This morning Sam Kiley, Sky News’ security correspondent, stated bluntly that the large bulk of Afghan heroin and opium production is controlled by members of the Karzai government.
That is a simple truth, and I have been publishing it repeatedly on this blog for the last six years, but it runs absolutely contrary to what has been an extraordinary and monolithic mainstream media narrative. The insistence for ten years by an almost unanimous mainstream media that it is the Taliban who contol the drugs trade has been perhaps the most remarkable example of a massive organised lie in modern media history. The question of how a false narrative like that becomes an accepted mainstream “truth” is a key element in control of the state by a rapacious elite using the brainwashing tcapabilities of modern mass communication.
The truly remarkable thing is the truth has somehow broken through. Then today in Parliament David Winnick, opposition defence spokesman, actually stated directly tthat people know longer believe that the presence of our troops in Afghanistan somehow protects us from terrorism, but rather might tend to inspire hatred of the UK.
Again, a blindingly obvious truth that I have been proclaiming for a decade. But absolutely not admissible as an argument on moanstream media in that period, and a truth whose denial was the dedicated work of Winnick’s party when it was in government.
The counter-productive and ruinously expensive nature of the Afghan War is something a high proportion of people fully understood even when they were never reinforced in their understanding by seeing that view reflected in “mainstream media”. Tens of thousands of children have died while arms suppliers and mercenary commanders got very rich. The last nine to be slaughtered in their beds have helped jolt people in the media and politics to talk some semblance of sense at last.
Urinating on dead Afghans, burning Korans and a nighttime killing spree are not the problem; they are symptoms of the problem. A vicious occupation by religious antagonists who repeatedly and continually launch massive violence on civilians, with the intent of imposing by force elements of an alien culture while establishing a massively corrupt and despised puppet government, is not a viable long term project. There is no way to undo the past. The best thing to do now is leave.
Yes, a sincere article Mr.Murray. When the current crop of assholes leave….they may do so without a thought about the future of the country. It happened before it will happen again.
How long do you think it will be before this last “isolated incident” is let off with a slap on the rist when the media attention has gone away?
One of the reasons of the neocons to invade Afghanistan was precisely to restore the opium production, that was previously decimated by the Taliban. People like the CIA need black market funds to pay for black ops that can’t be put through the official accounts. Puppet Karzai will obviously get his ‘percentage’
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That and the oil and gas pipeline and the bigger and more long term Zionist agenda to empire build in the Middle East and beyond. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were about securing land to build military infrastructure surrounding Iran in preparation, and that’s why a deliberate war of attrition has been manipulated over the last 10 years.
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Cameron, Hammond, Hague, et al, are just the latest in a long series of pathological liars spewing out the nonsense scripted by their paymaster Elite that the British Military is Afghanistan to protect us. What a load of utter bollocks!!
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As for the media and the latest slaughter by a rogue grunt, it’s just faux outrage, just like the faux outrage from Clinton, Obama and Cameron. They couldn’t give two shits about dead Afghan children, just as they couldn’t give two shits about the 500,000 dead Iraqi children. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4PgpbQfxgo
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The last time I read the truth about Afghanistan in the mainstream media was in Michael Meacher’s brilliant essay in the Guardian in 2003, entitled ‘This War on terrorism is bogus’. He completely nailed it, especially with regard to the hoax of 9/11 and was thus roundly excoriated for it. With respect to Afghanistan he concluded:
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The conclusion of all this analysis must surely be that the “global war on terrorism” has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda – the US goal of world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole project. Is collusion in this myth and junior participation in this project really a proper aspiration for British foreign policy?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/sep/06/september11.iraq
How are the politicians going to explain how the sacrifice of so many British soldiers is justified, if it turns out the whole thing was a ghastly mistake?
Soldiers, sailors, and airfolk sign up to defend this country; they have no alternative but to follow orders, in the hope that their superiors know what they are doing. Although this hope must have been somewhat undermined by our political masters’ admission that they are less clear about why our troops are in Afghanistan than how long they will stay there.
Six years ago Defence Secretary John Reid said that some 3,300 British troops would be deployed for three years at a cost of £1 billion and that he expected them to leave Helmand “without a bullet being fired.” Since then I believe 404 British soldiers have been killed there.
KingofWelshNoir says
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The conclusion of all this analysis must surely be that the “global war on terrorism” has the hallmarks of a political myth propagated to pave the way for a wholly different agenda – the US goal of world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies required to drive the whole project. Is collusion in this myth and junior participation in this project really a proper aspiration for British foreign policy?
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It’s not a US goal, it’s a goal of the forces that control the US. Look towards AIPAC and the ADL, etc
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Craig please get someone to remove the code that strips newlines from posts. Adding dots is a PITA. :
At one time Craig I would have disagreed with you on pulling out but the last 12 months have convinced me you are correct. The only people who are going to sort this out in their way ( that is what self-determination, freedom, liberty is about is it not!)are the Afghan people. Continued presence of ISAF occupiers will prolong the pain, increase loss of innocent life, embed corruption, foster criminality, legitimise nepotism and deny the freedom of the people to choose their destiny; all done at the behest of foreign invaders and a corrupt tribal leadership. It will not be pretty nor easy and may include many unsavoury episodes along the way but, like the Vietnamese in the 1970’s, they will find a way, their way, not an imposed ‘fairy tale’, to ‘self-governance’ however unpleasant the west may find it! Liberal intervention, much beloved of Mr Bliar, is, and will continue to be, a humanitarian disaster for everyone involved!
Which country next? Syria, Iran? Look at the mess the West has left Libya. When will it stop? It is so awful, I feel like I am living in a nightmare, and I am not one of the poor people living in these regions day in day out. I really feel like the West is like Nazi Germany reincarnated, but with more power.
In response to the search string “Afghanistan Winnick” Google News yields precisely two hits: BBC and Huffington Post.
Tucked away on about page 3 of an article largely devoted to Cameron’s crocodile tears, the BBC has this to say:
‘In the House of Commons, Labour MP David Winnick asked an urgent question on the shooting incident, saying there was a “growing sense in Britain that this is an unwinnable war”.’
The talk took a long time to get interesting-very tentative at first-then it became a devastating indictment of the international politics of the last 20 years.
I thought there was an interesting point made about the 30-35% of people who were opposed to the Libyan action. This figure resonated because it is pretty much the number that are capable of abstract thought.
One must also be curious about the idea that was given in the talk -about the quality of the intelligence-and it not standing up to examination.
The problem here is that there cannot be a lack of intellectual capacity at the levels of the FCO that were described. That means that those people must have known and colluded in deception.
I am quite loathe to go down the road of ‘conspiracy’ but the only alternative is that otherwise capable people were deluded in some way. This whole area needs deep examination and analysis and we probably need to find out more about the people who were propagating and disseminating such faulty material. There must be reports about your condition in condemning the material. Did such people ever justify their contradiction of your assessment of the intelligence? These people need to be called to account in some way. I am not very hopeful of course, at the moment.
Interesting on BBC news channel this afternoon they had some guy I think called Levine from some London University giving a sustained and coherent argument about the counterproductiveness of Anglo-American presence in Afghanistan. I have seen nothing like this on the beeb before. Amusingly the news anchor guy was adopting the attitude, ‘Wow, what you’re saying is extraordinary’, like he had never heard such weird views before.
The BBC is essentially a Whig establishment, permeated with the belief that things are steadily getting better and better thanks to “progress”. That “progress” is compounded of technology, political correctness, and sheer wishful thinking. However, to the true believers, progress emanates from “the West”, in the form of democracy, free market capitalism, Hollywood, pop music, Macdonals, Coca-Cola, and the Marines. Anyone who stands in the way of progress is wicked, wretched, and – the ultimate epithet – conservative (or reactionary as the Commuists used to call it).
See John Kabul who has not grasped that he and his pals are the invaders and occupiers.
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Afghanistan Killings – Your Reaction
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17336815
O/T Lamb 3G and Aegis. Bahrain.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100142981/graeme-lamb-british-generals-company-paid-to-support-bahrain-dictatorship/
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Lamb by name. Snake by nature.
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NB Last year G3, which employs former service chiefs, officials and diplomats, was drawn into Liam Fox’s resignation as defence secretary after it emerged that it had paid international travel costs for Dr Fox’s close friend, Adam Werrity.
One for Nuid.
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Cameron had Kenny over today. Very cosy together. Firm handshake etc.
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Richest 300 Irish now worth €62bn
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http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/richest-300-irish-now-worth-62bn-3046429.html
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THE 300 richest people in Ireland are worth more than €62bn. That’s almost as much as the IMF/EU bailout. It’s also more than the combined value of the Luxembourg and Lithuanian economy.
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Funny that the story is in the Independent once owned by O’Reilly probably the richest person in Ireland.
“War on terror”
“National security”
“Counter-insurgency”
“ Promotion of democracy of freedom”
“ In necessary defence of the rights of Afghan women”
“ Necessary operations against Muslim extremists”
“Military operations in opposition to the drugs trade in Afghanistan” ( surely this one needs correction to “in support of….”)
” Commitment to civilized values and the standards of the Western world”
And whatever else ruse can be dreamt up, published in the “lame stream” media, and swallowed by a sufficiently large section of the public to keep the game going. So, totally, fucking corrupt.
P.S. Craig,
You wrote this:-
” tthat people know longer”
“that -and – no ” – you are only human ( but a good one too) and we all make mistakes.
Pedantic? Who – me? NEVER.
A blogger on the BBC web site, in response to the beeb’s report, had this to say:-
His name and location: “Chris Terrill, London, UK”
“As for President Karzai – he had to say what he said, he had no choice. Given what happened after the burning of the Koran, he had to come out looking like a champion of the people.
He is dealing with a very divided government – not just in Kabul but in the whole region. People are very undecided about which way to lean, whether towards the government or the Taliban.”
“Looking like a champion of the people” ? Well is that the “oil people” who are backing his presidency – or – the Afghan people?
“…whether towards the government or the Taliban” ? – well the correct answer to the first question will immediately lead you to the logical conclusion for the second.
As long as people buy into the mainstream dominated narrative, then the critical questions are not seen or ever addressed.
I supported the initial attack on Afghanistan. Complex political reasons but I thought it would be good to topple the Taliban government. But after 3 months and it looked like we were setting up a puppet regime and committed to defending it I realized we had just lost the War in Afghanistan. It was just a matter of when.
But I most certainly did not predict that we would still be fighting a decade later. US and its lickspittle allies are just completely incapable of facing the truth. Somehow, they have this idea that if their forces cannot be militarily defeated then they are winning. Even in the face of obvious failure. It is hard to comprehend how so many smart people have actively deceived themselves for so long.
An even greater irony presents itself:
The opium poppies which grow so abundantly could be harvested legally and turned into much needed opiates which are so scarce in so many third-world countries.
Even countries such as India find it difficult to afford manufactured opiates yet this cheap and plentiful resource is there which would alleviate the suffering of literally millions of people enduring horrific pain.
This was brought to my attention many years ago on an excellent BBC Radio 4 documentary, if my memory serves me rightly.
Kill, kill, kill, all over the planet.
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Yemen says U.S. attack killed 64 people
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By UPI
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SANAA, Yemen, March 12 (UPI) — U.S. drone strikes on hideouts and arms reserves killed at least 64 suspected al-Qaida militants over three days, Yemeni officials said.
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“The United States did not inform us on the attacks. We only knew about this after the U.S. attacked,” a member of Yemen’s military committee told CNN.
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Officials at U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon contacted Sunday declined to provide information about the attacks Yemeni officials said were carried out by unmanned U.S. aircraft, CNN reported Monday.
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The U.S. government typically doesn’t comment on drone operations.
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The latest strike occurred Sunday in Abyan province in southern Yemen, two senior Yemeni security officials said.
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The strike was the third on suspected al-Qaida targets in less than three days, the officials said. The United States was also involved in attacks Friday and Saturday, Yemeni defense ministry officials said.
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Yemeni rights organizations condemned the airstrikes, calling them illegal.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30788.htm
Craig said, “The question of how a false narrative like that becomes an accepted mainstream “truth” is a key element in control of the state by a rapacious elite using the brainwashing capabilities of modern mass communication.”
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I would add the adjectives ‘barbaric’ and ‘murderous’ in describing the ‘elite.’ Nevertheless the paragraph is a brilliant encapsulation of these contrivances that promoted the neocon grand designs since the demolition of the World Trade Center.
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This collusion in planning can only be deconstructed by abstract thought as ‘Deepgreenpuddock’ elucidates. Since we are all capable as humans to use our minds in this way,I believe we must ask the question why human curiosity and truth is circumvented for decades.
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Again we must turn to Craig’s brilliant mind to discover the answer which revealed itself in the Berlin conference interview when he referred to xenophobic patriotism and the war on terror.
Since 2001 the balancing act between the interests of national security with the liberties of the people has come to an end. The politics of terror has ensured the value trade-offs between liberty and security have faded, power has concentrated and political choice abrogated by a fusion of ideals, ethics and morality.
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Again I refer to Craig who when asked “..what was the best way of sharing what you know” replied, “undoubtedly the Web.” He went on to say that he felt he had to “get everything out in order to minimise the incentive to kill me.”
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Finally a warning, a prediction – abstract thought or not – …on social media, governments will ‘narrow in’ and reduce the freedom of the Web through an increasing raft of legislation.
Where is immigrant-hater Canspeccy and his comments on this subject?
The only thing that surprises me is how people are so easily conditioned by the media. Even here it seems some people are just beginning to realise that the whole war on terror is a sham, that politicians and journalist are pathological liars and that there’s no such thing as “freedom and democracy” except when it’s being forced down the throat of some dark-skinned peoples thousands of miles from Europe.
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Give it ten more years and they may even work out that the Arab Spring has been nothing more than an orchestrated media campaign to bamboozle the viewer while Western special forces (the ONLY real terrorists) play the dual role of ‘pro-democracy protesters’ and ‘government security forces’. They align themselves with religious fanatics and kill civilians for nothing more than that old favourite of installing a fascist “friendly” regime.
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Yet in the UK there is no choice of political power at elections, just different parties representing the same power. It is impossible for you or anyone you know to form a political party and gain power. You are continuously watched and your communications are continuously recorded. You can never be elected unless the media says so.
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It is you, dear reader, who is living in a totalitarian fascist state, it can not be said any plainer than that.
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The irony is that they justify their brutality by claiming to be fighting fascism, whether it’s a Gadaffi, an Assad, or an Ahmadinajad there is always the inevitable comparison between them, Hitler and the Nazis.
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Almost everything you believe (as opposed to ‘know’) about your country is an artificial construct aimed at exploiting your emotions in order to circumvent your intellect and keep you dumbed down, obedient and unquestioning.
YouAreDermo,
It is busy kicking in the native Canadians, and separating their infants from their families to be sent to “special schools”, where they will be subject to “special treatment” inclusive of sexual assault and buggery. That immigrant hating, immigrant has been spreading his lies for years, fact that who is he affiliated to? This has so far remained somewhat of a mystery for those uninitiated in the ways of “doing war through deception”.
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Afghan War,
So far as the Afghan war goes, I was denouncing the Afghan war, when all and sundry were too busy sanctioning it. I was denouncing the war on terror when almost everyone had been caught up in the knee jerk hatred of all things al Qaeda/Muslim. Those years of my life were spent in denouncing the corrupt bastards who were busy taking off their cut from the proceeds of the war expenditure. Now I spend my life caught up in the mangle of the inflation, living the austere life in an inflationary economy, that I can hardly afford the basic standards of simple living, whilst my efforts in saving my money have resulted in the shares I owned to become worthless, and the money I saved to become worthless, all in the way of underwriting the corrupt and pusillanimous lying fraudulent bastards incompetence.
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The decaying infrastructure, at the point of failure, witness the same “media” that sold us all the Afghan War, the Iraq war is busy selling us the Syrian war, and Iran war. Whilst informing us of the decision of the locked in to die (ie soon the near ill people will be put down as in the veterinary practices, it is cheaper for the NHS< and the department of the work and pensions). Also we are cautioned to drink less (this means there is a huge tax rise in the pipe line: nothing makes all cancers better, other than a hike in the price of booze). In addition the warnings are afoot for the impeding hose pipe ban (this means there is to be a rise in the water rates that is coming to combat the drought and help the profits of the private water companies) because we are in a drought already. Fact that we happen to be on an island that if dug more than three feet will hit the water table, is somewhat going amiss, because the Farmers jumping on the act too, they are producing less and telling us the prices of produce will be high because of the water shortages.
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The carpet baggers no longer content with the their old incomes, are seeking to recoup their unusual returns (as per Greenspan ie rip off extortion rackets) closer home, now that the Taliban and Iraqis have kicked their snouts out of the relevant troughs.
where is the rule of law?
12 March: Australia: Secret SAS teams hunt for terrorists
The deployment of the SAS’s 4 Squadron – the existence of which has never been publicly confirmed – has put the special forces unit at the outer reaches of Australian and international law.
The Herald has confirmed that troopers from the squadron have mounted dozens of secret operations during the past year in various African nations, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Kenya…
http://www.smh.com.au/national/secret-sas-teams-hunt-for-terrorists-20120312-1uwhy.html
“we are cautioned to drink less (this means there is a huge tax rise in the pipe line: nothing makes all cancers better, other than a hike in the price of booze). In addition the warnings are afoot for the impeding hose pipe ban (this means there is to be a rise in the water rates that is coming to combat the drought and help the profits of the private water companies)”
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What about ‘save the planet, use less energy’? What happens is the all powerful energy companies see revenues and profits fall and so create artificial supply and distribution chains.
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The distribution companies, who you pay the bill to, can now justify insane energy price increases by blaming the suppliers.
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The government don’t mind because money spent on energy counts towards GDP ‘growth’ in the economy, which is used to ‘offset’ the blatant inflationary nature of increasing energy prices.
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The final coup de grace is the suppliers are based offshore so avoid paying UK tax oin their vastly inflated profits.
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British people put up with this sort of grifting between politicians, economists and businesses and don’t even complain. No wonder your government treats you like contemptible idiots.
Well, I was going to say this sudden awakening to the truth was a sign that the West was about to pull the rug from under Karzai, then, as if by magic:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/13/cameron-obama-afghanistan-troop-withdrawl
DownWithThisSortofThing – your post is a masterpiece. And the situation is as dreadful as you suggest. When I saw the pictures of Gaddafi’s death cheerfully emblazoned on front pages of newspapers, I felt that we were living through a period of state terror.
Joint gush here in the Washington Post from Obomber and Flashman. Wordsmiths they are not. They win no prizes for their mastery of the English language. These are just two examples contained within the threats to continue their worldwide aggression.
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‘Keep it up we have — not only winning that war for our survival but also building the institutions that undergird international peace and security.’
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‘Finally, as two peoples who live free because of the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, we’re working together like never before to care for them when they come home.’
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/barack-obama-and-david-cameron-the-us-and-britain-still-enjoy-special-relationship/2012/03/12/gIQABH1G8R_story.html?hpid=z3
Oh yeah! “I want to be clear that where a police power is needed a police officer will carry out that duty. The back bone of the service will remain unchanged but we are committed to finding a long-term transformational solution that is more cost effective and efficient and improves on the service we deliver.”
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13 March 2012 Last updated at 06:59
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Police forces host bidders’ conference with private firms
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Companies interested in taking over some of the work of West Midlands Police will attend a conference on Tuesday.
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The force, along with Surrey Police, has invited bids from companies to provide a range of services from guarding crime scenes to collecting CCTV footage to help cut costs.
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++Sixty-four++ firms have registered for the Bidders’ Conference in London.
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Other police forces, authorities and staff associations are also invited.
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“This is not about taking away the core responsibility for policing away from officers,” said the chief constable of West Midlands Police, Chris Sims.
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“I want to be clear that where a police power is needed a police officer will carry out that duty.
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“The back bone of the service will remain unchanged but we are committed to finding a long-term transformational solution that is more cost effective and efficient and improves on the service we deliver.”
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‘Proper process’
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Derek Webley, chair of West Midlands Police Authority, said: “The police authorities are the accountable bodies for the process and we have a duty to ensure that… we maintain a police service that is fit for purpose, efficient and effective.
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“We will ensure that a proper process for deliberation is in place, ensuring that all the necessary evidence is obtained, and all views are heard. We will approach each decision with an open mind, considering the best interests of the public at every stage.”
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West Midlands Police Authority faces budget cuts of £125m over the next four years.
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The contracts are expected to be worth about ++£1.5bn++ nationally over seven years, depending on the number of forces in England and Wales who sign up to the scheme.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17345846