I am becoming quite fond of my little corner of Schiphol airport. I have put up my Christmas cards and a few bits of tinsel. I now have a boarding card for the 0800 to Manchester. This is the sixth boarding card I have had. It is very hard to understand why, time after time, they don’t know a flight is cancelled until some time after it was due to leave and all the passengers have queued at the gate for hours.
Of course, Manchester is a lot further from Ramsgate than Schiphol is, so even if the flight atually goes, this represents rather dubious progress.
Happy New Year everybody.
Remarkably, KLM delivered my lost luggage, including my laptop, at 9.30 pm on New Year’s Eve. At that time a pretty lively party was already in full swing,much improved by the presence of a great many beautiful young women, mostly from Latvia. I am not sure why; my life as ever consists of a bewildering succession of chance encounters with really nice people. I am in the fortunate position of being able to say that Nadira was the most lovely of all, without indulging in dutiful hyperbole.
It was an extremely happy Christmas. Having my mum, both my brothers and all my three chidren together was as great as it was rare.
We have been through the laptop in lost luggage discussion before. The problem is that my shoulders dislocate at the drop of a hat, and I travel without hand luggage to avoid an accident.
2011 is going to be a very important year for me. particularly the first quarter. A number of crucial events are going either to set me up financially for the rest of my life, or result in real distress and failure. At present I have reason to be very optimistic. I am also very absorbed in my life of Alexander Burnes, which I hope will help establish a serious academic reputation.
The Portuguese edition of Murder in Samarkand has sold unexpectedly well in Brazil. The translation of the Turkish edition has just been finished.
I hope to do a Wikileaks retrospective in the next couple of days. Just a quick thought on the case of the poor young gardener in Bristol. Of the Jill Dando case, long before Barry Bulsara’s succesful appeal I blogged that this appeared to be a miscarriage of justice in which the police had fitted up the local weirdo.
Despite not being enamoured of landlords in general, I fear the same dynamic is at work in Bristol, albeit Chris Jefferies is much more intellectually capable than Bulsara. My instinct is that the police have picked up on Jefferies for being camper than a boy scout jamboree and archer than Trajan.
Jefferies’ release on bail has me worried that there was nothing against him other than the “He’s a weird one, guv” instinct of some not very bright cop. The case needs to be closely watched as history shows that the powers of the police to make the evidence fit the suspect are considerable.
Jaded, we’re all in it together. No one’s pain ever helps anything. I want Larry to feel better, so he can stop trying to hurt others.
Whatever, i’ve already told you my view on Larry. He’s a shill that hasn’t lost anyone. Every word he speaks is false bile. Looks like we’ll just have to agree to disagree then Clark. End of story. People are allowed to disagree with you I hope.
Jaded, there are several possibilities. If he made that up, we sympathise with the non existant, like reading a book, no harm done. If it’s true, and we dismiss it as fiction, we create an islamophobe.
There are several possibilities to the undecided. I am not undecided. I also clearly see technicolour as one of the ‘Zionist Crew’. We’ll just have to agree to disagree. You have your view and I have mine. You do seem to have a problem accepting such an outcome. End of story Clark.
yes, of course, anyone who’s anti anti-semitism and holocaust denial is a ‘Zionist’. Whatever that means, in fact. Bleurgh.
@Jaded, calm down. There’s no way you can determine whether our resident troublemaker – or anyone posting on the internet – has lost someone. Anyone should be perfectly able to sympathise with the loss of life on 9/11, regardless of their feelings about the wider political context, or, even, who was responsible for the atrocity.
Technicolour is hardly Zionist – you do your cause, whatever it is, a disservice with such wild statements. He is opposed to Israeli imperialism just as most of us are here.
See? The reflexive troll’s acceleration into overdrive serves to prove my point – they do have something to hide, well, many things of course, but that something of relevance here is the fact that they systematically and illegally harass ordinary people who refuse to subject themselves wholly to the imperatives to the security state. This is done partly to degrade and destroy the individual and their family and partly as a warning to others.
It is extremely odd that a supposed American gets so very emotionally labile and exercised over my critique of the British intelligence and security services. Most Americans wouldn’t give a damn about this topic. But he who pays the piper…
I do thank all of you good people for your concerns and solidarity. Please be assured that it is water off a duck’s back for me that I am very pleased such attention is being drawn – by the reflexive trolls themselves – to the subject of intelligence service harassment of people. If I am to be a decoy for this, then all to the good. In this manner are they hoist by their own petard. It is, for the reflexive trolls, a lose-lose situation. If they do not comment, the posts I (and many others) write pass unchallenged (or at least are available for rational discourse) and if they do comment, they simply draw even more attention to the posts.
Ha! We’ve got them both ways, people!
Read Robin Ramsay on why Britain sucks up to America:
http://www.picnic-publishing.co.uk/political-blog/
Jaded and technicolour… be mellow, people. Think of Stonehenge at the Solstice and the music of Amon Duul and Daevid Allen.
Hello comrades… back at last. What’s happening? Let’s see… the teabagger Loony from St. Larry has been trolling again, the drunkard Tony has been rambling about his family’s private life that I’m sure they would prefer kept private, but there have been some interesting posts nonetheless. So, business as usual it would seem.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that it’s pointless trying to engage with a lying scumbag troll such as St. Loony.
Hope everyone had a great solstice! (Apart from the nazis and trolls, of course)
“If I am to be a decoy for this, then all to the good.”
– Suhayl Saadi, narcissist
Technicolour, if it’s any consolation, I don’t think you’re here to mis- or dis- inform anyone.
Once a conflict gets started it’s damn difficult to stop it. Mistakes, errors and differences of opinion get interpreted as having hostile intent, such suspicion unfortunately becomes “being on the safe side” (odd use of “safe”, I know), the opposite of “giving the benefit of the doubt”.
This is the wisdom behind “Turn the other cheek” – someone accepts a slap to bring about the end of the battle.
If some sort of moderation is introduced in the New Year I think Craig should be careful that we don’t throw out any babies with the bath water. I thought (was it Clark’s suggestion?) that a killfile was the best idea. That way, individual readers can decide which posts they’d like to make a rule of ignoring, but nothing is actually lost or suppressed. By all means block automated trolling, multiple identities and spoofed identities, but the other stuff (larry, angry, tony) should be accessible if we want to see it. As Suhayl has suggested, it could be information in the form of unwitting testimony.
See – it proves my point again. Very good.
Now, it’s Craig’s blog, but you know, Clark’s very powerful information about server logs would suggest that it is eminently possible for those in charge of server-logs to trace individual trolls (or individual troll-teams) back through cyberspace to their sitting-rooms or offices. Now that would be a post worth watching!
Think of the ‘The Ring’ and of that long-haired demon climbing out of your TV set…
But it’s a side-issue. The real issue here is the abuse of public funds (and Ruth’s VAT fraud allegations may come in here) to oppress members of the public – and all this to serve not national interests but the interests of Big Corporate Guns (guns both literally and metaphorically) most of which reside in the US of A and to whom the UK elite are merely grinning servants.
The trolls merely work for those grinning servants. Upstairs-downstairs: Scullery-maids.
Vronsky, a killfile was Richard Robinson’s request, I think. My suggestion is the system Brian Barder’s blog uses – you have to give your e-mail address for every comment. Your first comment is held for moderation, but your subsequent comments are posted instantly.
It just introduces the potential for moderation, as opposed to this, which is that anyone can write anything, and it probably won’t even get deleted, ie a free-for-all.
I definitely think that suggestions such as Larry’s, that people become suicide bombers or behead people, should be removed completely, and repeat offenders should be barred. Likewise that idiot whose name I’ll disguise from software search – P%E^T&E*K.
technicolour – ‘yes, of course, anyone who’s anti anti-semitism and holocaust denial is a ‘Zionist’. Whatever that means, in fact. Bleurgh.’
Err, no.
Jon – ‘@Jaded, calm down. There’s no way you can determine whether our resident troublemaker – or anyone posting on the internet – has lost someone. Anyone should be perfectly able to sympathise with the loss of life on 9/11, regardless of their feelings about the wider political context, or, even, who was responsible for the atrocity.
Technicolour is hardly Zionist – you do your cause, whatever it is, a disservice with such wild statements. He is opposed to Israeli imperialism just as most of us are here.’
I disagree with you Jon. I have seen enough of Zionist online trolling to know what techniques they use. Craig’s blog is under attack and Larry and technicolour are part of it. My only cause is truth and genuine democracy by the way. As I said to Clark, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Furthermore, I have said to Craig before that if he doesn’t want me to post on his blog he just has to ask me not to and I will oblige.
THE GUARDIAN & LARRY frm. St. Louis
Once again so many smears against me from Larry from St. Louis that I must respond. There are at least 6 smears that target me or my wife on this thread alone. Larry is a professional smear agent, paid to smear me and others, and his paymaster is MI6. If you are interested in why MI6 is so scared of my story getting out that they have to hire professional filth like Larry to smear me, just click on my signature below to view the story and see the reason for yourself. When you read the story you will note that there is considerable independent corroborative evidence to verify years of threats, harassment and intimidation against myself and family. Here is just a very small selection of that evidence that related to The Guardian.
In 2005 my wife and I went to “The Guardian” newspaper in Manchester to tell our story. On the way home, we were threatened in the name of HRH. I continued to have contact with them – using a pay phone for confidentiality. On Saturday a week later; my eldest son, then living in Birmingham, received a very nasty series of telephone death threats; and a vehicle was smashed into our flat in Manchester causing considerable damage. Meanwhile documentary evidence that I had filed with the Guardian mysteriously disappeared from the Guardian’s secure office (same documentary evidence disappeared again a year later – a known MI5 trick).
What is the independent corroboration that is available to back up the witness testimony?
Well, a Letter dated 19/04/2005 from Chris Elliott, Managing Editor confirms The Guardian’s “loss” of my documentation by them — the Birmingham death threats are recorded, there were other witnesses in the apartment, the police booked a full crime number, and confirmed that a stolen phone had been used — dozens witnessed the smashing into the flat in Manchester since the crash woke up the entire building, destroyed the brick porch under our sitting room and drove a large crack (1 inch at its widest) some 20 feet into the hallway. So there is plenty of corroborative evidence to verify!!
And yet my experience is not unique!!!! Take the story of award winning journalist Denis Lehane who was persecuted by MI5 / CIA for years. Click on my signature to get to my research paper called “Zerzetsen”. On page 20 of this paper is the URL reference to the book review of Denis Lehane’s book “Unperson, a life destroyed”. Mr. Lehane writes about his 20 year persecution by MI5 and the CIA because he wouldn’t spy for them.
On page 294 of his book, Mr Lehane describes how an article headlined ** “The CIA’s Destruction of a Journalist” ** by top journalist Phillip Knightley, winner of the Journalist of the Year Award, was turned down by the late Hugo Young then head man at “The Guardian” and Observer. Allegedly Mr. Young turned down the article on the grounds that it might put other journalists at risk – particularly those UK Journalists who were Harkness Fellows like Mr. Young. Quoting from page 294, Allegedly Mr. Young was concerned that “it would lead people to suspect that they might be CIA assets”. Mr. Lehane writes “where, in Hugo Young’s universe, was there a place for the freedom of the press”. One is left with the impression that the UK press is so fearful of MI5/6 that as in journalist Mr. Lehane’s case they could not even protect one of their own.
So as this small sample shows there is plenty of corroborative evidence to verify. If The Guardian disagrees with any of these facts, let them state clearly where they don’t agree.
Am I supposed to believe that Clark posted this??
“Like most people at this blog, I enjoyed watching all the people die on Sept. 11.”
Posted by: Clark at December 28, 2010 2:16 PM
————-
or this:
“Well I’m sure you did, because I asked someone with access to the server logs, and “Omar” came from the same IP address as “Larry from St Louis”.”
Posted by: Clark | December 28, 2010 2:33 PM
—————
I’m not aware that IP addressses of any commenters have been compared. If anyone had the time to do that, they’d have had time to delete Larry’s posts, since he’s been barred for a long time.
I smell several rats.
And Suhayl, it’s generally not possible to track anyone “back through cyberspace to their sitting-rooms”. I’ve used a tracker on my now-defunct blog. An IP address will give you the local town, or area, but getting a name and address needs the cooperation of an ISP, which you won’t get without involving the police.
Dreoilin, Larry posted that first comment. He then posted “See how easy that was?” or something. I posted about IP addresses, something I found out months ago when I made an enquiry. You can verify that with me by e-mail if you wish.
And just because an IP address can give an area it doesn’t necessarily follow that the person typing is in that area. I doubt that the army of Israeli keyboard ninjas all have their IP addresses showing up as in Israel.
Why did you let that comment about 9/11 stand, Clark, and not deny that it was you who posted it?
What did you find out about IP addresses – and from whom? There’s no need for email. People are being impersonated here, hand over fist. We’re entitled to know what’s going on.
“I posted about IP addresses, something I found out months ago when I made an enquiry.”
So Craig Murray is going after his commenters, huh? Which one of you will he go after next?
“I doubt that the army of Israeli keyboard ninjas all have their IP addresses showing up as in Israel.”
Exactly, Jaded.
Lost and lots of proxies available out there.
Because you denied it for me, Larry.
I often go to the comments of sections of blogs to find stupid comments that have been left by people who happen to be Americans, because I feel a pathetic need to plug a hole in my personal life.
I hate Americans because that hatred is the only way I can get through the day.
No, Larry. I’ve just mentioned something that has been known for months because of you making repeated posts suggesting violence.
Clark (if you are Clark) I addressed you at 6:53 PM.
Why would you reply to Larry??
Ahh, here we go … We DO have an imposter. That was not me at
December 28, 2010 *6:59 PM*.
“I’ve just mentioned something that has been known for months because of you making repeated posts suggesting violence.”
Nope. Try again. Where did I suggest violence?
Roderick – I never targeted your wife with any smear. Get real.
Where are the recordings of the “Birmingham death threats”?