{"id":195953,"date":"2019-10-08T07:09:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T07:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=195953"},"modified":"2019-10-11T07:26:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T07:26:21","slug":"uk-military-unit-secretly-trained-by-leftist-regime-change-advocate-and-other-academics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=195953","title":{"rendered":"UK military unit secretly trained by leftist regime-change advocate and other academics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gray Zone \u2013 Oct 3, 2019<\/h1>\n

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Government documents show scholar Gilbert Achcar and other pro-regime change academics have given training sessions to UK Ministry of Defense soldiers, helping the British military enhance its counter-insurgency tactics.<\/h4>\n

By Ben Norton<\/h1>\n

Declassified British government documents obtained by The Grayzone show that prominent regime-change activists who work in academia and market themselves as leftists have been quietly teaching training sessions for the United Kingdom\u2019s Ministry of Defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among these UK military collaborators is the scholar Gilbert Achcar, a frequent contributor to Jacobin Magazine and Democracy Now who teaches international relations at the University of London\u2019s School of Oriental and African Studies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Achcar has publicly identified himself as a Marxist while vehemently advocating for the overthrow of independent post-colonial governments in Libya and Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Achcar defended foreign intervention in Libya in 2011, insisting \u201cno one can reasonably oppose\u201d the so-called no-fly zone, which was used to violently overthrow the government. And in 2018 he signed an open letter calling for foreign intervention in Syria, citing the \u201cresponsibility to protect\u201d doctrine in order to \u201cforcibly stop\u201d the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, Achcar has repeatedly attacked the anti-imperialist left, without ever publicly disclosing his work with the British military.<\/span><\/p>\n

The regular educational sessions led by Achcar and other top academics were organized to train the Defense Cultural Specialist Unit. This wing of the British military is staffed by senior officers who wear full uniform and are embedded with other soldiers on the battlefield.<\/span><\/p>\n

The unit\u2019s cultural specialists have played a key role in the British war on Afghanistan, and have advised the military on how to operate in other countries, including several nations that were previously colonized by Britain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the academics involved in these training sessions also teach at the School of Oriental and African Studies, which is known for hiring and producing post-modernist scholars who are progressive but staunchly anti-communist, and often supportive of NATO-backed regime-change efforts and Islamism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the other scholars involved in the British military program include prominent Yemen expert Helen Lackner, the popular pundit Lina Khatib, and the former director of the BBC\u2019s Arabic and Turkish services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Achcar, Lackner is a regular contributor to left-wing news outlets such as Jacobin Magazine, which this July co-sponsored a socialism-themed conference that featured numerous regime-change activists from US government-funded organizations<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacobin has continued publishing articles by Achcar<\/strong><\/span><\/a> even after his involvement with the British military was first exposed in July by the UK\u2019s Morning Star<\/strong><\/span><\/a> newspaper and its reporter Phil Miller<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be sure, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) trainings were not just innocuous educational sessions that equipped soldiers with historical and cultural background. Declassified schedules obtained by The Grayzone show some of the educational sessions focused explicitly on \u201cimplications for UK military mission,\u201d providing \u201ckey takeaways for MOD personnel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The School of Oriental and African Studies and its staff claim otherwise, and have defended their collaboration with the British military.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Grayzone has gotten access to the declassified British government files and published them in full<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. For the first time, the public can see for itself how the British military establishment has penetrated ostensibly progressive academic circles.<\/span><\/p>\n

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UK Defence Cultural Specialist Unit forces in the British war in Afghanistan<\/p><\/div>\n

Training sessions for the UK\u2019s \u2018Defense Cultural Specialist Unit\u2019<\/h2>\n

On July 26, following an explosive report<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in the Morning Star newspaper, London\u2019s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) published a statement<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on its website confirming that its faculty trains and advises \u201cgovernment bodies.\u201d It added, \u201cWe reject any suggestion that, in undertaking such work, we are perpetuating a colonial approach to between the UK and other nations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

SOAS also attached a three-page open letter from Gilbert Achcar<\/strong><\/span><\/a> (also first reported on<\/a><\/strong><\/span> by Morning Star\u2019s Phil Miller). In the missive, the scholar acknowledged that he provided trainings for the British military.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Achcar stood by the decision, wondering, \u201cShould we prefer that the military and security personnel of this country be solely exposed to right-wing education?\u201d He drew a false parallel between a school receiving public funding for education and a school taking money from the Ministry of Defense to provide training to the military, maintaining that it is important for self-declared leftists to try training the troops.<\/span><\/p>\n

Achcar insisted that renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky had \u201cconvinced me that it is important to let critical voices be heard even among the military,\u201d noting that Chomsky gave a lecture to the US Military Academy in 2006. (Chomsky collaborated with Achcar on a book<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on the Middle East.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The move to expose the role of SOAS academics like Achcar in a military training program began this January when a student at the school filed a Freedom of Information request for government documents related to the UK\u2019s Defense Cultural Specialist Unit and its collaboration with his university.<\/span><\/p>\n

The student was part of the Decolonising Our Minds Society<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, a SOAS group that says<\/strong><\/span><\/a> it \u201cseeks to challenge the political, intellectual and structural legacies of colonialism and racism both within and outside the university.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The student asked the ministry how much the Defense Cultural Specialist Unit paid for \u201cbriefing, training, consultancy, analysis or research, to the School of Oriental and African Studies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On April 5, 2019, the Army Secretariat of the UK Ministry of Defense replied with an email containing several files.<\/span><\/p>\n

These documents \u2014 which have been published by The Grayzone<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and are embedded at the bottom of this article \u2014 reveal that the UK\u2019s Defence Cultural Specialist Unit holds what it calls Regional Studies Weeks, \u201cwhich are designed and delivered on our behalf by SOAS.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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A \u201ccultural specialist\u201d deployed with the UK military\u2019s Defence Cultural Specialist Unit in Afghanistan. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A key component of British counterinsurgency that is \u2018essential to equipping the military\u2019<\/h2>\n

The Defence Cultural Specialist Unit (DCSU) is not just a cultural group; it is a key part of the British military\u2019s counter-insurgency operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The unit was formed in 2010<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, soon after the UK withdrew from the war in Iraq, and while it was still bogged down in Afghanistan. The Ministry of Defense said in a news report<\/a><\/strong><\/span> announcing the unit\u2019s creation that it was deploying \u201cmilitary specialists in Afghan culture and language to advise commanders on the ground.\u201d Most of these specialists were themselves uniformed \u201csenior military officers<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s assistant chief of the defense staff, Andy Pulford, said the \u201cunit is essential to equipping the military with a better understanding and appreciation of the region, its people and how to do business there.\u201d The Defense Ministry added that the \u201cimmediate focus for the DCSU is supporting operations in Afghanistan but it will evolve alongside operational requirements to fit the needs of the military in future conflicts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Defense Cultural Specialist Unit forces are frequently deployed<\/a><\/strong><\/span> side-by-side with soldiers in Afghanistan, according to publicly<\/strong><\/span><\/a> available postings<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on the UK government\u2019s official website. In Kenya<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, they have also deployed with the Psychological Operations Group, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A recruitment video<\/a><\/strong><\/span> for the unit that was published on YouTube in 2016 showed some of these \u201ccultural specialists\u201d\u00a0 dressed in full military uniform and, to an untrained eye, indistinguishable from soldiers. Many had spent years embedded with the military in war zones.<\/span><\/p>\n