Nick Behrouzi

Here's our detailed investigation into the deadly strike on the Iranian town of Lamerd on the first day of the conflict, which munitions experts say was likely carried out with state-of-the-art US missiles.

🚨REPORT | BBC Verify says footage and expert analysis indicate a U.S. Precision Strike Missile was likely used in the March 9 strike on a sports hall in Lamerd, Iran, where children were training, killing at least 21 people, including young girls. High-resolution satellite imagery reviewed by the BBC shows the sports hall and nearby residential buildings destroyed, while the adjacent IRGC compound appears to have remained undamaged. As Drop Site’s earlier reporting documented, the missile tore through a civilian gym packed with students during training sessions, triggering panic, collapsing debris, and “continuous screaming” as injured children were pulled from the rubble. Eyewitnesses described parents arriving to find bodies of teenage girls and young athletes—some killed instantly, others buried under concrete. Both BBC and Drop Site reports are linked below.

PAUL HOLDEN STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO INTERVIEW WITH JOSH SIMONS ON BBC NEWSCAST Yesterday, BBC Newscast published a lengthy, forty-minute interview with former Cabinet Minister Josh Simons MP. The interview addressed how Simons, as a director of @LabourTogether, had appointed a firm called APCO Worldwide to investigate me and my colleagues. I was not told by the BBC ahead of the broadcast that the episode was being recorded or aired. I was not approached to respond to the lengthy comments made about me or the small anti-corruption organisation, @ShadowWorldInv1 , that I run with my colleague @andrewfeinstein. Andrew, who is also repeatedly mentioned, was also not approached for comment. I only found out last night, when a friend texted me, that the person who hired a major multinational reputation management firm that produced a despicable and defamatory report on me and my colleagues, and who reported me on the basis of these false and defamatory reports to the UK’s security services, was being given forty minutes to give his version of events on a major podcast published by our national broadcaster. To be clear, the BBC has NEVER - not once - approached me to comment on a story that is, ultimately, about me, my investigations, my family and my colleagues. They did not approach me when the story first broke, and they did not approach me for this episode. If the BBC had done so, I would have raised several issues with the way in which matters related to me were discussed. For example, Simons repeatedly stated in the interview that he instructed APCO to investigate whether my reporting or sourcing derived from a ‘hack’ of the Electoral Commission. The word ‘hack’ is used eight times in the interview. At no time was it acknowledged in this discussion that this allegation – that I might have received hacked materials – is entirely false, and I have repeatedly proven it to be false. Following the broadcast, I contacted the BBC to complain and to raise serious issues with the broadcast. I was contacted by the Newscast editor, Sam Bonham, to say the BBC would update the Newscast episode and further reporting to reflect some of my concerns. This has not yet happened with regards to the podcast, although I note some online reporting finally reflects a very small and limited sampling of my comments. I will wait to see if amendments and updates will follow. If they do not, I will be escalating this matter to OFCOM. In the interim, I have decided to share the full statement I provided to the BBC, which is produced below: I would like to put certain things on the record. First, my reporting on Labour Together and Morgan McSweeney was entirely factually accurate and based on impeccable, legal sourcing. My sourcing has been reviewed by multiple media outlets, who confirmed the authenticity and legal provenance of my sources. Revelations based on my book, The Fraud, has subsequently been covered widely across the mainstream media, including in multiple front-page scoops, in outlets such as The Times, Daily Mail, The Guardian, The National and ITV. The stories I produced in 2023 and 2024, and which prompted Labour Together's investigation into me, were subject to extensive editorial and legal checks. They were, I believe, entirely accurate reporting on matters of profound public interest, which included raising concerns about the character of powerful individuals like Morgan McSweeney. Considering the recent Mandelson affair, I believe I have been entirely vindicated in attempting to alert the public about McSweeney's past, including how McSweeney made use of £700,000 in funding that he unlawfully failed to declare to the Electoral Commission to procure power and influence for himself and Sir Keir Starmer. Second, Josh Simons states that he never intended for APCO Worldwide to investigate me or my journalistic colleagues. However, a copy of the contract between APCO Worldwide and Labour Together, addressed to Simons, has now been published. The contract sets out a scope of work written in plain English. It states that APCO will 'investigate the sourcing, funding, origins of a Sunday Times article as well as upcoming works by authors Paul Holden and Matt Taibbi.' The contract then states that the aim of the APCO investigation will be to 'provide a body of evidence that could be packaged up in the media in order to create narratives that would proactively undermine any future attacks on Labour Together.' The contract then sets out a range of potentially invasive investigative methods that will be used to generate this 'package', including 'financial investigations' and 'human intelligence investigations.' I provide the full text of this contract below. This contract is clear. APCO were hired to investigate me to produce materials that would 'proactively undermine' my factually accurate, public interest reporting. They would use a range of investigative techniques to do so. APCO then did exactly as was suggested in the contract, using these investigative methods to "investigate" me. This investigation has caused me and my family significant anxiety and distress. Third, Josh Simons was provided with a report called Operation Cannon. It is the result of a lengthy investigation into me and my colleagues by APCO Worldwide. I have seen a copy of this report. It makes a series of extremely defamatory and utterly false allegations against me. It identifies my home address and sets out private information about my family. I cannot express how profoundly shocking, outrageous and defamatory this report truly is. Simons may claim he never intended for APCO to investigate me, but on receipt of this despicable report, he then chose to use it. He submitted sections of the report to the National Cyber Security Centre to convince them to investigate me. The Guardian has published the email correspondence in which Simons repeated some of the substance of the allegations in the APCO reports. Fourth, multiple media freedom advocacy organisations, including the NUJ, have strongly criticised the APCO investigation and these related matters. They have all, to my mind correctly, strongly criticised Labour Together and APCO for investigating journalists producing factually accurate reporting in the public interest. Finally, I am still reviewing the Newscast interview. I will be responding in due course and I hope that the BBC will, this time, give me the platform to set out what really happened and why. Text of Contract Between Labour Together and APCO Worldwide, addressed to Josh Simons Dear Mr Simons We are pleased that you have selected APCO Worldwide Limited (“APCO”) to provide the following scope of work (“services”) during Term: APCO will devise a concise strategy to aid Labour Together. APCO will investigate the sourcing, funding and origins of a Sunday Times article about Labour Together, as well as upcoming works by authors Paul Holden and Matt Taibbi – to establish who and what are behind the coordinated attacks on Labour Together. The approach should provide a body of evidence that could be packaged up for use in the media in order to create narratives that would proactively undermine any future attacks on Labour Together. The material can also inform any future legal strategy that Labour Together might wish to pursue against any of these parties. The work will include: • Open Source Investigations (OSINT): Recovery and Preservation of Evidence • Human Intelligence Investigation (HUMINT): Recovery and Preservation of Evidence • Financial Investigation: Forensic Accounting Focus • Digital Forensics Investigation: Recovery and Preservation of Evidence • Stakeholder Outreach • Media Packaging and Dissemination

Footage aired by Al Jazeera from Tehran shows a child’s foot hanging from the side of a house after a U.S.-Israeli missile struck a residential unit.

Over 1,200 people have been killed in Iran. The US &Israel’s illegal war is a catastrophic violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter, which prohibits use of force against another state. The UK is involved in this war, no matter the euphemistic language of “defensive purposes”.

The US now has 23 heavy bomber aircraft at ‘RAF’ Fairford in Gloucestershire, according to military-watching social media sites this weekend. Keir Starmer’s Britain is heavily involved in Trump’s illegal war of aggression on Iran. declassifieduk.org/how-britain-is…

RAF Fairford is now base for "one of the largest US bomber deployments in recent history." This week's arrivals bring the number of bombers stationed there to 21. The 15 B-1s are well over half the total available. When Trump talks of obliterating Iran, he means *from the UK.*

BREAKING: US and Israeli forces struck Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran. The university is considered one of Iran's top engineering institutions.

❗ The UK government has been asked why drone exports to Romania are in Israel Steve Witherden MP (@switherdenMP) has written to the Secretary for Business and Trade over revelations by Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) and CAAT (@caatuk) over drone exports to Israel.

Despicable.

Based on assessments by independent sources and analysis of published images, including findings from an investigation by the research group “Bellingcat,” evidence indicates the use of air-dispersed mines near the village of Kafari, in the vicinity of Shiraz. Due to their inherently uncontrollable nature and long-lasting effects, these mines pose serious risks to civilians.

"Why should we believe your government and not Amnesty?" I asked the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman about Amnesty International accusing the Iranian government of "massacres" of Iranian protesters, based on "verified videos & eyewitness accounts":

Asked about dead Palestinian kids, Antony Blinken says Israel had trauma too. So much so, he says, that while the US could've cut aid to Israel, that apparently wouldn't have changed its behavior. He says cutting aid could've led to a broader war in the Middle East (unlike now).

Watch this between @JoaquinCastrotx & the top Trump official on global arms control. Q: What is Israel's nuclear capability? A: I'd have to refer you to Israel. C: Does Israel have nukes? A: I'm not prepared to comment on that. C: I don't understand why this is so taboo.

Tomorrow marks 11 years since the Saudi-led coalition began their brutal assault on Yemen. More than 377,000 people were killed. Today, the UK continues to support US-Israeli attacks on Yemen. 🗓️ 26th March ⏰ 6:30pm 📍 Downing Street caat.org.uk/events/yemen-w…

This is the rotten heart of European strategy. Rather than accelerate the green transition, Germany partners with a genocidal state to convert civilian industries to war production.

🚨 US military document leaked to me shows how the Pentagon is working with private companies to manipulate the information you see about the Iran war kenklippenstein.com/p/leaked-docum…

پ.ن ۱: انقد نگید «پس راه حلت چیه». من یه دم و دستگاه نیستم که موظف باشم واسه شما راه ترسیم کنم. یک نفرم و یه عقل دارم که بهم می‌گه متحدهای خودمو پیدا کنم تا بتونم زمین مشترکی باهاشون تعریف کنم که به راه حل برسه.

During its deployment in Sudan, the Wagner Group’s role can be defined by its imperialistic bleeding of Sudanese gold, its training and arming of violent armed actors, and its illicit transfer of arms to the RSF which has systematically committed war crimes, including genocide.

New Blog | by @NickKBehrouzi Gold, Guns & Genocide: The Wagner Group and Sudanese Gold. Read here: corruption-tracker.org/blog/gold-guns…