The pro-EU Renew party emerged from out of nowhere at the height of “Corbynmania,” pushing for a second Brexit referendum that led to the Labour leader’s demise. The intelligence backgrounds of Renew’s founders were kept under wraps – until now.
by Kit Klarenberg
Part 5 - Renew co-founder shares address with anti-Corbyn military-intelligence front
Despite Coghlan’s confident public pronouncements, Renew stood just 16 candidates in the local elections. Every single one of them lost, and badly. Three weeks later, he abruptly quit the party under unclear circumstances.
Coghlan promptly joined Bulldog Trust, an organization that ostensibly provides financial and advisory assistance to charities. The group operates out of London’s historic Two Temple Place, the same building that houses the secret headquarters of the notorious Whitehall and NATO-sponsored think tank known as the Institute for Statecraft.
Coghlan promptly joined Bulldog Trust, an organization that ostensibly provides financial and advisory assistance to charities. The group operates out of London’s historic Two Temple Place, the same building that houses the secret headquarters of the notorious Whitehall and NATO-sponsored think tank known as the Institute for Statecraft.
At that time, the Institute for Statecraft served as a front for the Integrity Initiative, a covert black propaganda outfit disguised as a media research project that was directed by military intelligence professionals. The Institute became embroiled in national scandal in late 2018 when its internal documents leaked online, and it was discovered to have smeared Corbyn as a “useful idiot” of the Kremlin, a flagrant breach of state funding rules.
Those files reveal that at precisely the same time of Renew’s official launch, the Institute for Statecraft invited Glen O’Hara, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes University, to deliver a detailed presentation at Two Temple Place entitled “Who Are the Corbynites, and What Do They Believe?”
Those files reveal that at precisely the same time of Renew’s official launch, the Institute for Statecraft invited Glen O’Hara, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes University, to deliver a detailed presentation at Two Temple Place entitled “Who Are the Corbynites, and What Do They Believe?”
O’Hara’s presence at the Institute and the organization’s preoccupation with Corbyn is notable given the group’s clandestine role in the creation of the 77th Brigade, the aforementioned Army propaganda unit in which some of Coghlan’s most ardent professional allies proudly served.
In other leaked documents, the Initiative boasted of its effort to “help the [Armed] Forces become more competent to fight modern war with all kinds of weapons.” According to its own records, Integrity Initiative’s assistance to the British army included aiding “the creation of special Army reserve units (e.g. 77th Brigade and Specialist Group Military Intelligence) with which we now have a close, informal relationship [emphasis added].”
The Integrity Initiative went on to explain these information warfare units recruited “people whom the Army could never afford to hire, but who donate their time and expertise as patriots.” Several academics from Oxford Brookes University were enlisted to assist Specialist Group Military Intelligence, suggesting O’Hara’s presentation represented one example of how the British Army was taught to “fight modern war with all kinds of weapons.”
That Corbyn was firmly in the crosshairs of Britain’s military establishment following his election as Labour leader is abundantly clear. A leaked presentation given to members of the Army’s 72 Intelligence Corps in 2016 dedicated an entire section to dissecting the Labour leader’s “views,” including his opposition to NATO and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
That Corbyn was firmly in the crosshairs of Britain’s military establishment following his election as Labour leader is abundantly clear. A leaked presentation given to members of the Army’s 72 Intelligence Corps in 2016 dedicated an entire section to dissecting the Labour leader’s “views,” including his opposition to NATO and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
An accompanying slide asserted that Corbyn’s rise would lead to “less focus on the military,” noting he “opposes military involvements and defence spending.”
The only other topics explored in the leaked presentation were the war in Syria and EU refugee crisis. Evidently, British military brass considered Corbyn’s leftist views equal to the threat posed by armed conflict and human catastrophe. This perspective is hardly insignificant. An official description of the 72 Intelligence Corps says it “provides commanders at all levels with intelligence products and predictive intelligence analysis in order to inform their decision-making.”
As such, 72 Intelligence Corps is charged with using “information gathered from a wide variety of sources to create a profile of the enemy [emphasis added]; their locations, key figures and tactics,” and “assess what the opponent’s courses of action are and predict what will happen next.” They are also responsible for safeguarding Army and Ministry of Defence “assets” from “traditional and non-traditional threats.” Corbyn was it seems viewed as one such “threat.”
Coghlan’s background and connections suggest he may have been privy to these briefings. Which in turn raises an even more obvious question: was Renew an organic political initiative, or a military intelligence operation deployed against Corbyn and the progressive movement he represented?
Coghlan’s background and connections suggest he may have been privy to these briefings. Which in turn raises an even more obvious question: was Renew an organic political initiative, or a military intelligence operation deployed against Corbyn and the progressive movement he represented?
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