My last post did not signal a return to blogging but rather explained why I need a few days’ break. But I have to share with you my joy at the release of the Brazilian edition of Murder in Samarkand, translated from the US edition and entitled Diplomacia Suja.
This is the first foreign language edition and I am childishly excited to hold it in my hands. I was actually jumping up and down a few minutes ago. There seems something magical about seeing your work in a tongue which is mysterious to you. Many thanks to Companhia Das Letras and especially to the translator, Berilo Vargas, whom I am yet to meet.
http://www.companhiadasletras.com.br/detalhe.php?codigo=12648
Good progress is being made on a Turkish translation.
“I want a T shirt too
Give me or I will sue
Otherwise what will you do?”
So trivial, so childish.
I am the real Neil Barker and you guys are in deep litigation shit.
You stalked me, harassed me at my workplace, sent me abusive emails.
Do NOT underestimate my willingness to take action.
Craig, you host this site. You no longer have diplomatic immunity.
I can readily understand why you are paranoid.
I WILL have satisfaction.
Mark Golding: I agree that the EU should be concerned for justice for Palestinians, not just Israelis. Therefore I think that all Palestinian political prisoners who do not have blood on their hands should be released – but Gilad Shalit as well. As for ‘evils in society’ such as the mutilation of an 18-year-old Afghan woman (see http://www.time.com/time/magazine for the cover of the latest edition that I referred to)- that’s a good reason not to pull out of Afghanistan without first being able to assure the safety of people like her. It is indeed a disaster for bombs or bullets to hit innocent people, whether of the East or West, and every effort should be made to avoid it.
Sanctions on Iran
http://www.hcfa.house.gov/111/MAR10505.pdf
A ‘must read’ for the lies it contains – how can the UN Security Council accept such a devious document?
Head of the US State Department’s Iran desk, John Limbert, has resigned from his post due to disillusionment with the Obama regime’s dubious “outreach” to Tehran.
He has been replaced by former Narcotics Affairs Officer in Islamabad, Pakistan – Philo L. Dibble, a good friend of Senator Joe Biden.
Dibble speaks Arabic (moderately) and is well known in Syria – an asset in the subjugation of Syria, a diplomatic trick to further isolate Iran and her support for Hizbullah.
Here is the voice of Dibble to get a handle on his new role in the Obama team:
Philo Dibble, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs in the US Department of State, emphatically stressed that it was not US policy to move from Iraq to Iran. Elaborating on the US policy towards Iran, Mr Dibble said that Iran must respect the territorial integrity of Iraq. Moreover, the US was concerned about the country’s WMD development, especially its nuclear weapons programme. Touching briefly on Iran’s internal developments, he said that it was clear that the Iranian leadership was unable to meet the demands of the Iranian people. But this was first and foremost an internal Iranian problem, a possible role of the international community in Iran was unclear. In the discussion with participants Mr Dibble added that the economic flexibility of the Iranian regime were very limited, due to high unemployment, huge corruption. The US was also very conscious that a greater opening of the society could backfire. Therefore, the US had also no interest to encourage a crackdown on the students.
Dibble will be I suspect, contract in a game of political chess with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before any engagement with Iran.
Neil Barker – get bent mate. The only person doing any harassing around here is you with your pan-handling. Have you tried hanging around outside an off-licence, or maybe a cashpoint machine? They’re very good spots, I hear.
So you have a workplace, eh? A job forsooth! Well – maybe now you could save up the £1.54 for that book you’ve always wanted from your wages.
Neil Barker: could you remind us please, with a date/time citation, where in this thread the offending verse that you quote appears, other than in your own post? Ta.
The low-down on cluster bombs – brightly coloured child killers containing over a hundred sharp lethal metal pieces that can shred a human body up to 25m.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-10829976
Obama speech on end of combat operations in Iraq – 50,000 troops left behind to man 94 US bases in Iraq indefinitely (as a ‘transitional force’) according to Max Fisher of Atlantic Wire.
bbc.co.uk/news/10839342
Obama lies – What is actually underway, however, is not a withdrawal, but a vast consolidation in preparation for the long-term occupation of the country by US forces.
Proof that the Obama withdrawal speech is a bold lie.
1. 2009 – Massive expansion of base construction – cost $496 million the highest annual fig. 1/4 of £2.1 billion budget.
2. 2010 £323 million of projects to be completed.
3. Permanently manned bases will be Northern Iraq – Camp Balad – Southern Iraq Camp Adder – Western Iraq – Al-Asad Air Base – Central Iraq – Victory base near Baghdad airport.
4. 65,000 US contractors remain including armed security.
5. US embassy in Baghdad – most expensive in the world. Opened in January 2009, the complex includes 21 buildings, occupies 0.4 square kilometres and houses 1,000 regular employees as well as up to 3,000 additional staff. The embassy buildings include according to information acquired from a Dubai based British security worker, a Pentagon type operations and communication suites intending for the collection of intelligence, initiatives to counter what the military calls ‘malign Iranian influence’, and the integration of tens of thousands of former insurgents the military turned into Sunni paramilitary groups.
Other planning objectives including special forces crossing into Iran will be executed from this ’embassy’ including the logistics for a rapid return of US troops.
Mark,
50,000 troops on 94 bases – indeed, this is an interesting and unusual use of the term ‘withdrawal’.
It was really nice to have a different perspective on how diplomacy is made.
I’m a young student in Brazil and looking foward to following a diplomatic carrer.
This catastrophe has had 500 plus ‘operations’ since 2003 alone.
and not forgetting the horror of the previous decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coalition_military_operations_of_the_Iraq_War
Did you know that Obama was now at the Operation New Dawn stage? That would be humorous if it was not so tragic.
Yesterday I read a book that was so fascinating that I couldn’t put it down. I was up till 1 AM finishing it. “Son of Hamas” by Mosab Hassan Yousef. There is an accompanying website, http://sonofhamas.com
I’ll refrain from commenting on it just yet. Better that people read it for themselves, and not rely on any second-hand opinion or prejudice!
You really are one of these Zionist trolls aren’t you, if somewhat surreptious and sneaky. First it’s an anti Iranian smear (initially a Sunday Times link but then strangely a Time magazine – some difference!) and now an anti-Hamas one but I am not responding with any of the reams of stuff about the cruel practices of the PA quislings or of the actual oppression, torture, imprisonment, killing and maiing of the Palestinians by the Occupiers themselves.
somebody at 11:59: disregarding your slander, there’s little left. I would like to hear from people who have actually read the book.
“Son of Hamas” by Mosab Hassan Yousef
A sad story of the coercion of a young 17yr old boy held in an Israeli prison and subjected to the ultra efficient psychological and physical torture of the ‘Shabak’ – the Internal General Security Service of Israel – motto – “shield who shall not be seen.”
Shabak are extremely efficient at ‘targeting killings’ that are either committed by using disguise or more frequently in an elaborate plan that confers responsibility for murder on a third person or group.
Torture methods by the shabak are beyond the realms of understanding for ordinary folk, are highly secret and confidential such that any information from survivors is steadfastly refuted. What details I have after a modicum of research I will synopsize here:
The most used method used to break down a prisoner has been detailed by informal accounts of Palestinians held captive and indicate a preparation phase of injection/oral transport to the subject with a high dose of amphetamine sulphate, Dexedrine and dexamphetamine to prevent fainting and lapses of conciousness and to prevent sleep; the technique continues by ‘inviting’ the prisoner to sit on a high stool which is angled forward (so it’s impossible to sit in a comfortable, stable position).
The subject is then bound with their arms and legs behind them to the stool, while also covering their head with a bad smelling sack. Loud (130 decibel) combined ultrasonic and low frequency noise is directed near the head – the low end spectrum is suspected to be the resonant frequency of human bone causing multiple fracturing while ultrasonics causes the breakup of internal organs. Bursts of this noise only are used to create intense pain interspersed by psychological interrogation that involves showing the subject a picture or video of their loved ones who are held captive under threat of rape, torture and death. The subject is left in darkness and cold to induce cramp caused by the muscular strain of this position, this combined with the devastating withdrawal symptoms from the previous ‘high’ and lack of sleep. The next session timing is carefully calculated on the physiological and psychological condition of the prisoner.
If the prisoner is injured by internal bleeding the ‘interrogation’ is aborted and deemed a failure resulting in assassination and burning of the body.
Successful ‘turned’ informants sign a written confession (in hebrew), are then given a task, a picture of their loved ones and a satellite encryption phone that has to answered at regular intervals, then released near the task area with a ‘minder’ usually one of the Shabak interrogation team.
Shabak successes lead to the Bush neonazis adopting some of their torture techniques.
Here we go again. Same old same old…. Just can’t help themselves.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108310240207599.html
Some time ago someone very helpfully posted a UK proxy which enabled those outside the UK access BBC tv programmes/podcasts.
I didn’t note it at the time and can’t now find in the archive. Any chance of a repost, please.
Mark,
The torture you’ve described used by the Israelis is beyond humanity.
Yousef’s book is an eye-opener in more than one way. What struck me was the difference between the military (who beat him and put him in a harsh jail with loud music and chained him in a cramped position to a stool during interrogation, although injections were not used), and the Shin Bet who treated him as a human being. Even more surprising was his finding the ability to see them as humans. Thus the book gives a very different picture from the Shin Bet as Gestapo, though it makes the brutal reality of the occupation quite clear. Other eye-openers include Hamas’ treatment of its fellow prisoners (leading to one attempting escape – from them), and the Al-Aqsa martyrs’ brigade coming from Yasser Arafat’s guards. Shin Bet would have liked Yousef to continue working for them, but when he insisted on leaving for America in the end, they did not stop him.
White House Won’t Protect Afghan Sources –
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Frontline Club – extraordinary video:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8526049
Coming soon:
Why Bin-Laden hated Saudi-Arabia; the strange story of Mustafa Setmariam Nasar held in Syria and a street thug from a ghetto in the Jordanian city of Zarqa by the name of Ahmad Fadil al-Khalayilah otherwise known as the terrorist Zarqawi in Iraq, who, formed part of the CIA’s divide and conquer (Sunni verses Shia) murder squad plan to install a Saudi type regime in Iraq.
Let me be very clear and history will prove that Britain despised the Sunni insurgency and Saudi terrorists, the so called ‘foreign fighters’ in Iraq – we can be proud in Britain that our top commanders supported the Shia community in Basra and supported a Shia led government. I have recently learned that Britain will never support an attack on Iran.
The blackest hearts: War crimes in Iraq
http://www.perdana4peace.org/
US “Pulling” out of Iraq leaving mercenaries and a worse legacy of War crimes and Atrocities since Vietnam
Just one story of war crime posted on the Perdana peace Org.
“Fakhriah was particularly worried about Abeer. Now 14, her fragile beauty was attracting a lot of unwanted attention. Soldiers would give her the thumbs up and say, “Very good, very nice.” By early March, the harassment was getting so bad that Abu Muhammad told the family to leave Abeer with him; there were more people at his house and it was less secluded. But Abeer stayed there only one night, on 9 or 10 March. With his protection, Qassim assured Abu Muhammad, they’d be fine.
Sneaking up on the house, the soldiers corralled the whole family into the bedroom. After they had recovered the family’s AK-47 and Green had confirmed it was locked and loaded, Barker and Cortez left, yanking Abeer behind them. Spielman set up guard in the doorway between the foyer and living room, while Cortez shoved Abeer into the living room, pushed her down, and Barker pinned her outstretched arms down with his knees.
In the bedroom, Green was losing control of his prisoners. The woman made a run for the door. Green shot her once in the back and she fell to the floor. The man became unhinged. Green turned his own AK on him and pulled the trigger. It jammed. Panicking, as the man advanced on him, Green switched to his shotgun. The first shot blasted the top of the man’s head off. Then Green turned to the little girl, who was running for a corner. This time the AK worked. He raised the rifle and shot Hadeel in the back of the head. She fell to the ground.
Spielman came in, saw the carnage and was furious. Green explained the AK had jammed and Spielman began searching for shotgun casings.
As Green was executing the family, Cortez finished raping Abeer and switched positions with Barker. Green came out of the bedroom and announced to Barker and Cortez, “They’re all dead. I killed them all.” Cortez held Abeer down and Green raped her. Then Cortez pushed a pillow over her face, still pinning her arms with his knees. Green grabbed the AK, pointed the gun at the pillow, and fired one shot, killing Abeer.”
Full Story http://www.perdana4peace.org/
“PCHR and Hickman & Rose Oppose Proposed Changes to Universal Jurisdiction in the UK; Political Considerations Must Not Be Allowed to Triumph over the Rule of Law”
http://williambowles.info/2010/08/03/pchr-and-hickman-political-considerations-must-not-be-allowed-to-triumph-over-the-rule-of-law/
Political considerations have always been allowed to trump the Law.
I’ve seen it so many, many times.
Ultimately the Law only exists insofar as there is an authority capable of enforcing it.
Unfortunately, the only authority capable of enforcing the Law is itself the greatest criminal the planet has ever seen.
@somebody at August 3, 2010 4:17 PM
The page you linked to is not available. Here is the cached page:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108310240207599.html
Mark, I hope you are so right, but the CFI’s, 80% of Conservative MP’s, will be pressured to support any attack that is led by Israel, don’t you think?
Right, back to work….
Thanks Chin.
Some real news and comment on what is happening. Note the Israeli use of white phosphorus at 1,12 in.
They lust for more bloodshed. Note also the number of suspected Israeli spies within the Lebanon. (towards the end of the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE2ORVjLtXk&feature=player_embedded#!
Which Barker is involved in the rape? The one who posts here? Can we prove it? This shows things in a very different light.
Thnks for your constant support.
The real Craig has certainly been gone a long while. He usually drops by with a brief update if gone for half this time.
Yes I was thinking that. Hope everything is alright.
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair will be signing his book ‘A Journey’ at Waterstones Piccadilly on 8th September at 1 pm. No doubt his goon squad is in readiness for all eventualities.
I was contemplating going, writing on the frontispiece ‘In memory of the millions of Iraqis I have helped to kill and maim, and make widow, orphan, deformed and refugee’ and presenting it to him for signature.
http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/
Random House have of course given him a £4.6 million advance. I hope they do not recover their investment.
http://www.tonyblairjourney.co.uk/
The book should be called ‘A Journey to The Hague’.
I am compelled (sorry) to repost Craig on Cook – a signature piece that makes me proud to know Craig Murray and tempers a depression of the loss of Robin that occasionally comes to the fore…
I was one of a few enthusiasts in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office who welcomed the arrival of Robin Cook as Foreign Secretary and his declaration of an “Ethical foreign policy”. The majority were hostile and cynical, but not nearly so much as was Tony Blair.
Within a very few weeks, Blair arranged Robin Cook’s defeat at Cabinet when Cook wanted to stop the export of British Aerospace Hawk jets to the Suharto regime of Indonesia, which has a strong history of vicious repression of its disparate peoples. I was told by a Cabinet Minister who sided with Cook, that Blair managed Cook’s cabinet defeat in as confrontational and humiliating a manner as possible.
Plainly there would be no ethical foreign policy under Blair, and “New Labour” would be even snugger in bed with the arms industry than the old version. One of Blair’s lead men on Hawks to Indonesia was Jack Straw, who declared in the register of members’ interests that 50% of his election expenses had been paid by Lord Taylor, a Director of British Aerospace.
By one of life’s sad ironies I was closely involved in an episode which held the ethical foreign policy up to media ridicule, from which it never recovered. A mercenary outfit called Sandline claimed to have been given the go-ahead by the FCO to ship weapons to Sierra Leone, to help President Kabbah recover his country from rebels. The problem was this breached a UN arms embargo. Both the Tory media and the pro-Blair Murdoch media had a frenzy, attacking Cook for claiming to be ethical while breaching UN law.
In fact, while Sandline had close connections with the British High Commission in Sierra Leone, they were simply lying about being given permission to ship arms. I can say that with certainty, because it was I they claimed gave the permission.
The storm passed, but ethical foreign policy disappeared as a term of art. The crisis brought me into closer and more intense personal contact with Robin Cook than I might normally have expected, and for that I am grateful.
His famous gnomic and ginger appearance is much commented upon, but I have never seen anyone describe his eyes, which is a pity. He had really startling eyes, of an extraordinarily light, bright, limpid blue. They absolutely held you, and as you spoke they were searching you out. I found him both funny and kind.
He had his faults. Very self-obsessed, the first time I ever met him I was kept waiting in his outer office for over three hours. No respecter of persons, he famously once did much the same to Princess Diana (well, maybe not three hours, but a lot longer than she was used to).
I met him again in Ghana, when he accompanied the Queen on a State Visit. He got so deeply into a conversation with a journalist that he missed the convoy as it departed from a Durbar, and had to be rescued from the massive crowds, having apparently lost interest in what the Queen and the Government of Ghana might be doing.
At that time, he was interviewing for a new Private Secretary. Deciding that this would be a useful way to fill out the hours spent as a courtier, he had the candidates flown out to Ghana at public expense to be interviewed ?” including at least one candidate, then Head of the FCO’s United Nations Department, whose London office was a thirty second walk from his.
So I observed him as self-centred and irascible, but at the same time kind, witty and deeply intelligent. I agreed with him on ethical foreign policy, and on the Iraq war. But where we will now miss his influence most of all, was his passionate commitment to individual liberty and balanced democracy.
Cook was the country’s most influential advocate of proportional representation, the surest safeguard against abuse of power by narrow and unrepresentative government. He also wanted to see executive authority checked by a powerful and fully elected House of Lords. This was the great work of his second ministerial post, as Leader of the House. It should not be forgotten that just as Blair deliberately blocked Cook over ethical foreign policy, so he blocked an elected House of Lords. And Blair blocked it for exactly the reason Cook wanted it, because it would be a brake on the Prime Minister’s authority.
It amazes me that, when Blair made clear he wanted a largely appointed House of Lords, most people still didn’t tumble to just how power-mad the man is. Now we face proposals to hold people for three months without charge, and to deport people for entering the wrong bookshop or visiting the wrong website. We are to accept “assurances” from murderous regimes that they won’t torture or kill dissidents we hand over to them.
Blair bangs on as if it wasn’t already illegal to be a terrorist, to kill people, to make or supply bombs or assist those who do. It is noteworthy that the alleged London bomber now charged is facing longstanding laws, like murder and conspiracy to murder, without any need for the raft of new legislation already in place, let alone Blair’s latest proposals.
What kind of society are we turning into? Blair talks of designating suspect bookshops, and I have just received my fourth official letter from the government reminding me that my own book, which I haven’t even finished yet, is banned from being published.
Robin Cook was a man of principle and lover of liberty, and he hated all of this. The last, brilliant, Guardian article I read by him was arguing against purchasing a replacement for trident missiles, while claiming that Blair had already taken that decision. He also stated baldly that the policy of Bush and Blair was creating terrorism, not defeating it.
These are the most dangerous times for liberty in the UK since the government of Lord Liverpool. Those of us who believe freedom is important, face a huge battle over many years, and against great odds. We have lost our best leader.
My name is NOT Neil Barker, my name is Neil Murray. I am being forged here, so please be very, very careful. Allegations of rape will lead to this site being shut down.
This is not a threat – it’s a gentle warning.
So whoever this site belongs to, you’d better delete and apologize quickly.
I will repost this on all comments that affect me.
Ingo,
Six months ago I would probably agreed with you and questioned myself on writing absurd nonsense. A shift, I believe, although of no great proportion, has occurred in world opinion towards Israel’s inhumane policy of the containment of Gaza and her arrogant and aggressive stance on the continuation of settlement building and complete disregard for UNSC resolutions.
We observed the immediate UN response to the Lebanon border confrontation advising restraint. Barak said that the episode had not been planned by the Lebanese general staff, and that Hezbollah was not a partner to it.
The UN is fully aware of recent incidents of Israeli drone spying over Lebanon that stand in clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended Israel’s 33-day war against Lebanon in 2006.
http://www.islamidavet.com/english/2010/07/31/israel-violates-lebanons-airspace-2/
Iran has condemned the use of these spying machines flying over borders and her latest satellite launched recently contains an ability to plot and record these illegal, interloping, alien, flying observation and elimination bots.
Some facts known to me about SAS operations in Iraq have dripped into the public domain and Wikileaks have exposed the aggressive slaughter of civilians in Afghanistan – all this and more has caused Britain to ‘advise’ America on the acute need for negotiation and reconciliation with Iran’s theocracy.