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.
Shocking to hear Tory minister on @BBCr4today claim that you can’t allow Parliament to vote on war because that would be to “outsource the decision to people who don’t have all the info” Do these people understand what parliamentary democracy is? pic.twitter.com/1sMxSJb48G
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 16, 2018
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.
Apparently, my use of this pic is ‘important news’. Yes, UK goes to war without UN approval or even parliamentary debate. But the most important news is what pics I use in a tweet. Pathetic.
— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 16, 2018
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.
Interesting photo you’ve got there. When was Tehran bombed by F-15s again?
— War Student (@war_student) April 16, 2018
It’s a mockup featuring an Israeli F15 from an aviation blog five years ago https://t.co/TEbFUP8MPH
— John Spray (@jcsp_tweets) April 16, 2018
It really does appear that Diane Abbott has posted a fake computer-generated image from a 2012 blog which shows what an Israeli attack on Tehran could look like. pic.twitter.com/Lec4lrUbgE
— Mark Di Stefano ?? (@MarkDiStef) April 16, 2018
Not even @HackneyAbbott can defy the LAWS of PHYSICS. It needs a SLOW shutter speed to get the tracer in daylight and a FAST shutter speed to get the aircraft. You cannot do both at the same time.
— Defence Photography (@DefencePhoto) April 16, 2018
That's the Milad Tower in Tehran
That's an Israeli F15
Aircraft don't deploy bombs from such a low altitude in an urban area
Those tracer rounds are so clearly photoshopped; its not night
The image is heavily photoshopped, and irrelevant, given the context of your tweet. https://t.co/6wPLEGu5VD
— Henry Jones (@hthjones) April 16, 2018
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.
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.”
Not just a MP but a front bencher.
Oh, it was Diane Abbott
#Surprise
Poor old Diane. The wheels really have come off.
They didn’t come off, as she never had any fitted in the first place.
She’s asking if the Conservative party understands democracy, isn’t she the one who said the brexit vote didn’t count !!
To criticize Abbot means you are both a racist & a misogynist, which is a shame as there is so many thing one could say….
HAHAHAHAHA! What. You’re an idiot. Please be quiet. The adults are talking.
if that’s directed at me the sound you are currently hearing was my joke passing silently over your head….
Precision strike :o)
Jas most of us got it. Maybe next time you should write an explanation after !
I like a winky face for my jokes. :-p
Apologises, given the standard and attitudes of some of the belters that post on here I jumped to (an incorrect) conclusion.
Winky faces all round next time m8, my bad 🙂
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.
He was joking.
hearing a low grade hum passing over you often ? 😛
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.
this idiot could potentially be the distributer of orders to SF. think about that for a second.
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.
Don’t be so silly. She’s just not that smart.
Did you not hear her before she suffered from Diabetes? Seriously the stuff she spouts now is just misinformed, stupid and ignorant, the stuff she spouted before was downright demonic.
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?
Because Rob, politics, ignorance, church fetes and lattes
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… Read more »
We didn’t go to war, no declaration of war has been issued by the realm, we just tested some weapons systems
They aren’t ignorant of it, they just choose to IGNORE it when it suits their aims…
Cheers!
Oh God, this woman could be Home Secretary to Jeremy Corbyns PM. I’m scared.
(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.
I’m on the other side of the pond and I’M scared!
😀
Well you have Mr Trump who displays a unique blend of decisiveness and prudence.
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.
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
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.
Careful, anyone pointing out the obvious flaws by Jezza’s ex-wrestling partner can expect to be branded a racist and a misogynist, SMH.
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.
She’s an idiot but I’m not sure where that kind of loathing can come from.
I can take a guess Evan.
(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… Read more »
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?
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… Read more »
“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)… Read more »
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… Read more »
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… Read more »
Crass, but Portillo would be impressed.
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.
http://i658.photobucket.com/albums/uu303/wanted90/633699819649568660-carpetbombing.jpg
😀
Cheers!
Oh Diane strikes again, how did she become a front bencher?
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
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.
Google even**
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?
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 ….
Do you have nightmares about lefties Chris?
(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… Read more »
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… Read more »
(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… Read more »
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.… Read more »
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.
Anyone fancy a pint?
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… Read more »
I’m a left leaner , my right leg is longer .