The Russians call it Kompromat – the use by the state of sexual accusations to destroy a public figure. When I was attacked in this way by the government I worked for, Uzbek dissidents smiled at me, shook their heads and said “Kompromat“. They were used to it from the Soviet and Uzbek governments. They found it rather amusing to find that Western governments did it too.
Well, Julian Assange has been getting the bog standard Kompromat. I had imagined he would get something rather more spectacular, like being framed for murder and found hanging with an orange in his mouth. He deserves a better class of kompromat. If I am a whistleblower, then Julian is a veritable mighty pipe organ. Yet we just have the normal sex stuff, and very weak.
Bizarrely the offence for which Julian is wanted for questioning in Sweden was dropped from rape to sexual harassment, and then from sexual harassment to just harassment. The precise law in Swedish, as translated for me and other Sam Adams alumni by our colleague Major Frank Grevil, reads:
“He who lays hands on or by means of shooting from a firearm, throwing of stones, noise or in any other way harasses another person will be sentenced for harassment to fines or imprisonment for up to one year.”
So from rape to non-sexual something. Actually I rather like that law – if we had it here, I could have had Jack Straw locked up for a year.
Julian tells us that the first woman accuser and prime mover had worked in the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC and had been expelled from Cuba for anti-Cuban government activity, as well as the rather different persona of being a feminist lesbian who owns lesbian night clubs.
Scott Ritter and I are well known whistleblowers subsequently accused of sexual offences. A less well known whistleblower is James Cameron, another FCO employee. Almost simultaneous with my case, a number of the sexual allegations the FCO made against Cameron were identical even in wording to those the FCO initially threw at me.
Another fascinating point about kompromat is that being cleared of the allegations – as happens in virtually every case – doesn’t help, as the blackening of reputation has taken effect. In my own case I was formerly cleared of all allegations of both misconduct and gross misconduct, except for the Kafkaesque charge of having told defence witnesses of the existence of the allegations. The allegations were officially a state secret, even though it was the government who leaked them to the tabloids.
Yet, even to this day, the FCO has refused to acknowledge in public that I was in fact cleared of all charges. This is even true of the new government. A letter I wrote for my MP to pass to William Hague, complaining that the FCO was obscuring the fact that I was cleared on all charges, received a reply from a junior Conservative minister stating that the allegations were serious and had needed to be properly investigated – but still failing to acknowledge the result of the process. Nor has there been any official revelation of who originated these “serious allegations”.
Governments operate in the blackest of ways, especially when it comes to big war money and big oil money. I can see what they are doing to Julian Assange, I know what they did to me and others (another recent example – Brigadier Janis Karpinski was framed for shoplifting). In a very real sense, it makes little difference if they murdered David Kelly or terrified him into doing it himself. Telling the truth is hazardous in today’s Western political system.
Why is their no archive access on this site?
To keep up with chronological issues it’s usually de rigeur to be able to look back at recent events and comments.
This site hasn’t included that facility within its design. Free or cheap it’s a very poor effort..
Why did the BBC have to censor Benazir Bhutto’s statement that Bin Laden had been murdered?
http://twitpic.com/2l7v00
(not a reply to you, Ruth)
“I don’t think this guy is widely read, I think he’s widely briefed.”
Not sure if you’re flattering me with that one or insulting everyone else. (“Two books are being cited? No man alive has ever read two books!”) I just happen to have them on my shelf and looked through them again.
By the way, as someone who cringes at “turnip’s” I should point out that you used a comma splice there; it is considered a sign of poor grammar. The most unwittingly hilarious moments are when you see “carrot’s 50p”! Ha ha! How can a carrot accrue wealth?
“As for bin Laden being dead, as far as I know it’s not all based on Benazir Bhutto making a mistake in her interview with Frost.”
No, it isn’t and no one claimed it was. I was responding to Alfred’s claim that Benazir Bhutto had said, on the BBC, he was dead. I just asked Alfred if he would produce a source for this. Given that the Al-Jazeera video is the only source anyone can find, it would appear that the claim is probably false.
“As for Angry’s assertion that “the view is not one that is common in the mainstream press”, I wonder what mainstream press he’s referring to. I suspect he’d talking about the USA (which wouldn’t be surprising). I already pointed out that Jon Snow of Channel 4 News has stated that he has believed him dead for quite some time. Is Jon Snow better informed than Angry? I would imagine so – unless Angry is being ‘informed’ from elsewhere of course.”
Well, this is confusing two issues. One, the fact that one journalist, namely Jon Snow, believes Osama bin Laden is dead doesn’t show that it is common. Two, when it comes to the point of who is the most informed I have no way of knowing how Jon Snow came to the conclusion that Osama bin Laden is dead. Presumably Dreiolin knows, although she hasn’t produced any evidence, because otherwise she is making the laughably simplistic argument that “Jon Snow is a news broadcaster and therefore he’s a trustworthy authority and if he says he’s dead then he’s probably dead.” It’s funny how you so selectively treat “mainstream media” as the word of God!
“Why? And what’s his blog all about? It looks like padding to me. And hasn’t he just recently stopped linking to it with his name? Why is that I wonder?”
Are you saying I am being paid to write on blogs?
“Angrysoba, yes it seems incredibly murky, doesn’t it, the ISI, etc. Thanks for the book recommendations. Another good one is ‘Military Inc., by Ayesha Siddiqui. Like Craig Murray, she knows what she’s talking about, having worked within the system.
http://www.amazon.com/Military-Inc-Inside-Pakistans-Economy/dp/0745325459”
Thanks for another book recommendation. I’ll look out for it.
“Life is a predicament” – thanks, Clark. It seems to explain a lot. And Richard, thanks for the Small Faces, always good to remember. Still, I gave up All Bran after realising it was a) corporate and b)horrible. Just had eggs from own roaming happy chickens on home made bread so it can be a feast too, in fact.
Maybe I’ll stick at “life is” at the moment.
Angrysoba: I don’t think I’ve ever seen Alfred substantiate any of his claims, but you’re welcome to try. Maybe, given his overwhelming air of innocence when challenged, he’s transubstantiating instead? Alfred?
dreoilin: apart from disagreeing somewhat about Mr Soba and his motives, we do indeed have much in common, including Ireland (yo, Blair!) and an ancient much loved cat. They leave a huge cat shaped hole. I can’t find your original post, though I add my sympathies: are you getting a kitten?
Suhayl: good letter! And Gregory’s Girl, indeed 🙂
Friendly waves to all.
various:
“rumoured later to have re-located to a wind-blown isle off the west coast of Scotland.”
A tiny little place just east of San Serife ?
Bullying – yes, this is such a narrow channel of communication. We don’t see the expressions on the faces, the bodylanguage, we don’t hear the voices. On the other hand, a point I’ve seen recently is, that a lot of physical-world bullying derives particular nastiness from happening behind backs; people can be isolated, and harrassed in ways that no-one else sees. That can’t happen here, it’s all public. But preventing it depends on the emergence/building of that much-overused word “community” – common agreements on what’s acceptable and what you Just Don’t Do.
Which, ISTM, is the wider problem here. Not wrt bullying, just the question of how to argue/discuss things.
I thought I had things to say, but when I try to write them it all gets too big for just-now, and anyway Clark’s already said most of them.
“Angrysoba’s arguments can help us refine our own”. Yes. This is not unalterable religious dogma (or if it is, I’m not interested & have no comment); if someone can show where an argument falls down or could be improved, this is a good thing. Of course, this is easier to see if it can be pointed out in a respectful way rather than as an insult.
Name-calling just doesn’t help anybody understand anything. If you don’t like a point that someone else makes, showing why you think it’s a bad point gets us somewhere, saying that they’re a bad person for it doesn’t.
Good on you, Clark. Thanks.
Oh, and dreoilin on punctuation – it was you pointed out that quirk with the hardbacked macho-name group of postings, wasn’t it ? That was very useful.
Thanks to Sara from Saudi Arabia for making her apt points in a land that needs exposing its own hypocrissies.
The thread is heavy and in parts shows the ups and downs of our lifes, for whatever reasons.
The house renovations are coming on a treat and many volunteers have given their time and expertise. Just come back from there and can report that everyone is in good spirits, in all its connotations.
I’m looking forward to Jullians next exposee and hope that he has planned his PR trip, ideally short and to the point, meticulously.
I have not had access to a computer for two weeks and find it somehow strange to blog, unnatural with a nagging thought in the back of my head that I could be doing something else, with far better satisfaction to boot.
Take care all.
BTW. Like the idea of shifting Tony’s journey into Waterstones ‘crime’ section of books, lol, would be great to walk up to a signing and then turn around when its your turn, saying that you rather donate the money to Martk Goldings charity and campaign, directly and without his catholic ideas of delivering charity, which are sick and inconsequential, as they do nothing to alleviate the outrages and hurt resulting from crimes committed on Iraq’s civilian population.
Hello Everyone!
I’m just dropping in to see how things are – got to go out again soon. The e-mail address on my web page seems to be working again today.
Ruth, I guess the BBC cut it out as it was an obvious mistake, and to leave it in *and* point out that it was an error would both have cost air-time.
Friendly wave to Technicolour. Hey, you’ve got chickens! Excellent!
Dreoilin, thanks for reporting back on your browsers, though I’d be interested to know which one was throwing a wobbler. I like that picture you linked to. Thanks, but I won’t be needing ‘Speedfan.exe’, as ‘sensors’ and ‘fancontrol’ are available from one of the Ubuntu repositories.
Richard Robinson, thanks for your agreement. Don’t let my manic posting put you off, human diversity ensures that your perspective will differ from mine.
Suhayl Saadi, I love the idea of “the Finality School of Iteration”, you make me laugh!
Ingo,
your post came in when I was writing mine, or I would have said hello. It’s good to hear from you. Thanks for the update, and please wish Craig and all the volunteers well.
Hi Clark, hope you are well, shall forward your best wishes when I return south at the end of next week.
“By the way, as someone who cringes at “turnip’s” I should point out that you used a comma splice there; it is considered a sign of poor grammar.” –Angry
I think you might find that you’re referring to American rules.
http://grammartips.homestead.com/splice.html
(We don’t use the Chicago Manual of Style, either.)
“One, the fact that one journalist, namely Jon Snow, believes Osama bin Laden is dead doesn’t show that it is common.”
Not necessarily, no. I also queried what you meant by ‘mainstream media’. My guess is that most of what you get is from the USA. Please note (before you reply) that I said “most”. Was I right?
“when it comes to the point of who is the most informed I have no way of knowing how Jon Snow came to the conclusion that Osama bin Laden is dead. Presumably Dreiolin knows, although she hasn’t produced any evidence”
He said it in an email, which I have since deleted. I’ll see if ‘Snowmail’ is archived online.
“because otherwise she is making the laughably simplistic argument that “Jon Snow is a news broadcaster and therefore he’s a trustworthy authority and if he says he’s dead then he’s probably dead”.”
Not at all. I have read Jon’s book Shooting History (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shooting-History-Personal-Jon-Snow/dp/0007171846), and I’m aware of the enormous number of contacts he has made over 30 years in journalism, both at home and abroad. I would guess that they are many more, and more varied, than yours. However, I didn’t SAY, “if he says he’s dead then he’s probably dead”.” I was simply quoting someone from the mainstream media, something you mentioned. Stop putting words in my mouth please. I have not stated anywhere that bin Laden is dead, but I do think it’s highly likely.
“It’s funny how you so selectively treat “mainstream media” as the word of God!”
It would be if I were doing so. But my guess is that some mainstream journalists are far better informed than you are. (And they don’t say everything they think on air. Cf Snowmail.)
“Are you saying I am being paid to write on blogs?”
Typical ‘Angry’ question. If I want to say you’re being paid to write on blogs, I’ll say that. Until then, don’t continue to try and put words in my mouth. You seem to do it to everyone with whom you argue.
“They leave a huge cat shaped hole. I can’t find your original post, though I add my sympathies: are you getting a kitten?” — tech
The worst of it was that she got cancer and on the vet’s advice, I had her ‘put down’. Another damn stupid euphemism. I still haven’t got over the guilt. But yes, I’m getting a kitten soon.
“it was you pointed out that quirk with the hardbacked macho-name group of postings, wasn’t it?” — Richard
Do you mean the lack of a space after the full stop? Yep, I think that was me.
Clark,
I’m getting Ubuntu from my son shortly. 🙂
“which of us has conquered our own worst selves? ”
Abe: I guess you are focusing on ‘enlightenment’ which to me is not so obscure, or particulary subtle or even difficult to comprehend if we think in terms of an infinate, limitless consciousness instead of a finite ego or self.
Since the greatest ever conspiracy called 9/11, a force rising from souls of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has emerged from the strength of ideology rather than the atoms of destruction. That force is opposed to the corruption of humanism and liberalism that once formed the bed-rock of Western society.
We move backwards and forwards along a time-line of brutality and torture, while turning blind eyes to the speculation of Western billionaires that drives up the price of rice, wheat and the essentials of living causing the brutal death for millions, much in the same way as nature’s forces of destruction shown to us as tsunami and flood.
In a pragmatic world the concepts of good and evil, divine and satanic, with us or the terrorists, are mute.
Hostility towards the West is grounded in a hate for Western imperialism that has caused the drifting masses of China, Iran and Russia to amalgamate on the waters of discontent, shame and deception.
The concept of an Islamic global hegemony and nuclear confrontation is a vision in the West’s eyes only, scared by it’s own history, of it’s own nuclear holocaust and of it’s own bloodshed and murder.
Angrysoba,
Re: “One of the reasons why I asked Alfred for his source is that he had said Benazir Bhutto had made this claim on the BBC. The video of the Frost interview comes from, of course, Al-Jazeera. So was there another video from BBC? Alfred still hasn’t produced it.”
What are you talking about? In particular, what is “it” I am supposed to “produce?” Or are you just in a muddle and your repeated references to me were, in fact, intended for someone else?
Clark,
You call me a “a strange fish.”
Making such comments is a strange way to establish good relations. Maybe you are engaging in a little “subtle trolling” or being a “strange fish” yourself.
In fact you method is quite consistent. To talk with a degree of reasonableness and then, like an irritable nanny, declare someone’s belief unacceptable without presenting a rationale.
You did this with TM, declaring it unacceptable to raise the irrefutable possibility that Assange is an agent of disinformation. You have done it with Glenn “I think you should admit that you were wrong about Benazir Bhutto.” (That’s the entire argument — i.e., it’s not an argument, at all).
And then you tell me to “mark yourself in a bit more clearly on your map of the world.” How old are you, kid?
True you offer this argument from another thread: “It wasn’t just that you were advocating a homeland for the British; you were claiming that there had been a “genocide” in Leicester.”
This is inappropriate. I’m quite prepared to argue about what proportion of the indigenous population of Britian, or of a part of Britian, has to be replaced by immigrants as a direct result of government policy for it to count as a policy of genocide. But that is not the issue here.
Your trouble Clark is that you are a young fellow who thinks he knows everything but who will find, if he keeps his brain working, that in a few years much of what he thought he knew is not so.
You might be well advised, therefore, not to lay down so many marks of your own present limitations in knowledge and thought.
Glenn,
Whatever Mrs. Bhutto said or intended to say about Bin Laden, there are good reasons to suppose that he is no longer alive.
First, he was suffering from end-stage renal failure in 2001. The annual mortality among such patients is 22%. The mortality among such patients living in a cave in Afghanistan must be considerably higher than 22%, probably not less than 100%.
Second, since the 2001 interview in which bin Laden stated that he did not undertake the 9/11 attacks or approve of the killing of innocents, there seem to have been no authentic statements from him. Given his personality, that is inconceivable if he is both at liberty and in command of his faculties — particularly in view of the absurdly bad fake bin Laden videos that have been diseminated by the media.
Mark Golding: ‘Abe: I guess you are focusing on ‘enlightenment’
I wasn’t, actually. But you reminded me of a Zen story that goes something like this. A Master said ‘I have something here with no name, not graspable. Do any of you know what it is?’ A brilliant student replied, ‘It is the original source of all the Buddhas.’ The Master turned on him in anger and said ‘I told you that it has no name, and yet you say that it is the original source of all the Buddhas!’ His point was that unless the student experienced it for himself, talking about it would be of little use. But in any case, that is not what I was talking about.
My point was that very few of us succeed in conquering the hidden weaknesses of human nature that are liable to lie behind unwise decisions by people in power. That’s one reason to be careful about getting too self-righteous at them.
Suhayl,
Reverting to the topic of this thread, I have, at your earlier promting, thought more about Assange and would add this:
Assange is merely another source of information. He joins Rupert Murdoch, Alex Jones and all the rest in, as Stanley Baldwin put it, “seeking power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”
But by their fruits will Wikileaks be judged. So far, they have done quite well, gaining if not power, at least massive publicity for the Afghanistan Papers, while Bradley Manning takes the responsibility.
And what have we learnt from those papers: that Bin Laden is alive and well and directing the War of Terror against the United States and every citizen of every NATO country from his base in (a cave?) in Pakistan.
Do you think that’s a big deal. I don’t.
Oh, and Wikileaks have just leaked a CIA paper that says that the “people don’t trust us”.
Good grief, the bastards know that we know their bastards.
I honestly believe that Craig Murray has made a serious mistake in giving such enthusiastic endorsement to this “mighty organ.”
Legally, Assange seems to take care to take no risks — in the area of intelligence, anyhow. He is not a “whistleblower” as I understand the term, but a mere intermediary.
Of course, I will have to revise my opinon if he winds up in a sports bag, but that seems most unlikely unless he can juice up the stream of leaked data with something worth knowing.
dreoilin – “Do you mean the lack of a space after the full stop? Yep, I think that was me”
Yes, that was what I meant.
I used Ubuntu for a while, I found it pretty friendly. I was impressed by the way you can run from the boot CD without touching the hard disk at all, and then if you like it … the “Install” button just does what it says. The trouble with switching between systems is that people have probably put some work into learning how to run their current one, and that all goes to waste. But things you learn about running Linuxes tend to stay learnt for longer, they don’t dump everything in favour of a brand-new one every couple of years. It’s still work, though.
News from Afghanistan
There is a run on the Kabul Bank which is run by Karzai’s brother. It is being said that the US will have to bail it out. Withdrawals are limited to $10,000. Good God what next?
A UK soldier has died in Birmingham one month after being wounded and another was killed yesterday when hit by a rocket propelled grenade. The surge in military casualties is going well.
Ms. Bhutto, coming up in conversation with my Pakistani employer during the general election this year, was described as a corrupt liar, nothing like her father and in it for herself, whatever she may have said on various BBC/Newsnight interviews, when in opposition,to paint herself as a democratic leader and legitamite ruler of Pakistan, is not something all Pakistani’s see her as necessarily.
Her assassination was seen as inevitable by them and they see tyhe current state of pakistans political flux during a state of national emergency as changing Pakistan forever.
If the Taliban is able to support many floodvictims the current show is over, we will see an widening of a front, as envisaged by the war on terror merchants.
Bin Ladens death or life is inconsequential as his idea was to create a randomly self perpetuating movement, one that always has deputies and others who learn on the job so to speak, he is not needed so I do not understand the focus on him anymore, bar his historical significance?
“I do not understand the focus on [ObL] anymore”
People like heroes-and-baddies, it makes for a better story ?
ingo,
I don’t understand the focus either other than Osama represents the figure-head of a ‘war on terror’ and is useful as the lead in terror videos released when governments feel the need. I was not fooled by the video put out to ring-fence the Benazir Bhutto RIP statement that contained rather obvious and classic psych manifestations to convince viewers that she fluffed the name o s a m a b i n l a d e n lol
In America Osama is the perfect fit for America’s fascination with outlaws and gratuitous violence generously depicted in real life scenes like the real time bombing of a romantically lit Baghdad.
Some say Osama is like Robin Hood but that sounds too grotesque and contrived.
“our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people and neither do we.”
GW Bush August 5th 2004
2010 is deadliest year so far for US troops in Afghanistan
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/afgh-s03.shtml
somebody – Juan Cole had a good piece on the Kabul bank a couple of days ago: http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/collapse-of-kabul-bank-points-to-terminal-corruption-of-karzai-government.html
If release of the the Afghanistan Papers was a disinformation operation, how come Bradley Manning came to be involved? Were his actions dictated by conscience or was he induced to become the fall guy in an operation the nature of which he was mentally incompetent to understand?
Contemplating this question I did a Google search for “Bradley Manning” +”mental health”, with interesting results.
For example:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/203776.php
“A civilian defense attorney hired recently by alleged WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning says the Army was so concerned about his client’s mental health prior to the alleged leaks that supervisors removed the bolt from his military weapon, disabling it.
“Attorney David Coombs told CNN, however, that other than sending Manning to a chaplain for counseling, the Army did little to address its concerns about him.
“The unit has in fact documented a history, if you will, from as early as December of 2009 to May of 2010 of behavior that they were concerned about,” Coombs said, adding that Manning’s immediate supervisor “did document prolonged periods of disassociated behavior, quite a bit of nonresponsiveness from Pfc. Manning. And, again, that progressed from the very beginning of the deployment and deteriorated somewhat toward the end.”
It appears that Manning was very much the sort of person one might chose to make the dupe in the leak of fraudulent or misleading information: a person in a delusional or paranoid state who could be persuaded to commit a crime in the belief that they were acting in the public interest.
The google search noted above yields much more on the subject of Manning’s mental health before he leaked the Afghanistan Papers.
“I do not understand the focus on him anymore, bar his historical significance?”
You are entirely missing the point of the Afghanistan Papers, which show that OBL is running the war against the US from a base in Pakistan.
If in fact, he is dead, then we have very good reason to believe that the release of the Afghanistan Papers is part of a disinformation operation.
And you would take stuff from a hate site like
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/203776.php
as gospel would you?
Do you understand the meaning of the term ‘smear’?
Ingo, I’d be wary of what anyone – including me – tells you (or me) about Pakistan. The government is far from perfect. The political class is far from perfect. To put it mildly.
But right now, there is a massive, unremitting campaign by extremely reactionary forces in Pakistan to bring down any semblance of civilian rule. They never allow civilain rule – even corrupt civilain rule – to remain and so every few years, the Army takes over. The Army sits behind the civilians, pulling the strings, stopping any shift in power away from the men in uniform.
But the Army is as abslutely as corrupt and has much more economic (it has placemen in ever sector) and of course more military power than the civilian politicians and it simply halts any maturation of the political process.
Yes, that maturation may take decades, but with the Army, it will never happen. That’s what India discovered during the Emergency of Indira Gandhi.
The ‘chattering classes’ tend to support the Army because in Pakistan the chattering classes benefit from the Army and many are in the Army or in areas which serves the Army. It’s a bit like those who supported military rule in South America. I don’t recall Musharraf getting such a rough ride, two years into his tenure. The Army gets a long honeymoon. Pakistanis (and diasporic Pakistanis especially) of the chattering classes (the upper middle classes and above), like people from most other social groups, are understandably frustrated and feel deeply ashamed of their politicians, the state of their country. They look at India, they look at Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. All different political systems, all with big problems, but doing far better.
But fascism – the concordance of Army and corporate/feudal juntas which has ruled that country for around half of its existence, simply exacerbates the problem.
The problems in Afghanistan/ Pakistan to do with religious extremism are partly – and in local terms, largely – because of the Army creating the ‘Mujaheddin’ and then ‘the Taliban’, because of their obsession with India and strategic depth. It’s like, for … sake, the infant mortality rate, literacy rate, economics (Musharraf’s early regime was a bubble creatde by the corporate bankers who were his PMs), every-rate-that-matters about a country is absolutely shite-on-wheels, and they’re worried about an Armageddon scenario with India! Ah, but of course that’s the thing, the Army doesn’t want an educated, relatively healthy population because unlike with the chattering classes, PROPERLY educating the peasants would leda to a movement for redistribution of everything.
And so, there are two types of depressingly predictable conversation one has, commonly, with people from the Pakistani diaspora in the UK or USA today.
One is as above: ‘bring in the Army, whip ’em all into shape (again)!’
The other view, popular among the physically, but not mentally or emotionally, urbanised descendants of peasants (I do not use the term pejortaively, merely sociologically, as, say, Lenin or Kerensky might have used it in Czarist Russia), is that they want a perpetuation of what they have been brainwashed to believe is ‘Islmaic’ Law, blah-blah-blah, more Nawaz Sharif and hypocritical holy joes and locking up women for being raped and all that crap that General Zia and his cohorts (it wasn’t just him) brought down upon that country from 1977 onwards: Islamisation, it was called. Bullshitisation was the truth.
Every govt in Pakistan will be a US stooge – short of popular redistributive revolution (which sadly aint gonna happen!), there is no alternative except ‘The Taliban’ (‘Uber-Bullshitisation’).
Even if civilian govt is dominated by corrupt landowners, the more people are able to demonstrate and criticise their action WITHOU always calling for Big daddy (The Amy) to step in, the more likely things are to gradually change. maybe then there will be a tipping-point, when land reform is demanded. Land reform is central.
Who bombed the various rallies last week? I’d bet it was the ISI. Divide-and-rule, they learned too well! The Army, in other words – for those in control of both are the magician’s apprentices. Guess who the magician is?
Sorry, ingo, I’m not ranting at you. Just at the situation. Thanks for all your help with Craig’s situation and for your superbly humane and centred posts.
Somebody: Seriously, the US are going to bail out Karzai’s brother’s bank? I shouldn’t laugh, but I did. Raucously.
Dreoilin: Excellent argument to Angrysoba; Glenn and Jaded take note of how it is done! Congratulations on getting Ubuntu; you’ll be delighted at how unstressful browsing can be. I do recommend the NoScript firefox extension, whether you use Ubuntu or Windows. A dodgy script can’t penetrate nearly so deeply into Ubuntu as it can into Windows, but it can still perform mischief within your browser’s cache – as Mark Golding can confirm!
Alfred: really, lighten up! Perhaps I should have added 🙂 to my “strange fish” comment, which seemed pretty innocuous to me. You don’t have something against fish, do you? If so, I’m very sorry, I didnn’t guess. Arsalan likes fish. Really, it’s TM’s argument that is without a rationale. Precisely ZERO evidence was presented that WikiLeaks is an intelligence agency front. This is indistinguishable from smear tactics.