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.
Qaak: the Urban Dictionary suggests a teabagger is a fairly adventurous sexual person (? if you’re English) but I think it comes from this (wiki):
The Tea Party protests are a series of protests across the United States beginning in early 2009; see List of Tea Party protests, 2009. The protests are part of a larger anti-tax political movement called the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party focuses on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms and upholding a conservative view of the Constitution.
Glenn
Ordinary Brits are not prejudiced against Islam, but the twats in power under New Labour must have come from somewhere. They can’t all have been parachuted in from the pentagon.
what do you think they have against gypsies? or, for that matter, unionists? and poor people?
Sorry, by pointing out the free ranging, occasionally violent prejudices here I’m not trying to minimise the toll of these politicians’ actions abroad.
A friend of mine was saying that 90 percent of casualties in war are now civilians. It used to be ten percent, apparently.
Yes, that’s absolutely right, technicolour. War now is essentially the mass murder of civilian women, men and children.
Wow Technicolour. The timing on your message is particularly topical for today.
what do you think they have against gypsies? or, for that matter, unionists? and poor people?
Posted by: technicolour at September 11, 2010 9:11 AM
wow
Dreoilin: “There’s no morality in what they’re doing.” Depends on what they’re doing. I would agree about the abuse in Abu Ghraib. Repairing the damage in Iraq, strengthening democracy and preventing Al-Qaeda gaining a foothold in Afghanistan is another matter. But I think serious thought needs to be given to the question of how the armed forces can be used to counter corruption, as this is a major problem both in Afghanistan and Iraq.
re Gypsies and travellers; the government are not, as Sarkozi, Berlusconi et al are, running openly against them. However, the last Conservative government quietly took away the duty on councils to provide sites for travellers, leaving thousands of people permanently homeless, and neither New Labour or this government have done anything to stop the increasing use of force in moving them on from wherever they’ve tried to stop. Cries of ‘Stamp on the Camps’ (sample headline from the Sun) attempt to make this seem acceptable.
Re poor people/unionists, is anyone reacting to the news that the cuts will hit the poorest hardest, yet? A stoical atmosphere prevails, in my area.
Abe, the Afghans were able to deal with Bin Laden: they offered to hand him over. They were starting to deal with the extremist war lords. Now they’ve got Karzai (who legalised rape in marriage), and Hekmatyar, that haunter of nightmares, is back. Surely you know the history? If you don’t, I suggest you research it; there’s too much of it for a thread.
The last report I heard of Iraq was of massive cancer rates in Fallujah. Left seemingly unreported in the mainstream. Good on ‘democracy’.
As for countering corruption, what do you mean by that, exactly?
Richard, I liked your ‘because nobody ever listens’ btw.
Clark
Thanks for the link. Started badly as I missed it. I have read it and have picked up from it I think, that the persona Assange presents is in conflict with some of the things Wikileaks has done. He probably favours anarcho-capitalism?? I still think that it is a way of collecting info on activists.
Those at Quran Watch might like:
http://washohanleyshow.blogspot.com/
Abe Rene,
I think that the correct method to counter corruption is to strengthen accountability and the rule of law. These measures are best pursued by diplomacy. In supporting Karzai, US/NATO military intervention is entirely counter productive to this objective.
Good old Fidel. He tells it like it is. Sarkozy’s puppets don’t like hearing the truth. Similarly Berlusconi and the racists in Basildon Council.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11271064
You cant make this up
http://www.salon.com/news/torture/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2010/09/11/exceptionalism
In memory of those who lost their lives on September 11th 2001 and to the families who grieve their loss, my sincere condolences.
Qaark: “WTF is a teabagger?”
These are the tea-baggers. Basically, they are a bunch of paranoid nutcases who are right at home on the Alex Jones fringe. And quelle surprise, if you watch to the end you’ll see that some of them are indeed 9/11 Truthers despite Glenn’s tantrums to the contrary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UASS1qFAIQ8&feature=player_embedded
“WTF is a teabagger?”
Someone who makes a virtue out of drinking leftovers ?
technicolour: As I understand it, the Afghans not only refused to hand Bin Laden over but helped him and Mulla Omar to escape (on motorcycles, I believe). I’m not defending the quality of Karzai’s government; in fact the thought has occurred to me that if the Americans partially abandon him to his fate with the Taleban, or credibly threaten to do so, for example by refusing to bail out the Bank of Kabul, it may make him desperate enough to henceforth do as told more completely (on tackling corruption, sexism, and abolishing sharia in favour of a secular state).
“As I understand it, the Afghans not only refused to hand Bin Laden over but helped him and Mulla Omar to escape (on motorcycles, I believe).”
As I remember the BBC reporting it at the time, they put their heads together and called Councils and talked about it and did eventually decide that he was in the wrong and they would hand him over. I don’t remember a reply from “NATO”, except that the bombing started a couple of days later. These motorbikes they helped him to escape on, did that happen before the bombing or after ?
Tsk, I’ll forget my own name, next. Me at 4:57
today is 9th anniversary of so called twin tower attack which the wets has made a fetich day just like jews have made holocaust a sort of fetich and just like the jews donto talk about 60 millions killed in waorld war 2 or 22 millions Russian killed int he same war ,the same way thse wetst donto bother that west sponsored terrorism is happening everyweek in caucus region of Russia and they donot evern rmeber beslan or other aniiversaries of atrocities on other countries.
the mumbay terroris attack was mastermidned by an CIA agent who is being sheltered byt he americans just like chechna muslim terorrists have been sheltred by the british.
so herehere is this take on this fetish.
On the day chechnyan terrorists tokk hostage of 500 civilains in
A Moscow theatre, The headline of BBC was not about that but about sharp shooter terrorist being suppsedly caught in washington> In fact theis chechnyian news was fifth in item(including head line) . These days atlast the british media even say about chechnyian terrorist as terrorist otherwise 2 years ago they were always calling them freedom fighters(which they are -but that is another story). In fact the british media and england as a country had been actively supporting and giving material help to checnyaina terrorists9aided by cia and british spy and british media aswell).
If you lok at the report of british media then you realize the british involvemnt in terrorism by the chechnyian terrorists. When three multistory falts were wiped pout by terrorist in central Moscow a few years ago there was a gleee in british reprting and a criticism of later security arrangemnt by Russian forces in Moscow. ofcourse the british media would have been horrified and bar=king like a dog(which they are) if the Russians had decided to destory checknian civilians as the americans did in afganistan. Then you realize the humbug of british propaganda against terrorism-it is selective and meant to facilitate british infiltration in other countries, In fact the afganistan govet(after fall of Taliban) was oppsed to british tyroops (after all americans fought -what have british got?)presence in afgansitan-but armtwisting by british through american help ensures that rbtitish troops are there in afgansitan0they are forgeing infioltrators and thus should be eliminated(they have less legal reason to be in afgansitan than the soviets who had been primarily invited by the govt, of the day). the british involvemtn in international terrorism is not confined to agasnt Russian interset only.
When the kashmiris killed several Indian soldiers(regular phenomenon) the british paper(independent) blamed India for being a target of terrrism and not talking enough with what it called freedom fighters.(terminology changes according to british interts). Infact during the 80s when India was really relatively stable and srtongatlest the govet, was) then the british decided to destabilize India by sponsoring Sikh terrorismand taliban terorism aswell(agasnt INDIA AND AFGANSITAN). It is only when India has virtually been subjugated to look after british and american interst in economics and (with rteal weakening of india as military power) that the british decided to take supprt for terrrism somewhere else.
The whole world is being put under sieze by theis thrird rate power-england-a nation of plumbers(graduation from a nation of pirates turned shopkeepers) The modus operandi of english is by propaganda and spying through british media-paper, bbc and television-they have infiltrated american media and holly wood and are taking jobs from real americans too, They are real enemy of europe and are the main peple respnisnble for truning nations into thrild world and putting them down to status of thrirld world. Look ate how they destryed japansesw economy through manipulative stock market-while their market never crashes and their low life living in factory turned apartmnets-so ugly-never gets busted.
The world has to rise against this anglosaxon who are waging race war agasint all non anglosaxonas -, That evil can be defeated and eliminated -only people have to recognize real enemyaand then eliminate them.
==============================================================================
april 2007 —
“starroute said…
I also noticed that reference in the French documents to Chechen rebels — and what it immediately reminded me of was not Feith’s and Perle’s adventures, but Peter Dale Scott’s “The Global Drug Meta-Group.”
I’ve never felt I’ve fully understood Scott’s article, bit as a result I get something new out of it every time I look at it. In this case, what jumped out at me was these paragraphs:
(The goal of splitting up Russia attributed here to Surikov is that which, in an earlier text co-authored by Surikov, is attributed by Russian “radicals” to the United States:
The radicals believe that the US actively utilizes Turkish and Muslim elements….From Azerbaijan, radicals foresee a strategic penetration which would irrevocably split the Federation. US influence would be distributed to the former Soviet Central Asian Republics, to Chechnya and the other North Caucasus Muslim autonomous republics of T[at]arstan and Bashkortostan. As a result Russian territorial integrity would be irreparably compromised.) . . .
In my conclusion I shall return to the possibility that U.S. government might share common goals with Hizb ut-Tahrir and the meta-group in Russia, even while combating the Islamist terrorism of al-Qaeda in the Middle East and the West.
Most major media outlets have spelled out with a profusion of details the “exact” events that led to the death of what some claim to have been hundreds of people in the eastern Uzbekistan town of Andijan on May 13. Led by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the world media condemned much-maligned Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov for yet another bloody and ruthless suppression of “public dissent”. Yet, all the details so far provided do not explain who the real players were or their end objectives.
It is certain, however, that the puzzle cannot be solved unless the London factor is understood. The answers lie in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Liverpool. The old British colonial establishment, with former intelligence officer Bernard Lewis as its mentor, appears to have set in motion a series of events that will bring endless bloodshed to Central Asia. London’s objective would appear to be to keep both China and Russia under an open-ended threat. At this point, there is no one who can better serve this “Lewis Doctrine” than Muslims nurtured in Britain – the Hizbut-Tehrir (HT). . . .
Apart from various Islamic preachers, two major Islamic groups function in the Ferghana Valley, whose common objective is to change the regimes in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. These are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the HT. While the IMU openly thrives on violence, the HT is strongly promoted by the United Kingdom, where it is headquartered, as peaceful. But records indicate that that the IMU and the HT work hand-in-hand. Most of the IMU recruits are from the HT, according to Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on world terrorist outfits. Gunaratna claims that Khaled Sheikh Muhammad, the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian of Chechen origin who has remained active in the Iraqi insurgency against the US occupying forces, were both once members of the HT. . . .
The West’s policy – in other words, the policy of the Anglo-Americans, as the European Union does not have a policy worth citing – toward the Middle East has long been formulated by Bernard Lewis. The British-born Lewis started his career as an intelligence officer and has remained in bed with British intelligence ever since. Avowedly anti-Russia and pro-Israel, Lewis reaped a rich harvest among US academia and policymakers. He brought president Jimmy Carter’s virulently anti-Russian National Security Council chief, Zbigniew Brzezinski, into his fold in the 1980s, and made the US neo-conservatives, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, dance to his tune on the Middle East in 2001. In between, he penned dozens of books and was taken seriously by people as a historian. But, in fact, Lewis is what he always was: a British intelligence officer. . . .
The recent developments in Uzbekistan have all the hallmarks of the same process. This time the objective is to weaken China, Russia, and possibly India, using the HT to unleash the dogs of war in Central Asia. It is not difficult for those on the ground to see what is happening. The leader of the Islamic Party of Tajikistan, Deputy Prime Minister Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, has identified HT as a Western-sponsored bogeyman for “remaking Central Asia”. . . .
It is not a lack of understanding on the part of American neo-conservatives associated with the Bush administration, but their keenness to use the “Lewis Doctrine” to achieve what they believe is justified that promises untold danger. How important a brains-trust is Lewis to the neo-conservatives? Just read the words of Richard Perle, a leading neo-conservative who remains a close adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: “Bernard Lewis has been the single-most important intellectual influence countering the conventional wisdom on managing the conflict between radical Islam and the West.”
So — we end by coming back round again to Richard Perle, but hopefully in a larger context.
It ain’t really about the Middle East, boys and girls — it’s about world domination, by any means necessary. The only question is one of identifying the moves as they happen, instead of many years later.”
Richard Robinson: if I remember correctly, the Taleban said to the Americans something like ‘we will consider your request if you submit your evidence to use’ and the Americans said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROJ7w2yBd1I
During the Tora Bora bombardment Mulla Omar escaped on a motorbike, and I assume so did UBL.
Correction: that’s ‘evidence to us’.
Someone said:
“The Tea Party protests are a series of protests across the United States beginning in early 2009; see List of Tea Party protests, 2009. The protests are part of a larger anti-tax political movement called the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party focuses on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms and upholding a conservative view of the Constitution.”
These sound like very sensible people.
But then Angry said:
“the tea-baggers… are a bunch of paranoid nutcases who are right at home on the Alex Jones fringe. And quelle surprise, if you watch to the end you’ll see that some of them are indeed 9/11 Truthers despite Glenn’s tantrums to the contrary.”
So WTF to believe.
Angry sounds a bit of a paranoid nutter himself, who wants to pay more tax and see the US Constitution trashed for all time, and hates the idea of anyone knowing what happened on 9/11.
Anyhow, who are the Alex Jones Fringe?
And who you gonna believe about who the Teabaggers are.
Abe – yes. And also there was something about handing him over only into a situation where they could be assured he’d get a fair trial. According to their ideas … they went through their idea of proper process, is the point I’m looking at. (I wouldn’t swear to it, they might all be lying gits, and anyway I don’t know the details, but it’s sort-of the impression I got, trying to pay attention through the noise and the smoke and the howling).
But afterwards is different. Bombing changes things. Once you start treating people like enemies, they’re going to be liable to do things that don’t suit you.
OBL and MO escaped on motorbikes…. Hell’s Angels?
Sorry, couldn’t resist it.
“make him desperate enough to henceforth do as told more completely (on tackling corruption, sexism, and abolishing sharia in favour of a secular state).”
–Abe
Since when has it become the business of the USA or the UK to use their military to tell Afghans how to run their country? (Is this “white man’s burden” carry-on?)
Do you seriously think that, 1) it’s legal or moral, or that, 2) you can change people’s culture in another nation at the point of a gun or the end product of a drone? What right has the UK or the USA to force people to adopt Western “democracy” by bombing and shooting the hell out of them? The Taliban offered to hand over bin Laden if Bush provided the evidence, and the response Bush gave was (in essence) “we don’t negotiate with terrorists”, and he proceeds to bomb the shit out of the Afghan people.
NOT forgetting that while bin Laden is on the FBI’s “most wanted” list, when they were asked why he wasn’t listed for 9/11 (FOI request?) they replied that they ‘didn’t have enough evidence’. Not that Bush would have provided it anyway, as they were determined to go in there, like he was determined to go into Iraq.
Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan attacked the UK, nor had they any intention of doing so. The UK military are supposedly *defense forces* (like the IDF – hah), so what were/are they doing either in Iraq or Afghanistan — other than bolstering US imperial expansion? Wars for regime change are illegal. Preemptive strikes are illegal (and would be just as illegal in the case of Iran). “Al Quaeda” (mainly copycat) cells are scattered all over the globe, and should and could be dealt with by international police cooperation. NOT by invading and killing thousands of innocent people.
“90 percent of casualties in war are now civilians”
Largely due to increasing reliance on air power – bombs and missiles and drones. Eventually the USA would like to have no boots on the ground, and pursue all their wars from the air (along with ground robots which they are currently developing).
I am *so* angry at Glenn Greenwald’s story in ‘Salon’ (posted by ‘anon’ at September 11, 2010 2:26 PM) that I will say no more here for a while. My blood pressure is more important.
“Angry sounds a bit of a paranoid nutter himself, who wants to pay more tax and see the US Constitution trashed for all time, and hates the idea of anyone knowing what happened on 9/11.”
Brilliant logic there, Qaark! As it happens I don’t think there is anything paranoid about paying taxes. I tend to think that there are some things worth paying taxes for. As a social democrat I have no problem paying into national health care systems and those of public education, for example. You would clearly struggle with the nuance of this position as you think it is “paranoid” to pay “more tax”.
I have no idea where you are coming from when it comes to the “US constitution trashed for all time”. It is not a big priority of mine to “trash the US constitution for all time” and most of the people I have ever met who talk in that twattish manner are actually referring to a problem they have with particular amendments or even the possibility of future amendments which the US constitution allows for and also explains the process for (i.e a thoroughly constitutional process).
And I don’t hate the idea of anyone knowing what happened on 9/11. What happened on 9/11 is already pretty well-known in its essentials. 19 extremist Muslim Arabs hijacked planes and flew them into buildings. It’s really quite simple.
“Anyhow, who are the Alex Jones Fringe?”
Here’s a video to help you out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIF1d_cxJvk&feature=player_embedded
Actually, I recently read a really good book on outlaw motorcycle gangs, called ‘Angels of Death’, by Sher and Marsden. the book demonstartes that these gangs are part of the vast conglomerate of international organised crime who have managed to construct a facade thru’ ‘Toy Runs’, etc. But actually, the book alleges that they are ruthless killers, drug and weapons big businessmen, etc. I’d recommend it, it’s a very well-written and comprehensive book, a glimpse into a world aboyut which previously I had known almost nothing.
“These motorbikes they helped him [OBL] to escape on, did that happen before the bombing or after ?”
Mullah Omar escaped on a bike and that was long after the bombing began.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1380552/Omar-flees-by-motorcycle-to-escape-troops.html
OBL escaped, supposedly, from the mountain stronghold of Tora Bora, because the US failed to block an escape route to the Pakistan border.
Exactly what happened is unclear (Much info at the link in the next post.), but in any case it is generally believed that OBL walked over the border to Pakistan.