EXPOSED: UAE Mercenary Ran Covert Op Against UK Activist

An extraordinary investigation by Rohit Kachroo, the global security editor for ITV News, today revealed a plot funded by the United Arab Emirates to follow and potentially assassinate a British Iraqi activist in London. The story is perhaps another example of something we discussed on the show before, the willingness of the UAE, a close UK ally, to make things difficult for the British government. The ITV story, which drew on witness testimony, emails, text messages, and confidential Emirati records, showed that a team of mercenaries for hire ran a surveillance operation on Anas Altikriti, chief executive of the Cordoba Foundation, a think tank based in London in 2016. The covert team was led by a man named Abraham Golan, a dual Hungarian-Israeli citizen based in the US. Golan was a former French Foreign Legion soldier who had worked as the head of a mercenary unit for the UAE in Yemen, targeting perceived Emirati enemies, including senior politicians for assassination. Golan's team in the UK compiled photographs of Altikriti's house in London, mapped his route to work, and even pinpointed the door he used to enter his office building. Here is Rohit Kachroo showing Altikriti some of the evidence. >> 10 years on, I'm revealing to their target the operation against him. >> I feel a little bit physically sick. Yeah, it's uh it's uh disorienting, I have to say. >> We're showing Anas Altikriti some of the messages that Golan sent about him during his time in London. >> My local mosque, my activities in terms of where I've attended and spoken. >> Over WhatsApp, Golan sent a request to a potential researcher for a brief on Altikriti. He wanted a list of addresses for his home, his office, his mosque, and he offered $100,000. The fee could be a life-changer, he said. >> Clearly, they were following my movements around London. It's quite incredible what kind of emotions it's it invokes. >> The motive for the UAE targeting Al-Takriti appears to be his links to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world's largest and most influential Islamist organizations. Anas Al-Takriti's father, Osama Al-Takriti, had once been head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which has links to the Brotherhood. Al-Takriti told ITV News this. >> I have good relations because my father is my father. I understand the ideology. I studied the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. I believe the Muslim Brotherhood to be a valid ideology for people who are seeking to free themselves from the clutches of oppression. However, I'm a Brit. I grew up in Britain. In my life, I have never done anything wrong whatsoever. Now, the Muslim Brotherhood connection is important. The UAE views the group as an existential threat and has been pushing the British government to prescribe it as a terrorist organization for years, something the government has resisted. Abu Dhabi has, of course, prescribed the Brotherhood, but in 2014, it released a new list of prescribed groups that raised eyebrows in Whitehall. That's because on the list, alongside ISIS and Al-Qaeda, was Al- Takriti's Cordoba and two other mainstream groups, Islamic Relief and the Muslim Association of Britain. Again, because the Emirates claimed that they were Muslim Brotherhood linked. ITV also spoke to an anonymous source who they called Victor. Victor, a strategist and researcher, said he had been called by Golan, who he had worked with before, and met with him and a former US Navy SEAL in a London pub. But Victor got cold feet when he believed he had figured out the operation's ultimate aim. Take a look. >> Golan's follow-up messages became increasingly urgent. He demanded to know personal details. His team was ready, he said. At one point, he suggested Victor should pretend to be an author writing about the Muslim Brotherhood and persuade Al-Takriti to grant him an interview somewhere outdoors. But it was during another meeting when Golan's colleague, the former Navy SEAL, was much clearer. >> The final nail in the coffin was when he said to me, "What would happen if Al-Takriti was" and then made a slicing motion across his neck, which suggested that the possible objective of that operation was to assassinate Al-Otaibi. >> Al-Otaibi said police later visited him at his home and informed him that his life was in danger, but refused to give him any details. The UAE has refused to comment on the ITV story and a spokesperson for the Home Office said, "Quotes, it is our long-standing policy not to comment on security and intelligence matters." Barry, we're going to talk about the wider story of the UAE interference in the UK and elsewhere in a minute, but first, what's your reaction to this story? >> It's insane. It's crazy. I saw it this morning and I couldn't believe it. I I don't Let me clarify. I can believe that the UAE would try something this outrageous, but when I read the details of it, it was still completely shocking to me. I mean, think about it. It's a foreign government, but that's a really close ally of the UK sending a mercenary group into London to hunt down and potentially assassinate a British citizen. Now, we know that states will, you know, go after dissidents around the world or go after critics around the world. We've seen that before. We've seen Russia do it. We've seen Saudi Arabia infamously do it with Jamal Khashoggi, who they dismembered with a bone saw in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey. Um, but I think what's interesting here is that the UAE has effectively violated the sovereignty of a very key ally in the UK. And the UK and the UAE have a a a close relationship that has been getting closer and closer and actually grew a lot closer over the last decade and was growing closer just before this happened because this, uh, according to the ITV news report uh, happened in 2016. It was 2016 when this this mercenary Abraham Golan was was tracking and Anas Altikriti around London. You know, when you look into the detail, you know, they're mapping his route to work. They have photographs of his car. They have photographs of his of his house. They want to know what corner shop he goes to. They want to know what mosque he prays at. They want to know exactly which door because apparently there were several different doors into the office building that he worked in. They wanted to know exactly which one he walked in and out. Now, ITV news have that one source Victor who was asked to get involved in the plot as a researcher or a strategist and then said, "I think they're actually going to kill him." I mean, it's circumstantial, but if they want to know the exact door the man walks into in his office building, if they want to know what shop he goes to, if they wanted Victor to lure him out into the open, I mean, it's hard not to conclude that the ultimate aim here was to assassinate the guy on British soil, which again I want to say is a violation of UK sovereignty. And what's really interesting is that at the same time this was happening, the UK was courting the UAE because look, we know that the UAE is important to the UK for financial reasons, right? We have the UAE has billions and billions of pounds in investments in the UK. And then also I think the UK sees it as an important security ally in the Gulf. So, the UK I think is often willing to close its eyes to the nefarious activities of the UAE. So, again we're looking at a potential assassination of a British citizen on British soil. And what's also really interesting from the ITV news piece is apparently Britain found out about it. So, Anas Altikriti was visited by police who told him twice they visited him, who told him that his life was in danger, but refused to give him any detail about that. None, he says, none whatsoever. Your life is in danger. I think it's they give you an Please give you an Osman notice when your life is in danger. So, they went to him, they said, "Your life is in danger. Effectively, someone's trying to kill you. Here's an Osman notice." Well, who's trying to kill me? Can you give me any more details? No, sorry, it's a national security matter. Can you imagine? Can you imagine police coming to your house and telling you someone's trying to kill you and then refusing to give you any detail whatsoever on who's trying to kill you. I mean, he probably had quite a good guess, but it shows that the intelligence services knew. It shows that the intelligence services at some point found out about this plot, went and warned him, but then what? Continued to develop this close relationship with the UAE at the same time as he was being tracked around London. Um, then Prince Charles and Camilla went to the UAE for a big sort of UK loves the UAE jamboree. You know, so they were hanging out in the UAE at at at sort of swish balls while the UAE had a British citizen being being tracked around London. I mean, it's crazy. >> Now, as we said, this is just the latest example of questionable Emirati dealings in the UK and elsewhere. We discussed the civil war in Sudan on Novara Live last month. In that segment, we covered the fact that the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the paramilitary group, which has been accused of carrying out genocidal acts during the war, has been using British military equipment, including small arms target systems and engines for armored personnel carriers. And where did it get it from? You guessed it, from the UAE. But according to official data, the government approved more weapons exports to the UAE in the months after the UN Security Council received information about British arms being in RSF hands. And our government has been, well, very quiet about all of this. Another intriguing situation involving the UAE is its relations with hard-right figures such as Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage. Robinson has developed a very keen interest in politics involving the UAE, weighing in on things that never really seemed to bother him before. Here's a bizarre Twitter post from September last year. A new report by the United Nations has shed light on a troubling reality. Turkish-made weapons are fueling the conflict in Sudan and South Sudan despite an international arms embargo in place since 2018. The findings presented to the UN Security Council in July highlight a pattern of weak export oversight, diversion of arms, and resulting destabilization of one of Africa's most fragile regions. On small arms, the use of Turkish drones, particularly by Ratqa TB2 and Akinci models, alongside electronic warfare systems, has been reported in the Sudanese conflict. These advanced weapon systems have shaped the battlefield, worsening the humanitarian crisis, displacing thousands, and deepening instability in the region. Erdogan has been nothing but a sly dog, yet still rubs noses with European leaders. Does that sound like Tommy Robinson to you? Well, this next one's even weirder. In Yemen's fractured landscape, true unity starts with Southern Yemen's cohesion from Hadhramaut to Al Mahrah as a cornerstone for regional peace. Yet, the parliament's recent statement exposes its flaws. Largely inactive with members abroad and no real oversight, it lacks democratic legitimacy to issue warnings. Politicized by Muslim Brotherhood Isla agendas, it targets local actors while weaponizing unity for factional gain, ignoring civilian cries for salaries, services, and security. Worse, it sidesteps the Houthi menace backed by Iran, failing to condemn their sieges and attacks. Southern unity isn't division, it's genuine peace. Countering extremism and fostering genuine peace. Barry, what's going on here? How extensively is the UAE interfering in British politics? Why is the government so quiet? And why is Tommy Robinson talking about Al Mahrah? >> Sorry, I'm still laughing at those tweets. They're completely bizarre. Just pict- like just picture Tommy Robinson sitting down. Uh yeah. In Yemen's fractured landscape. In Yemen's fractured landscape, yeah? Yeah? Yeah? You know, it's absolutely bizarre and it couldn't be clearer that he didn't write those tweets. And, you know, oh my god, could they try and hide it just a touch? Just a little, guys? Can you not be so obvious? But, Tommy Robinson is clearly part of what's actually a very extensive UAE sort of influence operation across social media and a you know, where the UAE is effectively contracting non-Emiratis to talk about its foreign policy Now, this has been well reported to talk about its foreign policy goals or to paint its foreign policy activities in a positive light. And there's also a huge network of Emirati influencers on TikTok, on YouTube, on Twitter and who speak in English. You know, that's so key. So, you have people from the UAE, young people from the UAE who are influencers, who talk about Emirati politics in English. Who's that aimed at? We know who that's aimed at. It's not aimed at It's not aimed at Emiratis. And so, they are very They're very across, you know, maintaining or controlling how they're perceived. Um and, you know, we can't prove it, but those posts from Tommy Robinson do look very, very odd. We've also seen the UAE cozying up to Nigel Farage. You know, I remember a few years ago, Farage had called um the UAE sort of a um like a like an autocratic royal dictatorship or something. He He'd come out of with a a statement about the UAE essentially uh yeah, essentially calling it sort of a an authoritative dictatorship. And now, he talks about his great friends in the UAE and travels to the UAE, which by the way, Robinson has also traveled to the UAE several times. And there was one meeting recently where Farage went to meet politicians in the Emirates and it was almost like they were treating him like a prime minister in waiting, right? It's like when you know, when you know that a government is about to change and representatives of that party go to meet an an an ally. Like we see that happening, right? We've seen where if the Labour government is coming in, Kier Starmer will go and have a meeting with, you know, the Ameri- the State Department or something because they're getting their they're getting their their their their ducks in a row, right? And it felt like that with with Farage and one of the trips that he did to the Emirates recently. And it's very obvious what the Emiratis are trying to do. Again, when you look at the Muslim Brotherhood and you look at the fact that they sanctioned all of those organizations who they believe or sorry, proscribed all of those British organizations who they believe are related to the Muslim Brotherhood, which by the way is not a terrorist organization. And if the UK, thankfully, has resisted so far was to proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, it would be absurd and it would be something that they had done completely at the behest of the Emiratis. But you can see where the kind of the intersection with Robinson and and Farage comes in because Robinson and Farage can their anti- their Islamophobia can be weaponized by the Emiratis for the Emiratis to si- you know, to succeed with their policy goals in the UK. So for example, there was a nonsense story that the Telegraph and other people picked up on that British, you know, university students were being radicalized by the Muslim Brotherhood in university on university campuses. And the UE- UAE absurdly said that Emirati students couldn't come to the UK anymore because they would be radicalized by the Muslim Brotherhood offering no proof, of course. I mean, the whole thing was utter nonsense, but it was, you know, mana from heaven for the Telegraph and the Times and whoever else wanted to push that agenda. So again, just being weaponized by the Emirates. And then, you know, you look at other intersections with British policy, which again Sudan, like we talked about it on the show last month. And again, like you like you said in the intro there, British weaponry has been found to have been in the hands of the RSF, a paramilitary group in Sudan that has committed genocidal acts. Nathaniel Raymond, a Yale researcher, appeared before a parliamentary committee recently and said bluntly that the UK had not intervened in the in what we knew was going to be a slaughter in the town of El Fasher as it was surrounded by the RSF militia. It was surrounded by the militia for 18 months. Everybody knew that that that if they get in, they would if they got in that they would commit genocidal acts. So in effect, you can argue that there was 18 months there to call off the UAE, which is key to backing the RSF. And the UK sells weapons to the UAE, which then go to the RSF. I mean, you can see the problem. And the UAE and the UK has never spoken out about the UAE. Sorry, what this all goes to show is that when it comes to the United Arab Emirates, it seems like there is nothing too nefarious that they can do that would make the UK government speak out. They can try to assassinate a British citizen in London. They can use British weapons weapons to perpetrate genocidal acts in Sudan. And yet, the British government stays silent. More than that, the British government is what's called the pen holder for Sudan at the UN Security Council. What that effectively means is when there is, you know, a big issue or emergency that the Security Council is dealing with on an ongoing basis, one country takes the responsibility to sort of administratively handle that situation, which also involves like drafting resolutions, calling meetings, holding meetings, chairing meetings. So, with the UK being the penholder for Sudan on the Security Council, that Yale researcher, Nathaniel Raymond, said actually puts the UK in in quite a uniquely influential position on the Sudan war on the Security Council. But, couple that with the close relationship, and you can see that the UK does have levers, but it's sit back and let that massacre in El Fasher happen anyway. The interesting that I do want to say is that the UAE is currently involved in an imperial project. You know, the UAE is involved in a colonial project in the Horn of Africa, across the Sahel. You know, it's backing the RSF in Sudan. And we always call the war in Sudan a civil war, which yes, it is on the surface. But, the more I see about the UAE involvement in this war, the more I actually think it's probably more accurate to call it a war between Sudan and the UAE. I mean, you know, this is not like some kind of a light proxy war. You know, experts say that if the UAE was to withdraw its strength from the to withdraw its support from the RSF, the RSF could be defeated within a month. So, I'm increasingly seeing this as an actual war between the the Emiratis and the Sudanese, the Ethiopian government propped up by by UAE support, a government that has also committed genocidal acts in a civil war, accused of committing genocidal acts in a civil war. They're propping up Muhammad Deby in Chad, another questionable leader. And I think that what's happened in Africa actually is it's the biggest geopolitical change in terms of influence in African countries that we've seen since China came in and started to eat the West's lunch a little bit in its in its relations with Africa. So, I just want to put a sort of an overarching point on that, which is that I feel like the UAE is one of the most nefarious actors on the world stage at the moment, diplomatically and militarily. It slips under the radar, and I think this is another example of the British government staying close and staying quiet to a rogue state in the same way as it does with Israel. I mean, if the UAE's actions in the world are getting so extreme, they're not at the Israeli level, but conceptually, you know, it's another rogue state that the British government will allow to do anything as long as it can maintain its relationship with it. >> I want to pick up on that kind of comparison with Israel there. Like you're talking about the links between Islamophobes in the UK and the UAE in terms of the terms of like sharing support and things like that. Of course, there was a statement made by somebody on the Knesset has been a minister in Israel talking about how well Europeans don't care about anti-Semitism, but they do care about Islamophobia. So, they're pushing Islamophobia Israel are in terms of European politics. They're essentially trying to sow societal discord to move Europe closer towards Israel. And of course, that's very similar to the kind of tactics that the UAE are doing there as well in trying to evoke kind of a moral panic about the Muslim Brotherhood to try and get support for the UAE as well for loads of different reasons, too. And Israel and the UAE are now linked by the Abraham Accords. They actually have a really kind of cordial relationship now. And we're seeing broader destabilization in countries across not just North of Africa and the Horn of Africa, but also in the Gulf as well, too. So, in that Tommy Robinson tweet, he mentions two governorates of Yemen, which is Hadhramaut and Al Mahrah. And those two places were places that were coveted by the UAE in terms of supporting the STC who were a >> Yeah. >> third paramilitary organization in the Yemen civil war there to be able to bog down the Saudi efforts to try and deal with the Houthis, try and turn it into a more of a kind of a a more long-term conflict to make sure that the Saudis didn't spend time trying to gain influence in the region, influence in the whole of Africa who is again one of the other parties that were involved here in trying to maintain that that kind of level of regional power broker, right? And that is propaganda that's being spread. It's it seems to be I I I can't confirm that when I quash that, but it it seems to be the case if we're seeing these kind of tweets coming out from Tommy Robinson in the interests of what is essentially a a fight for UAE and Israeli domination over that region. >> Yeah, absolutely. You nailed it. And um you know, the the Yemen story is most often portrayed, I mean partly rightly, as a power struggle between um Iran and the Saudis, but the UAE is all over it, too. And the UAE has been all over it for a long time. And UAE Saudi competition has played out in Yemen significantly and continues to play out in Yemen significantly, which is probably why they allegedly maybe wanted Tommy Robinson to send that weirdly detailed tweet about Yemen. But of course the competition for influence in Yemen is as as intimately related to the competition for influence in the Horn, right? Because they're you know, they're all very sort of close geographically. And and the key point is the ports. The key point is the Red Sea ports. You know, competition for Red Sea ports access has just exploded in recent years. Exploded. And I think it's only going to become more and more fierce. I mean, when we look at what the UAE is doing in Sudan in supporting the RSF, I mean, there are several reasons why they're supporting the RSF. I mean, gold is a huge one. You know, they're already taking gold out of Sudan. You mean, I think they're not waiting for the RSF to get into power. They're already pulling all the gold the gold out. I mean, there was actually um essentially an RSF heist on a gold mine, you know, at at some point in the early days of the war where they Yeah, they essentially launched a heist on a gold mine controlled by the government, stole about $100 million worth of gold. And it's well reported where that gold went. It went out on planes to the UAE. So, so the UAE is involved effectively in stealing gold from Sudan. So, there's that, there's agriculture, but there's also the the big prize, the big glittering jewel, which is which is uh access to Port Sudan. And so, I think that the port question is going to become a massive thing. And you know, when you look at your point about Israel and and the UAE being in lockstep in this again colonial project to gain influence over the Horn, over Yemen, over the Red Sea. Also, look at Somaliland. You know, Somaliland is a you know, breakaway region of Somalia that Somalia doesn't recognize as as an independent state. In fact, nobody recognized as an independent state for a very, very long time, despite the fact that it has effectively been functioning as an independent state and functioning in quite successfully as an independent state. Um you know, we're we're we're you know, a mostly functioning democracy since it broke away from Somalia also. And no country in the world had officially recognized Somaliland until very recently when Israel did. So, Israel has recognized Somaliland, but also the UAE is intimately involved in Somaliland and is building uh very deep financial links with Somaliland and has access to Somaliland's port. So, yes, it's it's it's uh it's a fight for regional dominance. I think it's only going to get more intense. The UAE is in lockstep with Israel, which I would contend are both rogue states, and they're both rogue states who the UK government seems in seems intent on letting get away with anything as long as they stay cozy to the UK. >> And ultimately, I think that the way in which they're gathering their power is through destabilization. Like the one of the main kind of tenets of current nation states in Africa is that no one counts in this is any kind of border changes given the history of conflicts in the region, right? That's been the reason the biggest reason why Somaliland has never been recognized. If it's all the Montevideo stipulations for a new state, but no one wants to change the borders of Africa because of what happens if you unleash that can of worms. We see destabilization in Yemen, we see it in Sudan, we see Egypt they're not doing anything particularly strong at the moment. That's not particularly stable country. And I've seen destabilization in Syria, destabilization in Lebanon. It's all happening around so that all every all the other countries are having no time to be able to gain hold whilst the UAE and Israel with Western money and Western support continue to gain power and prominence. And that has been an incredibly it's a very going to be very uh unstable region of the world, even more so than it has been up until now.