Health Secretary Wes Streeting speaking at the launch of the Government’s 10-year health plan during a visit to the Sir Ludwig Guttman Health & Wellbeing Centre in east London, July 3, 2025
US General Stanley McChrystal has been invited to advise on creating a ‘team of teams’ for healthcare transformation. His credentials? He previously ran interrogation bases where Iraqis were stripped naked and beaten, reports SOLOMON HUGHES
HEALTH SECRETARY Wes Streeting adopted Labour’s “warfare over welfare” approach by inviting US General Stan McChrystal, a key player in the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to give advice on NHS “reform.”
Papers I recently obtained under Freedom of Information show Streeting sought out McChrystal for the meeting, which took place last November. Streeting’s office wrote to the Ministry of Defence saying he “would like a contact for General Stanley McChrystal as he’d be interested in hearing more about his experience in mobilising change” to “inform” his “10 Year Plan for Health.” With Ministry of Defence help, Streeting invited McChrystal to London.
…
McChrystal led JSOC from 2003–8, battling the al-Qaida insurgency in Iraq, which followed the British-US invasion. McChrystal is credited with success through the 2006 killing of al-Qaida’s Iraqi leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. However, defeating al-Qaida only led to the rise of the more vicious group Isis.
Human Rights Watch and the Washington Post detailed abuses by troops under McChrystal’s command in Iraq in this conflict. JSOC ran an interrogation base, Camp Nama, where Human Rights Watch says detainees were “beaten” and “regularly stripped naked, subjected to sleep deprivation and extreme cold, placed in painful stress positions.” Maybe Streeting thinks McChrystal being in charge of physical abuses gives him some kind of medical knowledge.
It’s certainly hard to see how Streeting can believe McChrystal is somehow a model for good and lasting change. McChrystal’s Afghanistan success was also short-lived: the Taliban is back in charge of Kabul.
Israel carried out multiple airstrikes against the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday, December 8, after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: Screenshot
The resignation and fleeing of Bashar al-Assad inaugurates a new chapter in the region that has been facing constant US and Israeli aggression for decades.
As Israeli forces advanced into the Golan buffer zone and initiated airstrikes on targets in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a video published on X that the collapse of Assad’s government on Sunday, December 8, “is a direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters.” Meanwhile, images circulated across social media of members of the armed opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) taking control over Damascus, invading the Iranian embassy in the capital and tearing down posters of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The dramatic events took place after groups led by HTS launched a surprise offensive on November 27, against Syrian government forces in the Aleppo governorate. HTS is led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the former leader of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch Al-Nusra front which rebranded as HTS. In the following 12 days, the groups, some of which are backed by the United States, Turkey, and covertly Israel, quickly advanced and gained control of key Syrian cities with little resistance until reaching the capital Damascus on December 8.
The fall of Assad’s government has sent a shock wave across the region and the world. The Syrian government had been engaged in a protracted civil war since 2011, which eventually saw armed opposition groups, including ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates, take control over large swathes of territory. The United States officially intervened in the conflict in 2014, carrying out extensive airstrikes as well as territorial deployment alongside Kurdish forces in the north, which continues to this day. Syria’s allies including Russia, Iran, and Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, played a central role in the military campaign to regain control over the majority of Syrian territory and defeat the Islamic State and other terrorist groups. Importantly, the coalition of armed opposition groups retained control over the Idlib governorate, from where they evidently regrouped to launch their latest offensive.
Analysts, and even Netanyahu himself, have pointed out that the timing of this offensive was no coincidence. The HTS-led offensive began on the same day that a ceasefire deal was reached between a significantly-weakened Hezbollah and Israel. The critical support Syria received in its fight against opposition groups in the last decade, was significantly reduced as its partners and allies have been engaged in their own arduous wars and conflicts.
Lebanese American journalist Rania Khalek wrote on December 5, “There is a feeling that all the forces against Syria – Turkey, the US, Israel, etc – have joined forces to attack the resistance axis at one of its weakest moments, taking advantage of the last year plus of genocide in Gaza, destruction in Lebanon and Russia being bogged down in Ukraine. All this while US sanctions and bad governance hollowed out what was left of the Syrian state and its remaining institutions. Everyone fears even darker days ahead.”
Additionally, with Israel’s advance on the Golan buffer zone, many now fear that it will seek to advance its annexation goals for the Golan Heights.
In a 2018 article written by Nour Samaha for The Intercept, she warned that, taking advantage of the war, Israel at the time was “expanding its influence and control deeper into opposition-held southern Syria.” Samaha argued that this advance through NGOs and backing opposition groups was partially in response to Israel’s anxiety about “increasing Iranian influence in Syria and Hezbollah’s presence close to its northern border”, but also ultimately part of its “aim of cementing Israel’s hold on the Golan Heights.” She reported at the time that there was an increase in Israeli settlement activity within the Occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli forces stated the deployment to the buffer zone was “to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel. We emphasize that the IDF is not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out airstrikes on Syria’s capital targeting strategic sites such as ammunition and weapons depots and the Mezzeh airbase, reportedly to prevent the sites from falling into the hands of the new government.
Iran, the foremost ally of the Assad government, responded to the developments in Syria during a cabinet session on Sunday, December 8. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated, “We stress the importance of preserving Syria’s unity and sovereignty, with its people deciding the country’s future and political system. We emphasize the importance of dialogue among all segments of Syrian society to reach an understanding, and we hope for an end to military confrontations.” The head of state added that Iran condemns Israel’s “violation of Syrian territory and calls on all parties and countries in the region to be vigilant against its aims.”
The country also condemned the incursion into its embassy in Damascus.
US President Joe Biden speaking in a press conference held at the White House, praised the government takeover by HTS as a “fundamental act of justice” but also that “the fall of the Assad regime in Syria is also a moment of risk and uncertainty.”
In 2017, the US had declared that it considers HTS a “designated terrorist org”. The US Embassy in Syria posted an image of HTS leader al-Julani, who himself had been declared a global terrorist as early as 2013, and stated “we remain committed to bringing leading AQS figures in HTS to justice”, offering a USD 10 million reward for his capture.
Going Underground Special: John Pilger on Paris, ISIS and Media Propaganda
4/12/15 00.25 GMT Pilger: “That’s a ludicrous argument”. Do both of them share knowledge – probably like all real journalists that it’s ludicrous, er, perhaps like a ludicrous diversion?
Last year, the former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas revealed that “two years before the Arab spring”, he was told in London that a war on Syria was planned. “I am going to tell you something,” he said in an interview with the French TV channel LPC, “I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria… Britain was organising an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer Minister for Foreign Affairs, if I would like to participate… This operation goes way back. It was prepared, preconceived and planned.”
…
READ a 2007 State Department cable published by WikiLeaks about the 2006 declaration of the “Islamic State of Iraq”, the forerunner organisation of ISIS.
READ two US Congressional Research Reports on the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq under the leadership of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (the predecessor of ISIS’ Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi), following the death of the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, in 2006. See here and here.
READ a 2007 cable showing Islamic State presence in Iraq during 2007, and how demographic shifts in response to sectarian Shia-Sunni tensions, directly provoked by the US invasion and installation of a Shia-dominated government, were already playing into the hands of the group.
VIEW113 Iraq War Logs documenting US forces encountering ISI in Iraq from 2007 onwards.
BROWSEnearly 3,000 documents published by WikiLeaks which mention the Islamic State of Iraq.
READ three US Congressional Research Report on the history of the US-backed “Sons of Iraq” Sunni militias, formed to oppose Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The failure by the US-backed Shia government to integrate the Sunni militias into the Iraq army later led to many “Sons of Iraq” returning to the jihadi insurgency, swelling the ranks of modern-day ISIS. See here, here and here.
READ in a 2010 State Department cable how Syria’s head of intelligence Ali Mamlouk discussed with US diplomats the migration of foreign “takfiri” fighters, such as the Islamic State, into Syria from war-torn Iraq, and offered the US a military and intelligence partnership to address them. Declining, the US later lent support to jihadi groups as Syria’s “opposition” during the Syrian civil war.
READ a leaked 2010 STRATFOR email containing a private intelligence product documenting the transition of Islamic State leadership to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after the killing of former-ISI leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2010.
I understand the anger and frustration many people have voiced here – and I think that it would be worth posting an explanation of what has actually happened at The Guardian.
In 2013, The Guardian filed some of the worst financial accounts in the newspaper’s history. The publishers were clearly in deep financial trouble, and were forced to sell-off some of their assets, simply to avoid immediately bankruptcy. The financial outlook appeared very grim.
But ‘hope’ was around the corner… although it was a vile kind of ‘hope’ indeed.
The Guardian was (quietly) relaunched, positioning itself primarily in the USA and Australia – whilst aiming to retain as much as possiible from its former days as a left-wing newspaper in Britain. New and mysterious ‘backers’ appeared, who were now controlling the political content of the newspaper. Alan Rusbridger was quickly removed and thrown on the rubbish-heap – the usual nonsense about wanting to develop his career (in retirement?).
It was a very simple idea – “buy up the opposition to neoconservative American ideas – and neatralise it with a daily diet of pro-Pentagon, pro-Washington, shabby indoctrination”. Unwanted old left-wingers were quietly pushed aside. Ambitious Americans like Hadley Freeman were shoved forwards. New right-wing writers were hired, such as “Rafael Behr” (who he?). The screaming voices of the lunatic right, such as TImothy Garbage-Trash, suddenly become Leader Writers..
Let’s just explain what “neoconservative” actually means. It means following right-wing policies and ideas under the apparently acceptable cloak of being socialists, in order to secure public support for these extreme right-wing policies. Tony Blair is the perfect example… a man who found himself in perfect accord with George Bush – a god-bothering war-mongering racist fascist psychopath with the brain of a mollusc.
But it gets worse. The Guardian is now not really written by Guardian journalists any longer. Instead, coverage of all “sensitive” topics has been franchised out to American rightwing organisations. Now we get articles and editorial which have been “sponsored by the John D Rockefeller Foundation” (an extremist rightwing organisation), whose authorship and views chime perfectly with American hard-line exceptionalist Christian white right. Sometimes the sourcing is hidden more carefully… for example, the “Calvert Journal” – an American-funded pile of rightwing trash based in Calvert Street in London…. trailed as an “expert source” on Russia, but actually ghost-written in Washington. A few down-at-heel Russian emigres were hired as the ostensible “authors” of this crap. So now the Guardian’s Russia coverage is written by spooks in Washington under the guise of being written by “Russian opposition voices cowering from Putin in London”. I’ve met these filth – they are pathetic users who are happy to take Washington’s dollars to fund their empty-headed glamorous lifestyles in London. This comes under the heading of “New East”, headed by a new rightwing extremist at the Guardian called Maeve Sheerlaw… a cheap hack who has never been to Moscow in her life, yet was made an Overnight Expert to parrot the opinions of filth like Andrew McFaul, failed American Ambassador to Moscow.
Then there are all the articles ‘syndicated’ from the Moscow Times – another fake newspaper funded by American rightwingers in Washington, via a chain of anonymous holding companies in the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Don’t be fooled by that “Moscow Times” title – it was one they picked on purpose, to make it sound like a serious newspaper. In fact it’s staffed by a team of cheap American journalism students, and there are no Russians working there at all. A few Russian names appear as columnists… but – surprise! – they are all Russian runaways, living in Miami or Brighton Beach, and delighted to have Washington’s cash in exchange for some bitter hatred penned during a drunken lunch-hour.
In summary, then – The Guardian which readers remember from the 1980s and 1990s no longer exists at all. Its exterior appearance and readership has been bought for cash by American fascist organisations… but covertly, so that readers “believe” they are still reading The Guardian. Surprised? You shouldn’t be, because it’s how Tony Blair came to power in Britain – the most Tory leader Britain has ever had. And where are his ‘socialist’ allies? Peter Mandelson, a penniless journalist, is now Lord Mandelson, with a two-million pound house and a seat in the House of Lords. Socialism, my arse.
The Guardian is now more right-wing than the Daily Telegraph. It features articles from Timmy Garbage-Trash saying how Britain should go to war against Russia, to save those jolly, plucky, Right Sector genocidal fascists in Ukraine.
None of this has ever been mentioned in the Guardian itself, of course. You are all still clinging to this rabid pro-American sheet of garbage until the moment they actually write it on the front page. That day will never come. Yet you still think the Guardian is a ‘socialist’ newspaper.
The UK government is today discussing joining the Western alliance bombing Syria.
After doing an evening’s research last night I almost feel like an expert on Syria and Daesh/ISIL. I also get regular updates from Juan Cole’s Informed Comment which is an excellent resource. It’s important to check internet sources since there are some misleading accounts out there.
There’s the Neo-Conservative ‘Clean Break’ document published in 1996 proposing an aggressive policy in reshaping the Middle East so that Israel is able to “transend” the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It is only since Russia recently commenced air strikes supporting Syria that Daesh/ISIS/ISIL’s illicit oil trading business has been targeted. Russia accuses Turkey of facilitating and profiting from this illicit trade while also supporting Daesh/ISIS/ISIL militants. There are accounts of strange deaths of journalists in Turkey and associated support of the Daesh/ISIS/ISIL militants by Turkey’s MIT secret service.
That it is only recently that Daesh/ISIS/ISIL financing has been targeted by Russia suggests that it was accepted by the coalition allegedly fighting Daesh/ISIS/ISIL i.e. Daesh was tolerated as it attacked the Syrian regime.
ed: Aren’t those who engage in terrorism terrorists?
It follows that those that accuse others of being “terrorist sympathisers” are actual, literal terrorists … while – of course – hiding and pointing the finger at others.
A declassified secret US government document obtained by the conservative public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
The document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, and that these “supporting powers” desired the emergence of a “Salafist Principality” in Syria to “isolate the Syrian regime.”
According to the newly declassified US document, the Pentagon foresaw the likely rise of the ‘Islamic State’ as a direct consequence of this strategy, and warned that it could destabilize Iraq. Despite anticipating that Western, Gulf state and Turkish support for the “Syrian opposition” — which included al-Qaeda in Iraq — could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the document provides no indication of any decision to reverse the policy of support to the Syrian rebels. On the contrary, the emergence of an al-Qaeda affiliated “Salafist Principality” as a result is described as a strategic opportunity to isolate Assad.
…
The newly declassified DIA document from 2012 confirms that the main component of the anti-Assad rebel forces by this time comprised Islamist insurgents affiliated to groups that would lead to the emergence of ISIS. Despite this, these groups were to continue receiving support from Western militaries and their regional allies.
Noting that “the Salafist [sic], the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria,” the document states that “the West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition,” while Russia, China and Iran “support the [Assad] regime.”
The 7-page DIA document states that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the precursor to the ‘Islamic State in Iraq,’ (ISI) which became the ‘Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,’ “supported the Syrian opposition from the beginning, both ideologically and through the media.”
The formerly secret Pentagon report notes that the “rise of the insurgency in Syria” has increasingly taken a “sectarian direction,” attracting diverse support from Sunni “religious and tribal powers” across the region.
In a section titled ‘The Future Assumptions of the Crisis,’ the DIA report predicts that while Assad’s regime will survive, retaining control over Syrian territory, the crisis will continue to escalate “into proxy war.”
The document also recommends the creation of “safe havens under international sheltering, similar to what transpired in Libya when Benghazi was chosen as the command centre for the temporary government.”
…
The conventional wisdom is that the US government did not retain sufficient oversight on the funding to anti-Assad rebel groups, which was supposed to be monitored and vetted to ensure that only ‘moderate’ groups were supported.
However, the newly declassified Pentagon report proves unambiguously that years before ISIS launched its concerted offensive against Iraq, the US intelligence community was fully aware that Islamist militants constituted the core of Syria’s sectarian insurgency.
Despite that, the Pentagon continued to support the Islamist insurgency, even while anticipating the probability that doing so would establish an extremist Salafi stronghold in Syria and Iraq.
As Shoebridge told me, “The documents show that not only did the US government at the latest by August 2012 know the true extremist nature and likely outcome of Syria’s rebellion” — namely, the emergence of ISIS — “but that this was considered an advantage for US foreign policy. This also suggests a decision to spend years in an effort to deliberately mislead the West’s public, via a compliant media, into believing that Syria’s rebellion was overwhelmingly ‘moderate.’”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting speaking at the launch of the Government’s 10-year health plan during a visit to the Sir Ludwig Guttman Health & Wellbeing Centre in east London, July 3, 2025
