On September 7, the British and American chiefs of their secret intelligence services, Richard Moore and William Burns, released an op-ed piece in the Financial Times, and on that day took part in a live talk hosted by the same journal. They had one common objective, to lie to their peoples and the world about the real causes of the violence and insecurity in the world, to provide them with the pretext for their attempt to rule the world. In other words, they openly displayed the conspiracy of their governments to commit aggression against anyone in the world who resists them, the supreme war crime.

by Christopher Black, September 12, 2024

Criminal actions ignored by the ICC

The naïve would expect the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to immediately issue indictments and arrest warrants for Mr. Moore, head of MI6, and Mr. Burns, head of the CIA, for conspiracy to commit aggression. But we know from the interview that Mr. Khan, the ICC prosecutor, gave to the BBC recently, that the prosecutor of the ICC is a political tool of the same countries; that he seeks advice from them, listens to them, works with them, and admitted that the ICC case against Israel has been held up by his succumbing to British influence on him. He admitted his incompetence for the position he holds, which requires him to remain independent of any and all influences and to act according to the facts and the law. But his willingness to do what he is told by the USA and UK and the EU is the real reason he holds that position and I do not.

The criminal case for conspiracy to commit aggression can be built easily against the USA and UK from their op-ed and their interview. So let’s examine what they wrote and said, for they condemned themselves out of their own mouths. But they began their op-ed piece with this strange statement,

The facts of history distorted and denied

“Two years ago, we celebrated 75 years of partnership; 75 years since the CIA was founded in 1947. But the bonds between US and UK intelligence go back even further, closer to the founding of SIS in 1909 when we first witnessed, together, the horror of state-on-state violence in Europe.”

Which branch of US intelligence was working with British intelligence in 1909 is not stated, but it is a complete mystery what state-on-state violence in Europe these two are referring to that occurred in 1909. History reveals none. But it is with this historical fantasy that they begin their propaganda piece. It gets worse from there.

They go on to refer to the close collaboration between Britain and the USA in WWI, WWII and the so-called war on terrorism, in fact, their war of terrorism to try to take over the oil and other mineral supplies of the Middle East and Central Asia. History tells us that in fact the British and Americans were just as many rivals all throughout those wars as collaborators, and were often at odds on how to conduct those wars and to reap the benefits. Since Britain lost its empire right after WWII, and the Americans took over their dominance of the world, the British have been subservient to the Americans. American forces are still stationed there. They were not liked in Britain during WWII, and they are not liked now. The common saying in Britain about the Americans during WWII, which reflected public feeling at the time, was that, “There are three things wrong with Americans. They are over paid, over sexed, and over here.” That is still the opinion of many.

As for the hard struggle against terrorism, they really refer to their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, wars against sovereign states and peoples to steal and loot their resources and markets. The terrorism was theirs.

Their war against Ukraine and Russia, the World

They continue with this statement,

“The CIA and SIS stand together in resisting an assertive Russia and Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. We saw it coming, and were able to warn the international community so we could all rally to Ukraine’s defence. We carefully declassified some of our secrets as a new and effective part of this effort.”

Of course, they saw it coming. They were the ones that engineered the war against Russia by expanding their NATO alliance east towards Russia in betrayal of their promises made to Russia not to do so, an obvious act of aggression, and then attacked Yugoslavia in 1999, to remove a potential Russian ally and to place their large military base, Camp Bondsteel in the Serbian heartland of Kosovo-Metohija. The attack on Yugoslavia, a brutal act of aggression, during which they also attacked China, was a phase of their war against Russia.

The next stage, after their defeats in Iraq, Afghanistan, was to eliminate the government of Libya and to destroy it as a nation in 2011, since it was an example to the world and Africa of a socialism that worked for its people and since Gadhafi advocated the end of dollar dominance in Africa. The Libyan people were bombed without mercy for months by their and allied forces, while the dead, in their scores and perhaps hundreds of thousands were erased from the news, except when the survivors tried to flee the hell they and their allies had created in Libya, and tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy for refuge; a journey of death for many of them.

Their wars of aggression continued with the NATO organised coup in Ukraine of 2014, in which they overthrew the elected president and installed a gang of Nazi cutthroats in his place which immediately began an armed attack on the peoples of the eastern regions of Ukraine who refused to accept the coup or the Nazis who seized power. The UK and US and their allies, fuelled this conflict, promoted it, provided arms and encouragement for it and are complicit in all the war crimes committed against those peoples all through the ten years since. It was to put an end to this aggression against those peoples and the threat is represented to Russia itself that Russia finally decided to enter into the conflict to put an end to it. This is the aggression, of the US and UK, not Russia.

Secrets Revealed

As for their secrets they revealed, they must be referring to Victoria Nuland’s admission that the British and Americans told Zelensky to renege on the peace deal Ukraine and Russia had concluded in Istanbul in the spring of 2022 and to carry on the war against the Russians. Zelensky seemed to have been carried away with his campaign promise to bring peace to Ukraine and had to be brought into line. Or maybe they are referring to Angela Merkel’s admission that the Minsk Accords, which were backed by the UN Security Council and in which President Putin put so much effort to make work, was just a ruse used to fool the Russians while NATO built up Ukraine’s army to attack Russia.

Their Propaganda

They continue with this,

“Staying the course is more vital than ever. Putin will not succeed in extinguishing Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence. Russia’s actions are a flagrant breach of the UN Charter and global norms.”

It is the UK and the USA that have extinguished Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence with the overthrow of democracy in Ukraine reducing it to their puppet state. All their actions were and are illegal and in violation of the UN Charter, whereas Russia’s actions were and are in conformity with Article 51 of the UN Charter.

They then meander off to talk about how technology is changing the war in Ukraine. What this has to do with their intentions and objectives is not clear, nor why they made this frankly absurd statement, since Russia has demonstrated its superiority in technology on the battlefield and has revealed that NATO weapons are just so much junk to be destroyed as soon as they are used.

NATO Sabotage

Next they state,

“Beyond Ukraine, we continue to work together to disrupt the reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe being waged by Russian intelligence, and its cynical use of technology to spread lies and disinformation designed to drive wedges between us.”

Such cynicism and outright lying is difficult comprehend when the entire world knows that it was the USA and UK that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipeline cutting off Germany and Europe from cheap natural gas supplies, an act of sabotage unequalled anywhere, and they do not refer to any Russian sabotage for which there is no evidence whatsoever. As for lies and disinformation, well, we know where the lies and disinformation come from.

The Threat Against China

Then they state that,

“In the 21st century, crises don’t come sequentially. While significant attention and resources are being deployed against Russia, we are acting together in other places and spaces to counter the risk of global instability.”

It is true that they are throwing everything they have short of nuclear weapons against Russia, and even threaten to use them as well. The claim they are countering global instability is unconscionable, when it is they that have caused most of the wars in the world since 1945 and are causing them now. But the real meaning of their statement appears in the next paragraph of their op-ed when they state,

“For both the CIA and SIS, the rise of China is the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century, and we have reorganised our services to reflect that priority. Meanwhile, counterterrorism remains core to our partnership, and we work closely with others to protect our homelands and thwart the resurgent threat of Isis.”

What can one say about such a preposterous statement? Is China a challenge? To who, and in what way? They don’t tell us because China is a threat to no one except the US industrialists and financiers who seek to dominate the world. British industry is declining fast, and not because of the success of China in rebuilding its economy, but because of internal contradictions in Britain, its loss of empire and cheap resources and labour power. The Americans constantly talk about free enterprise and competition in the market, but they don’t believe a word of it. It’s all dust to obscure the fact that they do not want any competition, and free enterprise to them means the complete dominance of the world economy by their companies.

As for the “resurgent threat of ISIS” again, what are they talking about? It is an open secret that they created and controlled ISIS and use its vaporous existence as a pretext to invade and occupy Syria and Iraq, both illegal and brutal occupations in defiance of international law which continue to this day.

Phony Peace in the Middle East

But they continue with their lies when they claim they are seeking peace in the Middle East, while supporting the ongoing Israeli genocide against the Palestinians. But Israel was partly their creation, their cat’s paw in the region. Its existence is essential for their attempt to dominate the region, and they could care not care less how many people are killed by the Zionist war machine, so long as that dominance is maintained. And so they push for a greater war with Iran. They are not seeking “de-escalation” but escalation, just as they are in Ukraine.

After more chaff about artificial intelligence, thrown in for no other reason but to make the op-ed piece long enough to be published and to obscure the lies that fill the rest of it, they end with,

Their Threat To Global Security

“There is no question that the international world order — the balanced system that has led to relative peace and stability and delivered rising living standards, opportunities and prosperity — is under threat in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War. But successfully combating this risk is at the very foundation of our special relationship. Trust, openness, constructive challenge, friendship. These characteristics can be relied upon into the next century, as can our shared determination to remain champions for global peace and security.”

What balance system are they talking about? They have both engaged in one war after another throughout the world since they stepped onto the world stage. Their constant aggressions against the peoples of the world have been a catastrophe for human development and progress. It is they and their wars that have held back the development of world society. And living standards in the West are declining and have been since the fall of the Soviet Union, since the capitalists of the West found it no longer necessary to offer their workers something to make their lives easier to award off the threat of socialist revolutions in the West.

They have been busy dismantling all the social benefits working people once had when their governments had to compete with the Soviet model of development; which, for all its flaws, took care of it people better than the governments of the west. They are reducing humanity in the west to a dog-eat-dog world in which, as we see in the USA, has deteriorated to continuous violence of the people against themselves, so deep is the despair in which they are forced to live.

They Must Be Held Accountable

And what is their “world order” but a structure of war and violence, of chaos, of brutality, maintained by more wars and threats of wars, a destruction of international law, of the principles enshrined in the UN Charter. These men and their governments are not champions of global peace and security. They are the architects of world destruction, and it is clear they are willing to risk another world war and the death of us all to get their way, so irrational have they become. They use deception and smooth words to try to fool humanity, but they have failed. They are exposed. They must be condemned, and held accountable for their crimes, before it is too late and there is no one to hold them accountable.
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Christopher Black is a Toronto-based lawyer specialising in international criminal law. He is known for a number of high-profile war crimes cases. He writes essays on international law, politics and world affairs. Recently he has published his novel Beneath the Clouds. He is a member of the World Union of Freethinkers and has been nominated for a seat on its board.