Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire
A hyper-propagandized war image goes viral in the West, while a preacher implicated in terror plots was ‘protected’ by MI5 – two narratives, both reflecting the ‘humanitarian’ and ‘radicalization’ guises of NATO’s international security syndicate.
When we scratch away the mainstream surface version of the story, what we discover underneath is a web of deep state actors, clandestine deception and media manipulation that exceeds anything Robert Ludlum’s pen could ever put to paper…

‘SCRIPTED REALITY’ – Western media dispenses Cointel narratives for public consumption. (Photo illustration Shawn Helton)
Last week, it was reported that the radical preacher Anjem Choudary, another ‘known wolf’ to security services, had been protected by MI5 according to Scotland Yard – even though he was connected to over a dozen terror plots since 2001:
“Counterterrorism officers were repeatedly blocked by British security service MI5 from pursuing criminal investigations against Britain’s highest-profile radical preacher, Anjem Choudary, it has been claimed.
Last week, Choudary was found guilty of supporting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL), which seized territory in Iraq and Syria and inspired terrorist attacks across Europe.
Following his conviction, it was revealed that the 49-year-old former lawyer had been linked to at least 15 terrorist plots since 2001. Police also believe he has connections to as many as 500 of the 850 young British Muslims who have traveled abroad to join IS.”

‘MI5’s INSIDE MAN’ – Anjem Choudary has been linked to many high-profile terror events, as well as the terror mascot/avatar for ISIS, Jihadi John. (Image Source: twitter)
It’s worth noting that the contemptible cleric Choudary, now facing jail time for supporting ISIS, crossed paths with Abu Hamza, another radical preacher who subsequently ran the Finsbury Park mosque in North London – a known limited hangout for spooks, criminals and other informants.
In 2015, 21WIRE discussed the dubious role of Hamza at Finsbury Park, as well as his long time connection to MI5, while under the gaze of MI6:
“Hamza’s role as a state instigator and secret custodian of the Finsbury Park’s radical ‘honey pot’, now appears obvious. In a typical honey pot operation, security chiefs will place an outrageously radical character into position in order to attract “the worst of the worst” and then inform on them to authorities. For years Hamza openly preached his overtly radical, over-the-top sermons at Finsbury Park, often praising Osama Bin Laden and glorifying the attacks of 9/11, all the while mocking the police.”
Continuing, the Special Report examined Abu Hamza (photo, left) and his meetings with British security services since the 1990’s:
“…the Daily Telegraph disclosed how Abu Hamza had at least 12 secret meetings with MI5 and police special branch over a six year period, starting in the late 1990’s. Other testimonies also exist that show both Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada – Britain’s two most celebrated radical Islamists, were both informants.”
In May of 2015, the UK’s Independent discussed the almost two dozen terror attacks linked to the group known as “Al-Muhajiroun,” a banned terror-linked organization with ties to British intelligence, specifically MI5. In the passage below, many of the international attacks connected to Al-Muhajiroun had been ‘foiled’ by police prior to happening:
“The 7/7 attacks, the murder of fusilier Lee Rigby, the plot to blow up planes with liquid bombs and the plot to blow up the Ministry of Sound nightclub are among the 23 planned terrorist attacks that have been linked to one single radical group operating in the UK over the past two decades: al Muhajiroun.
According to a new book by terrorism expert Raffaello Pantucci, al Muhajiroun, a banned network in the UK, has been linked to a number of plots and attacks carried out both in Britain and abroad since 2000.
The book, entitled We love death as you love life – which Pantucci said is a “catchphrase” used by many of the attackers in their propaganda – claims that 23 out of 51 of these terror plots either carried out or foiled by police in the UK and abroad have been linked to al-Muhajiroun.”
Shortly before London’s 7/7 bombings in 2005,  Al-Muhajiroun’s Omar Bakri Mohammed (Anjem Choudary’s co-founder) was outed as an informant for MI5 after the Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter Ron Suskind spoke to a senior MI5 official. Bakri later ‘conceded’ the connection during an interview in Beirut, which was featured in Suskind’s controversial book, The Way of the World.
In an article written by Nafeez Ahmed entitled,“The circus: How British intelligence primed both sides of the ‘terror war’,” the larger role of Bakri and Choudary is revealed:
“Bakri was regularly in touch with his deputy, Anjem Choudary, over the internet and even delivered online speeches to his followers in Britain instructing them to join IS and murder civilians. He has now been detained and charged by Lebanese authorities for establishing terror cells in the country.
Bakri was also deeply involved “with training the mujahideen [fighters] in camps on the Syrian borders and also on the Palestine side.” The trainees included four British Islamists “with professional backgrounds” who would go on to join the war in Syria. Bakri also claimed to have trained “many fighters,” including people from Germany and France, since arriving in Lebanon. Was Mohammed Emwazi among them? Last year, Bakri disciple Mizanur Rahman confirmedthat at least five European Muslims who had died fighting under IS in Syria had been Bakri acolytes.”
Interestingly, a UK think-tank called the Quilliam Foundation, that focuses on counter-extremism, has functioned alongside the MI5’s counter insurgent programs. Many critics of  Quilliam have suggested the foundation has some controversial bedfellows, in addition to their close affiliation with the Council on Foreign Relations and their connection to the Henry Jackson Society which has been associated with other neoconservative think-tanks.
In the US, many neoconservative republicans have been in favor of escalating the conflict in Syria and Quilliam’s involvement could be seen as another group behind the scenes designing a particular outcome for Western interests.


‘UNMASKED’ – Mohammed Emwazi, on the left, had long been known to British security services prior to being named as the ISIS video villain Jihadi John. (Image Source: skynews)
COINTEL CHAOS
In February of 2015, many blanks were being filled in with regards to the apparent identity of ‘Jihadi John’ and the intelligence community had been sitting on the information for at least 6 months.
The fact that security agencies withheld the identity for so long, meant that the secrecy could have also cost the lives of many purported hostages purported to be in the clutches of the ISIS terror actor Jihadi John. 
The ‘conspiracy of silence’ by those in the intelligence community according to the official narrative and timeline of events related to the infamous videos associated with Jihadi John, led to the alleged deaths of at least four victims, along with another suspected 21 Syrian soldiers.
The public should still be concerned about the cover-up of the duel identity of Mohammad Emwazi/Jihadi John and the initial lack of transparency regarding his ties to British intelligence and the whitewashing of that relationship.
Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who sat on the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC), said that the case of Emwazi was reminiscent of the jailed Woolwich slashers, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who also had ties to security services prior to their apparent violent attack in the streets of London in 2013.
While on on BBC’s Newsnight, a friend of Adebolajo, Abu Nusaybah, revealed that the so-called Woolwich slasher was in Kenya and had been recruited by the British intelligence services, which led to Nusaybah’s arrest by the British Anti-Terror agency shortly after the show.
21WIRE has documented a number of other terror ‘informant’ cases, along with a few classic COINTEL patsies:
Tamerlan Tsarnaev (see his story here)
Naji Mansour (see his story here)
Quazi Mohammad Nafis (see his story here)
Mohamed Osman Mohamud (see his story here)
Timothy McVeigh (see his story here)
Elton Simpson (see his story here)
Mohamed Lahouij Bouhlel (see his story here)
Man Haron ‘Sheikh’ Monis (see his story here)
Abu Hamza (see his story here)
Haroon Rashid Aswat (see his story here)
Michael Adebolajo (see his story here)
Mahdi Hashi (see his story here)
Mohammad Emwazi/Jihadi John (see his story here)
Omar Mateen (see his story here)
Tashfeen Malik (see her story here)
Salah Abdeslam  (see his story here)
Amedi Coulibaby (see his story here)
Hayat Boumeddiene (see her story here)
Kouachi Brothers (see their story here)
Yassine Labidi (see his story here)
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (see his story here)
Abdelhakim Dekhar  (see his story here)
Glen Rodgers (see his story here)
Jerad Miller (see his story here)
Buford Rogers (see his story here)
Western political leaders and their media often discuss the dangers of so-called terror ‘sleeper cells’ residing in a nation near you, but none of them acknowledge or attempt to explain the historical fact that for decades, they themselves have helped to harbor, grow, foment and radicalize individuals through their own clandestine ‘counter-terrorism’ operations.
Many of these operations have directly implicated security agencies (and military alliances) such as the FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6 and NATO – in the production of real terror.
While most of these counter intelligence operations have fallen under the umbrella of the so-called War On Terror, the suspicious relationship between security agencies and those the ‘known wolves’ who carry out attacks should be questioned.
COINTELPRO
Domestically in America, the FBI created the counter-intelligence program known as COINTELPRO, to influence, disrupt and coerce political factions from the inside out, infiltrating countless political groups and movements. According to reports these included the following, “The Black Panther Party, The Communist Party of America, the Ku Klux Klan, the Socialist Workers Party, the New Left, the Students for a Democratic Society, the American Indian Movement, the Chicano Movement, the Puerto Rican Liberation Movement, Communist groups, anti-war organizations, Hollywood stars sympathetic to these groups, and civil rights leaders.” 
Between 1956 and 1971 the FBI’s controversial program influenced and radicalized hundreds of left-wing and right-wing groups to control and neutralize political dissidents across America.
Also during the 1960’s and the 1970’s the CIA’s Operation CHAOS “collected substantial amounts of information on domestic dissidents from 1967 to 1973,” as admitted by the CIA. It was also related to the overseas Phoenix Program (Operation Phoenix) which was used in Vietnam to tear apart the political infrastructure through the use of informants, agent provocateurs, and targeted assassinations.
Interestingly though, the prototype for modern deep state intelligence programs goes back to the formation of the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) an intelligence propaganda agency in 1941 that was succeeded by Office of Strategic Services (OSS) a wartime intelligence apparatus created in 1942 that focused on psychological warfare. OSS agents also worked closely with  British Security Coordination (BSC).

‘RISING FROM THE ASHES’ – The official Phoenix Program patch from the Vietnam era that depicts the mythological Phoenix motif. (Photo usmilitariaforum.com)
Similarly, on a global scale, NATO’s paramilitary-style stay-behind-armies have been implicated in Operation GLADIO, a wave of terror attacks across Europe from the 1950’s into the 1980’s, something which also served to steer public perception over war as well aid in the growth of security operations.
Allied nations of course, have disclosed that Western intelligence agencies regularly dispense double agents and informants under the proud banner of security, yet they are always careful to obfuscate the true nature of such programs and their potential role in foreign policy aims.
In 2014, it was revealed that a social science program directed by Minerva Research Initiative and the Department of Defense (DoD), was to study the behavior of peaceful activism and how political ideology shapes protest movements throughout the world at large. Resuscitating and partially reconstituting a 1960’s Cold War-era (Project Camelot) social science program used to detect, infiltrate and steer political protest.

‘DARK CLOUD’ – The Finsbury Park Mosque – a haven for security linked radicals. (Image Source: the guardian)
Terror & Security
Dan Glazebrook of the UK’s Guardian and Middle East Eye, outlined the often unsavory link between security and terror in an RT Op-Edge report from January of 2016. Here’s a passage below linking the so-called new Jihadi John as a member (Siddhartha Dhar, aka Abu Rumaysah) of Choudary’s ‘Al-Muhajiroun’ – who later joined ISIS. It also details MI5’s ties to 2013’s Woolwich slasher Adebolajo:

Continuing, Glazbrook added:
“In fact, it seems that pretty much every time a British ISIS or Al Qaeda recruit is unearthed, they turn out to have deep ties to the intelligence services. The story of Michael Adebalajo is a case in point.”
“The parliamentary committee on intelligence and security conducted hearings on the murder later that year, and its report makes fascinating reading. It revealed that, prior to the murder, Adebolajo had been identified as a Subject of Interest (SoI) in no less five separate MI5 investigations, including one which was focused specifically on him.
This surveillance had revealed that he was in contact with “a high profile and senior AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula] extremist” as well as two “Tier 1 SoIs being investigated… due to their possible links with AQAP in Yemen”. At one point in 2011, this particular investigation was “MI5’s highest priority operation” and it led MI5 to conclude that “Adebolajo was a primary contact of BRAVO and CHARLIE”, code names for the two suspected AQAP members under investigation.”
Following the theatrical Paris Shootings in 2015, in and around the offices of the salacious periodical Charlie Hebdo, we were told by the western media outlet CNN, that AQAP had taken responsibility for the attacks.
On that note, it was revealed that Amedy Coulibaly had professed his allegiance to ISIS, while supposedly working with the Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi, who claimed they were ‘financed by AQAP’ to carry out their part in the attack.
Regarding the Paris shooting saga – we can see a clear attachment between terror brands AQAP and ISIS. This was the exact narrative that shaped up out of Yemen – while Saudi airstrikes provided cover.
Penny Lane
In the aftermath of 9/11 until 2006, the CIA operated a facility called Penny Lane to train terrorists to be double agents, meant to infiltrate Al Qaeda terror cells.
Penny Lane was named after the Beatles tune and was connected to another secret facility called Strawberry Fields, a name also taken from the British rock group.
We’re told that operation had been successful in its scope – but that the CIA had ‘lost touch’ with many of its newly trained double agents.
The Penny Lane facility was unlike any other building in the Guantanamo Bay prison area, as it was said to have beds, kitchens and a patio for its prisoners. The money to pay informants and double agents was also provided for by the CIA under the codename ‘Pledge.’
The Pakistani terror group Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), are said to have ties to the CIA facility Penny Lane, a group that reportedly issued threats against DC and New York – via a propaganda video produced by Umar Media a few years ago.
In May of 2010, an SUV bought by Faisal Shahzad began suspiciously smoldering while parked in Times Square but did not explode – in what was later called a failed terror plot.
The SUV was allegedly filled with gas tanks and fireworks, as Shahzad was eventually picked up by authorities at John F. Kennedy Airport on a flight headed for Dubai. McClatchy noted a contradiction in the Times Square plot narrative:
“The U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials, however, said that the bungled nature of the bombing and the trail of clues that led the FBI to him suggest that he never received even rudimentary terrorist training or instructions on how to evade arrest.”
Shahzad was questioned for two days following the apparent foiled plot. Law enforcement initially linked him to the Pakistani group known as the TTP.
More recently, US officials stated that 15 detainees had been transferred out of Guantanamo Bay and were shipped to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The focus of this event has been centered around a half-hearted theatrical attempt by the White House to ‘shutdown’ the facility.
However, one does wonder why would the US has sent jailed radicals (all potential assets – informants and double agents) to an area of the world known for financing terror and implicated in the transfer of militant money.

‘PSYOP?’ – This suspiciously timed war image sparked controversy for its choreographed appearance. (Image Source: 21WIRE)
Inside ISIS, ‘Dust Boy’ Agitprop & NATO’s Humanitarian Mask
In February 2015, 21WIRE reported how British journalist John Cantlie’s video message ‘From Inside Aleppo‘ was part of an elaborate PR effort to ‘humanize’ ISIS and its future generation of fighters. The decidedly pro-ISIS video was heavily promoted by the intelligence group SITE as well as the ISIS media arm, Al Hayat Media Center.
Mainstream pundits and broadcast journalists maintain that ‘Cantlie’ is and was under duress, having been forced into operating as a crack reporter for the ISIS terror brand. The narrative borders on the ridiculous, yet it has been totally accepted without question.
Cantlie’s prominent role in the YouTube video series “Lend Me Your Ears,” prompted some in new media circles to question the British journo, along with his links to USAID connected reporter, James Foley – one of the as of yet, forensically unproven deaths at the hands of the estranged terror persona ‘Jihadi John‘.
Nothing in the video appeared to be authentic, as Cantlie fails to disclose the true nature of the West’s role in inciting terror in the region, through its various  arms trafficking and “Train and Equip” programs linked to so-called “moderate” rebels in Syria.
Given John Cantlie’s uncanny ability to stay alive “inside ISIS territory” and his close affiliation to western elites who also completely support the West and GCC’s fraudulent proxy war against Syria – one might pose the question of whether or not this is a stage-managed media persona, or possibly a British intelligence operative who very well could be working in some capacity with counter intelligence and involved in pushing Western policy objectives.
Given the historical precedence involving Cointel programs and their role in shifting attitudes politically, it is possible that Cantlie’s utterly absurd tale could be designed to sway the public perceptions in a high tech version of the old propaganda ‘leaflet drops’ used during the Cold War era.
Similarly, new forms of subliminally arresting and deceptive propaganda have appeared recently in Western media and more broadly, over the past year from NGOs linked to the military alliance NATO and to known Islamist terrorist group.
Over the last week, an emotionally charged scene supposedly depicting a Syrian child rescued after an airstrike became a polarizing story exploited by Western media.
Here we see Jay Dyer of Jay’s Analysis discuss the dust boy propaganda…

Aleppo Syria ‘Dust Boy’ Image Staged

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/08/24/aleppo-syria-dust-boy-image-staged/embed/#?secret=AwSOiPA3IG
While watching the entire video footage of the event, the dust-covered boy who appears to be bleeding after an apparent airstrike (yet the blood has already coagulated) is left unattended, as he is oddly propped up in an ambulance seat while being photographed by Mahmoud Raslan – an alleged ‘media activist’ who has been seen “fraternizing with terrorist groups in Aleppo.”
This has prompting some critics to charge that Raslan may actually be linked to the White Helmets, a group funded largely by NATO and an NGO embedded with Al-Qaeda members, who regularly dispense staged humanitarian media images and video for public consumption.
Rick Sterling provides a bit of background information about the White Helmets via a 21WIRE report by Vanessa Beeley:
“White Helmets is the newly minted name for ‘Syrian Civil Defence.’ Despite the name, Syria Civil Defence was not created by Syrians nor does it serve Syria. Rather it was created by the UK and USA in 2013. Civilians from rebel controlled territory were paid to go to Turkey to receive some training in rescue operations. The program was managed by James Le Mesurier, a former British soldier and private contractor whose company is based in Dubai.”
Vanessa Beeley continues the analysis in her seminal report entitled, “WHO ARE SYRIA’S WHITE HELMETS?“:
“The White Helmets are perhaps being demonstrated to be the most crucial component of the US and NATO shadow state building inside Syria.  Led by the US and UK this group is essential to the propaganda stream that facilitates the continued media and political campaign against the elected Syrian government and permits the US and NATO to justify their regime of crippling economic and humanitarian sanctions against the Syrian people.
If this latest mechanised ‘NGO’ blueprint is successful then we could see it being re-deployed as key to future neo-colonialist projects. The White Helmets are a direct intra-venus line into the terrorist enclaves within Syria, acting as a conduit for information, equipment and medical support to maintain the US NATO forces.”
From this information, we might observe that the recent so-called rescue operation in Aleppo, was specifically produced for maximum emotional impact and internet viral capability, and always dovetailing with the West’s regime change plot in Syria – with the support of a so-called ‘first-responder’ or ‘human rights’ NGO.
The strange and disembodied footage of a blood and dust-covered boy, was also reminiscent of last year’s migrant crisis image of a child washed ashore – yet the mainstream media failed to question the geopolitical angle behind the photograph as well as the engineered migrant crisisitself.
In many ways, this type of drive-by ‘shock and awe’ imagery is linked to past political staging in the Middle East.
On October 10th, 1990, Nayirah al-Ṣabaḥ, the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador for the United States, Saud Al-Sabah, provided a tearful testimony that turned out to be false, as she claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers taking babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital during the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. This was the lie that Washington and its PR strategists used as a pretext for the Gulf War in 1990, pre-dating the WMD lie that was used to invade Iraq in 2003.
Below, is a UK Column report featuring Vanessa Beeley and Mike Robinson discussing the hypocrisy of the White Helmet NGO…