14 Mar 2025
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/03/the-curious-case-of-mahmoud-khalil/

The cherry on the cake is that he is a former British Government employee,
having worked in the British Embassy in Lebanon, on Syrian affairs.

This is where the story starts to become very murky. I was told by
Resistance-linked contacts in Lebanon that not only was Khalil not viewed as
pro-Resistance to Israel while there, he was believed to be involved in UK
government attempts to undermine the Assad regime by promotion of jihadist
groups.

Free Palestine TV, which is Lebanon-based, has the same information.[1]

It is important to understand how deeply the UK has been involved[2] in
anti-Syrian activity in Lebanon. Training and equipping of al-Nusra/ISIS/HTS
units was carried out by British special forces based at Rayak airbase in the
Bekaa Valley, who were certainly still there in January after HTS conquered
Damascus.

Contrary to some reports, Mahmoud Khalil would not have worked for MI6 in the
Embassy. MI6 stations do not employ foreign nationals. He would have worked for
the Political and Information Sections, under diplomats who cooperated closely
with MI6 or in some instances were active "undeclared" members of MI6.

Middle East Eye describes Khalil's[3] role in the Embassy as a "programme
manager" running Chevening scholarships. I know this programme extremely
well. While I have no reason to doubt Khalil did this, it would amount to no
more than 10% of anybody's time and would not require the UK security clearance
which the article states that Khalil received.

The simple truth is that anybody working in good faith in the British Embassy in
Lebanon can be no friend of the resistance to Israel. Everything the British
Embassy do in Lebanon is intrinsically linked to the overriding goal of
promoting the interests of Israel, particularly through weakening Hezbollah, and
this is especially true when it comes to programmes into Syria running out of
Beirut.

So how did Khalil move from British government operative to Palestinian student
activist?

And then, why on earth did the Trump regime pick him for its first high-profile
deportation?

I can see three plausible explanations for Khalil's behaviour:
1) He was never pro-British but was infiltrating the Embassy for the
Palestinians

2) He was never pro-Palestinian but was infiltrating the protest movement for
the British government

3) He was not very political but was moved recently to activism by the genocide
in Gaza

Of these, option 3) seems to me the most plausible, though all are certainly
possible.

It would be a delicious irony if the Trump regime had arrested a British agent
by accident, but this seems to me unlikely. I do not think MI6 would run a
Palestinian agent in the USA without informing the CIA - although they may have
done if there were a specific concern that the CIA would leak the identity.

If Khalil were a British agent he could have been arrested for protection if
there were concerns he had been "made", or he could have been arrested because
the Americans found out and were furious at not being informed. But I do not
think these are the likely scenarios.

It seems to me much more probable that a once-complacent Khalil changed his mind
and became more - righteously - radical due to the genocide in Gaza.

In which case the motive for choosing him as the target for arrest is very
plain. Both the US and UK will be worried about revelations Khalil might make
about support to jihadists in Syria from his time working on this in
Lebanon. Whisking him into incommunicado detention, whilst maximum pressure is
applied to persuade him to keep silent, is then an obvious move.

It is important for freedom of speech and for the rights in general of
immigrants in the USA that Mr Khalil is free. It is obviously profoundly
important for him and his family. I do not want anything I have written to
detract from that.

But the puzzle of why such an extremely complicated target for the test case was
chosen, when there exist far lower-hanging fruit, is one that needs to be
considered. I hope I have offered some possible lines of thought you find
useful.

Links:
[1] - https://x.com/TVFreePalestine/status/1899569710288556172
[2] - https://www.declassifieduk.org/when-britain-aided-al-qaeda-in-syria/
[3] - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-mahmoud-khalil-uk-government-flagship-soft-power-policy