Irresponsible scaremongering over the RAF Fairford incident incites racism and war

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WARMONGERING politicians and media have vied to be most irresponsible in speculating on the arrests of five men near RAF Fairford.

Early claims broadcast on the front page of the Guardian suggesting explosives had been found in three vans near the air base have now been denied by police. The release of the men on bail strongly suggests they are not suspected of terrorism, while the revelation that one of them called 999 shortly before the arrests further muddies the waters.

All the men have been confirmed as British nationals, exposing Nigel Farage’s poisonous posts alleging a link to small boat arrivals, which he claims without evidence may be used by Iran to smuggle hostile actors into this country, as xenophobic scaremongering.

Not that he is abashed in the least, responding to their release on bail with claims of “two-tier justice” because Daniel Thomas has been remanded in custody after allegedly slashing a dinghy with a knife while a rescue worker was on board.

Farage himself making the connection shows he is well aware this sort of vigilante attack, part of a wider, disgraceful rise in attacks on the heroic crews of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution who risk their lives to save others at sea, is encouraged by the constant demonisation of small boat arrivals.

Aside from the spurious reference to refugees in a bid to smear them by association, wild exaggeration of what is known so far about this mysterious incident contributes to the war fever promoted by too many politicians and newspapers.

Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio have waded in, making claims apparently contradicted by British police about what happened and again claiming foreign involvement.

When they point the finger at Iran, which no evidence so far suggests was involved at all, we should remember why.

RAF Fairford is not really an RAF base, but a base on our soil used by the US air force. Which has in fact been using it as a launchpad to bomb Iran.

Those bombings are part of an illegal and unprovoked war on that country that began with a horrendous war crime — the massacre of over 150 people, including 120 children, in a double-tap missile strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab.

That we permit bases in Britain to be used to prosecute this criminal war is the real scandal. And US claims about foreign involvement in a plot against the base look designed to draw us further into that war.

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