The government could clear up the issue of Fox Gould and Werritty if it answered these very simple questions. They are questions to which in any real democracy we would be entitled to expect an answer, concerning officials paid by us. I have put these questions to them. Consider why the government refuses to answer these simple and obvious questions.
But the truly terrifying thing is not just that the government refuses to answer these questions from me, it is that the mainstream media refuses even to ask them:
How many times in total did Gould, Werritty and Fox meet?
How many of these are listed in O’Donnell’s official investigation?
Why the discrepancy?
Did the meeting between Fox, Gould and Werritty while Fox was Shadow Defence Secretary follow official rules concerning briefing of opposition front bench spokesmen by officials?
Where did it take place?
When did Gould first meet Werritty?
How many times did Gould meet Werritty without Fox present?
How many communications of all sorts have there ever been between Gould and Werritty?
Where precisely was the “Pre-posting briefing meeting” for Gould with Werritty and Fox held?
Why was it not held in the Secretary of State’s office?
Why was no MOD official present?
Who paid for the “Private dinner” between Fox, Gould and Werritty and “Senior Israelis” in Tel Aviv in February 2011?
Who was present?
Was any note subsequently made of the discussion?
Who paid for the “social engagement” to which Fox invited Gould and Werritty in summer 2010?
Who was present?
Was the possibility of an attack on Iran discussed in any of the above meetings, events or communications?
These really are very simple questions and I will happily report any answer in full. Every media outlet should be asking these questions. Remember Werritty had no security clearance. It is therefore not possible that the answers to these questions is classified information.
If the explanations are innocent, why should these questions not be answered?
ACTION Please send reasoned communications to mainstream media journalists and editors, asking them if they will put these questions to the government. You may also like to contact your MP or any other politician you find reasonable, to ask them whether they are not interested to know the answers.
The answer to these questions would not be hidden in a democracy.
Please post in comments all responses you get, including from journalists.
John Goss
If there has been a plot to attack Iran I suspect it has been around since the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-81 if I know US right wing nuts. The fact that it has taken so long to come to fruition might actually suggest that things don’t actaully work in the clockwork fashion that you attribute to the
Julian
While I agree with much of what you say – I do think you are being a little unkind to Craig who has actually dug out a lot about the Fox/Werrity/Gould meetings that raise genuine questions that need to be addressed if only so that the debate about Iran is got out into the open, and so that there can be a sensible and informed discussion about the measures that should be taken over Iran. I am not sure that leaving to the likes of Fox and his ilk and Craig’s fan club is likely to lead to a sensible conclusion.
“But if the agenda is to support a democracy”
:
:
Israel is not a democracy. It treats its Arab citizens as second class people. It is now clamping down on foreign donations to human rights organisations who criticise Israeli human rights abuses,it is not clamping down on rigthwing organisations who support it. It is also now going after the press and trying to cloase down channel 10 who have been responsible for some cutting investigative journalism about the rightwing government. Also in parts of Jerusalem women have to sit on the back of the bus due to nutty religious types. If you think this is a democracy then you are sadly mistaken.
Julian, you and I are on different planets it would appear. You have heard of Atlantic Bridge? You do know that a number of companies were set up through which it appears money was siphoned, companies which never lasted long enough to publish acoounts with the same people at the top. Put two and two together, lad.
“Julian, the plot to attack Iran has existed since 2002. Preventing those most likely to be involved at top level – and such people are not going to inform the likes of you or me about it – is a priority.” You quote two sentences. Which one makes no sense to you? If it’s the second you have to take out the middle clause. What it means is: preventing those most likely to be involved at top level in a plot to attack Iran is a priority, but they are not likely to inform me or you of their intentions.
Hope it did not cause others the same problems.
Michael Stephenson:
“Guardian won’t even tolerate mentioning the Gould affair on CiF.
I wonder where the pressure is coming from?”
As I’ve posted elsewhere: the Guardian Media Group sold a 49.9% stake in Trader Media (Auto Trader, etc) to Apax, a private equity firm founded and chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen. This was to help finance the Guardian which was and is in the financial crap. In August GMG took a £50M slice (half) of a “special” dividend from Trader Group, also to boost the funds of the Guardian and Observer. It looks as if this dividend was either loan-or equity leveraged. Sir Ronald Cohen has Israeli business interests and was awarded the Jubilee Award for services to Israeli business by Netanyahu himself. Cohen is also an historical donor to Labour Party politicians:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/14/big-society-boost-praise-labour-donor
,a non-dom, and as far as I can see a fervent Zionist.
Nice of you to ask the question. This may be the answer.
hmm maybe the “time table” is akin to that of cast lead … thats if they can “do” syria in the next few weeks … a lot of effort in that direction at the moment ..
Stephen the questions that Murray raises are obvious ones, which will no doubt be answered, but the debate about Iranian nuclear weapons is already out in the open, has been for years. Absolutely years. Murray with his ridiculous insinuations of plots hinders that debate by corralling ‘dissenting voices’ into the conspiratorialist camp and making one side therefore appear silly. You could say he was a useful idiot for any pro-war camp (if there was such a thing, and there isn’t). As to the Murray fan club, no amount of answers will suffice. That’s the hive-mind for you.
Ken ‘Israel is not a democracy’. There are Arab: members of the Knesset, senior officers in the IDF, senior members of the judiciary, Arab citizens have the vote, have access to all public services, hold citizenship on exactly the same basis as everyone else, there is a free press with the widest possible range of opinion. You prefer theocratic supremacist imperialism to this? What exactly is your definition of democracy?
John Goss, we are indeed on different planets. Yours is the one made of green cheese.
Your planet is out of this world, Julian. But what do you understand by the following: ‘Gould, who was stationed in Tehran in a previous post, said that his government saw preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons as an important priority.
“My government absolutely agrees with your conception of the Iranian threat and the importance of your determination to battle it.” Dealing with the Iranian threat will be a large part of my work here.” Gould said.’
Matthew Gould should be called back and replaced with an impartial ambassador, further removed from the disgraced Fox, Werritty, Osborne, Thatcher, Hague clique. Otherwise the war it appears you want, that the rest of us don’t, could very well become a reality.
Only slightly off-thread: It’s Tuesday, 10.32pm, and Newsnight has David Milliband on to speak “on behalf” of 30 young unemployed people.
Yes, the former leadership contender who scuttled away to neocon outpost Georgia when their misjudged stushie with Russia backfired; the same David Milliband who apologised to Tzipi Livni. You know the guy.
So why did Newsnight have him on “representing” the young unemployed? Does he speak for the so-called Lost Generation?
Does he fuck. But the Beeb would love to have him as Labour leader!
I’m pre-empting your answer here, because I know you will claim that Iran is a threat. But like there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was developing WMDs there is no evidence that Iran is manufacturing nuclear weapons. But those with an agenda will claim that and use it as an excuse for “Dealing with the Iranian threat”. Many of us are much more fearful that Israel, and the USA again, are much more likely to use nuclear weapons than Iran. What do they teach at St Paul’s?
Alright, calm down everyone. It’s interesting to hear directly opposing viewpoints (and there will be plenty of the Israel/Palestine issue) but on both sides nothing is achieved by lobbing insults. It only has the effect of solidifying one’s opponents’ perspectives, and if one is debating in order to persuade the other to moderate/alter their view – which I guess is most of us – that result is counterproductive.
.
Julian, what I would give to have my planet made of a good quality blue cheese!
Julian.
You are trying to post a rosy picture of Israel as a democracy,now maybe this might work for you with someone who knows noting about the country but it will not work with me and asking silly questions tying to insinuate that I support Hamas does your argument no good at all. At this very moment their is a debate in the Knesset to stop the Arabic language from being recognised as an official language of Israel. You can read about that here.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-shameful-attack-on-arabic-must-be-stopped-1.395617
‘
The Israeli press rate at number 86 on the reporters without borders index 2010. That is not a very free press by any intelligent persons standards.
http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2010,1034.html
Mike, they’d rather have him than his brother, Ed.
Oh, yes. Israeli Arabs. That’s the lucky ones with full citizenship, isn’t it. Except the right of return, obviously.
.
“….the army can do anything in the occupied territories. Millions of people are subject to this regime, and our democracy does not see them. Rather, it lives with the occupation as the exception, not the rule.
In contrast, Israeli democracy is careful not to talk about the constitutional status of the Arabs within its borders. It has established a devious system of laws and regulations to expropriate from them rights reserved only for Jewish citizens, and even for Jewish non-citizens. The real estate laws are an example of this, as are the actions of the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency, which behave as if the state were only for Jews.
Public discourse – which perhaps arises because we understand we must seek international legitimacy – was always restrained, not to say duplicitous. The Koenig report, named for the Interior Ministry official who in 1976 recommended ways the government could discriminate against Arabs, caused a storm. However, no one protected Koenig, because official Israel upheld the rules of the game, maintaining a unified liberal tongue. It left non-democratic policy to the “security establishment.”
(Yitzhak Laor, Ha’aretz, 11 Feb, 2008
20.4% of the population, just over 10% of the Knesset membership.
“According to a study commissioned by the Arab Association of Human Rights entitled “Silencing Dissent,” over the past three years, eight of nine of these Arab Knesset members have been beaten by Israeli forces during demonstrations.[114] Most recently according to the report, legislation has been passed, including three election laws [e.g., banning political parties], and two Knesset related laws aimed to “significantly curb the minority [Arab population] right to choose a public representative and for those representatives to develop independent political platforms and carry out their duties”[ http://wayback.archive.org/web/jsp/Interstitial.jsp?seconds=5&date=1190929282000&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arabhra.org%2Fpublications%2Freports%2FPDF%2FSilencingDissentFinal.pdf&target=http%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20070927214122%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.arabhra.org%2Fpublications%2Freports%2FPDF%2FSilencingDissentFinal.pdf#search=%22arab%20knesset%20silencing%20dissent%22 ]”
And not to be confused with anyone in the Occupied Territories.
Jon, it must be this cheap cabernet veneto. It would not go well with your good quality blue cheese. And as my dad used to say, God bless him, I’ll be glad when I’ve had enough.
Indeed they would. It’s all about pointscoring at PMQs. DM presents better, and the Beeb know fine well how important that is.
@John Goss – the elite also have created a bind for themselves here. Whilst you and I are largely coming from the same political position, we are also probably agreed that nuclear non-proliferation is a good thing, and that we’d rather that Iran did not acquire the bomb (if indeed it is trying to do so). Given that Western establishments have lied through the teeth on this issue before, if it transpires that Iran really are trying to acquire nuclear weapons, the left (and centrist/apolitical electorates generally) will not believe them.
.
I sense that “Blair lied” over Iraq is now common currency in Britain, even amongst the bulk who don’t vote or who wouldn’t dream of attending a demo. That highly cynical demographic is the target of militarist propaganda (on Libya, Iran, whatever) and the elite really has its work cut out. I mean, even some hardline Tory voters won’t believe the establishment is sincere about “humanitarian intervention”.
@Ken – just spotted a duplicate post from you, deleted the second. Apologies that the anti-spam thing is a bit sensitive – it doesn’t generally like more than one link!
@Jon. Cheers.
‘
@Julian.
Seems that Israel has dropped down down from 86 in the reporters without borders press freedom index and are now number 93. http://en.rsf.org/report-israel,154.html
‘
So much for your claims of freedom of the press. Some interesting stuff in the link about prosecuting journalists,holding them without trial,shooting them etc etc.
Julian, do tell us about the housing policies that guide Arab Israeli citizens and why you are at it, what is going on in the occupied East jerusalem, if its not stealing of land property by other means and more goading?
Educate us about Israel’s excellent past relationship with its neighbours and what has come of it. Israel has only been successfull in undermining and dividing those who have aright to live in Palestine, they have infiltrated, invaded bombed and murdered thousands, it has undermined the foreing policy decision makers in the US and UK, a non NATO/EU rogue state with the sole intention to usurp the power structure that exist, backed up by a secret nuclear thread iit clandestinly developed for the sole intention of doing to others what was once done to themselves.
You have been brainwashed Julian.
I take my hate off from the young jewish generation that opposes the indoctrination and brainwashing from young age on, those who sing out their opposition, who had enough of being hated for their murderous leadership. I find no sympathy with those hotheads who keep lobbing indiscriminate missiles into Israel just as I do not like those who pretend their hard bombing wo0men and children with illegal weapons in amassive overkill.
Controlling a large concentration camp is one thing, shooting at everything that moves behind the fence, people who can’t get away from it, is beastiality, obscene and perverse, that much you must understand, unless you deny Palestinians their human rights.
fact is Julian, Dove Weinglass got it right when he said that netanyahu and Barak have failed miserably, for seven years, to negotiate with the most eligible Palestinian Government ever. Bibi is mental, his high IQ puts him over the edge, would not be surprised if he smokes big cigars and talks like Churchill in his free time, ‘We will fight them in the Sinai, we will fight them in Iran and we will never surrender’.
His obsessions have taken over, he lives in WW2 and some seem to realise it, although the plotters, his men who met with Werrity Gould and Fox, they are acting outside jurisdiction, they are harming Israels future.
Attacking people here, when you have very little to say on the facts of this story, is quaint.
Why don’t you tell us who these highranking Israeli’s are then, do you know them? If not, why are you not allowed to know them? Just a little cog in the big blame game aren’t you?
Sorry posted this on the previous blog, by mistake.
Jon, it’s a problem. I have written to the Iranian embassy in the past, on matters like the hanging of members of the Bahai faith for practising their religion, and the stoning of women for adultery (it’s like taking a step back to Old Testament times). Please understand I have no love for the Iranian regime. However, as Komodo and others have pointed out, the rights of Palestinians and other Arabs, appear to be virtually non-existent in some Israeli camps. Other Israelis are very much like me and you. I would dearly love to see Arabs and Israelis living side by side in perfect harmony in the Middle East. And yes, the proliferation of nuclear weapons is anathema to me. Except, as I mentioned yesterday somewhere, if the USSR had not developed nuclear weapons I think the US would have continued to use such weapons after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to achieve its ends. Israel, while denying it had a nuclear programme was developing nuclear weapons. Mossad captured and imprisoned for 18 years a journalist who told the truth about this. I find it difficult to support either Iran or Israel when their actions contravene human rights. But to my mind it is quite clear that Zionist/Neocon aims seek some kind of world domination, New World Order, or whatever you want to call it. And that, to my mind, is something we should all try to prevent. Iran does not have the influence on world affairs that Israel has. We have moved from Henry Kissinger’s triangular diplomacy, where country A was played against country B and country B played against country A and country C played against the other two. Today we have a multi-angular, multi-faceted diplomacy where countries throughout the Middle East and Africa are being destabilised by our countries, countries which are supposed to set an example.
This wine is not the best, but if Julian were here I would offer him a glass. In fact he could have the bottle! Nearly finished now. Waste not, want not.
Makes me sick the apartheid segregationist ziofuckwits suffering from masada complex whining on about dangers from the world over. Whilst busy arresting Palestinian activists who boarded Israeli settler buses Tuesday in an action inspired by the American civil rights movement
,
This is the stuff of comedy in a sane world.
,
Does anybody know about the general strike in the land of Settlers, occupation and oppression?
I have sent links to Rory Stewart
===
Total spook. Crafty, but fully ‘on message’…
Daisy, thsnkd for the attention, but I can’t follow your reasoning. Are you saying that the deaths in Libya satisfy a primitive blood lust in me, and that I’m sad but actually evil? Is that it
=========
She was trying to say that you are a trolling know-nothing weapons grade tosser, but was too polite to say so.
and the stoning of women for adultery (it’s like taking a step back to Old Testament times)
.
At least they don’t imprison women who suffer miscarriages, like the USA. The absolute height of barbarity. I doubt even the Taliban would have thought of such a monstrous form of oppression.
Did the meeting between Fox, Gould and Werritty while Fox was Shadow Defence Secretary follow official rules concerning briefing of opposition front bench spokesmen by officials?
Presumably at the time he was PPS to the Foreign Sec. In what capacity was he meeting Foxity? Had he already been lined up for Tel Aviv, or was the meeting to discuss whether that would be the way to go, if the Conservatives came to power? (presumably the government has some say in ambassadorial appointments? Or would he already have been lined up for the job before May?)
Hello, Julian. Thank you for responding.
.
The debate is much appreciated. Are you in a position to venture to answer Craig’s questions? If not, then, instead of attempting to character-assassinate Craig Murray, I suggest that you also may wish to withhold judgement until you have heard the answers – if indeed, any answers are forthcoming, which at present they do not seem to be.
.
Incidentally, Stephen, while your typically measured and rational response to Julian was much-welcomed, your characterisation of the many people who comment here as ‘Craig Murray’s fan-club’ minimises the importance of Craig Murray as a key, comprehensive and active whistleblower from within the British establishment. One suspects, from the information he posted on the previous thread, that he gives the hard state considerable cause for concern as a potential, or actual, conduit for other whistleblowers.
.
Good.
Manipulation by Google.
Google search for ‘matthew gould’ just now 8.30 am produced the following which is unbelievable.
Matthew Gould | The Jewish Chronicle
{www.thejc.com/news/topics/matthew-gould}
Matthew Gould cautioned that such an image was false and emphasised the importance of not overstating the problem and putting off Israeli students from …
.
Matthew Gould cautions on UK campus extremism image | The …
{www.thejc.com/…/matthew-gould-cautions-uk-campus-extremism-im}
2 Aug 2011 – The British Ambassador to Israel has questioned the image of …
.
Interview: Matthew Gould | The Jewish Chronicle
{www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/…/interview-matthew-gould}
2 Jun 2011 – Britain’s ambassador to Israel strolls, unnoticed and …
.
Show more results from thejc.com
News for matthew gould
.
The Anglo-Israeli Plot to Attack Iran
Center for Research on Globalization – 1 day ago
by Craig Murray This is Matthew Gould, second from right, British Ambassador to Israel, who was pictured speaking at a meeting of the Leeds Zionist …
4 related articles
.
Change of Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Israel
{www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=PressR&id}
8 Dec 2009 – Mr Matthew Gould MBE has been appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the State of Israel in succession to Mr Tom Phillips CMG.
.
I think you chaps are wasting your time with Julian. He is not about to admit that there is anything wrong with Israel’s programme of land theft and reprisals against civilian populations supposedly under its protection. While the rest of us recognise that it is probably not a good idea for Iran to have nukes, and that despite its protestations, it probably has it in mind to develop them, the idea that unaccountable Israel should have fully-functioning nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to Tokyo, is, for Julian, a given. Julian has not yet noticed that whenever Israel feels itself threatened, it responds according to Dayan’s “mad dog” dictum. Yet, Julian is incapable of applying the same concept of righteous violence to someone who dares fire a rocket (usually without effect) into Israel from the ghetto-state of Gaza. Which still urgently needs medical supplies and construction materials, and which is not allowed to develop its own economy. By Israel.
Conclusion: Julian is a hasbara troll. Safely ignore.
I have just looked at one of those links to Gould. Is the cost of this large scale entertaining coming out of our pockets? From the puff piece in the JC.
.
‘At Purim, the Goulds hosted a huge fancy-dress party in their Ramat Gan home, attended by members of Israel’s glitterati. For the Royal Wedding there was an equally ambitious bash which attracted 1,000 guests, from politicians to actors to footballers. Clearly the British ambassador is the diplomat du jour in Israel.
.
(The Goulds with Gilad Shalit’s parents, Noam and Aviva) photo
.
Yet behind all the glitz there is serious intent. Gould’s latest project, supported by the outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, has been to raise funds to help poverty-stricken Holocaust survivors in Israel. When we meet, Gould has just got news of the latest donation to add to the £1 million already collected. “It’s the donation I’m happiest with. We’ve just been given £25,000 from the 45 Aid Group, so that’s Holocaust survivors helping Holocaust survivors. It lends the project moral authority as well as money, which is really nice.”‘
.
http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/49757/interview-matthew-gould
.