Following on from yesterday’s post, here is a tiny everyday example of those shared US/Israeli values Dianne Feinstein was on about.
Courtesy of the Guardian.
Meanwhile another 47 people are killed by a truck bomb in Iraq and over 200 maimed. A slightly larger toll than usual in a single incident so it actually made the media here, but again in Iraq such violent death is an everyday occurrence. That is over ten years of fear, carnage on an unthinkable scale, dire poverty and destruction of basic services. I bet the Iraqis are extremely grateful for the peace and security Blair and Bush brought them.
I bet the Iraqis are extremely grateful for the peace and security Blair and Bush brought them.
And the Libyans. Pray God the Syrians manage to prevent it being done to them.
What he/she said.
Craig, I noticed that you said (two posts back) “I found the strength to blog again”. But you didn’t actually say that you were going to keep the blog going indefinitely. Just wondering … are you still considering giving it up?
It has to be said that although Saddam Hussein was not particularly someone I would even begin to have admiration for, the cold hard facts are that he established a high degree of stability within Iraq which is in essence a nation that is fundamentally divided through tribal and factional entities.
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There were no longer bombings on the streets of Iraq, there was not a continual flow of men, women and children being killed or ferried into the hospitals with limbs blown off by indiscriminate bombs going off in the streets, Sunni and Shiite walked in the same streets peacefully because he would not tolerate it any other way.
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Even the remotest notions that Saddam was in possession of weapons of mass destruction, was funding terrorism or had anything to do with 9/11 at all have long since ceased to be uttered, there were no WMD, he was involved in none of the things he was accused of post 9/11 and all that remains in the form of pathetic and dishonest justification of the invasion of Iraq is the bizarre notion that it was done to liberate the people of Iraq.
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The US, Great Britain and the coalition forces destroyed Saddam and his regime for nothing more than his refusal to be compliant to their wishes on oil and what currency it should be traded in, they destroyed his regime quite simply to enable themselves to take and establish control over it, no liberation, no freedom for the people of Iraq, just corporate greed, self interest and a large amount of politicians that dance to the tune of the people who orchestrate it.
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Would you consider your mother, father, wife, husband or children liberated while they nervously negotiate the streets in fear of explosions, would you consider them free whilst they avoid the gaze of others in fear of what might happen, would you feel grateful to the US, Great British and coalition forces while you bury their broken and disfigured bodies in the cemetery,,,,,,,, Is anyone still dumb enough to believe that what was done was in any way done for any of them at all?
“Is anyone still dumb enough to believe that what was done was in any way done for any of them at all?”
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Didn’t believe it before they went in there, and of course haven’t believed it since. Same with all the rubbish they spew about Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. What is involved is self-interest, and that alone.
Ms Feinstein’s disregard for children does not include her own offspring now, does it? so she is a mum and granny and all that.
her disregard for Palestinian children who were brutally murdered in Ghaza at a time when the streets were full of them, switchover time in schools, cannot be explained and I wonder whether she is seeing a shrink for her selective morals.
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I think its important to remind ourself and all those who want Assange destroyed, why Wikileaks got slated and why Julian is accused of…eh, not very much at all. Murdering Reuters journalists and children in cold blood might not be what US citizens had in mind when they pay for this hegemonial menace called war on terror.
http://english.cctv.com/program/newshour/20100406/102819.shtml
George Entwistle has been appointed Director General of the BBC. He was the director of BBC Vision. Thank goodness it wasn’t Helen Boaden or Caroline Thomson. Let’s hope he cares about Palestine unlike the aforementioned.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/news/george_entwistle.shtml
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And RIP dear Eric Sykes aged 89. He always made me laugh.
And here is another instance of child abuse by the Israeli Army personnel in Jerusalem. But for the brave intervention of a young Israeli woman who knows what might have happened to this child whose Palestinian flag was snatched from him by a soldier. It shows the difference between armed cowardice and unarmed bravery.
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http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150986999294444&set=p.10150986999294444&type=1&theater
O/T. Today is ‘Independence FROM America day’. See you at Menwith Hill.
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http://www.caab.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/july4-2012-flyer.pdf
Dale, I think there is slightly more to it. Certainly Saddam had to be dealt with for the unforgivable crime of talking back to the White House. But there was another very powerful motivation for the invasion, and when you appreciate it you will understand why the present state of near-anarchy is exactly what Washington intended.
Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and others can be somewhat frustrating to the American industrial-banking-government complex. It longs to get in there, take control, and suck out the wealth – whatever shape it takes, whether raw materials or iPads – while paying the local “natives” as little as possible. Ideally, nothing at all. But annoyingly, those countries tend to have governments that get sticky about permits and tariffs and working conditions. So what better than to get rid of the annoying local government and make sure it is not replaced by any effective administration? Then the country descends into chaos, and American corporations can go in with their legions of mercenaries and treat the place as their own. Once a nation has been reduced to a “failed state”, might becomes right – and might is what the Americans do best.
John,
Yes I was invited to give a talk. I never actually replied because I kept leaving it later and later as I seldom know which country I shall be in next week. As it happens, I am in Ghana. With you in spirit though.
Good man, Craig. At least you should be getting a bit of sun!
With you all in spirit also John.
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As for the weather at Menwith Hill today, American Independence Day (that’s so ironic a name now), well!
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Menwith Hill Wed July 4
16°C
Mostly Cloudy
Wind: S at 6 mph
Humidity 100%
The Medialens editors have put up their interview with George Entwistle from April 2003. He was editor of Newsnight at the time. They describe his appointment –
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Looks like they’ve got themselves a safe fair of hands. Obviously.
Blast from the past below.
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Link: Media Alert from 2003: Why Even Talk About It? Part 2
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=259:why-even-talk-about-it-part-2&catid=17:alerts-2003&Itemid=42
“I bet the Iraqis are extremely grateful for the peace and security Blair and Bush brought them.”
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I bet Blair and Bush are extremely grateful for the many millions that the murdering so many Iraqis brought them.
John,
A kindly thought, but am mostly getting wet.
They treat the old and infirm just as badly.
Paradoxical that the US has given the regime in Israel free licence to treat the Palestinians as badly as the Jews of Europe were.
A country built on hate and violence and inequality is bound to fail eventually and I think that the impending economic collapse might be the catalyst needed.
Israel is supported with money conjured out of nothing by the Fed. It’s all interconnected.
The kibbutz I was on used to make boots for the Israeli army and I worked in the shoe factory.My boots were perfect but for the fact I always forgot to take the nail out which kept the heel in place till the soles were welded on.
Yeah! The values we share with isreal, are a shining example for the future generations and telling of the degrees that our leaders had their heads up the zioarses. However, there should be one fact made clear to all the wankers whom think they can get away with rewriting the history and hang onto the wanky postulations of imminences such as Prof Toynbee; “history repeats itself”!
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There are enough souls keeping records of the events and compiling databases of atrocities, corruptions, mass murder, torture, …. so that the future generations can with ease and comfort have access to the true facts regardless of the whitewashes of “inquiries” and selective “historical” records.
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The “Alternative” is the mainstream in publishing these days, regardless of the efforts to sabotage it. Further, given the monumental banking fuckups, people have lots of free time to indulge in their hobbies: unearthing dirt on bastards and scoundrels whom have been getting away with mass murder and calling it leadership.
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A sample is found here:
NATO tied to Muslim slaughter at Srebrenica
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and then some:
Police search Sarkozy’s home
{——ttp://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/04/249249/police-search-sarkozys-home/}
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Days after his presidential immunity expired, relatives of French victims of a 2003 bombing in Karachi filed a lawsuit accusing Sarkozy and two former advisers of violating a duty to secrecy in an investigation of the attack.
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In the so-called “Karachi Affair,” investigators are trying to unravel dealings by middlemen and possible kickbacks linked to France’s sale of Agosta class submarines to Pakistan in the 1990s.
I listened to Tony Harrison, poet, this morning on R4.
Baghdad Lullaby
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Ssshhh! Ssshhhh! though now shrapnel makes you shriek
and deformities in future may brand you as a freak,
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you’ll see, one day, disablement ‘s a blessing and a boon
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sent in baby-seeking bomblets by benefactor Hoon.
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(In response to Hoon saying on Radio 4’s Today programme [last week] that Iraqi mothers would thank him for using cluster bombs.)
Here we go? Roll up! Roll up and step on to the NHS Privatisation Roundabout everybody! And remember to get your health insurance.
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NHS charging and rationing ‘may be needed’
By Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, BBC News
The NHS is getting small increases in funding until 2015 .
NHS faces ‘a decade of savings’
NHS workforce hits 1.4 million
‘More than 50,000’ NHS jobs to go
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More rationing of care and charging for services in the NHS need to be considered as it faces at least a decade of austerity, experts say.
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The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the coming years will be the toughest since the early 1950s when dental and prescription fees were introduced.
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Other measures, including tax rises, could also form part of the solution.
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And the review says decisions on the NHS – and social care – will have an impact on other public services too.
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This is because of the huge amount of the public purse they consume.
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The NHS alone accounts for nearly a quarter of public spending.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18694119
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As I write there is an ad running on Sky News for Health Online.com
!From as little as 70p a day you are assured…….’ I work that out to be £255 pa and that would be for very basic cover.
Guano It was good wasn’t it. I put it on a previous thread here. Have you read his A Cold Coming http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2003/feb/14/features11.g2 from the first Gulf War when all those Iraqi charred body remains were left in their vehicles? Biting.
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Hoon had said that ‘cluster bombs were perfectly legal’ which prompted Tony Harrison to wrote Baghdad Lullaby.
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{http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9734000/9734763.stm}
0721
Tony Harrison, one of the most renowned British poets, explains to arts correspondent Rebecca Jones why he agreed to make a rare appearance at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival.
‘I bet the Iraqis are extremely grateful for the peace and security Blair and Bush brought them.’
Blair was still claiming, in the FT last saturday, that the butcher’s bill post invasion doesn’t exceed the Iraqi body count clocked up by Saddam pre 2003.
Quote- ‘Of course, I am sorry for the people…but large numbers of people were dying under Saddam. In fact- not that you should do ever do this, but if you want to add it up- far more’.
Which roughly translates as – my conscience is clear.
With you in spirit too John – love to Lauren.
The current campaign of violence in Iraq seems very likely to be linked with the terrorist attacks in Syria, which receive such good press from NATO and its friends.
The objective remains the breaking up of Iraq into three or more parts with a Kurdish state allied with Israel and Sunni dominated areas in the Saudi sphere.
The current killings therefore should be regarded not just as a consequence of the criminal aggression of 2003 but as that aggression continuing.
Naturally the strategy of weakening Syria in order to attack Iran also includes continuous attacks on the Iraqi Shiites.
US policy is relentless: the killing goes on and on with Washington switching its support from faction to faction, in order to ensure that the bloodletting never ends and reconstruction never begins.
As a very perceptive essay (Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule America
http://www.alternet.org/visions/156071) on Alternet points out America is now ruled by the political legatees of the slaveowners of the Confederacy, a ruling class as vile and cynical as any barbarians of the past, with a racist contempt for those they rule.
Effectively the USA is fascist and the UK and Canada vie for the honour of being closest ally.
Mary, Komodo and John Goss, I’ve at last found and posted a reply to your comments on
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/06/only-sweat-the-small-stuff/
Diamond geezer is described on some websites as brash. Not so today at the hearing. He has a flat monotonous voice and hand gestures worthy of Bliar with those same hyperextended upper thumb joints which really annoy me. He looks a hard type until he smiles.
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This is him and his relationship to Mitt Romney.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/03/robert-diamond-fundraiser-mitt-romney-barclays_n_1646007.html?utm_hp_ref=elections-2012
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[..] Even before Diamond was set to co-host the lavish event, Barclays was a big source of money for the Romney campaign. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, employees of the international bank have contributed $234,650 to Romney, making them the ninth biggest donor to the presumptive Republican nominee.
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The campaign is also closely tied to the bank through Barclays’ chief lobbyist, Patrick Durkin, who leads the campaign’s fundraising efforts within the financial industry. In that role, Durkin has raised $927,160 for the campaign from other donors. He has also been featured at numerous roundtable events during which donors can talk to Romney advisers about policymaking in a future Romney administration.’
Israel’s actions become more and more unbelievable.
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Knesset moves to force national service on Palestinians in Israel
http://electronicintifada.net/content/knesset-moves-force-national-service-palestinians-israel/11458
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and
Arafat’s body is going to be exhumed for tests. Polonium poisoning is now suspected.
A ploy being used by Diamond is to call the committee by their first names. It’s called defusing hostility.
Reminds me of the videos of the Israeli army breaking the arms and legs of Palestinian youths, using rubble from the homes they’d just bulldozed. These were shown on primetime BBC news, before the BBC became co-opted.
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Reminds me of The Stanford Prison Experiment and indeed The Milgram Experiment. These were designed to understand the processes by which dehumanization took place, but have since been used to better ensure dehumanization as an end in itself, much indeed as the work of The Frankfurt School as critique of mass media has subsequently been used to ensure a more polished propaganda.
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Reminds me even of David Mellor lecturing Israeli soldiers on their mistreatment of Palestinians at a “border” checkpoint; his chubby little finger stabbing at their chests; he a minister in Thatcher’s cabinet. He was subsequently Assanged and DSKed, of course.
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Reminds me of Hannah Arendt and her conclusion on Eichmann in Jerusalem – the banality of evil. A must read on what’s happening to us today.
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Reminds me that we’ll all be Palestinians soon enough.
Diamond is in the ST Rich List The figures here are staggering.
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2012-07-04/barclays-bob-diamond-in-numbers?mod=blogheadlines-home
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Rich Ricci is also well named. And these figures are more than a year old.
{http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/03/08/article-1363790-0D8385A1000005DC-275_468x270.jpg}