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176 thoughts on “Afghan Disaster part 462”

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  • Mary

    Happy Easter Craig and to everyone.
    .
    The article refers to Karimov as a ‘brutal dictator’. How many other dictators has this MPyre dealt with and still continues to do so? Suharto for one. The poor people of East Timor have been shafted over and over.

    .
    East Timor: a lesson in why the poorest threaten the powerful
    5 April 2012
    http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/east-timor-a-lesson-in-why-the-poorest-threaten-the-powerful

    And HM Queen is having the King of Bahrain at her Jubilee lunch at Windsor Castle.
    .
    Queen invites ruler of Bahrain’s bloody regime to her Jubilee lunch at Windsor Castle because ‘it’s very rude to leave anyone off the list’
    Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s regime is accused of killing and torturing civilians during last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations
    .
    The King of Bahrain is also set to attend a champagne dinner hosted by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace
    Outcry expected from human rights campaigners and MPs
    Pressure mounts for this month’s Bahrain Formula 1 race to be cancelled after police using tear gas and live bullets shot a protester dead last week
    .
    {http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126653/Queen-invites-ruler-Bahrains-bloody-regime-Jubilee-lunch-Windsor-Castle.html}

  • Clark

    Craig, yes, but where are you, how are you, and what about your lost notes? I hope all’s well, and I really want a go at recovering that file if it’s still missing.
    .
    On-topic: So once again, the Blogsphere and Internet news coverage are way ahead of the corporate media. It can seem so frustrating, voices lost in the wilderness, but it is worth the effort.

  • nevermind

    Freezing Easter bunnies to you all, I lost my two test tomatoes in the green house this week….brrrr, hope you’re ok and found your files, Craig.

    So what if it is easier and less costly to abandon the equipment, rather than be refused transfer routes through Russia, debilitating your whole Human rights policies and record by sucking up to mass-murderers and torturers, and or make costly arrangements which will make the logistics for future lapdog excursions exhorbitant, a luxuary.
    Russia lost/had to abandon much of its hardware, rest assured the Afghans will put it to good use in the following civil war.

    Could it be that the FCO is developing a strategy for leaving this considerable arsenal, so as to enpower pashtuns and tajiks in equal measure to earn on supplying both sides? as a plan B, should they want to keep their hands off bloody dictators.
    If thats seen as too inappropriate, destruction, leaving scrap, large artfull welded ornaments of war, is also an option, making it clear that we do not want to see a civil war.
    In any way, they cocked it up and are forced to negotiate, it will cost us all, however the arrangements fall.

  • Clark

    I’ve read the article now:

    “Campaign groups condemned the developments – which threaten to compromise David Cameron’s commitment to human rights…”

    FFS! Cameron’s fucking lip service to human rights. To save the fucking equipment, for which Britain wouldn’t pay enough to protect British troops in the first place*. OK, credit to The Independent for publishing this, but still they spin on behalf of our corrupt establishment.
    .
    (*Not that I’m supporting the war in Afghanistan here, but the hypocrisy just reeks.)

  • Clark

    The article also reads like this cooperation with Karimov is a recent necessity. No mention of 2003, torture, and that the named ambassador was sacked and publicly smeared in order to maintain cooperation with Uzbekistan’s corrupt and evil ruling family. Pardon my language, but I’m furious.
    .
    Happy Easter, all. Anyone fancy a few crucifixions?

  • Tris

    I read that Cameron is horrified that he might have to actually visit the country. I expect they don’t cut the crusts of their cucumber sandwiches or the strawberries aren’t soaked in sugar for quite the right amount of time. Horror of horrors!

    But doesn’t Air Miles Andy go there from time to time, and isn’t he awfully friendly with the female, Karimova? Maybe he could nip out there officially this time and save Cameron’s skin…quite literally, given the president’s propensity for oil boiling!

    And if the worst came to the worst, I reckon we could do without Air Miles, whereas how on earth would we manage without Camergoon?

  • Mary

    Anonymous carried out attacks on the Home Office and the Ministry of ‘Justice’ websites. Both were still unavailable this morning but back up now. You can now read all about the ConDem plans to close us down and take away even more of our liberties.
    .
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/hackers-claiming-ties-to-anonymous-target-uk-government-website/2012/04/08/gIQAZZch3S_story.html?wprss=rss_social-world-headlines&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
    .
    Separately I heard about four jobs being advertised by the BBC Media Action, the BBC’s so called ‘international development charity’, with salaries of between £34 and £48k. I found out that BBC Media Action is the new name for the World Service Trust.
    .
    Just read this. It is just another branch of MI6.

    ‘The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which currently funds the World Service and Caversham by direct grant, will still be directly involved in budgetry decisions about the provision of foreign language services. It will also continue to fund some journalistic training and foreign projects through independent charity the World Service Trust, recently renamed BBC Media Action.
    .
    After the funding switch in 2014 the licence fee payer will also fund the work of the monitoring service at Caversham, where some security-vetted staff have access to classified international communications of key importance to the intelligence services and Ministry of Defence.’

    {http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/02/bbc-world-service-independence-funding-switch}

    So not a ‘charity’ at all. Our taxes pay for it now and in 2014 our licence fees will be paying for it.
    .
    The jobs – {http://www.jobs.ac.uk/employer/bbc-media-action/}

  • Clark

    Mary, just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, the BBC Monitoring Service at Caversham claims to monitor only public broadcasts worldwide, in contrast to GCHQ, which intercepts private and other communications. I agree, though, looking at the funding trail and the security-vetted staff, it’s another branch of the state, and it most likely does have links with the secret services.

  • snickid

    What baffles me is that the Foreign Office manages to employ such complete idiots in their embasssy staff in Central Asia.

    They did have one really good chap though, a few ago – Ambassador in Uzbekistan – did some splendid work exposing the human rights abuses of the Karimov regime. What was his name? Emm …? No, doubt he has been promoted to bigger and better things since by the FCO.

    Still, they ought to bring him back to the field, in my opinion – give him the job of sorting out the Afghanistan mess.

    Now, what was his name?

  • TFS

    look like you friend Jack Straw name has re-appeared due to a piece about rendition in the Guardian.

    cant keep a good man down.

  • Mary

    TFS refers to this piece I believe. It says that Straw needs questioning but does not put Blair in the frame. He is the main instigator. Both need something much more painful than questioning.
    .
    Special report: Rendition ordeal that raises new questions about secret trials
    In 2004, Fatima Bouchar and her husband, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, were detained en route to the UK, and rendered to Libya. This is the story of their imprisonment, and the trail of evidence that reveals the involvement of the British government

    .
    Ian Cobain
    guardian.co.uk, Sunday 8 April 2012 16.26 BST Article historyhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/08/special-report-britain-rendition-libya

  • boniface goncourt

    Clark, don’t knock the all-seeing Ickemeister. ‘Reptiles’ does not mean actual extradimensional reptiles. It is, uh, a metaphor to describe a class of person here on Earth. It replaces a word which might, uh, hurt a certain people’s feelings.

  • Komodo

    No offence taken, Clark. I may be a large poisonous carnivore, but I am not a bloodsucker…

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ Craig,
    The FCO’s cock-ups run far, wide and deep.
    Take an example on a smaller scale. The Turks and Caicos Islands is a British Caribbean territory where the UK presently has direct rule after suspension of the Turks and Caicos Islands Constitution in 2009.
    Lord Ashcroft was Conservative party Treasurer. Cameron, as we know, is Prime Minister. Michael Missick was the Premier of the Islands with whom Ashcroft had financial dealings. The FCO persons, now having been placed in governance since the suspension in 2009, have clearly made a right royal mess of the take-over and direct rule, with all and sundry being totally pissed-off with the manifest incompetence and lack of viable economic policies being pursued. The UK is actually trying to avoid its obligations of contingent liabilities ( i.e. the Turks and Caicos Islands is British territory and not merely the political, but economic and financial responsibilities repose with HMG – http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Letter:-Turks-and-Caicos-Consultative-Forum-got-it-right-3682.html). The exchanges with Guy Fawkes ( FCO man?) says it all.
    The shit runs up-stream and much, much deeper. But – let’s leave it there.
    Any surprise that the miscalculations, first in Afghanistan, next in Pakistan, then now with an exit route through Uzbekistan, has demonstrated the manifest miscalculations and incompetencies of the FCO?
    Craig Murray you have been vindicated not just by this most recent fiasco, but by way of your principles and the clarity of your thoughts and expressions.
    Aluta continua – but, trust that the struggle with HMG has ended for Craig Murray.

  • boniface goncourt

    According to the Independent, Lubricated Dave has to get his materiel through Uzbekers to the Russian border, and then it will be ‘transported to Estonia’ [to hook up with Ryanair stag parties?]. Won’t Prez Putin have something to say? A few little favours to exact? Tee hee. Can’t wait.

    On a jollier note –

    RT News 05:35permalink

    Another blast hits Egypt gas pipeline

    ­An explosion has hit Egypt’s gas pipeline supplying Israel and Jordan through Northern Sinai, Reuters reports. The blast – the 14th on this pipeline – took place near the city of al-Arish. Local residents said they could hear the sound of the explosion.

    It’s easy. “You can get it if you really want it…”

  • Mary

    Q. Is the Dame Grand and Cross? How out of touch and dated the system is.
    .
    ‘Awards under the Royal Victorian Order are in the Queen’s personal gift and are given by the head of state to people who have served her or the monarchy in a personal way, and are bestowed independently of 10 Downing Street.’
    .
    Well we all know what services are referred to, carried out over an extended period of time.
    .
    Queen Gives Camilla Special Anniversary Gift
    http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16205138

  • Suhayl Saadi

    The irony wrt the BBC World Service is that despite the fact that it was FCO-run, it had a reputation for delivering the most even-handed news reports – certainly compared with the rest of the BBC and other terrestrial channels. This was why ‘everybody’ of many political persuasions in far-flung countries tried to listen to it, esp. in the days before satellite broadcasting, internet social newtworks, etc. Also, reactionary/Thatcherite/NeoCon govts in the UK always seemed bent on reducing its budget, cutting staff, etc. Of course, one could argue that at base, this supposedly scrupulous objectivity was simply a means of achieving ‘full-spectrum dominance’ of the range of news possibilities, and/or that it was the soft power face of imperialism (an aspect, then, of the FCO), not unlike liberal foundation funding of eco/anti-establishment groups (the ‘Light Side of the Moon’, as it were). Nonetheless, it was an interesting and somewhat illuminating irony.
    .
    Happy Easter, everyone.

  • Mary

    Shame on Neill, Swinney, Salmond and the SNP.
    .
    Scottish Government helped Israeli company deal with boycott “threatening future of Eden Springs UK”
    .
    Documents obtained by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign show how a subsidiary of an Israeli company operating in Britain turned successfully for help from the Scottish Government to deal with what the Israeli company called “a wave of protests…that is threatening the future of Eden Springs UK”. The contract cancellations had created a “pressing situation” for the subsidiary of the giant Israeli multinational water cooler company.
    .

    The letter obtained under Freedom of Information legislation is from the Eden Springs’ Business Development Director to the Director of Scottish enterprise, and reveals a fear of the growing boycott of Eden Springs. The writer seeks a meeting with an official of Government-funded Scottish Enterprise to obtain “advice or assistance to stem undue harm” to the Israeli company, namely how to avoid further “termination of Eden Springs’ public sector contracts as a result of this boycott”.
    .
    /…
    http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3737:scottish-government-helped-israeli-company-deal-with-boycott-qthreatening-future-of-eden-springs-ukq&catid=288&Itemid=200256

  • Mary

    PS The important part of that Eden Springs story is:
    .
    Despite the First Minister’s speech, the Scottish Government the following year gave £200,000 of Scottish taxpayers’ money to Eden Springs, some of which will end up as profits in Israel, taxed there and freeing up state funds for military aggression and further dispossession of the Palestinian people.

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