The horrible massacre events at Woolwich could be repeated if the UK continues similar practices in its military campaigns abroad, such as arming the Syrian rebels, RT contributor Afshin Rattansi has told the channel.
Arming the opposition who kill civilians on the ground in Syria
and pursuing an inadequate domestic immigration policy, Rattansi
argues will lead to “new MI 5 operations to infiltrate Muslim
communities and create more antagonism and inspire more events”
similar in grotesque to Woolwich murder.
“Foreign Secretary William Hague is completely out of his depth
when it comes to Syria. The idea that he is backing the kind of
people that hacked the soldier to death,” Rattansi told RT.
RT:The man with blood on his hands in the video says
'the women in our country have to see this every day'. What do you
think he meant?
Afshin Rattansi: If indeed that is a complete video. It is
very interesting that the corporate broadcasters were afraid of
broadcasting it, Whitehall sources already spreading the
information as far as I understand, the British Broadcasting
cooperation not to broadcast that video.
I have the full statement actually from that video, so it is not
just about warning women not to see it. So for instance, ‘Do you
think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street? Do you
think it is your politicians that are going to die? No, it is going
to be the average guy and your children, so get rid of them. Tell
them to bring our troops back so we can all live in peace.’
What a grotesque thing for this man, if indeed it is this suspect
responsible for this killing. What a grotesque thing to say
because, it is William Hague and David Cameron that are supporting
these type of attack theory, people who hack people to death in
Syria. So what a confusion, if these two suspects are indeed the
men who hacked this British soldier, if he is a British soldier, to
death. How confused are these people?
RT:To what extent has Britain been prepared for an
attack like this to occur? (There have been threats against British
soldiers in the UK before.)
AR: The problem we have here is that we have a country; the
problem as far as the government is concerned is that the entire
country does not support the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq.
It is not being consulted about the tax payer backing the sort of
people hacking people to death in Syria. There is no way that the
law enforcement officials can protect the country from some an
event like this from happening.
The way it can do is to forge community relations to not have
foreign policy bent on murder and so forth, which has been talked
about time and time again. We got to see that in communities like
Woolwich, a very poor, although again, this has nothing to do with
this action and what is always problematic about outlier incidents
as the one in London is that some kind of policy will be made and
the absurdity of Cobra, this meeting that the Prime Minister has to
coordinate some kind of national terrorism strategy on the basis of
this very, very rare event that we have seen on the Streets of
Woolwich is in itself very absurd. The real questions were asked
around the time of the beginning of the Iraq war.
RT:The dead man was reportedly wearing a shirt branded
'Help for Heroes' which is a military charity. Does this mean
military personnel will be forced to take greater security measures
in their own country?
AR: Britain is one of the few countries in the world whose
soldiers cannot walk freely on the streets of Britain. Many people
from abroad when they visit Britain are surprised that British
soldiers when they leave their barracks have to change to civvies
to walk around. That is the legacy of anti-militarism that is
widespread in the society.
Although in recent years you began to see soldiers walking around
in uniform, but all this man was wearing 'Help for Heroes' t-shirt.
This channel has been covering in detail the appalling nature of
aftercare for ex-servicemen and women by the British government and
it is up to private charities and begging bowls to help the
aftercare of British soldiers that is what that t-shirt meant. I’m
sure people who help the heroes will be planning marches of
thousands of people wearing those t-shirts in days to come to show
solidarity with those charities that help the servicemen and
women.
RT:Britain's PM Cameron is cutting short his trip to
Paris to hold an emergency security Cobra session. Is it that
serious?
AR: I think what is serious about it is that David Cameron
and his opposite number Ed Miliband have deliberately tried to put
the immigration debate up on political and editorial ladder.
They’ve received opposition from UKIP and other parties; even
without UKIP, they are looking for a middle swing vote in 2015
election and both Ed Miliband and David Cameron have deliberately
been targeting immigration, consequences of which is to make
immigrant minorities and the children of immigrants and the
grandchildren of immigrants more uneasy.
It is simple addition sum. You create austerity, you create
austerity Britain, then you create hatred between working class
communities of all faiths, all creeds, all colors and you have that
type of recipe. And what Cameron and Miliband are trying to do is
to get those swing votes of those who want the far right in power.
And I’m not going to give publicity to the far right but apparently
they had plans for Woolwich, they were tweeting about it within
hours after hacking to death of this British soldier.
RT:As for Britain's involvement in supporting Syria's
rebels, as well as military support in the Libyan revolution and
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Will there be any consideration
about how dangerous Britain is being made because of this military
action?
AR: I think it is clear to most analysts, even those on the
conservative benches who fought in wars that the Foreign Secretary
William Hague is completely out of his depth when it comes to
Syria. The idea that he is backing the kind of people that hack the
soldier to death, just being able to say that sentence seems
plainly absurd. But it is true that David Cameron and Hague are at
the forefront, along with Francois Hollande in Paris, trying to
support the rebels that are hacking to death Christians, Muslims,
people of no faith at all in Syria. Perhaps it is time for Barack
Obama to give them some advice, because certainly the conservative
government and the Labor opposition in this country seem to
understand in no way how their foreign policy affects things here
and affects British interests.
RT:Last week, shocking footage emerged of a Syrian rebel reportedly eating the flesh of a murdered army soldier. What are your thoughts about whether such brutal, random, attacks will increase?
AR: If those reports that you have put on your channel were as widely broadcast on corporate media channels here and terrestrial channels here in Britain, perhaps the people would have seen how alike the events in Woolwich were to the hacking we saw in the streets, I think it was Homs, but of course this kind of attack has been occurring all over Syria. Except the British government has been supporting people with the machetes. I have to say when I first heard about it and that it was a machete and it was involving knives, and then there was of course the inevitable – they were Islamists, or some connection to Islam, one had to think - was the machete supplied by William Hague? One good thing that I should add is that it leads the identity driven corporate media, terrestrial media are attempting to reinforce in the minds of the British people that 2 billion Muslims, that you can’t judge them by actions of these two people.
RT:Do you think the UK government be looking at revising their foreign policy?
AR: In no way will they change their foreign policy. They
will react completely wrongly just as they did after 07/07, invent
new MI 5 operations to infiltrate Muslim communities and create
more antagonism and inspire more events, if the past is anything to
go by, more tragic terrible violent events like the ones we saw
today in Woolwich.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.