The Guardian had a major feature last week on the 20th anniversary of the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. Contrary to the intention of the coup leaders, it was the catalyst for the end of the Soviet Union and, in a sense, the ultimate victory of NATO.
As NATO bombing this week achieves the loss of power of Gadaffi in Tripoli, a look back at that 1991 Soviet coup highlights the stunning hypocrisy of NATO and the danger to world peace which it has become.
One of the leaders of the coup against Gorbachev was a dedicated Stalinist Politburo member named Islam Karimov, who was President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. After the failure of the coup, he embraced the idea of Uzbek independence in order both to escape retribution for his part in the coup and to maintain Stalinism in his little part of the Soviet Empire.
(A digression, but one of Karimov’s first acts in independent Uzbekistan was to order the Uzbek Supreme Court to pardon Alisher Usmanov, a notorious gangster jailed by the Soviet Union. He is now the third richest man in Britain).
Karimov has to this day maintained the Soviet institutions in Uzbekistan and even increased the levels of repression, with absolutely no civil or political liberty, and commercial freedoms restricted to his immediate family and friends.
So Karimov, the world’s most notorious torturer, must be NATO’s number 1 remaining enemy, right?
No, actually. He is NATO’s best friend.
Karimov is the major conduit for land supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan, is host to Germany’s forward airbase, is a most valued member of NATO’s “Partnership for Peace”, is a recipient of NATO military training and equipment.
Because NATO does not care in the least about dictators. It likes them if they forward NATO’s interest in Central Asian or Middle Eastern oil and gas, and if they host NATO military logistics. Karimov can murder hundreds, keep 10,000 political prisoners in desert gulags. Bahrain can become a torture camp. NATO really does not care. Every time you hear a NATO spokesman telling lies about their mission to protect civilians, remember the tortured of Uzbekistan.
I used to be neutral about whether or not an independent Scotland should remain in NATO. I now view leaving NATO as the number one foregin policy priority.
@Suhyal, and they call AhmadiNejad a hypocrite! and you are absolutely right they are all bastards, those who are ours are safe as long our interests dictates. After the fall of Mubarak, if the rulers of Middle East have not made contingency plans then they are more stupid and arrogant than thought. In fact all they had to look to was the revolution of Iran, Shah of Iran was the best friend of west, and at the end no country in the west would have him, ridden with cancer and in need of treatment as he was.
Nato won; gaddafi lost. You people are pathetic.
Osama, from your name to your comments, it is all a joke… As CM said he does not delete your comments for their entertainment value..
Simpson has previously claimed that SIS tried to recruit him
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14673864
Better to hide in plain sight John?
`Federal Reserve Admits “We Have No Gold”`
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OkITedQrek
Mary, yes, I feel sickened. It looks as though this pointless, wanton killing and destruction will continue, country after country, until the oil flows too slowly to support military actions.
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“Osama bin Laden” it is not that “Gaddafi lost” that sickens me, it is that countless Libyans have lost their lives or their quality of life, and that so much of their labour to improve their country has been reduced to rubble. Gaddafi didn’t build the infrastructure; Libyans did.
DanJ, yes, we can quote the Western media, with one direction of bias, or we can quote other media, with the opposite direction of bias. Are you criticising people for choosing the “wrong” bias?
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You wrote “Bad luck f wit it looks like you and your mates have lost?” – so it appears that you revel in the conflict itself.
Whatever we quote is already tweaked, ironed out and spat into the ether, its the bits between the line’s that matter here, the connective tissue that is opened up and shown to all, Danj will eventually realise.
Its grey over grey here, raining all day and I find it easy to agree with you Mary. I wonder whether any journalists are embedded in Sirte, ready to celebrate death on our screens, pretend happiness in the face of dying civilians, what a sickening bunch.
Questions as to how many civilians have died to save civilians will be answered with the same noncholant replies we have watched from Iraq. “As yet, we have no indications of the numbers who have died in the attack on the command bunker” which then turned out to be nothing like it, still many civilians died that day.
Osama find a kindergarden will ya, nobody has won, we all lost! if that does not figure, find a quiet place and think about it.
Hello Ingo, it’s always good to hear from you. I probably have a solution for your “steam” computer. I’ve a friend to visit in Norfolk soon, and I’d like to visit you on the same trip, so do e-mail me.
`Is anyone else feeling as tired and depressed as me by all of this this morning?`
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It is sadly just another day that will go into the tragic history book of mankind.
I don’t know if this is some more of the propaganda or whether it’s for real.
Canadian help for the rebels.
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Canadian sUAS used by Libyan rebels
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http://www.suasnews.com/2011/08/7760/canadian-suas-used-by-libyan-rebels/
Well said Clark and thanks for commiserating. I have never known such black propaganda coming out at us from all fronts. Glad that you can help Ingo. He is always helping others I think I am right in saying.
Mary, let me cheer you up with this little rascal’s story. Just look how the magistrates all over the country are dishing out long sentences to those who flout the law and act in a violent manner.
ehh, except Lowestoft Magistrate, just listen to the Conservative chair of the group on Waveney council, praising this ‘champion of youth’ setting an exam[ple by kicking a policeman twice.
To say that he was not too drunk to recognise that he was a councillor, so he probably was compos mentis when he kicked the copper. Lock him up, riotous ilk!
a hilarious article, so typically Archant
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/worlingham_pressure_on_tories_to_take_action_against_drink_drive_councillor_1_1003934
Thanks for the answer Canspeecy
Hilarious Ingo, Only to be expected from one of the minor players in the ConDem power structure.
‘Do you know who I am?’ ‘Do you know I am a councillor?’
The worst hypocrite in the story is of course Cllr Law whose sense of what is right and wrong either never existed in the first place or comes second to maintaining party dominance in the council.
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A bunch of small town fascists. God help us all.
http://www.lowestoftjournal.co.uk/news/new_leader_chosen_for_waveney_district_council_1_904096
“…it is not that “Gaddafi lost” that sickens me, it is that countless Libyans have lost their lives or their quality of life, and that so much of their labour to improve their country has been reduced to rubble. Gaddafi didn’t build the infrastructure; Libyans did.” Clark.
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Yes, exactly. Very well expressed, Clark. NATO seems to have destroyed the infrastructure (eg. bombing waterworks, etc.), so that they have set Libya back decades and so that they then can go in and get billions of dollars for ‘reconstruction’ contracts. The pigs are already lining-up at the trough. This seems to be their current modus operandum.
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Also, did some of those now in charge of the NTC not recently oppose Saif Gaddafi’s attempts at reform (which may have been cosmetic attempts, yet…)? Were they not part of ‘the old guard’? Which makes one rather cynical about their new-found love of ‘liberty’, blah, blah, blah.
Yes Suhayl. Bomb it and the people to smithereens and then come on TV like Mitchell (Department for International Development – no irony) this morning appealing for an international move to restore water and food supplies and get things like hospitals and refuse collection working. Also being said by that apology for a human being Ban Ki-Moon.
There is method behind their bombing madness, Suhayl, what comes down has to be build up, off course! expensive and lucrative work becons for those companies that know how to push all the buttons.
Will Libya resist the lure of having a US base thrust upon them?
Can we resist to expose all the future appointed stooges that entails? 🙂
“what comes down has to be build up, off course!”
The typo is correct. ‘Reconstruction’ will be worse than a farce. Just check on the status of the Fallujah pipeline to supply water. Nobody has had a drop from it yet.
Infrastructure destruction is part of ‘war by other means’….depriving people of the necessities of life.Here’s how it goes : http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0808-07.htm
Great link, Opit, thanks. The aim is to stymie progress in these countries, to maintain perpetual subservience an prevent a rise to economic independence/rivalry. In essence, it’s a cleverer, C21st version of ‘Portuguese’ Angola/Mozambique. Sow chaos and steal the diamonds (or oil, or gold, or whatever).
Thanks for that correction and the link opit, it shows that this is nothing but blatant robbery by so called patrons who are more interested in creating perpetual chaos, to justify their greedy existence on foreign soils, than they are interested in freedom, liberty or any humanitarian/ democratic notion.
We can now see that the same names come up again, with islamophobia being stepped up to a crescendo. Pam geller has as yet not been asked to give witness in Oslo, nor has Ms. Phillips who has all gone quiet since Breivig quoted her.
This study explicitly links a rabid right with the excesses in Norway and elsewhere.
Why is it that the EDL has to answer to questions regarding Breivig’s manifesto, but not Melanie Phillips or her raving sister in arms Pamela geller.
Are there connections between Norways rightwing voters, some 22% the last time I looked? and those zionists who cheered on Breivigs actions a day fater a pro Palestinian rally was undertaken by these courageous young Labour activists.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182713537929189.html
Can we distiguish between rightwing and zionist attacks? Both are engaging in rabid islamophobic attacks, constantly exascerbating the divide and preventing any form of dialogue.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html
The link was easy to find as it is in my ‘notes’.
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/07/water-wealth-power.html
Keith Olbermann covered funding Islamophobia on Countdown and Wired has an excellent piece.
If you’re feeling like a dip into more skeptical pieces, I’m sure there are one or two in ‘Perception Alterations’
Thanks for that encouragement Opit, great site exploring the fundamentals of life, a man after my own.
Water is us, for me its the most precious liquid on earth as well as the most used and polluted. Here in Norfolk incinerators are planned to be built on grade 3 flood plains near Kings Lynn.
Guess who got the nod, its good ol Cory Wheelabrator of US fame, polluters to the masses.
Sorry for diverting mods, I need punishing 🙂
“Sorry for diverting mods, I need punishing” Ingo.
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Ingo, I know a good dominatrix.
Ingo I thought you were making that name up. Cory Wheelabrator. No you weren’t. Part of Cory Environmental. 33% owned by Eiser an equity fund, with interests in Scottish schools also Privae Partnership, George Best Airport Belfast and gas transportation in this country. The Kings Lynn incinerator follows one on the Thames. A PFI project unbelievably. Dioxins here we come??
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http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/environment/london_incinerator_gives_a_sneak_preview_of_what_s_in_store_for_norfolk_1_787094
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{http://www.eiserinfrastructure.com/investments}
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PS What are they going to do with the ash residies||?
ash residues.
Thanks for that info on Eiser, Mary.
NATO is now about to witnes a massacre of civilians by their erstwhile rebell allies, something that they should avert and stop.
Now follow me round this thought. What if the action against the civilian is deemed wrong and NATO turns against the rebells?, a swing round to create real chaos and make the country ungovernable, in need for a peace contingent.
Reasons for such turn around would be that the rebells stated aim reject a lucrative peace keeping force, as well as their ‘ruthless attack on civilians’, the BBC’s excellent security support team would soon make us believe it.
On the other hand such scenario is unlikely as our murderous rebells would point to NATO missiles and the destruction caused by them in Sirte and elsewhere.
Meanwhile ME countries are outspending each other on arms purchases. All the usual suspects.
This seems to be quiet a site for doomsday II, the sequel.
http://www.thetotalcollapse.com/middle-east-arms-buys-top-100-billion/
A bit of window dressing here? The boots on the ground are already there as everybody knows.
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31 August 2011 Last updated at 15:17
Libya’s interim leaders reject UN military personnel
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Villagers near Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte welcome anti-Gaddafi forces
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Libya’s interim leadership has rejected the idea of deploying any kind of international military force, the UN envoy to the country has said.
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Ian Martin said the UN had considered the deployment of military observers.
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Earlier, the chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said the country did not need outside help to maintain security.
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The news came as fighters loyal to the council approached the pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte from east and west.
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The city’s defenders have been given until Saturday to surrender.
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However, fugitive leader Col Muammar Gaddafi’s spokesman Moussa Ibrahim rejected the ultimatum.
“No dignified honourable nation would accept an ultimatum from armed gangs,” he said in a telephone call to AP news agency on Tuesday night.
Mr Ibrahim reiterated Col Gaddafi’s offer to send his son Saadi to negotiate with rebels and form a transitional government, the agency said.
/…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14726292
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American aims are to integrate Israel into NATO, in a total transformation of this unaccountable leviathans aims and objectives, to align itself with a rogue state that has ignored and laughed at UN resolutions.
This travesty will mean the ned of NATO as other countries can be expected to leave should this ever happen. NATO has been subverted by interests others than its own and its lack of interference against Israeli aggression on the high seas, in the case of the Mavi Marmara, as well as this years flotilla, has made it a vasall to piracy.
Turkey is a NATO member, despite its multiple connections, underworld and others, with Israel, this political spat could grow into Turkey leaving NATO, thowing a few more balls into the air. One ball would be the loss of Incirlik airport, a very strategic airport for anyone to command, not to speak of NATO Centcom radars.
This si a very apt artcticle by Belen Fernandez
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182684136477499.html