hamas-conventional green headbands. While Israeli forces in the game are identified with an inverted red triangle; the Hams symbol used in its propaganda videos designed to demonstrate by the triangle that whoever is identified with it, is ripe for death.

ILF chief executive Arsen Ostrovsky warned that the company's decision not to remove the game for its Canadian users, may lead his group to "consider pursuing immediate legal action". The game developer, Brazilian-Palestinian Nidal Nijim, claims that Fursan al-Aqsa doesn't encourage antisemitism; as a war-based shooter game, like many others, it merely offers a different perspective on  ongoing conflicts. His disingenuous claim that players do not "shoot Israeli civilians, women, children, elderly, only soldiers", essentially white-washes reality to make the game more palatable to players and immune from criticism.

Before its post-October 7 update, older footage shows opening credits featuring a Palestinian militant with a suicide vest. Abu Ubaida, the name of a recognizable Hamas spokesperson representing its al-Qassam Brigades 'military wing', is the game's narrator. Nijim in an interview with a YouTube game reviewer identifies his "father is a former Palestinian fighter as well" -- with the Yasser Arafat-led terror group Fatah.

"Authorities in Canada should follow the lead of their British counterparts, where police and counterterrorism authorities prohibited its sale across the U.K., due to concerns that such violent and extremist online material may be used as a tool to recruit potential terrorists and incite acts of violence."

Arsen Ostrovsky, ILF

Britain's Fulsome Embrace of Ukraine's Sovereign Resistance Against Russia

"[The agreement] commits the U.K. to consult with Ukraine in the event it is ever attacked by Russia again and to provide 'swift and sustained' assistance for their defence."

"[The agreement is intended] to be the first step in developing an unshakable hundred-year partnership between Ukraine and the United Kingdom."

"[London would also] provide intelligence sharing, cybersecurity, medical and military training, and defence industrial cooperation."

"The United Kingdom is the first country [in the Group of Seven] to deliver a final agreement [among those pledging to do so in the July NATO summit]."

"[Much of the additional $250 million pledge would be spent] on a major push to rapidly procure and produce thousands of military drones for Ukraine, including surveillance, long-range strike and sea drones."

This will be the largest delivery of drones to Ukraine from any nation."

Bilateral British/Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) at a signing ceremony during a visit to the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, to announce a major new package of £2.5 billion in military aid to the country over the coming year, January 12, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS

 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Kyiv bringing with him good cheer and good news for embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the effect that the United Kingdom is prepared to provide Ukraine with over $3 billion in military aid over and above what it has supplied to date. Documents were signed establishing bilateral security guarantees locking London and Kyiv in a close embrace through a formal alliance on security and intelligence-sharing.

Called the U.K.-Ukraine Agreement on Security Cooperation, this package will hearten President Zelenskyy, even as it delights the British Prime Minister to announce its generous and badly needed support for Ukraine enmeshed in an armed conflict with a viciously obdurate Kremlin, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has quashed his home critics, repeating the dire need for Moscow to deter Ukraine from destabilizing Russia by imposing its fascist neo-Nazi agenda on poor helpless Russia.

 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meets President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during a visit to the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, to announce a major new package of military aid to the country over the coming year, January 12, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS

 

Already one of Ukraine's most stalwart supporters, this visit by the British Prime Minister along with the badly needed assistance, made for an uplifting message for Kyiv at the very time that Russia has increased its aerial bombardment campaign. Crucially, the proposed aid package of over $60 billion that US. President Joe Biden anticipates gifting Ukraine is stalled, blocked in Congress. The U.K.'s commitment is doubly appreciated in the face of Russia's ongoing violence against Ukraine.

Kyiv has been anxious that support against Russia not wane from its Western supporters; a strong unified pledge for ongoing support was the message he brought with him on a world tour recently, seeking to persuade his Western backers to ratify unremitting security guarantees to highlight for Russia that support remains unshakeable for Ukraine at a time when questions have arisen over the commitment by the West to continue aiding Ukraine in its existential determination to defend itself from tyranny's re-conquest.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with President Volodymyr Zelensky (centre right) arrive for a press conference during a visit to the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, Ukraine, to announce a major new package of ?2.5 billion in military aid to the country over the coming year, January 12, 2024. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via REUTERS

Beijing's Global Strategy for Preeminence in Science, Technology and Academia

"China not only seeks influence at an institutional level but will also target individual academics who focus on China, seeking to ensure that they act in the CCP's best interests either through professional inducements or, if that doesn't work, by intimidation."

"China appears prepared to use levers, such as research funding and travel opportunities, to cultivate relationships with academics, and to encourage them to change their research direction or course content in line with CCP objectives."

"Pressure is exerted on institutions, academics and students to prevent engagement with topics that harm the positive narrative presented by the Chinese Communist Party."

"Once established in academic institutions, these students are in a position to identify and exfiltrate valuable information, data and intellectual property back to China."

"In its quest for economic advantage, China often acts in plain sight -- directing, funding and collaborating on academic research for its own ends."

British Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee

 

"China has been aggressive in its interference activities ... It has been particularly effective at using its money and influence to penetrate or buy academia in order to ensure its international narrative is advanced and criticism suppressed."

"This is particularly acute when it involves the so-called ‘Five Poisons’ [Taiwanese independence, Tibetan independence, Xinjiang separatists, the Chinese democracy movement and the Falun Gong]."

Julian Lewis, Committee Chair

"You say something they don't like, they deny you a visa."

"The student bodies are infiltrated. We know there are meetings through the middle of the night and the following morning some Chinese students can get rung up by somebody at the cultural and education section of the embassy to ask them: Why did you say that? Why did you do that?"

Professor Steve Tsang, School for Oriental and African Studies

Two students walk through Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport to catch a chartered flight to Manchester in the UK. The plane will take 74 Chinese students to the UK. Photo: VCG

 

Evidence has been revealed of Chinese officials approaching academic lecturers in Britain, to promise them "professional inducements" in the form of research funding and travel opportunities, as part of the manner in which British universities had been "bought" by the Chinese Communist Party. The British Parliament's intelligence and security committee through their extensive investigation produced a 200-page report revealing details of Beijing's concentrated program to inveigle itself into British academia.

Beijing seeks out a prominent place in the global field of science and invention, seeking influence worldwide as a driver of both through a scheme of interdependence which links into its 21st century role as the world's production source of consumer products of every description and dimension. In the UK the report points out that its universities were "turning a blind eye to the risk" in becoming reliant on China for financial support. The University of Surrey accepted a $13-million donation from Huawei to find its 5G6G Innovation Centre.

Chinese state authorities are also evidently intimidating British academics and students by a Beijing directive to infiltrate and purloin research to benefit the People's Liberation Army. One witness interview of Professor Steve Tsang revealed that within six months of accepting his new status within the School for Oriental and African Studies, a political councillor from the Chinese embassy offered him anything he would like, for his 'cooperation'. "It is as blatant as that", he reported.

Access to visas is also being used as leverage, affirmed by Professor Tsang. "If you are an academic and specializing in China, and your entire academic life is focused on China, the threat of not being permitted to travel to the country of your academic focus becomes a very powerful threat." Years previously it was revealed that scientists at leading universities, including Cambridge, Edinburgh and Manchester, worked on projects with researchers at China's nuclear weapons research institution.

Dozens of scientific papers were published by British academics working alongside scientists from a Chinese institution on an American sanctions list, reflecting its research into developing Beijing's nuclear arsenal. Investigative journalism at The Telegraph uncovered that situation. There are over 90 Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (CSSAs) working out of the U.K. -- partially financed by the Chinese embassy -- monitoring the activities of Chinese students. A situation the committee recognized as resulting in a "culture of fear and suspicion among Chinese students in the U.K."

The largest overseas contingent of students on study visas in U.K. universities -- over 120,000 -- are Chinese students. A number greater than in the rest of Europe combined. Five times as many students are sent by China to the United Kingdom, as compared to the country that comes in second for its students studying abroad; India. In Canada, a similar situation prevails, with 60,000 student visas issued at last count, down substantially from the year before which stood at 90,000, as Chinese relations with Canada sour.

The Glasgow CSSA incited flash mobs to confront Hong Kong demonstrations. "There is Chinese embassy involvement in these demonstrations ... They surrounded us in a circle, waving Chinese flags, singing the national anthem and being hostile", one Hong Kong student narrated. The Joint Intelligence Committee chairman spoke of intimidation examples the Chinese authorities use: "sometimes with the vice-chancellor getting a phone call, sometimes at student body level, to try to discourage universities from allowing speakers on issues like Tibet or Xinjiang".

Beijing exploits research programs at British universities for the benefit of the Chinese military. The People's Liberation Army, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, sent approximately 500 military scientists to U.K. academic institutions in the decade up to 2017. "Once established in academic institutions, these students are in a position to identify and exfiltrate valuable information, data and intellectual property back to China", the committee pointed out.

 

People walk across a street near a large screen promoting the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing  Andy Wong/The Associated Press

"Beijing is using a 'workaround strategy' for postgraduate researchers to study cutting-edge technology at Canadian and U.S. universities after Washington began denying visas for some Chinese students on the grounds that they might steal intellectual property with military uses, according to a Canadian Security Intelligence Service report."

"The Dec. 21, 2021, report, labelled secret ...  said the strategy sends some scholarship students to Canada from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with the aim of gaining access to critical high tech."

"The Chinese government’s game plan includes training these Chinese citizens on how to avoid drawing too much attention when studying abroad."

"The CSIS report lays out how China is using students to obtain technology that could be of benefit to the Chinese military, such as quantum computing, big data and artificial intelligence. The report was shared across key government departments and with the CIA, FBI and Britain’s domestic intelligence service, M15, as well as Australian and New Zealand authorities."

The Globe and Mail, Toronto

Protesters march from Chater Garden to the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong on September 8, 2019. Photo by VIVEK PRAKASH /AFP/Getty Images

Your Refrigerator Has Eyes, Ears and a Voice

“We are not yet awake to this threat. China has spotted an opportunity to dominate this market, and if it does so it can harvest an awful lot of data as well as making foreign countries dependent on them,”

“The most game-changing advantage of technology is that it enables the accumulation of massive amounts of data,”

“The [Chinese Communist Party] views data as a strategic resource. When processed and aggregated, data can support its interests across military, economic, political, cultural and other domains.”

“In line with CCP industrial policy to promote global champions in new industries, IOT companies have benefited from the creation of a domestic market which excludes international competition.”

Charles Parton, former British diplomat, report author

 

“We are legislating to protect consumers' connected devices, such as smartphones, TVs, speakers and routers, through new laws to strengthen their privacy and security.”

"It will ban sales in the UK of smart devices with poor cyber security and get rid of easy-to-guess passwords which are often included as standard with consumer tech."

British government spokesman

Telecoms companies were ordered to strip tech from Chinese firm Huawei from mobile and broadband networks over national security concerns Credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

China has many spyware tricks yet to be revealed. Above and apart from the clumsy effort it took to send a giant balloon over a sensitive military area in the United States, inviting a takedown engendering a warning from Chinese Premier Xi Jinping that there would be 'consequences'. Heavens above, think of all those intelligence-gathering satellites circling the Earth, beaming back data invaluable to the Intelligence Services of those countries that can afford them; and increasingly many now can. So why resort to a balloon?

 

There are, it seems, far more complex, little-imagined ways to gather sensitive intelligence; install microchips in everything. And since 'everything' is manufactured in China and shipped out worldwide, from the world's manufacturing colossus, Beijing has excelled at the game. To the point where the world is now being warned that their refrigerators, their cars, and even light bulbs are capable of collecting and transmitting data through the 5G phone network.

Beijing has enabled itself with the naive cooperation of its targets, to monitor intelligence targets, people, arms and supplies. Modules described as a "Trojan Horse" technology now pose a "wide-ranging" threat to U.K. national security, comes the warning sent to the U.K. government by one of its former diplomats, advising Parliament on Beijing in a report.

OODA, a Washington-based consultancy, states that the potential threat outmaneuvers any threats from Chinese-produced components in cellphone masts, a situation that led to a ban on Huawei products in cellphone infrastructure. But Beijing has more than merely one, two, three ways to sneak into restricted files to satisfy its appetite for data-gathering; military-industrial, technological, medical, governmental, what-have-you.

To the present, experts have been unable to grasp the "pervasive presence" of the modules, cellular IoTs. Now senior Members of Parliament are expressing grave concern. Ministers are called upon to take urgent action banning Chinese-made cellular loTs from goods sold in Britain. In his former diplomatic life, Mr. Parton spend 22 years dealing with China, Taiwan and Hong Kong; he is a special adviser to the Commons foreign affairs committee.

Cellular IoTs (Internet of Things), are small modules used in everything; smart fridges to advanced weapons systems to monitor use and transmit data to the owner -- often the manufacturer, using 5G. The Internet of Things reflects devices that connect and exchange data with other devices of the Internet. Cellular IoTs are the component that makes devices "smart".

It was revealed earlier that the security services dismantled ministerial cars, finding at least one of the devices hidden within another component -- leading to fears that China has the capacity to monitor movements of everyone, from the prime minister downward, with the use of the modules.

 

Millions of Chinese made chips are already in use in the UK (Image: Getty)

Check, Mate

The phone call had been delayed since Monday owing to Johnson’s need to answer questions on the Sue Gray report. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma/Rex/Shutterstock

"The prime minister expressed his deep concern about Russia's current hostile activity on the Ukrainian border,"

"He emphasized the need to find a way forward which respects both Ukraine's territorial integrity and right to self-defense. The prime minister stressed that any further Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory would be a tragic miscalculation."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Office

 

"It's already clear now ... that fundamental Russian concerns were ignored."

"Let's imagine Ukraine is a NATO member and starts these military operations. Are we supposed to go to war with the NATO bloc?"

"Has anyone given that any thought? Apparently not."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a session of the board of trustees of the Russian Geographical Society via a video conference call in Moscow (credit: VIA REUTERS)

Indeed, much attention has been given to that question. It is actually so fundamental to the reason that Ukraine would like to be a member of NATO, like some of its neighbours. For the assurance that Moscow would think deeply about what it is considering in returning Russia to its former glory days of absorbing its near-abroad neighbours once again into the warm embrace of its octopus grasp as satellites revolving around Soviet Russia.

 

And it is precisely that aspiration that so concerns Russia's neighbours that they grasp at the opportunity of having the assurance that a group will be looking out for their interests of sovereignty and security. So Mr. Putin in posing that hypothetical question is merely being disingenuous. His actions belie innocence of that knowledge and the question answers itself poignantly in the dread memories haunting the former captive members of the USSR.

On Tuesday Mr. Putin accused the West of ignoring Russia's security concerns, deliberately creating a war scenario to suit their purposes with the added insult of humiliating Russia. On Wednesday, Mr. Putin shared a conversation with Britain's Prime Minister, but before that conversation took place, an odd occurrence had Britain slightly on edge as they scrambled fighters to 'escort' Russian bombers approaching British airspace. Intimidation? heaven forfend such a thought...!

 

A Russian TU-95 bomber   photo credit: REUTERS)

"Quick Reaction Alert Typhoon fighters based at RAF Lossiemouth supported by a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton were scrambled today against unidentified aircraft approaching the UK area of interest."

"Subsequently, we intercepted and escorted four Russian Bear aircraft,"

Royal Air Force spokesman

Mr. Putin shared a news conference with the prime minister of Hungary, visiting, as one of several NATO leaders making an effort to intercede with him, during the crisis where it is abundantly apparent that Russia has planned another invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Putin, defiant against NATO demands that he have Russian troops and armaments removed from the border with Ukraine, has no intention of backing away from his own security demands.

NATO warns Russia that it will not tolerate an invasion of a sovereign nation without exacting painful sanctions against Russia, while Russia insists that it has the right and the will power to persuade the Western alliance to withdraw its presence from Russia's near-abroad -- where NATO member-states have sent troops to other invasion-vulnerable former satellites of the USSR -- and never consider allowing Ukraine to join the alliance.

Russia, which in 2014 surprised the international community by invading Ukraine -- and supporting ethnic Russian Ukrainian separatist rebels in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in their violent separation aspirations in Donetsk and Luhansk, then swooped in on the Crimean peninsula to claim it as Russian territory -- expresses concern that as a member of NATO Ukraine might take it upon itself to reclaim Crimea, is downright risible.

With over 100,000 troops massed on the border with Ukraine, setting itself up for an invasion, Russia denies it has any such intentions; the troops, the arms, and the field hospitals are merely a practise performance, not a rehearsal. However, it now says, should its security demands not be met it could decide to take military action of an unspecified nature. Denials and verification.

"If President Putin really does not intend war or regime change, the Secretary [U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken] told Foreign Minister Lavrov then this is the time to pull back troops and heavy weaponry and engage in a serious discussion ... that can enhance collective European security."

U.S. State Department official

President Putin has been silent since mid-December until the present, with an atmosphere of ambiguity on his decision-making, inspiring diplomats from Russia and the West to engage in repeated rounds of talks in the hope of defusing the crisis. His remarks this week paint a picture of Russia's need to defend itself from a hostile U.S. concerned not with Ukraine's security, but its intention to contain Russia.

And just as Russia refuses to be dictated to by the United States, the Biden administration has now announced its decision to deploy 2,000 troops from Fort Bragg, members of the 82nd Airborne Division infantry brigade to go to Poland. The deployment, said Poland's Defense Minister is "a strong signal of solidarity in response to the situation in Ukraine".

 

Of the total number, several hundred with the 18th Airborne Corps are set to arrive in Germany representing what the Pentagon spoke of as a "joint task force-capable headquarters". And Mr. Putin is free to make of that what he will.

A Ukrainian serviceman on the frontline in Donetsk. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images