Shadow Home Secretary and MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington Diane Abbott has tweeted what at first appears to be a shocking image, a western aircraft carrying out low-level bombing runs in a heavily populated city. The problem? It’s a poorly photoshopped image published in a blog years ago.

When browsing Twitter to check notifications on the UK Defence Journal account, I noticed a flood of people pointing us to this tweet and honestly, I thought it was a spoof at first.

What the image actually shows is an Israeli F-15 at very low altitude over Tehran with tracer fire whizzing by. It is not real. The tweet has attracted a great deal of criticism for the inaccurate and highly emotive image.

Tweeting criticism of the strikes is of course not an issue. Using highly emotive images appearing to suggest that the Royal Air Force and others conducted bombing raids in high density urban areas likely to cause heavy casualties is not, in fact, it’s simply irresponsible.

On the morning of the 14th of April, the United States, the United Kingdom and France carried out a series of cruise missile against multiple government targets in Syria.

In total, the forces of the three nations fired 105 cruise missiles:

  • 66 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from US Navy ships
  • 19 JASSM-ER cruise missiles were fired from from American B-1 bombers
  • 9 SCALP/Storm Shadow cruise missiles from French Air Force Rafale jets
  • 8 SCALP/Storm Shadow cruise missiles from Royal Air Force Tornado jets
  • 3 Naval SCALP cruise missiles from French Navy ships

According to US military’s Joint Staff, the allocation of missiles to targets was:

  • Barzeh research and development centre (Damascus): 57 Tomahawk and 19 JASSM-ER missiles.
  • Him Shinshar storage site (west of Homs): 9 Tomahawk, 8 British Storm Shadow, 3 MdCN, and 2 French SCALP missiles.
  • Him Shinshar bunker (west of Homs): 7 French SCALP missiles.

“All weapons hit their targets close to the designated time on target,” said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the US Joint Staff director.

“None of our aircraft or missiles involved in this operation were successfully engaged by Syrian air defenses,” McKenzie said. “We have no indication that Russian air defenses were employed.”

Syrian response was ineffectual as the Syrians launched surface-to-air missiles on a ballistic trajectory. “Most of the launches occurred after our strike was over,” the general said.

“When you shoot iron into the air without guidance, it has to come down somewhere.”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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67 COMMENTS

  4. To criticize Abbot means you are both a racist & a misogynist, which is a shame as there is so many thing one could say….

    • Jas.
      Please get a dictionary to look up what the words “racist” and “mysogynist” mean.
      Your comments are so utterly stupid, you could almost be Dianne Abbot.

    • Geez. Give the guy (Jas.) a break. He was pretty obviously parodying the attitude of the mainstream media whenever anyone dares to point out what a complete xxx (*) she is and by implication saying what he thought of her. I thought it was quite a clever comment, both implicitly saying what he thinks of Abbot and having a swipe at the overly sensitive PC types at the same time. He certainly doesn’t deserve all this hate.

      (*) Insert your own insult (as in accurate observation) here.

    • Actually IMO there is a serious issue here. Diane suffers from type 2 diabetes. This tweet is in the current fashionable jargon ‘part of a pattern of behaviour’. It seems to me this disease is controlling Diane rather than Diane controlling the disease. For her own sake and for the sake of her constituents and her party she should take a year or two off from the front bench, rest and focus on her health.

  6. What is really bugging me about all of the coverage is that Parliament has NO authority to wage war. They are not Parliament’s Armed Forces. They are Her Majesty’s Armed Forces.

    There is no mechanism within the Constitution for Parliament to authorise going to war. It is for the Government, through the Prime Minister to ask the Monarch to go to war.

    Why are the Labour MPs who have been pontificating over the weekend so ignorant of the constitution?

    • They are most likely not ignorant of constitutional matters Rob. They are however, ‘Convenience Democrats’ who choose to put aside Laws, rules, and conventions when they don’t fit in with their own view-points on any given issue. The ‘hard-left’ element, that controls the Labour Party, would like to ‘bin’ our unwritten constitution and replace it with a written one inspired by their Marxist ideology. We shouldn’t rush to discourage ‘poor Di’; while she sits on the Front Benches with the Opposition, she is a great asset to the Government. She only opens her mouth to change feet, but in the short space of time when her mouth is clear of clutter she never fails to make an ass of herself.

    • We didn’t go to war, no declaration of war has been issued by the realm, we just tested some weapons systems

    • (Chris H) jack – Be afraid. REALLY afraid:
      Jeremy Corbyn – Prime Minister
      John Mcdonnell – Chancellor
      Diane Abbott – Home Secretary
      Emily Thornberry (Lady Nugee) – Foreign Secretary
      Angela Rayner – Education Secretary
      Etc etc etc ….

      Even that Commie twat McDonnell has admitted there will be a run on £ that will make the post Brexit fall look like minor dip ….

      • Indeed and people (many of them labour supporters) think Brexit is a disaster for this country. It is truly scary not only the complete lack of quality politicians on any side of the equation but just how normalised the biggest idiots amongst them has become to much of the public. No in fact its worse than truly scary its like waking up and finding out Abbot has been made Chancellor.

      • To his credit: He backs up his threats with action – especially in light of the NON action of the previous administration…

        Detraction: I wish he would stop doing all that D**N TWITTERING!!!! I’m don’t even have an account and it annoys me…

        Never a dull day in politics here… 😀

        Cheers!

        • Well, Obama was indeed indecision personified. What price teamwork? Between them Trump, Macron and May and their respective back office diplomatic and military support got it about right.

  10. Dianne Abbot is embarrassing to the Labour party, her being on the shadow front bench will harm any chances of labour winning the next election.

    In the interest of fairness though, I think she used this picture for a general dramatic affect of air strikes rather than accuracy of the allied air strikes in Syria.

    You said this..

    “Using highly emotive images appearing to suggest that the Royal Air Force and others conducted bombing raids in high density urban areas likely to cause heavy casualties is not, in fact, it’s simply irresponsible.“

    The specific air strike you talk about didn’t cause heavy casualties.

    But according to airwars there has been over 5k civilian deaths caused by coalition air strikes since the bombing campaign against Isis began, over 25k deaths including artillery.

    Whilst I am massively in favour of taking out ISIS, I said as much on here the other day and unfortunately there will be civilian casualties in doing so, it is also highly irresponsible to make out like civilian deaths don’t happen.

    • Survivor, you’re right. Unfortunately that is war. If ISIS chooses to operate among the civilian population, although highly regrettable, its bound to happen. I know that coalition forces take every precaution possible to minimise or altogether avoid civilian casualties, their ROEs requiring them many times to decline an attack rather than risk civilian lives. Unlike the people we often fight against, our forces, with few notable exceptions, do not deliberately target civilians and the few who do, very often get prosecuted and hounded for the rest of their lives.

    • SS wrote:
      But according to airwars there has been over 5k civilian deaths caused by coalition air strikes since the bombing campaign against Isis began, over 25k deaths including artillery.

      SS, I’m always a little suspect of such claims, the Western led Coalition has only used PGMs via the use of targeting pods and have only carried out surgical strikes on military targets. Yes mistakes happen and yes there will have been civilian casualties, but the fact remains by being uber cautious the West may have actually prolonged the fight against ISS and other Jihadist groups.
      In contrast, the Russian using primarily dumb bombs Incendiary and Cluster munitions in waves of attacks (usually Carpet bombing areas) have wiped clean entire areas of resistance, and allowed Assad to reclaim huge areas of terrorist occupied land. I’m not saying they are right, but I have noticed a lack of criticism from the same people who object to the slower and more cautious plan of action by the Western states. The irony here, whilst the Russians have most certainly caused mass civilian casualties, nobody has complained.
      Interestingly when I traversed over to the Airwars website and clicked on the tab titled methodology regards the means used to collate their information , it comes up ‘Page does not exist’ That doesn’t bode well for their claims does it. Yes they do quote CJTFOIR statements, but they only illuminate targets. Whilst I have stated, there will have been Civilian casualties, I personally don’t feel that the numbers quoted are extant. The Jiahists know only too well that claiming a strike against a Mosque, Wedding party and such will grab the attention of the Western Media, in turn the Western Military will carry out an investigation usually halting air strikes during that investigation, 9/10 those allegations are proved to be false, but the damage has been done, to Western credibility and military effectiveness.

      • Richard & Farouk thanks for the replies.

        Yes in fact I am quite proud that the RAF takes the utmost precautions, more than any other coalition partner so I have read, frequently shifting cold to avoid civilian casualties.

        I for one was criticising Russia for its bombing of Aleppo, it was horrific but got their job done just like Mosul with ISIS, through the last century usually when an enemy is dug in, in a city it’s always the same result, goodbye city. I think in regards to the numbers, from what I can gather only the US is admitting to any civilian deaths so far, probably because it has so much public support for the campaign.

  11. LOL.

    Diane strikes again.

    As soon as I saw the pic it was obvious that F15 was Israeli, very distinctive camouflage pattern.

    • Yet another politician who knows f-all about defence and lives in a complete fantasy land yet thinks she is qualified to ram uninformed and often totally idiotic opinions down other people’s throats. In Diane Abbott’s case she also manages to do all of that with a massive air of totally unjustified superiority which is why I find her so much more irritating than most other MPs, and that’s saying something.

  12. Careful, anyone pointing out the obvious flaws by Jezza’s ex-wrestling partner can expect to be branded a racist and a misogynist, SMH.

  13. I struggle to find the words to adequately describe how much I loathe & detest this waste of space, oxygen thieving wankstain of a human being.

        • (Chris H) Sole Survivor -Oh don’t guess please share your insight?
          And while you are at it can you ‘guess’ why this stupid woman blatantly lied to mislead people over the Syrian strikes? That wouldn’t be Party Politics at play would it? Surely not?

          And here she is peddling more cr@p and having a ‘car crash’ moment. Again….

          https://youtu.be/PeAF61d9L9M

          All I can ‘guess’ is that she has something in her handbag about Corbyn because anyone else would have been fired. Although of course in today’s PC, Leftist Labour Party if you are black, female or LGBT you are immune to sackings.

          And while you are ‘guessing’ can you enlighten us why Corbyn is still protecting Russia? He was at it again in the Commons today making quite ludicrous allegations. Not Party Politics at play again surely?

          • I see you’re seething at me outing your total hypocrisy over party politics the other night on here that you haven’t replied to.

            I don’t know what did she blatantly lie about over Syria? Genuine question I don’t know.

            Oh yeah a politician having a car crash interview, do you want me to send you the one of Phillip Hammond forgetting all his figures from last year?

            How is he “protecting Russia”? And what allegations?

  14. Mac that about sums up most of our politicians mate.
    In the case of Labour party they are plain wrong and far to left leaning. Parliament does not need to be consulted or to vote on military action. This only came about under Blair and Brown’s tenure because they were both scared from the Iraq war and the dodgy WMD dossier and thus legally sought full parliamentary vote thereafter to cover themselves from future litigation.
    The fact is that the cabinet and prime minister have executive powers to launch military action. If however we are going to war against a nation state that should be debated and voted for in parliament.
    I agree with all the comments that the Labour party scare the hell out of me. Corbyn and Abbott are un-electable and would rule the country in complete chaos emboldening our enemies and leading to Putin causing huge trouble for us and NATO, therefore actually increasing the likelihood of war.

    • “This only came about under Blair and Brown’s tenure because they were both scared from the Iraq war and the dodgy WMD dossier and thus legally sought full parliamentary vote thereafter to cover”

      That’s not true, the vote for the Iraq war was taken the night before the invasion started.

      And military action has been decided in parliament every time since, by all three governments including all three major parties.

      • (Chris H) SoleSurvivor – So are you saying because two previous PMs chose to consult Parliament (Blair of course misled Parliament to get his way Cameron didn’t) that rewrites the Royal prerogative? That does away with generations of what went before just because of two events in 15 years?

        Maybe Google the difference between ‘Convention’ and ‘Constitution’? The PM was NOT obliged to consult Parliament in any way, indeed to do so and describe in full every item of intelligence and forward planning (as she would be obliged to do to make every MP fully aware of all the facts) would make a mockery of military action.

        But then this is the logic (sic) of the Loonie Left and the Liberal Cosmopolitan bubble inhabitants who demand that everyone needs to be consulted, we must have months of discussion, three committees and a full 3 week Parliamentary debate. Its the same Liberal Left nonsense being peddled by those wanting another ‘people’s vote’ (aka referendum No 2) on Brexit. Because they didn’t like the first result. These elitist idiots live in an echo chamber and bubble of an existence devoid of all reality and how real people think and act.

        I am ‘guessing’ you are one of these Liberal Lefties? do correct me if I am wrong……

        • First of all Chris I don’t play identity politics, I don’t identify myself as neither left or right, and I don’t label anyone left or right, it’s quite frankly silly to do so in this modern world.

          T May is in favour of the minimum wage, that’s a left wing ideology.

          T May is in favour of free healthcare, that’s a left wing ideology.

          Most of societies biggest changes over the last century are left wing including all women’s rights and all civil rights, I suppose if you’re right wing you are against all those are you?

          Now do you see how stupid it is.

          You are the the identical opposite version of the other people I can’t stand, people who call other people “right wing nut job or racist” just because they might be discussing immigration controls.

          So you have one small section of society that calls anyone who doesn’t agree with them “loony lefty’s” for simply looking for fairness or discussing something progressive.

          Then there is the other section, headed by the godfather of latte liberalism Owen Jones, who thinks everyone that voted for Brexit is a far right racist.

          Do you not see you’re two cheeks of the same annoying arse.

          And yes Chris no one is in any doubt that T May did not need Parliamentary approval, that’s been discussed on this forum the last few days, notice the word discussed as opposed to your hate filled rants.

          Like I said on another thread, would T May decide herself to take us to war without parliamentary approval, no she wouldn’t, that’s because society and politics has evolved. The other Prerogative powers don’t really affect public thinking that much, but military action does, and more so in recent years.

          Only 22% of the public supported the air strikes according to yougov, there is a lot of conservative MP’s who would of voted against, if you account the number of labour MP’s that would of voted for it would of been a close call, but most estimates predicted a narrow defeat.

          T May is a shitbag, at least David Cameron had the balls to put it to a vote.

          And btw, did David Cameron need to “describe in full every item of intelligence and forward planning” to Parliament on the last Syria vote? Stop making up stuff in your head to make your argument a bit more convincing.

          Jesus Donald trump tweeted missiles would be coming…soon ?

          You think a Parliamentary debate and vote would of given them what exactly that they didn’t already know? They knew we were about to do it for gods sake they knew for a week.

          Try engaging, put your ideas across why you think the Prime minister of this country should still use a power that’s been set since the 17th century. It’s no good just saying “that’s how it is deal with it” like a stroppy teenager, try debating Chris it’s good for the soul.

    • I could not agree more. The Labour Party has been taken over by a scary group. I am a pacifist. Some may think that it is a strange thing for a pacifist to be doing, commenting on and reading this site?

      However, I do feel that my pacifism should not stop other people using lethal action to protect our population and to be a force to protect other civilisations who are being targeted by brutal dictators.

      The Labour front bench are very frightening. We should give our Armed Forces the finances to do their job properly. We need to raise the Defence budget to 3%. We also need to remove the ‘Continuous Nuclear Deterrent’ running and construction costs taken ‘out of’ the Defence budget as it always was.

      If we feel we should have an armed force, we should give them the budget to do that job properly.

  16. The worrying thing is this indicates that she routinely uses pictures like this in communications with her followers and sees pictures like this in media from them. It’s just business as usual for her and she’s quite incapable of understanding the criticism.

    Unfortunately the rabid left wave their ignorance of military matters as a flag of honor.

    • Why because she is totally empty headed ignorant, hypocritical eg Sons to a private school, and prepared to say anything that fits her idea of the world , but mostly because she was Jeremy,s squeeze years ago. You see it all makes sense now

  19. Also in the interest of fairness, if anyone of us uses goggle search right now and types in “air strike” that image is on the top row.

  20. What else would you expect from this useless woman? Or from the useless Labour party under the leadership of a re-born Neville Chamberlain for that matter?

  21. I’m Jewish so I have reason enough to never vote Labour ever again, but if that weren’t the case then Diane Abbott would surely scare anyone sensible voters away

    • (Chris H) Levi – Only in today’s leftie Labour Party can someone be outed for being racist if they support Brexit, sexist if they comment on a lady’s looks or a bully if they raise their voice above a whisper but its perfectly OK to be anti-Semitic in thought, word and Tweet. Indeed if you write a Whitewash report sweepng it all out of sight you get appointed to the House of Lords ….

        • (Chris H) SoleSurvivor – Nightmares? Yes because I am old enough to have lived through Labour Administrations after Attlee’s (a period in which I was born) and witnessed at first hand the massive damage they inflicted on my country’s economy, people’s lives and the social fabric that holds us all together. Wilson / Calaghan left the country bankrupt and in debt and in the process destroyed some of the most advanced military projects of the day (and the railways). Decisions we lived to regret for decades after. THAT is what Labour Lefties do Mr SoleSurvivor – its not just what they do in power its the damage they leave behind for others to clear up.

          Blair Brown inherited an economy in great shape, a near surplus and only kept that going to surplus by adopting previous Tory spending plans. And then Brown did what all closet Lefties do – SPEND! And not only spend he covered up huge future debts with the most outrageous set of PFIs in history. NHS and school Trusts are suffering because of his decisions to make out he was delivering huge projects on the borrowing figures quoted (which were excessive anyway). And again when we finally rid ourselves of these idiots and their Social Engineering, their ‘rubbing the Right’s nose in Diversity’ and their Political Correct manipulations against discussions on migration It took a Coalition Government to steady the ship and restore international confidence. The first since WWII! We are only now seeing our way out of the effects of the Great Recession of 2008 / 09. And NO Mr Solesurvivor it was not just the global financial crisis it was the way Labour split banking regulation, weakened our economy with big deficits and left our arses hanging in the wind with no ability to fight back short of nationalising banks and even more borrowing.

          I also saw what the Leftie / Commie bastard unions did to my industry in the ’60s, engineering, in which I did a 5 year proper apprenticeship and came out with no industry to work in. Its why I joined up. Thankfully in every dark cloud there is a silver lining and I found it.

          So yes I do have nightmares about the Loonie Left, Labour and the utter nutjobs now leading it. That people somehow believe in and support them is the thing that completely defeats me.

          For the record seeing as you made it personal I am not a Conservative party member, or indeed any other political party, and I find the ‘bish bash’ of party politics offends my intelligence. Neither am I indeed how you describe ‘the Right’ but then because I support our military, Government and PM once the UK takes military action that is excuse enough for you to paint me into something that suits your political bias. Well it won’t wash ….. Because while I vehemently hated Blair and Iraq actions I fell in line to support our country and that included our Government of the day. I see you clearly cannot comprehend that crucial point and slag off the PM with “T May is a shitbag” – How revealing that remark is.

          I have been on the receiving end of what Labour and the ‘Left’ stands for and I despise it with a loathing drawn from over 70 years of life and 52 working and serving years

          • Good for you Chris, good for you.

            I’m glad you are so passionate over conveniently saying “after Attlee’s” then picking the worst things have have happened under labour over the last 70 years.

            I could quite easily come back with what the conservatives have done over the last 70 years and you full well know that, but I genuinely can’t be bothered it’s pointless.

            What I’m more interested in though is why you have replied to my one sentence here and not my 20 paragraph main response above.

            You must of read it and you are still banging on about the “left”

            So you know that free healthcare, women’s rights including the vote etc, all civil rights including black equal rights, the minimum wage, paid holidays, sick pay etc etc, they are all left wing ideologies/policies.

            So can you confirm to me that you actually support quite a lot of left wing ideologies/policies.

            I’m not expecting a reply btw, you tend run away and hide when the going gets tough, just like Maybot ?

          • (Chris H) SoleSurvivor – First point given I was born in ’47 I really don’t recall too much of the Attlee Government and so I felt I couldn’t make too much comment. You twist this into something else … Hey Ho … And I didn’t pick out the worst at all. It happens every time with Labour – they screw us up and others have to pick up the pieces while the country suffers for years after. THAT was my point.

            I am less inclined to reply to your posts as you seem bent on turning everything into a personal issue when what we are discussing is Diane Abbott and how the Labour Left act in general. She is a classic symptom of what is fundamentally wrong with Corbyn’s Labour and why it will remain un – electable. You lot rejoiced over the last GE result but he only won 4 more seats than Brown did in 2010!

            Have I insulted you? No. And I never would but I sure as hell WILL challenge you when you make sideswipe comments that don’t stand scrutiny or worse make innuendo remarks. And I WILL call out the Lefties in Labour (and increasingly in the Liberal Democrats) for the cant and hypocrisy they peddle. What others would call a ‘detailed response in disagreement’ you call ‘a hate filled rant’. But then you are ‘of the Left’ that is what you do. You deny your politics here but every statement with ‘T May is a shitbag’ being a perfect example shows where your politics are. You like to make everything personal and deflect from the issues.

            All those ‘rights’ you claim for the Left are actually pretty much sensible middle ground developments and many were brought into law by a variety of governments. As I recall the idea of an NHS was in every manifesto not just Labour’s given the research and studies were done by the wartime coalityion Government. Attlee got elected and he delivered. But then so would whoever was elected. It was a post war ‘given’. But hey if you want to label them ‘Left Policies’ then fine. I think they are great because guess what? I am apolitical and just look at whatever the policies are of the day and how I will be affected. But you see that is NOT what we are discussing is it and why you want to lead off into another direction? Its the manipulation and labelling by the Left since the ’80s against anyone who disagrees with their policies. I think we have had too much immigration since 2004 for example – And idiots like Abbott call me a racist to shut down the debate. And these days which is the party struggling with antisemitism and won’t do anything about it? Labour led by an extreme Leftie by the name of Corbyn. They talk all day but do nothing about themselves. And yet screech for people like Esther McVey to be ‘lynched’ for no reason other than she was a Tory Minister and make no apologies for it. THAT is what I am talking about

          • Chris have a scroll up, do you really think my correction of Mr Bell needed that kind of response from you?

            It is you that is targeting me here with a left-right political debate, which I never asked for.

            First of all I corrected him, you never said I was wrong did you? that’s because it was a genuine correction, that is undeniable. Now if you were a rational person you could of said your opinion, all I was talking about was the vote for the Iraq war and all the votes since, now have another look at your response.

            The other one, mac said this “waste of space, oxygen thieving wankstain of a human being.”
            Now i may have been brought up differently but there is a line, even if you don’t like someone, I personally can’t stand the women myself, but I think that comment crosses the line and into vile abuse.
            I called it out as I think talk like that belongs somewhere else, somewhere where idiots congregate on a facebook/twitter page and just abuse people.

            And you obviously have a problem with that because look at the state of your response.

            “I am less inclined to reply to your posts as you seem bent on turning everything into a personal issue when what we are discussing is Diane Abbott and how the Labour Left act in general”

            When the hell have I been discussing how the Labour left act in general? stop making stuff up!

            You are obsessed with Corbyn and Abbot and the rest, really are boring the pants off me, like I would listen to any advice from someone who sacrifices their integrity over party politics like you did the other night, with your embarrassing u-turn on Syria.

            I’ll just wait for the next couple of manifestos and then make my decision, and nothing you will say on here will influence what i do.

            So go take your obsessive rants about Corbyn, the left, loony lefty and liberal lefty etc etc and stick them up Mrs May’s arsehole.

            Oh yeah didn’t know if I already said but did you know Maybot is a complete and utter shithouse, only brave when she is running through a field of wheat haha

  22. No Ms Abbott what is pathetic is your performance as a front bencher – as a party member since just before Harold Wilson was elected – the first time – I am ashamed to have you on our front bench representing the party – the phony picture is just another example of your principles.

  24. i think Diane is missing the piont about why people got upset with her. I have no problem with the dialogue in her tweet. I personal believe that our executive Can sometimes be to strong within the the present system and have no problem with it having greater accountability. But the imagery you attach to your commentary is just as powerful as the dialog itself and therefore you should verify its pedigree before use.

    The modern world is both far to loose with information channels of all types, interacting with a population lacking in the skills to review the reliability of sources and cross reference different data sources. This leaves us open to weakening our democratic processes, as the media, politicians pressure groups and external powers of all political wings can say or publish any old rubbish and get way with it.

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