Operation Louve-Garoul
Operation Werewolf
We previously wrote about Operation Werewolf, which is a plan that targets Lune Loh to punish and "payback" Lune for participating in #FixSchoolsNotStudents on 26 January 2021. We understand that as a trans woman and publicly visible trans rights activist, Lune has caused particular anger in Christian far-right spaces.
Specifically:
"FixSchoolsNotStudents caused a lot of subtle changes in Singapore, and it caused political problems for some Christian [far-right individuals], who want not just payback, but also to be able to undo the damage done by showing that transgirls can actually be pretty dangerous, and not so feminine and harmless as they claimed to be."
We have since come to learn that Operation Werewolf involved finding an accuser to falsely accuse Lune of penetrative sexual assault (i.e. rape) and thus file a false police report. We understand that the case was automatically escalated to the Serious Sexual Crime Branch (SSCB), and the accuser had their statement taken by SSCB, which was not privy or participant to Operation Werewolf. We understand that the accuser then went to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), as instructed by contacts from Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) involved in planning Operation Werewolf. There, the accuser was deliberately diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by a specific psychiatrist, who was privy and participant to Operation Werewolf, so that the case against Lune would appear prima facie convincing to the police and the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC).
Specifically:
SSCB, based on the medical information [of the accuser] from IMH and from interviewing the victim [i.e. the accuser], would find that there is a sufficiently credible case. In practice, they would prefer to interrogate the suspect [i.e. Lune] as well before instituting any charges. However, since the suspect is in the UK and not available to be interrogated, and SSCB is persuaded by the medical reports especially, SSCB would feel confident in instituting charges. Hence, they can proceed with extradition proceedings, as the charges are extraditable.
Notably, the accuser and Lune have never actually met in person and are not even acquainted with each other, but the plan was for the accuser to falsely allege that they had met via a dating app, and that the rape occurred in the early hours of 7 September 2022.
We understand that the accuser has since been apprehended for multiple drug offences, including substance addiction, bringing the credibility of the accuser's testimony against Lune into question. Operation Werewolf has thus failed.
Operation Louve-Garoul
We note that a protest occurred outside the Singapore High Commission in London some time in mid-June 2023, with Lune and Wong J-min (previously pseudonymised as 'Jia Min' on this site) going public about Mercury and the Christian far-right situation unfolding in Singapore. We observe that this protest has been under the banner of 'Safety4HarveyUK', which has online presence on Twitter and Instagram.
We further understand that in light of Lune looking to seek asylum in the UK and Operation Werewolf ultimately imploding, a new operation has been formulated and is in the works. This is Operation Louve-Garoul – aimed at framing Lune for child sexual abuse, and to be carried out in the UK.
Once again, even separate from her status as one of Mercury's main victims, Lune appears to be a prime target for the Christian far-right: Operation Werewolf was part of the Christian far-right's plan to exact vengeance against Lune for #FixSchoolsNotStudents, as well as to destroy her credibility as a visible trans activist, and roll back any resultant improvements for transgender individuals in Singapore, both in terms of minor policy changes in various institutions and in regard of public perception. Meanwhile, Operation Louve-Garoul has a similar aim of discrediting Lune as a dangerous sex offender. From what we understand, the new Operation Louve-Garoul is spearheaded by a minor political party in the UK, Plaid Gristnogol Cymru (a.k.a. the Welsh Christian Party), whose leaders are in contact with two people in CanaVox's reading group in Brighton.
This is what we know:
The Witherspoon Institute is unable to exercise direct influence over local and overseas jurisdictions outside its home jurisdiction of New Jersey, and this was in part why they set up the international network of CanaVox reading groups – where at least 80% of the people in those reading groups are just laypeople who are there because they genuinely believe in CanaVox's ideology. Depending on which reading groups and at which location, 10–20% are aware that CanaVox has other purposes too, even if they are not explicitly aware of Operation High Tide and its component operations.
In the UK, CanaVox has a reading group in Brighton. Two people in that reading group are liaising with Plaid Gristnogol Cymru, which is mainly ideologically driven, and has a significant ground base, capable of on-the-ground operations, despite being a failed party and having never won any seats [i.e. they have never had a candidate elected into either the House of Commons, or the Welsh Parliament].
Operation Louve-Garoul was named by Plaid Gristnogol Cymru, not the Witherspoon Institute itself (which had previously named Operations Mandrake, Poison Ivy and Werewolf). Witherspoon learned from the implosion and failure of Operation Werewolf in Singapore, and after reviewing what went wrong, they are clear that if they try something against Lune in Singapore, there is an at least 50% chance it will fail.
From what we understand, the organisations involved in Operation Louve-Garoul are unclear if Lune intends to seek asylum in the UK after concluding her studies, or if she intends to return to Singapore, or further her studies in the US. The Witherspoon Institute is not confident that they can successfully conduct an operation against Lune if she returns to Singapore.
Here are more details about Operation Louve-Garoul:
They, through some religious groups, want to frame Lune for child sexual abuse. For this, they've gotten two children (in case anything happens to one, as they learned the hard way from Operation Werewolf) – both in the county of Surrey. One of the children is in Runnymede, whereas the other child is based or located in the next town on the outskirts of Runnymede. Both of these children are Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB) and intend to claim that they were groomed to "top" [i.e. sexually penetrate] Lune.
Both children are known to have had prior carnal connection with adults – suspected to be members of the clergy – and their parents intend to claim that their children had carnal connection with Lune. Compared to the Christian far-right in Singapore, their UK counterparts are more fanatical about their ideology, and are thus determined to go much farther.
We understand that the goal of Operation Louve-Garoul is to get Lune charged for child sexual abuse and released on bail, with the condition that she reside in an Approved Premises (AP), until the conclusion of her criminal case. APs are sex-segregated, and house three categories of persons:
- The first comprises convicts who are serving the tail end of their sentences.
- The second comprises adult convicts who have been sentenced to probation, but are too dangerous to be allowed to remain unsupervised in the community.
- The third category, relevant to Operation Louve-Garoul, is accused persons released on bail before trial, but whose alleged offences constitute significant risk to the public, if they are guilty. This includes offences such as child sexual abuse.
We understand that, in practice, cases can take a year or more after arraignment to reach trial, although in theory cases are supposed to be concluded speedily.
Here are more details on Operation Louve-Garoul:
Witherspoon, acting through their CanaVox network, liaising with Plaid Gristnogol Cymru, want to get Lune into a situation where she has to reside in an AP until the conclusion of her case. They intend to pay one or more resident(s) of the AP to attack Lune while she is residing there. But even if this doesn't work out and Lune is not attacked, clearly residing in a sex-segregated environment cannot be a comfortable experience for her. As a trans woman without a gender recognition certificate, Lune would be placed in a male AP due to her being Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB).
We understand that the parents of the child in Runnymede have already made their false police report against Lune on 15 June 2023. Due to serious bureaucratic inefficiency in the UK, the report is still meandering through the system. It is not known if the second child's family has filed a report yet.
We further understand that Plaid Gristnogol Cymru's main concern (which they have conveyed to their contacts in CanaVox's Brighton reading group) is that due to this bureaucracy, there might be a time lag before the police start investigating.
Once the UK police start investigating the case against Lune, they will impound Lune's passport for the duration of the investigations. Upon completion of investigations, they will lay charges and hand the case over to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – consequent to which Lune will be on bail pending trial, and hence sent to the AP. Plaid Gristnogol Cymru's concern is that Lune might finish her degree and leave the UK before investigations start.
If Lune leaves, they are left with two options to target Lune: either in the US (where they are more optimistic about succeeding, as this is Witherspoon's home turf, so a fix-up can be arranged more easily), or in Singapore (where they are more pessimistic about their chances, as there is no longer the will to attempt another operation against Lune after Operation Werewolf's disastrous failure, and because any future such attempts in Singapore are estimated to carry a 50% chance of failure).
Apart from CanaVox's Brighton reading group, there is a larger reading group in Oxford, but from what we understand, they are not involved in Operation Louve-Garoul, and there are no CanaVox reading groups in Surrey itself. We understand that Brighton was chosen by CanaVox as a location precisely because of its sizeable Queer presence and influence, which the Christian far-right desires to counter. We note that CanaVox's Brighton reading group was actually started by a few members who were part of CanaVox's Oxford reading group, but eventually drew its own local crowd and is still operating to this day.
We observe that in Singapore, CanaVox liaises with and works through Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), whereas in the UK, CanaVox liaises with and works through Plaid Gristnogol Cymru.
We also note that if Lune is discredited, this will not only affect her own asylum claim, but could affect J-min's as well. This might therefore put J-min at risk of being denied asylum and forced to return to Singapore.