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.
p.s. a gonk is a naked, plastic, dwarf toy with luminous hair sprouting from where humans have a brain.
I use the term to denote the vanity of the West which is spiritually empty, yet considers itself to be the peak of humanity and intelligence. It is intended to be racist in the way that that Islamophobia is racist, not against a particular race or nation.
I would like to offend the mindset of utter stupidity and arrogance of the enemies of Islam, in order to teach them the taste of their constant flow of insulting prejudice against the truth of Islam. Good words for good people and bad words for bad.
Why not just ban speech altogether, since what goes around keeps coming back around, and they don’t like it. An English gonk in Turkey said to me re. the illagal invasions: Why are people so surprised that those who have power, use it to suit their own ends?
That’s where the West stands now. We’re bigger and stronger than you, so what are you going to do about it?
They forget that when Islam gains power, their words will be used against them and they forget that they expose the reality of their hearts, underneath the smokescreen of the Geneva Convention.
Every time the West commits another genocide, Allah reduces their humanity still further. Allah is bigger than you, in case you need reminding.
“Yes there is isn’t there? Five Mossad operatives arrested in NJ for filming the attacks in NY. Held for a few months then quietly released. Pretty solid evidence of Israeli foreknowledge of the attacks.”
No, it is not! How many people were filming the event at the time? Do you think they were there because Mossad told them there would be an attack and that a few amateur reels of camcorder action would be necessary just in case the cable channels found out about it a bit too late? What makes them suspicious, to the right sort of mind, is that they were Israeli. That is all.
http://www.911myths.com/index.php/Dancing_Israelis
“Not good enough MJ, because you have to point out the times each flight was hijacked and known to have been hijacked before you can pretend that fighters responding to the hijacking of AA 11 would also know they have to intercept United 93”.
The transponders going off was the trigger for scrambling jets. It’s potentially catastrophic whatever the cause. The times were, respectively:
8.20 am; 8.46 am; 8.55; 9.40 am.
Be assured that jets assigned to intercept AA11 would not be the same ones assigned to UA93. The system comprises a network of coordinated AFBs and AGSs that covers the whole country, ensuring a rapid response to any incident in the airways. NY for instance is covered by McGuire, Willow Grove and Hartford: Washington by Bolling and Andrews; Western Pennsylvania by Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Newark.
Thanks, anno, angrysoba, technicolour.
Sweden’s famous peacenik image was somehwat blown apart by the Bofors Scandal (and the assassination of Olof Palme, etc.). The revelations emanating thereof also helped to bring down a government in India.
A superb media outlet called Tehelka was central to a related whistleblowing process, one which, through the government’s handling of the whole affair, helped to bring down the awful BJP govt.
I once had the privilege of meeting the journalist, Aniruddha Bahal who had gone undercover as an ‘arms-dealer’ and who subsequently broke the story. One simply has to marvel at his courage – and that of his editor, Tarun Tejpal, a lovely man – both of them needed 24 hour-protection for a year as they were in constant danger of being assassinated. Tejpal wrote a long and excellent novel (on a completely unrelated subject) during that time.
The whole episode is absolutely fascinating.
http://www.taruntejpal.com/TheTehelkaExpose.HTM
And here’s the link to the story of the Bofors Scandal:
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne171009death_of.asp
Technicolour: now you mention it, eddie hasn’t written for a while, maybe he got overwhelmed by the brilliance of your arguments and departed, wiser and chastened, never to return.
I hold the bad planning of Bush, Rumsfeld and Bremer largely responsible for the many deaths in Iraq. The idea of a tidal wave of democracy is fine by me, though.
anno: by coincidence, I was with a group of visitors at a masonic temple yesterday. They accept anyone who believes in a Supreme Being (so Muslims are acceptable), but discussion of religion during meetings is not allowed, for it is viewed as a private matter. There was an impressive exhibition of charities (including non-masonic ones) in the building. My honest opinion is that a society that actively teaches its members to give to others in need cannot be all bad.
Anno,
your post led me, via a few waystops, to the Wikipedia articles about about Islamic banking and Islamic economics. Both are very interesting. Though neither economics nor banking are things I know much about, it seems obvious that interest and speculation are central to the economic problems of the world. So here is yet another topic I must look into, when (sigh) I have the time.
I think that the popular idea of Sharia in the UK is mostly focussed upon prohibition of alcohol, stoning and the cutting off of hands. I think most people here have little idea about Sharia as a system of law that integrates with the state and the economic system.
I failed to understand your last two paragraphs; what is “Egodian”? I hope you are doing well in Turkey.
Abe Rene,
I see you have fully exposed your hand and become a member of the ‘dying breed’ of interventionists.
“next time someone tries to overthrow repressive regimes by invasion for whatever reason, they’ll get it right.”
With the deaths of over 600,000 children caused by abortive and corrupt sanctions and the murder (illegal war) of over 300,000 children in the Iraq ‘war’ with twice that number orphaned, disabled and traumatised; the torture, the shooting of civilians and journalists, faking terrorist Arabs and planting bombs, lost schools, arts, gardens, museums and infrastructure and having to concrete over Fallujah(once home to 350,000) to contain the devastating effects of radioactivity caused by the use of depleted uranium, the 4 million Iraqis displaced that won’t be able to return, simply because their homes no longer exist, I believe the world would puke at the suggestion of forced regime change by invasion again, catalysed by mind changing propaganda and the manipulation of fear.
No, the era of Michael Hedeen, creative destruction and death to advance a historic mission are now gone; our eyes have turned away from the blackened, twisted and scarred bodies of children; our ears are now sensitive to the screams of agony of those kids who the evening before played football in the yard, and our minds now bear the memories of parents carrying lifeless mutilated bodies of their children in search of somewhere safe to grieve.
The ‘old order’ now lies rotting in the cesspit of history, redacted from the books our children’s children will read, out of shame and disgust; yet we still have neither guts or inclination to bring the cabal masters to justice.
“The transponders going off was the trigger for scrambling jets. It’s potentially catastrophic whatever the cause. The times were, respectively:
8.20 am; 8.46 am; 8.55; 9.40 am.
Be assured that jets assigned to intercept AA11 would not be the same ones assigned to UA93. The system comprises a network of coordinated AFBs and AGSs that covers the whole country, ensuring a rapid response to any incident in the airways. NY for instance is covered by McGuire, Willow Grove and Hartford: Washington by Bolling and Andrews; Western Pennsylvania by Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Newark.”
You make it sound like there is some kind of automated trigger that scrambles jets when a transponder is switched off. If this is the case I would like to see what your source is.
As for the airbases, we have gone over this a number of times already and I am sure I am not the only one bored by it. What is important here are the NORAD alert sites. It doesn’t matter if an airbase is nearby when someone switches off a transponder on a civilian aircraft. What is important is whether or not that airbase has fighters already armed and sitting on the tarmac with a pilot in the cockpit and which routinely intercepts civilian aircraft within ten minutes of a transponder being switched off. If you have a source for that I would naturally be interested.
Did anno mean, ‘Ergodic Theory’ or ‘Erdogan’ (Turkey’s PM)?
And anno, were you using freemasonry in its literal, or its metaphorical, sense?
Freemasonry went to ‘British’ India. In the west oif Scotland, it’s tended to be associated historically with the Orange Lodge. In Italy, there was the notorious P2. I don’t know whether it’s still as prevalent in the police as it reportedly used to be; there are lots of Roman Catholic police officers in Scotland, so one assumes not. But please enlighten us if anyone knows different.
Abe, I once had two Masonic handshakes in one day – the only two I’ve ever had! It was peculiar having middle-aged men sort of holding onto my hand for longer than would be regarded as polite in social circumstances. Not my cup of tea.
I wear my wedding-ring on the right ring-finger and if glanced at in the appropriate light, the central stone can resemble a set-square.
So perhaps these gentlemen imagind that I might be a Grand Master of Somewhere or Other.
Sadly, I am not even the master of my own destiny.
Ergodic Thory also has musical applications – Yannis Xenakis used it, for example. Xenakis was Greek. Freemasonry is into geometry. Erdogan was an economist. What it has to do with a free-enterprise “revolution”, I don’t know. I am obviously way off the mark.
http://mto.societymusictheory.org/issues/mto.01.7.3/mto.01.7.3.wannamaker.html
Shi’ism began shortly after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE. Are you saying it’s being used now by the Western powers? Possibly, but no more so than certain avowed political maifestations an configurations of Sunni Islam has been and continue to be, eg. Saudi Arabia and (?formerly) in Pakistan/ Afghanistan, Indonesia, etc.
Divide-and-rule is the tool; hegemonic power and wealth via control of resources and other modalities the aim; in this scenario, as I explained, anyone and everyone has their uses. It’s the way empires work.
Mark Golding: I did indicate that invading other countries is too expensive to be practicable in most cases. War is a last resort for dealing with other countries because of the huge waste and loss of life that it entails. But if it has to be done, it should be planned properly, including the aftermath. That is what I meant.
Suhayl: I once read that masons stand with their feet at right angles. Don’t know whether it’s true. Pardon my ignorance, but aren’t wedding rings worn on the left hand, or are you left-handed (joke)?
Abe, be assured that eddie is still around and seems to pop in occasionally to cast his hat upon the stand (as it were).
Democracy – good. War – bad. The ends do NOT justify the means. Furthermore, the entire ‘democracy’ facade of the Iraq invasion was simply that, a facade. History suggests strongly that the powerful don’t give a toss about whether or not other places are democratic, or even ‘democratic’. They certainly don’t want REAL democracy at home! So this is Palmerstonian gunboat diplomacy; supporting some liberatory movements aboard (eg. Eastern Europe during the Cold War, today in Iran, etc.) while helping to suppress them in other places (eg. ‘Latin’ America, Haiti, much of Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc.).
Deomcracy, like reliogion and all the others isms and ocracies, is merely a figleaf, a facilitator, for the garnering of power, wealth and the pursuit of happiness for the very, very few.
“The quality of debate”. Yes.
“The Taleban wouldn’t hand UBL over, and the rest is history”
And, so much for anyone who remembers reports suggesting it may have been a bit more complex than that. Very reminiscent of eddie, yes. History – indeed, we need it. But I don’t think that’s how we get it. As I said before, I don’t think I have an absolute knowledge or understanding of what happened. I see no reason why I should assume Abe’s knowledge is complete and unquestionable, either, that he should make me so invisible.
Put it all another way, people undercut their points, not strengthen them, when they look as though they haven’t a clue what was said already.
(Abe’s is by no means the only, or the most glaring, example, it’s just the one that came handy when I was ready for a little rant; sorry if it looks like I’m picking on you. It’s a very common phenomenon, here and elsewhere).
“Firstly, the Taleban are a regime unworthy of humans and deserve to be thrown out …This is the burden not of any race but of democrats generally”
(Odd to see “race” there ?) I disagree. To me this seems to stand the notion of “democracy” entirely on its head, by saying that outsiders are better capable of deciding how people should run their own affairs than they are themselves (and vastly more so, when one talks of actually doing this in ways that involve having other people die for the sake of these’ democrats” ideology, of course). It can only work by turning ‘democracy’ into some eviscerated notion of technicalities, which misses the essential point. Which, to me, is that to assume that anybody is at all likely to feel that being invaded and shot and bombed by foreign armies gives them more control over their own affairs, is one hell of a gamble; and that the important point is, those people. Whether they do feel that. That they should _have_ that ability to order themselves, in ways that work for them. Not that some outsider wants to assert some all-conquering one-size-fits-all ideology, and is prepared to have those people killed in order to get their own way.
at September 13, 2010 2:05 PM
“..it may have been a bit more complex than that. ”
History always involves selection. My account didn’t include what the generals ate for lunch. But essentially, I stand by what I said.
“outsiders are better capable of deciding how people should run their own affairs than they are themselves..”
In the case of the Taleban, the ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Burma, Zimbabwe, Communist China, yes! Democracies indeed know better, and every one of these rulers deserved to be thrown out – but no-one has the resources to make it happen, so we have to wait on Providence. Bad planning can delay the tidal wave of democracy coming by creating a mess, which is the case in Iraq.
“Firstly, the Taleban are a regime unworthy of humans and deserve to be thrown out”
— Abe
You think they’re more unworthy than those who saturated Fallujah with DU which has resulted in all those heavily deformed babies being born there? Have you seen the pictures?
“as that of Saddam, of Syria, of Burma, of Zimbabwe, of Cuba, of Red China. This is the burden not of any race but of democrats generally.”
Iraqi, Syrian, Burmese, Zimbabwean, Cuban, or Chinese democrats *only*,
otherwise your remark is shocking in the extreme.
Sorry for the earlier misattributions.
————–
“cause the FBI doesnt have him on their most wanted….”
— anonymous
He is on the “most wanted” list, but he’s not charged on that list with 9/11. It may not have been an FOI request, but a journalist asked the FBI “why?”. Their reply was that they didn’t have the evidence. (Naturally enough. After all, the Bush shower cleared everything away as fast as possible, making any retrieval of evidence practically impossible — other than judiciously placed passports and things.)
—————
“agreed. i don’t read what passes for avatar singh’s writing either” –Tech
Me neither. It’s either badly written or vast chunks of copy and paste.
—————-
“One of the things that Ireland clearly benefits from is its geographical location … Ireland sits right on the periphery where no country except possibly the US or the UK could possibly mount a successful invasion without having to go through other far stronger militaries that wouldn’t allow it.”
–Angry
I said I was ignoring you (despite your recent continued misquoting of me). But when you post stuff about Ireland I won’t necessarily let it pass. Ireland and Swizerland both went through WWII without being invaded, although Germany was in control of France, and therefore only a few miles away. The only country that considered invading us was Britain, and that was because of the fear that Germany would invade us first and be sitting on Britain’s doorstep. In the event, neither happened. As for geographical location, take a look at Switzerland please. Then think about WWII again. There’s nothing “romantic” about what I said at all. East Timor and Kuwait already had enemies. Ireland is currently in dispute with nobody.
———————
“p.s. a gonk is a naked, plastic, dwarf toy with luminous hair sprouting from where humans have a brain.”
–anno
Anno, do you mean a troll? I’ve had several in the house.
http://hippiekiller.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/troll.jpg
————————
“Wikipedia articles about about Islamic banking and Islamic economics …”
–Clark
Clark, if I understood the matter correctly, Lebanon was completely immune from the recent bank crashes that we experienced, precisely because of their banking practises.
anno: you have a point, you have always had a point, but the genesis of war is not religion; religion is invoked, leaders use differences over faith as a way of sowing hatred and mobilising support for political wars. The Israel Arab wars are about nationalism, self-defence or the liberation of territory.
To most of us in the West, wars are power struggles over resources. The war in Afghanistan is not being fought to make us safer or rid us of the evil Taliban. It is because the Taliban failed to buy into the energy pipeline needed to bring vast resources of gas to where it could be transported.
Bush relied on the support of Christian evangelists, his ‘axis of evil’ was the ‘sermon’ to galvanised and motivate his ‘base’ of followers.
Is it not Saudi Arabia that has betrayed the Islamic world? Robert Fisk highlighted the Arab kingdom’s decisiveness to distance itself from the union of Islamic nations and join the bloc of imperialist governments. He accused the monarchy of “head-chopping, hand-severing, anti-feminist, misogynist, feudal [and] anti-democratic”
Tariq Ali said, “”Even less is known about the state religion, which is not an everyday version of Sunni or Shia Islam, but a peculiarly virulent, ultra-puritanical strain known as Wahhabism. This is the religion of the Saudi royals, the state bureaucracy, the army and air-force and, of course, Osama Bin Laden”
In Iran there is a banner with the words, ‘Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but aggress not’ (Koran 2:190)
Dreoilin: “your remark is shocking in the extreme.” That sounds a bit self-righteous to me. But you seem quite nice most of the time, so I’ll pass it over.
Actually, I just thought of adding: why confine out attention to the West? Just think, Democratic India could invade Nepal and drive out the godless Communist Maoist terrorist government, and then Burma. The people would *cheer* when the Indian forces LIBERATED them from their cruel oppressive corrupt dictators. So these could start off a tidal wave of democracy in South Asia!
Answer me about Fallujah.
Dreoilin: Fallujah is a war zone. The harm to children arises out of contamination from munitions, some unexploded. Your question, if I understand correctly, is whether the current situation is preferable to Taleban rule. My answer is: Yes. The future possibilities are much better.
“Your question, if I understand correctly, is whether the current situation is preferable to Taleban rule.”
No, that was NOT my question.
You said that the Taleban are a regime unworthy of humans. I asked you directly if you think the Taliban are more unworthy than those who saturated Fallujah with DU munitions, and caused the terrible deformities now happening there in newborn babies. If you haven’t looked at photos of these, at least about 10 of them, there’s no point in answering me at all.
Those who perpetrated this monstrosity on Fallujah are the same people you seem to think (with enough money and planning) should be going around invading half the world and “imposing” democracy.
Back anon.
“You make it sound like there is some kind of automated trigger that scrambles jets when a transponder is switched”
ATC have two minutes to contact the pilot by radio. If this is unsuccessful jets are scrambled immediately. You must appreciate the potentially calamitous consequences of a passenger jet losing its transponder signal in the crowded US airways.
“What is important is whether or not that airbase has fighters already armed and sitting on the tarmac with a pilot in the cockpit and which routinely intercepts civilian aircraft”
It’s on a rota. That’s why several bases cover the same zone. Not all bases are active in this way all the time. They share it round, like night-duty chemists.
“I asked you directly if you think the Taliban are more unworthy than those who saturated Fallujah with DU munitions, and caused the terrible deformities now happening there in newborn babies. If you haven’t looked at photos of these, at least about 10 of them, there’s no point in answering me at all.” I’ve just looked at the terrible deformities in a number of new-born children in Fallujah, and so I can nowmanswer your question. My answer is still “Yes.” No-one intended to cause those injuries, and the possibilities for many with treatment is hopeful.
On to other regions: I haven’t touched on Africa. There is probably no need for SA to invade Zimbabwe, because Mugabe is so old that it will be cheaper just to wait and let him drop off his perch. Similarly with the Castros. No need attempt another Bay of Pigs.
On the other hand Venezuela may be getting too bolshie for its own good. As Henry Kissinger said, “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its people.” So, if it departs too much from democracy, and gets anti-American, we might see another coup down there. Let’s wait and see what happens under a Republican administration, whether in 2013 or 2017 or 2021.
Abe Rene,
can you tell me of some examples of interventionism that have gone well?
at September 13, 2010 2:05 PM
Me, sorry.
“..it may have been a bit more complex than that. ”
“History always involves selection. My account didn’t include what the generals ate for lunch.”
Indeed. Of all disciplines, I suspect that “history” may be one of the hardest to write for a “lay” audience – a potentially infinite amount of data, and how to “select” it into a coherent story ? (As a great fan of the local Public Library, I can only say that the more ‘popular history’ I read, the more my admiration for Barbara Tuchmann grows. She made it look so easy I hand’t even realised). And, one would like to hope that un-named Generals’ lunches would not be relevant to “greater” affairs.
“But essentially, I stand by what I said.”
I would (“essentially”) find a history unsatisfying that didn’t address my curiosity wrt remembering reports that it wasn’t as simple as that. Or rather, possibly, my suspicion that that simplicity was a political artefact, one of the positions in a disagreement rather than its resolution. Except in a ‘history is written by the victors, we can redefine your reality faster than you can keep up’ sort of way, which I distrust massively.
“Just think, Democratic India could invade Nepal” (Abe)
Oh gawd, now he’s gone Alfred on us …
“can you tell me of some examples of interventionism that have gone well?” (Clark)
I’d want to read up on, maybe, Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia re: Pol Pot, and also Idi Amin, as possibilities ?
“As Henry Kissinger said, “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its people.””
The great majority of Venezuelans have benefited enormously from Chevez’s government. Their choice of a mildly leftish social democratic model hardly seems irresponsible.
I’m sure Mr Kissinger will confirm that what the US really hates most is independent countries that are democratic, successful *and* anti-American.