Can the U.S. Still Trust Britain?

Top national security officials from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (the so-called “Five Eyes” alliance) met in London this week to ostensibly discuss combating human smuggling and drug trafficking. But recent developments in Britain should have American officials questioning whether we can truly trust a British government that is veering in a dangerous new direction.

The meetings were convened by new British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who was appointed to her post by Prime Minister Keir Starmer just last week. The British Home Secretary is equivalent to the Secretary of Homeland Security in the United States, a post currently held by former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.

The British press has set out to portray Mahmood, who is of Pakistani heritage, as relatively tough on illegal immigration and public safety. One Labour Party figure reportedly told the BBC that she is “really right-wing on this stuff.”

But despite the attempted media makeover now underway as backlash against mass migration sweeps the island nation, the evidence shows Mahmood is far from “right-wing” – and is in fact openly hostile to the interests of both Great Britain and the West.

In the same article claiming Mahmood would be tough on illegal immigration, for instance, the BBC also relayed that she “announced plans to release thousands of prisoners earlier than planned to avoid what she called ‘total collapse’ of the prison system.”

Mahmood’s prior comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and her devotion to Islamist ideology are equally troubling. At an anti-Israel rally earlier this year, Mahmood repeated Hamas propaganda lines, accusing Israel of “bombing hospitals and schools” and encouraging attendees to “let out a mighty roar and tell this government that we will not be silent until the Palestinians are free.” She attended another rally where speakers called to “globalize the intifada” – an open call for genocide against Jews.

That alone should have U.S. officials second guessing whether they can trust Mahmood or the Prime Minister who appointed her with intelligence about the war in Gaza or other developments in the Middle East. Her appointment is the equivalent of Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, or another outspoken anti-Israel, anti-American radical becoming Secretary of Homeland Security. If Mahmood truly believes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza as she says, is it really so crazy to suggest that she might share information (for example, about an upcoming Israeli strike on Hamas targets) with terrorist leaders in Gaza?

Moreover, like many Democrats in the United States, Mahmood has professed a thorough disdain for her own country, its people, and its traditions. One clip now making the rounds on X shows Mahmood saying that “the people that you see holding the English flag… are white, are male, and they are bad people.”

Mahmood also swore her parliamentary oath of office on the Quran and is on tape saying that her Muslim faith “is the most important thing in my life” and is “the absolute driver of everything that I do.” Given that most of the migrants arriving in Britain are coming from Muslim-majority countries, how can anyone trust her to be objective in managing the crisis? In that same vein, does anyone really believe that she will protect the rights of protesters in Britain who oppose the growing Islamization of British society?

In another shocking story this week, a British court released Haroon Aswat, a convicted al-Qaeda terrorist who masterminded a 2005 bus bombing in London that killed 52 people and left more than 700 injured. In perhaps one of the most heinous comments ever issued from a judicial bench, Sir Robert Jay of Britain’s High Court wished Aswat “all the best” as he set Aswat free.

But the court’s decision wasn’t just a grotesque miscarriage of justice and a betrayal of the British people – it was also a betrayal of the United States. Aswat, who spent time training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan prior to 9/11, was only in Britain because former President Joe Biden quietly extradited him there in 2022. Prior to that, he was serving a 20-year prison sentence in the United States handed down in 2015 for helping establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Aswat’s name was notably found among documents recovered from a Pakistani safehouse used by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the chief planner of the 9/11 attacks.

According to The Daily Mail, “U.S. authorities had strongly opposed his early release, with court papers stating he is a ‘terrorist’ and ‘foot soldier’ of al-Qaeda.” But the British court released him anyway, and now the man who helped blow up a bus, tried to recruit terrorists in Oregon, and was allegedly involved in 9/11 is walking free in Britain. The outcome is functionally no different than if the Biden administration had sent him to Iran or another country hostile to the United States.

That should enrage Americans, but it should also send a powerful message to our political leaders that Britain can no longer be blindly trusted as an ally who shares our values and interests.

This fact is brought home by the glaring double standard of justice and all-out war on free speech now taking place across the pond. As AMAC Newsline reported earlier this week, police are arresting thousands of Brits for “offensive” social media posts while allowing migrants who commit robbery, rape, and sexual assault to walk free. (On a related note, Mahmood, of Pakistani heritage, will now be charged with overseeing the investigation into “grooming gangs” of largely Pakistani men who assaulted and raped hundreds of British girls.)

All alliances, like all friendships, depend on shared assumptions – about justice, truth, and the basic difference between right and wrong. When those assumptions collapse, trust becomes impossible. A nation that frees rapists and terrorists in the name of woke ideology while jailing its own citizens for speech has lost its moral bearings. And a government led by people who despise their own history and traditions cannot be expected to stand alongside the United States.

America’s alliances must serve the cause of protecting our homeland and defending Western civilization. If officials in London no longer stand for those values – and in many ways now actively oppose them – it is perhaps time to fundamentally rethink the nature of our relationship with Great Britain.

Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.