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Guardian reveals secret Home Office terror spin unit

Is there no limit to the co-option of our profession at public expense in the so-called War on Terror?

Revealed: Britain's secret propaganda war against al-Qaida
Home Office Research, Information and Communication Unit or (RICU)
BBC and website forums targeted by Home Office unit
..."The disclosure that a Whitehall counter-terrorism propaganda operation is promoting material to the BBC and other media will raise fresh concerns about official news management in a highly sensitive area."...

See also Robin Cook's last article for the Guardian before he died in mysterious circumstances.

The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means - The G8 must seize the opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities - Friday July 8 2005
..."Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably, and with disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden's organisation would turn its attention to the west."...

posted by Tony Gosling @ 12:52