7/7

ClandesTime 085 – WW2 Spies and Hyperreality - Spy Culture

Mutt and Jeff were a pair of Norwegian double agents during WW2, named after the popular cartoon characters. They played a crucial role in deceiving the Nazi intelligence apparatus by taking part in false flag sabotage and deception operations. Several of these operations have very curious codenames including Operation GUY FAWKES and Operation BUNBURY. In this episode I dwell on the relevance of MI5 operations sourcing their codenames from historical and fictional figures.

16 Military and Intelligence Code Names Inspired by Popular Culture - Spy Culture

One of the most prominent influences of pop culture on government and on the deep state is in the use of code names. From the capture of Saddam Hussein to a counter-smuggling helicopter unit in Hawaii, from a mass surveillance program named after Blazing Saddles to Secret Service and MI5 code names taken from cartoon characters, this is a widespread and frequent phenomenon.

ClandesTime 082 – The Foreigner - Spy Culture

The Foreigner stars Jackie Chan and former James Bond Pierce Brosnan, and is directed by two-time Bond director Martin Campbell. In February the film-makers blew up a bus in central London in a sequence that was spookily reminiscent of the 7/7 London bombings of 2005. To see if this similarity was a concern for the government agencies who approved and assisted The Foreigner filming in London, I filed a series of FOIA requests.

Video: Police refuse to release information on London bus explosion - Spy Culture

As many of you will remember, in early February a Hollywood film crew blew up a bus in central London. Because the bus explosion was so eerily reminiscent of the 7/7 London bombings and because I read about the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and MI6 being warned about the explosion ahead of time, I decided to file some Freedom of Information requests. When the Met Police rejected my request about this film - titled The Foreigner - they simply copy-pasted their rejection about Kingsman.

Propaganda Overdrive: Why Does the BBC Want a Nuclear War With Russia…?

It’s always curious to note what kind of documentaries an organisation like the BBC chooses to make and what documentaries it chooses not to. For example, a documentary about how terrible Gaddafi’s Libya was? Yeah, of course that got broadcast. A documentary about the slaughter carried about by the anti-Gaddafi ‘rebels’ and mercenaries – no, […]