I was called by a journalist yesterday who told me that in Dewsbury six years ago I shared a platform with Baroness Warsi’s now husband at a meeting against the persecution of Muslims. Sadly I couldn’t really help him as at the time I was doing hundreds such events and have only the dimmest of recollections of that one.
It is not merely amusing that Cameron refers Warsi for investigation for allegedly pocketing a couple of thousand quid while protecting Hunt who tried so hard to shepherd the Murdoch BSkyB bid past the winning post, while pretending to referee the event.
Nor is the lesson just that a Muslim woman will always be expendable while a fully paid up member of the ruling class will be less so.
The truth is that to trip up an MP over a little cash does not threaten the system. To tackle the massive institutional corruption by which corporate interests control the British state is a different question altogether.
Hunt is of course not the only case not to be referred. Nor was the Adam Werritty debacle, where rather than the proper investigative procedures Cameron organised a tidy little stitch-up by Gus O’Donnell which omitted almost all the key facts and particularly did not say what the entire scheme was about – the promotion of the interests of Israel. The Murdoch Empite, the Israeli lobby, these are amongst the interests that actually run the exploited citizenry of this poor wracked old country. Every now and then glimpses of truth emerge.
But must not be pursued.
Herbie, that is eaxctly it. If one reads the National Archives in London, one can see – even from the declassified Foreign Office files – that the persistent modus operandum of at least the UK has been to foster division across the ‘Greater Middle East’, to enhance and exacerbate tribal and religious divisions – to arm all sides simultaneously – and to resist nationalist/progressive regimes, all with a view to preventing the region uniting as an economic block and controlling its own resources – oil and gas. Perhaps Craig might be able to tell us something more on this subject.
.
So, Herbie, you/we are most certainly not paranoid. indeed, often we are not paranoid enough!
Islamist paramilitaries are used by the UK/USA when it is expedient to do so – this has happened recurrently – and any regime which behaves independently is targeted for destablisation. This is not just now – it’s been UK policy since WW1. The existence of ‘Saudi’ Arabia has been the most damaging thing for the region and also more widely and that entity was another British creation. It is sustained in a strategic alliance by the USA and UK, as we can see, and in return does the USA/UK’s bidding when reqd. It is one of the most backward, reactionary regimes on the planet and yet it is supported in every way by the USA/UK – this of course gives the lie to al that rhetoric about supporting the ‘Arab Spring’ blah blah blah. UK mercenaries, Pakistani troops and Gulf Coop Troops were used to smash the protestors in Bahrain. Iran is targeted, not because it is an Islamist regime but because it behaves in an independent manner. But as we know, the UK/USA and the others have armed Iran too!
Of course, the arms industry – white, grey and black – is a great circus of death in which just about everyone is involved. Russia, Germany, France, Israel, China, UK, USA and so on are the biggest arms manufacturers and everyone sells to everyone. It doesn’t create as many jobs domestically as it likes to make out. The same amount of money – OUR money – invested in any other ara of business or social enterprise, would generate far more jobs than the arms industry. It’s huegly subsided by OUR taxes, it’s ineffecient, uneconomic and does not operate in a free market context but rather, in a statal/parastatal rubric. We pay billions to bribe Saudi princes, Tanzanian govt officials, etc. to buy military hardware they do not need and could never use. the profits go to tax havens. Disputes are maginfied by floods of ordnance into full-scale wars and genocide, eg. Rwanda. In other words, it’s an enormous racket. And as cameron demonstrated when he visietd Egypt right after the fall of Mubarak, our rulers are simply arms salesmen and saleswomen.
.
Al Yamamah – “Who’s yer mama?” (wrt Mark Thatcher).
.
Also, I am told – in answer to the question I have asked many times on this webiste and to which I have never received a definitive answer, i.e. ‘Does the UK state assassinate individuals?’ – that the SIS specialises in assassinating people and the CIA have often relied on the SIS to undertake such work. This, then, is the ‘special relationship’.
Suhayl Saadi,
But as we know, the UK/USA and the others have armed Iran too!
,
That was in the old days, as Saddam’s war on Iran drew longer and longer, without any success for Saddam, despite the fact that he was supported by the various NATO generals planning and executing his attacks, and the real time satellite down-link station in the down town Baghdad providing him with up to the second intelligence, in addition to the massive amounts of money and weapons provided for Saddam as part of the military aid packages, by US, UK, et al.
,
The deal to provide some kind of military aid for Iran did not in any way affect the outcome of the war, which was basically Saddam losing the war, however the so called help was more of a conspiracy to supply weapons to contras and foment more unrest in the Latin American continent, with the Iranians money, proceeds of the highly inflated weapons prices that were sold to them.
,
At the start of the war of Saddam on Iran, Iranians did not have the capability of providing barbed wire locally, and they had to import every basic requirement and lacking infrastructure to cope with battle casualties doctors were imported along too. This was the country that was left behind by the “democratic Shah”, a literal basket case. The almost hopeless situation that Iranians had found themselves in, was further exacerbated by the revolutionary courts having tried and put to death most of the Shah era generals, and high ranking officers. Hence the visions of Swaggering Saddam to Tehran to rid the US, UK from those turbulent priests/Mullahs in Tehran.
,
Fact that the current Iran is a weapons provider, and enjoys an infirmary in every village with more than forty households is a far cry from the weak Iran in those early days. Hence the reason for her not to have been attacked so far, because she can give as good as as she receives, and we all know that an even and fair war is not what the bullies are looking for.
,
Don’t fall into the trap of these self aggrandizing bastards whom have turned “historical records” into a dangerous mixture of lies, and half truths, in which the “good” (ie themselves) always intended the outcomes and ordained these thus!
,
Lets face it, if these hairless monkeys were capable of such a feat, then the current financial crisis would not be, these monkeys have set up the game, set up the rules, and set up the loaded dice and the skewed board all as per their own wanton greed, further with their incestuous practices, they have ensured barring any outsiders from gaining any foot hold in their scam. Simply put without any competition, and competitors, yet they managed to fuck up on a grand scale that we have come to see. Therefore applying the proof of the pudding principles we find these monkeys cannot hold a piss-up in a brewery, yet to remain able to ordain the vertical, and horizontal?
have the gremlins taken me comment?
BTW no one seems to care about the downed Turkish fighter!
I have been on record that the basis of the US, UK belligerency/arial supremacy is formed around the “friend or foe” system disabling any kind of retaliation. This has been case historically the countries under attack have proved to be incapable of putting up the least rudimentary defensive measures whilst under attack.
,
The downed US built fighter clearly proves that Syrian defenses are fully operational and can kick the intruders in the nuts if needs arise, despite the ITN news down playing the hit by citing the age of the fighter, since when, modern avionics have remained as old as the airframe?
Gotta love the Guardian’s latest take on Syria: the West offering Assad clemency and Cameron saying “we’re running out of time.” The former assmes Assad’s guilt. But what’s he guilty of? Putting down a Western-backed armed insurrection? Well, yes.
The latter is correct for the wrong reasons. Time is running out, again yes – but for regime change; Assad, with Russian and Chinese help, is kicking rebel ass. This really is the Malabar Front and, thank fuck, I think more and more people can see the lies that have got us to this point.
I get the feeling this is a step too far for the crumbling neoliberal empire, however, unless we have some event that enables the supine media to finger “the correct” culprit…
Ditty for the West
Out with Gadaffi,
In with chaos.
So?
Why not let’s do it all again?
We live in a world with:-
– resource wars
– the US quest for global hegmonic domination
– other nations carving out spheres of influence for dominance
– massive areas of poverty
and I could go on – but can humanity do better?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KphWsnhZ4Ag
So the Turkish plane was sent into Syrian airspace why exactly? To provoke a reaction and give an excuse to NATO? or was it an accident? [Will we ever know?]
Bahrain: Campaign to arrest dictator’s torturer son as repression intensifies
Bahrain Freedom Movement – 22/06/2012 – 11:51 am | Hits: 111
.
The arrest, torture and abuse of a young University girl student by the men of John Timoney and John Yates have shaken the country to the core. Zahra Al Shaikh, 21, from Karbabad, was arrested for taking part in an anti-regime peaceful protest.
.
She was subjected to horrific treatment, stripped and indecent images of her taken by the security forces. She is accused of anti-regime activities and is threatened with long term prison sentence. Bahrainis have been horrified at the treatment of this young Bahraini girl and have vowed not to accept Alkhalifa rule and to resist it at any cost.
.
As the Alkhalifa regime intensified its crackdown against Bahrainis, Mohammad Al Buflasa has been arrested and taken to the torture chambers. Mr Al Buflasa is a young Bahraini who was the first to be imprisoned after the Revolution following a speech at the Pearl Roundabout in February 2011. He remained behind bars for ten months before being released. He comes from Sunni background and his participation in the people’s revolution has angered the Alkhalifa who have been trying to present a sectarian argument to explain the Revolution. Several NGOs have issued statements demanding Al Buflasa’s immediate release, but, to date, Mohammad is still in incarceration at the Alkhalifa torture dungeons.
/..
.
http://vob.org/en/index.php?show=news&action=article&id=1644
Nothing forthcoming from Sir Philip Hampton Chairman or Stephen Hester CEO on the RBS NatWest banking fiasco. Instead they put a young woman Susan Allen out to speak to the media. 12,000 million customers have been affected.
.
Hampton has been on the boards of many FTSE100 companies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Hampton
The usual suspects and the usual wheels within wheels.
.
http://www.rbs.com/about/board-and-committees/group-board.html
So far as the downed Turkish fighter goes, we must look at nature to find the answers; any predator before going on its final attack run, reconnoiters and mounts false attacks on its intended victim. As it is with sharks, and hoodlums too, these during their initial false attack phase, are getting the measure of their victims, and if the shark gets a thumping on the nose, and or the hoodlum gets a kick up the butt, then the attack is aborted and the next victims is sought.
,
Given the time lapses, and the half hearted attempts of the media in explaining away the downing of the ghost/phantom/fighter at a low altitude, clearly is the thump on the nose of the shark, and a message to the would be predators; “your arse is going to be owned suckers”.
,
The plans on attacking Syria will have to to take into account Syrians can and will retaliate given any kind of the Libyan operation redux.
12 million customers have been affected by the RBS Natwest computer breakdown not 12,000 million!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb50-ouA-IA&feature=related
Ben Griffin: Former SAS, Banned speech to Anti-War Rally on Torture, Rendition and War
Has anyone ever thought why is all this happening ?. I know it has all been happening for, well ever, but not on the vast scale it is happening at present.
.
I think there is FAR worse coming, I look for a reason, came up with this…
.
Global resources, not so much about gaining control of the ever valuable natural resources running out, to me its about keeping whats left of global resources to the control of just a few, to keep the system that keeps favouring them in place. For this in the end to be successful they can’t allow mankind to keep on using up whats left on the scale he is at present, too soon there won’t be much left, then what ?. gain the control, then deal with that problem, I don’t like what I am thinking.
Global resources grab – I assume that Aung San Suu Kyi is aware of the reason why she is being courted and why sanctions on her country are being lifted. Bercow’s speech in Westminster Hall was excruciating. Mrs C Bliar the human rights lawyer was seated in the front row next to Brown along from Cameron, both famous for their human rights records.
I read that Coca Cola are returning and that Total already have a big deal. More following – http://www.mizzima.com/business/7377-burma-signs-flurry-of-oil-gas-deals.html
.
‘Burma, once known as the “the rice bowl of Asia” is a resource-rich country with large deposits of natural gas, oil, tungsten and gems such as ruby and sapphire, and sanctions were lifted earlier this year to reward its recent wave of political reforms.
.
President Thein Sein will travel to London for talks with David Cameron, a move Aung San Suu Kyi said would help her country avoid being “shackled by the past”.
.
I did not know that Suu Kii’s father, an army general, was assassinated.
{http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/355473/20120622/aung-san-suu-kyi-little-more-disdain.htm}
Google have a clever widget to commemorate the 100th birthday of Alan Turing.
.
http://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en
.
On the BBC website, there is an article saying that the suicide verdict reached in 1954 is suspect. The half eaten apple by the side of his body was never tested for cyanide.
.
Alan Turing: Inquest’s suicide verdict ‘not supportable’
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18561092}
Mary
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=4dbd08ffa8ff246d29f42bc72037ab95&showtopic=19220&hl=
Mary: “Google have a clever widget to commemorate the 100th birthday of Alan Turing.”
.
I very much appreciate their respect for Turing. There is a story that went about, I am not quite sure how true it is, that when Churchill was shown the people who had been assembled at Bletchley Park to crack the Enigma codes he said something along the lines of, “When I told you to leave no stone unturned to find the right people I didn’t mean literally!”
.
Anyone know if Churchill really did say something as disparaging as that about those who, like himself, helped win the war against actual fascism?
Good to read Alex Thomson on Twitter saying this:
‘Turkey’s PM appears to be saying they couldn’t help invading Syrian airspace because of the speed of the plane. Not convincing’.
.
Would love to read Craig’s take both on Assange/Ecuador and Turkey/Syria. But I imagine he’s halfway to Kabul or something!
Thanks for your comment at 22 Jun, 2012 – 8:58 am, Komodo. I’d agree with most of it. But as for this bit: “It might be an idea to explore the idea of indexing past pages properly on the site”, I’m pretty sure I remember a moderator (or maybe a site designer) complaining to Craig that he wasn’t using proper ‘tags’ on posts, so many or most of them ended up uncategorised. And that might prove a problem to indexing. Just guessing …
.
Suhayl, good to see you popping in!
Suhayl – nice to read your comments again. SIS do not assassinate as far as I know. They increasingly rely on ‘executive action’ from the Israeli ‘Kidon’ which has a close relationship with British secret services and includes our elite special forces who as we know have ‘murdered’ in the context of ‘war’ suspected IRA terrorists, this as a matter of public record. Of course we are still engaged in an unending war against terrorism and a terrorist does include a rebel, revolutionary or radical in today’s abuse of article 51 of the UN Charter.
.
Hire for murder is de rigeur betwixt gentlemen!
The Phantom F4 is a wonderful plane to listen to and watch.The noise produced by its after burners is out of this world.I spent many a day watching them take off from Leuchars as a kid.
No doubt having them shot down is cheaper than scrapping them.
This CNN anker is one hilarious guy:
.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2012/06/21/ctw-intv-assange-friend-on-his-fear-of-extradition.cnn
.
He subsequently twatted:
.
{Max Foster (@MaxFosterCNN)
22/06/2012 10:25
Was I too tough with #Assange supporter Vaughan Smith or just adding balance? cnn.com/video/data/2.0… #cnn}
.
That old BBC defence. He used to work for them. I say work, but you know what I mean.
“and includes our elite special forces who as we know have ‘murdered’ in the context of ‘war’ suspected IRA terrorists …”
.
Mark, not correcting you or anything, but Patrick Finucane was a human rights lawyer, who had simply acted as a defense counsel for Sinn Fein/IRA accused.
.
“Two public investigations concluded that elements of the British state apparatus colluded in Finucane’s murder and there have been high-profile calls for a public inquiry. However, in October 2011, it was announced that a planned public inquiry would be replaced by a less wide-ranging review …”
.
“On 11 October 2011, members of the Finucane family met with Prime Minister David Cameron in Downing Street. Cameron provided them with an official apology for state collusion into Pat Finucane’s death. Following the meeting, Finucane’s son Michael said that he and the family had been “genuinely shocked” to learn that the Cory recommendation of a public enquiry, previously accepted by Tony Blair, would not be followed, and that a review of the Stevens and Cory casefiles would be undertaken instead. Geraldine Finucane described the proposal as “nothing less than an insult…a shoddy, half-hearted alternative to a proper public inquiry”.[25] The following day, the official apology was given publicly in the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson.[26]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Finucane_%28solicitor%29
.
I don’t know where collusion ends and assassination begins, to be honest.
I should add that I know that “elements of the British state apparatus” doesn’t equate to “our elite special forces”. It’s fuzzy language.
Others (in the North, probably) would know better than me.
Came across this.
.
“I have updated my page on Jack White to include details of his death. The biography was actually written by Jack and I see some of the obituaries have quoted from it.
.
http://www.spartacus…k/JFKwhiteJ.htm
.
This is what Jack wrote on 2nd April 2004:
.
On 11-22-63 I was certain it was LBJ and cronies. For the next 30 years I read every book and watched every TV show, and considered… the CIA, the Mafia, the Cubans, the Russians, the Secret Service… you name it, I considered it. But I knew it was not a lone nut kid named Oswald. By about 1990 I was back where I started. I was certain it was LBJ and friends.
.
Over the years, logic prevailed. Who benefited most? Who had the motive, means, opportunity? Who could cover up the crime? Who could control the autopsy? Who could control the investigations and the investigators? Who could control the evidence and suppress or change it? Who could fabricate evidence in the hands of the FBI? Who could control the media? Who could control the public? Who could control the patsy? Who could fabricate the Zabruder film? Certainly not Dulles… Giancana… Castro… Kruschev… etc.
.
ANSWER: THE POWER OF THE PRESIDENCY…. especially a venal and corrupt president and his friends, backers, and cronies. Lyndon Baines Johnson. He controlled Texas. He controlled Dallas. He controlled Hoover. He controlled Dulles. He controlled the military. He controlled Warren and the commission. He had alliances with the mafia and the media. He and Hoover used BLACKMAIL and murder to control those he could not control. Hoover fabricated evidence for him. Hoover was his next door neighbor. He allied himself with Hoover, Dullles, Nixon and his backers in the oil/military industrial complex/CIA/military to carry out the murder.
.
That is the truth. It was so obvious all along. One of the most corrupt men in all of history… LBJ.”
.
{http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=cfa78c1f045bacb7f242d8e39d731bda&showtopic=19212&st=30}
There’s an interesting recent interview with Norman Finklestein on HardTalk conducted by Sarah Montague:
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNAKWF1uQ08
.
What’s interesting is the interviewer’s insistence that Finklestein is some sort of rabid extremist loony who really ought not to be listened to by sensible people. And she cites time and again what sensible people ought to think. She even calls as witness to her case none other than Guardian hack Jonathan Friedland. Wow. Norm dismisses this in a deliciously amusing fashion and calls as his witnesses rather more serious academic figures such as Raul Hilberg and Paul Krugman.
.
Remember he’s only arguing here that his position is mainstream. The interviewer is attempting to portray him as extreme.
.
I’ve seen this tactic used time and time again by hacks. It’s often used with Chomsky, for example and Chomsky then points to the official documents etc which support his case. The hacks point to other hacks and vague public perceptions.
.
On the one hand you’ve got an academic narrative on an issue and on the other you’ve got a media narrative of the same issue. Media in this sense doesn’t expore and seek answers. It seeks only to reinforce a dominant narrative, largely created by media itself.
.
That’s what’s happening with Assange, for example.
.
But anyway, it seems to me at least that this media tactic is losing its power to deceive. I seem to remember that the media narrative was much more powerful in the past and much more difficult to contest.
.
In the CNN clip above it did seem as if the CNN anker didn’t really believe what he was arguing and that’s why he did it so poorly. I suspect that many of them are giving up the ghost. There’s just too many alternative sources of information today for their deceits to work, and no one wants to end up like Comical Ali as the tanks of truth roll up their lawn. All of them need a plausible deniability to their previous support for the ancien regime, as it collapses around them
.
We can have fun with this, of course. There’ll always be the dimmer brethren who are still voicing support for the old regime as the new order’s tanks roll over their heads.
.
Please submit your own examples. This is my entry.
“Why there have been no prosecutions of major fraud under Obama”
.
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=cfa78c1f045bacb7f242d8e39d731bda&showtopic=19201&hl=