Those coming from Central Asia, Bahrain, Qatar or Saudi Arabia to the Olympics, interested to see what life in a democracy feels like, will find it seems exactly like life at home in their dictatorship. 17,000 soldiers will be glowering over the venues, checking identity documents, stopping and searching. The mlitary will occupy residential buildings, be buzzing overhead, rolling down the streets and patrolling the river. There will be missiles on land, sea and air, though nobody knows what the threat is that this is supposed to counter.
What will make our dictatorship resident visitors feel especially at home is the contempt for the ordinary citizen. Not only will they have the military all over them and be subject to frequent stopping and questioning, they will be expected continually to get out of the way of their betters. Special VIP lanes on the road will allow officials to sweep by, while normal citizens will simply have to sit in gridlock and stew. Who cares? The military will stick missiles on your roof if they wish. What they are going to shoot down, and which bit of London it will land on, is not to be questioned.
Here in Ramsgate we are losing our regular train service to London completely for the duration. All the HS1 trains are being commandeered to run a shuttle service between Ebbsfleet and Stratford. 22 trains a day from Ramsgate are simply cancelled. Slow trains are available, but a journey normally 70 minutes will become – at the fastest possible – 2 hours and 35 minutes. A large number of commuters will simply be unable to get to work anything like on time, and have to spend door to door over seven hours a day in travelling as well as their working day. Nobody was consulted. Quite a few don’t yet know – there has been no determined effort to tell people. Leaflets are available in the ticket office if you ask for one.
But the leaflets might as well just say, “You are fucked, and we don’t care”.
The extra 3,500 military personnel it was today announced will be used at the games cover a shortfall in Group Four personnel. Group Four were providing 4,000 paid staff and 6,000 unpaid volunteers. It is the unpaid volunteer numbers which are short by 3,500.
Most people are not stupid. They may volunteer happily for sport or for charity, but to work for nothing to make tens of millions of pounds of profit for Group Four as it exploits them, plainly does not have universal appeal. Those 2,500 who have volunteered to work for nothing for G4S are the idiots in this story. How gullible can you be?
Bob Russell, MP for Colchester, today in parliament made the excellent point to Teresa May that Group Four (or G4S as they now call themselves) should not be employed because of their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s illegal activities in the West Bank and human rights abuse there. With breathtaking chutzpah Teresa May replied that it was this kind of valuable international experience that made Group Four the right company to provide security for the games.
Which brings me back to my point at the start. Those visiting from oppressive regimes will feel absolutely at home. That is the one and only thing you can trust Teresa May to ensure with grim efficiency.
Ref outsourcing, Serco have been given the contract to run London’s community payback schemes, part of the probation service.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18827469
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But earlier this week, the chief inspector of probation for England and Wales, Liz Calderbank, warned about the dangers of contracting out probation services.
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Writing in the inspectorate’s annual report, Ms Calderbank said she had “concerns” the plans would make it harder to manage medium-risk offenders who commit most serious further offences.
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She said it would be “regrettable” if services became fragmented as a result of more providers being involved, as this would increase the potential for communication problems.
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Quite so.
Mr Murray
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Why then compare possible grimness of Olympic estates to “soviet era Moscow estates” if as you said there are such estates in the UK itself? Why not to compare them to something with what Britons are more familiar, grimness of estates of East London itself for instance. That was the point I was making.
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And also that, that during soviet era estates, as I said, were provided for free, no mortgage, not even nominal payment from tenants. Whereas grim estates in East London cost 25-30 years of hardwork and saving on many other things including having normal family, with children.
Uzbek, I can’t believe that the Cold War arms race was entirely the doing of the USSR. The US/UK/IS have enthusiastically maintained their nuclear arsenal well beyond the fall of the USSR, with no end in sight, and I’m convinced they would have developed that arsenal even if the USSR had never existed.
I remember the Lee Valley from the 1960s. Even the Wanstead end was an open industrial sewer, flanked by a rubbish tip over which some hardy souls shot rats – and, bizarrely, even the odd pheasant. Further south, it served for my own mental model for Magnetogorsk in the rain. Mind you, it didn’t have such organised gangs then. People lived there because they had to.
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Following the money on the Olympics, however, I found this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041229/Tory-donor-Jamie-Ritblat-snaps-Olympic-Village-knock-price–costing-275m.html
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Jamie’s father, “Sir” John, conversely, was a supporter of Blair. Must be coincidence.
Clark
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I am not saying that USSR did it entirely on its own. Yes, it was from both sides, but if soviet government was not able to keep up with “bloody capitalists” and as it was obvious that nuclear deterrence was reached and will prevent “bloody capitalists” from staring nuclear war against USSR, why would USSR continue to keep up. Yes, it did its damage on soviet budget and economy overall, but it was done by choice, at least from 1970th and onwards.
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Accidently Chinese communist were much smarter than their soviet counterparts (who thought that they were superior). Chinese have stopped at some point when it was obvious that US would not dare to start nuclear was against them. (Not only because of this but) but Chinese communists are still ruling and USSR is a history of the last 21 years.
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One might argue about US/UK/IS nuclear arms development without USSR and so far US was the only nation that used nuclear weapon in war. It is also the fact that US had monopoly of at least 4 years and did not use it against their major enemy.
Another well written thread bang on the money, Craig. Thanks for some of the links everyone.
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The placing of these missiles, as the last option, after an aircraft already breached the no fly zone, shows the reality for the future of the Olympic games in repressive countries.
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For an aircraft to be shot down over a highly populated Metropolitan area, after the air force failed to attend and divert an aircraft that’s just departed from one of the local nearby airports and was taken over, is a capitulation. Placing these missiles so close to the Olympic site, when ideally they should be halfway between said airports and the possible target site, could be either construed as a decision badly planned, or as a cool calculation for a 911 top up, a hand up for the war on terror.
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As an ex surface to air missile op/radar mechanic, these in your face siting’s do not make any sense militarily.
Clark
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If you look at my first post on the matter, you’ll see that I made the fairly uncontroversial observation that politicians do not speak their mind. They act upon instructions, in a corporate manner or a collective manner if you wish.
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I described the change in the British corporate interest from Arabist to Israeli in the space of about 20 years. I’m sure Craig will remember the Arabist nature of the FCO from his earlier days.
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That’s quite an important point, especially if someone else thinks they’re all acting in a personal capacity.
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Mary then challenged my uncontroversial point, by claiming that May had personal interests in a pro-Israeli stance other than pure ambition.
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Mary then seems to think that May and others will be embarrassed by her pointing out their apparent pro-Israeli stance. Obviously, nothing could be further from the truth.
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The evidence I provide in my last post above indicates that that is obviously not the case, quite simply because the dominant theme in media, politics and business is now pro-Israeli. It’s much more embarrassing and carreer damaging today to be pro-Palestinian, as we’ve seen in the case of Jenny Tonge.
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So you see, I really am being quite objective and counter-evidential about this. Mary, on the other hand, makes what can only be described as a personal argument.
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In such circumstances it’s necessary to challenge that personalised argument, with a rather more objective assessment of the situation. That will necessarily involve some enagement with the personalised argument.
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Which is what I did.
Any connection to what’s coming up at Stratford? Or just routine?
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/gps-jamming-exercises/300512b
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Home Stakeholders Spectrum GPS jamming exercises Forthcoming GPS jamming exercises Forthcoming GPS jamming exercises, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, July 2012
SALISBURY PLAIN, WILTSHIRE, July 2012
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Dates: Between the 2nd of July and the 11th of July 2012 (Weekdays only).
Times: 0700 – 2000 GMT.
Location of MULTIPLE jammers: Land based within 5km of N51 12, W001 58.5
Frequency: A 24 MHz band centred around 1575.42MHz (GPS L1).
Total Power: Up to 10 Watts EIRP.
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It is stressed that, as in previous exercises, Safety of Life operations will at all times take precedence over exercise activities.
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Ofcom stakeholders should contact [email protected]
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Herbie what you are trying to do with your admittedly cacthy miles wide, millimetres deep idea is convince some stray ‘floating voters’ on the subject of Palestine that the deeply suspect and hypocritical in human rights terms allegiance to the cause of Zionism – that is the religious supremacist expropriation or eradication of the Palestinian peoples and their descendants homes, land, culture and very existance, through lessons in genocide taken straight out of the despots cookbook is just an unalarming phenomena of chance. Allegiance openly bought and paid for, hawked to the highest bidders, banking and monopoly interests, of the majority of politicians of all political parties and all strata of the establishment plutocrats running this dysfunctinal elective dicatatorship we kick against, is nothing we should concern our fluffy little heads about, so superficial is it. Like some fickle brand of sauce preferment, or to suggest that this is some recent state of affairs, some 20-year flip-flop from previous pro-Arab condition, that has never at any time existed. It is a softer line than god gave us this land in some book of fairy tales and we’re his chosen people, the rest of you are just cattle, who we are free to dupe and murder, which is tolerated, humoured, admired by other equally batty exceptionalists –but no less ineffectual. There is no other side to see than the Palestinian side because their cause is right and just and the other not.
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The very existence of CFI LFI and the rest was the death of our illusory democracy, there is no need of further discussion on that point, the issue before us is new democratic structures which keep such would-be power-brokers and abusers impotent.
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Israel in a state of perpetual moral collapse doesn’t have a friend in the world, no friendships based on mutual trust and respect, only faux-friends co-opted or bribed with recycled American taxes – US medical care, education, social welfare axed to buy more jets and bombs to rain death on children playing amongst dirt, eradicable disease and hunger – that kitty seemingly inexhaustible is plundered by ambitious politicians to ensure healthy bank balances, good press and their unmerited rise to places where their mercenary attitudes and lack of human compassion invite bloody disaster.
KingFelix, thanks for the link to Sir John Sawyers. If MI6 is issuing information it is disinformation (always) like the warning about an attack on London on the day we all marched to Hyde Park to try and avert the unholy war in Iraq. If it is real information they keep it to themselves.
Clark Thank you for that. I do not propose to engage in any to and fro on this subject. The mere fact of my calling May a Zionist supporter (easily confirmed by a) her immediate and callous response to the MP about G4S’s expertise in Israel, b) her invitation to visit Israel to speak to Herzliya and c) her horrible treatment of Sheikh Raed Salah based on info from the Community Security Trust) seems to have triggered this response. There is no point in engaging in this convoluted argument and certainly not first hand.
This is just the latest in this sorry tale. It really is a cesspit. But it’s OK folks. We don’t want any empty seats showing do we.
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London 2012: Probe as sponsors’ tickets sold to public
By James Pearce BBC Olympics correspondent
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The company at the heart of the allegations is CoSport
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‘Lethal force’ protects Olympics
M4 reopens after emergency repair
MP defends free Olympics tickets
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An investigation has been launched after the BBC found sponsors’ Olympics tickets had been sold to the public for 20% more than their face value.
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This is a breach of the International Olympic Committee’s rules.
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Three of the biggest sponsors of London 2012, Dow Chemical, Acer and GE, have been caught up in the scandal.
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But there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of the companies as the tickets were sold on by a separate agency.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18831826
Herbie, I think your point about politicians playing their assigned corporate roles is valid, but Mary only called May a “Zionist supporter” rather than an outright Zionist; there didn’t really seem much difference between your positions, and I felt that the personal thing had gone far enough. I hope that’s OK with you.
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Goes Bananas, I think you’re reading more into Herbie’s statements than is warranted. Please don’t jump onto a “moderation bandwagon”.
Mary: “Home Stakeholders Spectrum GPS jamming exercises” – this could be a response to the method Iran claimed to have used to land that US drone. They said that they overrode GPS with signals of their own, thus “tricking” the drone into its pre-programmed landing sequence. Did anyone see any drones around Salisbury Plain earlier this month?
I think that this country is nowhere near Saudi Arabia in so many ways. The ways in which it is – the imprisonment without trial or charges of Tahla Asan for six years here, for example – go largely unnoticed. But the farce of the Olympics is being pointed up beautifully by the Daily Mash. Oddly, Corporate Watch, among others, knew all of this before we ‘bidded’ for the Olympics in 2005:
“It is,however, the taxpayers who will supply most of the money to host
the Games – just as in Athens, where the Games are currently thirty
percent over budget, leaving the Greek taxpayers, who have already
stumped up £3.3 billion, to find an extra £1.5 billion to support them.
Other concerns with previous Olympics include the fact that in Los
Angeles, Atlanta and Seoul, Korea, there was wholesale removal of
homeless people and criminalising of poverty to make way for the
businesses. In Atlanta, 8000 people were removed from the streets.
Community and environmental groups are already making a noise over
Vancouver ’s pursuit to host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, with
critics concerned about the lasting economic, environmental, political
and social impacts of doing so. While currently, in New York, a
determined coalition of residents and small business owners looks
likely to succeed in blocking that city’s bid for the 2012 Games.
Unless London residents do the same, the way will then be left clear
for London and Paris to fight it out between them. Bechtel and Jarvis,
however, are certain to win; as are McDonalds, Visa, and CocaCola –
just three of the Games’ official sponsors.”
yet people seem very surprised. I suppose that is the problem with ‘news’ – it is generally, really, quite old.
Sir John Sawyers really should be challenged on how his allegations about Iran’s nuclear programme can be so utterly in contradiction with the most authoritative statements available, from the UN IAEA and the US NSA and CIA. If the evidence remains secret, it’s just the Iraq “Dodgy Dossier” and “Missiles in 45 minutes” claims all over again.
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Hello Technicolour, good to see you here again.
I said it was all advertising:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/10/london-olympics-lockdown-2012-games
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I just hope they haven’t scheduled a false-flag event as a live demonstration. Apparently, the original quote is in the Financial Times, but I can’t reach that article.
Clark – wonderful balancing act; much appreciated from someone no good at heights!
Rumours persist that spy drones might be used by the military to monitor events at the London Olympics. I have no intelligence that suggests the rumours are based on firm decisions by military commanders and agreed with the government. I do suggest a question should be asked in Parliament to confirm or otherwise the use of unmanned aerial vehicles or UAV’s to monitor Olympic events in London or elsewhere.
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{http://news.techeye.net/security/unmanned-drones-pose-olympic-risk#ixzz1ypBTpcdj}
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Meanwhile the IOC is still pressured for 1 minutes silence at the Olympic opening ceremony as a tribute for lost lives in the Munich Olympics in 1972.
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http://www.zionist.org.uk/?page_id=750
Mrs May’s tenure is proving to be costly to the nation. When will Cameron have his night of the long knives? He hasn’t had a reshuffle only resignations like those of Fox, Hughne or Laws.
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£225,000 pay-off for Border chief
Jul 12 2012
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The former head of the UK Border Force received a £225,000 pay-off after accusing Theresa May of undermining him for “political convenience”.
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Brodie Clark was suspended last November when a row broke out over the relaxation of checks on passengers.
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He left his £135,000-a-year post shortly afterwards to launch a constructive dismissal case, saying the Home Secretary had used him as a scapegoat.
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Neither side confirmed the size of a settlement reached in March.
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However, a note to the UK Border Agency’s annual accounts stated: “Mr Clark resigned on November 8, 2011.
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“A settlement payment of £225,000 was subsequently made without an admission of liability or wrongdoing from either side.”
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The accounts say Mr Clark, who had served for 40 years, also has a pension fund worth some £1.47 million.
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He is due to receive £60-65,000 per annum and a lump sum of up to £195,000 on retirement.
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!!
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http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/uk-world-news/2012/07/12/225-000-pay-off-for-border-chief-99623-31381128/
Rothschild and weather control. Worth noting the international currency mentioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y796MdZ8GL8
Please can the Olympics succeed for all the young athletes. Who deserve it.
4.
of an exalted moral or mental character or excellence: a noble thought. Synonyms: lofty, elevated, high-minded, principled; magnanimous; honorable, estimable, worthy, meritorious. Antonyms: ignoble, base; vulgar, common.
What a complete and utter b*****d.
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A group of England’s lowest-funded local education authorities has had its bid for extra funding turned down by the Education Secretary Michael Gove. Schools run by members of the group, known as f40, get up to £600 less in basic grant per pupil than the local council average.
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cf
Turning them down, Mr Gove blamed the economic situation. The group heard the decision just days before Mr Gove announced approval for about 100 new free schools.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18827591
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And don’t you think our Olympics minister, Nr *unt has been rather silent on the security fiasco? Not long ago Cameron was saying how well he had performed in that role.
Mary, with respect, I will never understand why you quote the BBC so much. You profess to despise them, you call them “ZBC”, and you’re c and p-ing news that most of us have seen from one source or another during the day anyway. That’s seven times on this thread alone, I believe.
“I just hope they haven’t scheduled a false-flag event as a live demonstration.” — Clark
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I pray not. But they’re rather short of “scary terrorist” activities at the moment and I’d be very afraid they’d arrange one. They’re clearly not above arranging “massacres” in Syria when a UNSC resolution is on the table … the UN said very clearly that the Houla massacre could not be laid at the door of one side or the other. They didn’t have the evidence. And yet, when another atrocity occurs, Hague and Clinton and Co are straight out with the “appalled at Assad” routine. I get so angry I am constantly texting Sky News and asking them why they are indulging in war propaganda. A waste of time, I know. But it’s better than sitting here seething.
George Galloway on Syria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTuZeHYABaY&feature=youtu.be
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Does my heart good.
I am so glad I am over here in South Sudan rather than in London…I personally do noy give a flying fuck about the Olympics, though I do feel sorry for Craig when he wants to drop into London….maybe best to forget the commute and take Cameron to the beach for a picnic instead !
Biggest ship in our Navy just sailed into this corporate farce that the Olympics has become. The only thing missing are our nuclear subs. Go on Cameron / May, just an eenzy peenzy little Trident , I am sure we’ve got space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXH_12QWWg8
Nuid I call them ZBC because of their Israel bias in reporting from Gaza and the Occupied Territories and because of their actions at the time of Cast Lead. I quote them mainly when they are reporting UK factual matters. They are usually the first on breaking news so for that reason they are a useful source. Why are you narking on about my input anyway? It is Craig’s blog and as long as he allows me here, I will continue.
The head of G4S appearing on the telly and reeling out his firm’s qualification; “we are an international security company and we are a British company”. Well that explanation is just good enough then, now he can go back count his ill gotten gains, pay the token fine and get into his seat somewhere to watch the games or jet off to isreal to join some of his hired goons to kick some Palestinians around, and get the aggression out of his system.
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This is really a poor show that when a fuck up of the magnitude G4S has committed is to white wash the shit up with the nationalism card.
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Back on Syria saga, yesterday the isrealis were going to attack Syria because of the stock piles of the “chemical weapons” (whatever these may prove to be, there again cordite is a chemical isn’t it?). The “reason” was forwarded as for the prevention of these dastardly weapons from falling into the hands of the terrorists.
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Note the allusion to the Syrian opposition and darling Free Syrian Army as the terrorists. However today the “unconfirmed reports” (basically loads of bollocks and lies fed to the public but safe that no guilt is attached to the tossers whom are busy propagating the propaganda) Assad regime is moving his chemical weapons to Hums to use on the “rebels” (no longer terrorists).
“They are usually the first on breaking news so for that reason they are a useful source. Why are you narking on about my input anyway?”
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I’m not ‘narking’ Mary. And I get my breaking news elsewhere, which is what I was trying to point out. I don’t come here for “breaking news”. I come here to see alternative sources, opinion and discussion.
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From RT:
Syrian rebels aim to use chemical weapons, blame Damascus – report
http://www.rt.com/news/syria-chemical-weapons-plot-532/