British Prime Minister Theresa May

UK Considering Sending More British Troops to Afghanistan

After calls by President Trump to NATO allies to join the U.S. and send more troops into Afghanistan, the UK defense secretary has written to Theresa May recommending the UK boosts its military presence in the country.

Currently, there are more than 600 troops in the capital of Kabul, there helping train local Afghan Security Forces.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said he understood that Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson recommended sending up to 400 more army personnel into Afghanistan, joining the 600 already there training Afghan soldiers.
The UK troops would help train Afghan forces and not be in combat.

In 2017, the US announced a plan to send in thousands more troops, which would bring the US total to about 15,000.
It is part of a strategy to help fight the Taliban and deal with the rising threat from the Islamic State group.
The last UK combat troops left Afghanistan in 2014 after being involved in the conflict since 2001.
General Sir Richard Barrons, a former commander of joint forces command who led campaigns in Afghanistan, said the UK “has to recognise that the decision to leave in 2014… hasn’t worked”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the national army and air force in Afghanistan were “not strong enough” to defeat the Taliban alone.
The decision to increase troops would “send an important message to our allies, and the Taliban,” he added.
“The only way this war is going to end is when the Taliban realise they can’t fight their way back to government. They have to resort to dialogue.”

This comes at a time when the size of the British Army is the smallest in more than 200 years. Currently, the army has just over 77,000 troops, well short of its goal of 82,000.

The UK defense ministry cites several factors for the low numbers including the end of combat operations in the region, a pay freeze and the Army’s recruitment process which has been beset by glitches in their computer system which has slowed the process.

To read the entire article from the BBC, click here:

Photo courtesy AP

Theresa May: Russia and Syria Are Blocking Evidence of Gas Attack

Using the ridiculous excuse of “Security Issues”, the Russians and Syrians are blocking the efforts of the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) to gather evidence are actively trying “to conceal the facts” of the latest chemical weapons attack, according to the United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May.

“The Syrian regime has reportedly been seeking to conceal the evidence by searching evacuees from Douma to ensure samples are not being smuggled from this area, and a wider operation to conceal the facts of the attack is underway, supported by the Russians,” May told the British House of Commons on Monday.
May aired that accusation after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced that a team of investigators had deployed to Syria, only to be barred from the site of the attack due to “pending security issues.” The role of the OPCW investigators has been a central part of the debate between Russian and western diplomats over the last several days, as Russia denied that any gas attack had taken place and tried to forestall western airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
“It would be possible to make greater efforts on the ground to establish now what has happened in Douma if Russia and the regime were not blocking the opportunity for the OPCW to go to the site, and if efforts were not being made by the regime to ensure that material from the site is not available for that sort of analysis,” May added.
Russian officials maintain that the United Kingdom faked the apparent evidence for the latest attack, which reportedly killed dozens of civilians and injured hundreds more, and then rushed to attack Assad before the OPCW investigation could take place.
“We do not think that these reports could be falsified on this scale,” she said. “The opposition does not operate helicopters or use barrel bombs. [ISIS] does not even have a presence in Douma, and the reports of this attack are consistent with previous regime attacks.”

This latest sham by the Russians and Syrians is the typical maneuver. Cry foul, block an independent investigation and try to erase any evidence before claiming the attacks were staged.

To read the entire article from the Washington Examiner, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

How to Spot Fake Russian News Bots in Your Timeline

Earlier this week British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a speech that social media was inundated with Russian attempts to distort the news and elections and accused Moscow of “planting fake stories” online as part of a “campaign of cyber-espionage and disruption”.

She was using the information after both British and US intelligence services identified several prominent news services were exposed as Russian bots.

Earlier in November, the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence provided a list of 2,753 suspended, Russian-linked Twitter accounts.

Many of these fake Russian bot accounts have been traced directly to the Internet Research Agency, in St Petersburg. The Russian government-backed agency reportedly runs social media accounts disseminating “disinformation”.

This “troll farm” was exposed by a whistleblower in the New York Times in 2015. A BBC investigation has also uncovered a pro-Russia “troll factory” in Ukraine.
The Oxford Internet Institute – part of the University of Oxford and recipients of the Democracy award for its analysis of propaganda – says bots “significantly impact [on]public life during important policy debates, elections, and political crises” and “flourished during the 2016 US presidential election”.
Bot-spotting tips
The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL) offers social-media users tips for spotting a bot:
Frequency: Bots are prolific posters. The more frequently they post, the more caution should be shown. The DFRL classifies 72 posts a day as suspicious, and more than 144 per day as highly suspicious.
Anonymity: Bots often lack any personal information. The accounts often have generic profile pictures and political slogans as “bios”.
Amplification: A bot’s timeline will often consist of re-tweets and verbatim quotes, with few posts containing original wording.
Common content: Networks of bots can be identified if multiple profiles tweet the same content almost simultaneously.
The Digital Forensic Research Lab’s full list of tips can be found here.
There has been a move away from fully automated bots to semi-automated accounts.
Such accounts are harder to identify, as they intersperse their activity with references to popular culture and personalized replies.

To read the entire article from The BBC, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

British PM Theresa May: Russia Seeking to “Weaponize” Information

British Prime Minister Theresa May spared no words in her criticism of Russia and President Vladimir Putin on Monday, accusing Moscow of attempting to undermine the West by election meddling and seeking to “weaponize” information.

May’s sharp criticism of Putin contrasts sharply with that of President Trump who mostly skirted around the issue and cast doubt on allegations by the U.S. intelligence community about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I have a very simple message for Russia,” the British leader said. “We know what you are doing and you will not succeed, because you underestimate the resilience of our democracies, the enduring attraction of free and open societies, and the commitment of Western nations to the alliances that bind us.”
She told the audience at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London that “it is Russia’s actions which threaten the international order on which we all depend.”
“Russia can, and I hope one day will, choose this different path,” she said. “But for as long as Russia does not, we will act together to protect our interests and the international order on which they depend.”
Russia, she said, “is seeking to weaponize information, deploying its state-run media organizations to plant fake stories and Photoshopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions.”

Russia linked material permeated Facebook and Instagram during the election campaign and the Russians are also accused of running “troll” factories that generate fake news and propaganda.

To read the entire article from NBC News click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia