UPDATE
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I returned to the UK today to be astonished by private confirmation from within the FCO that the UK government has indeed decided – after immense pressure from the Obama administration – to enter the Ecuadorean Embassy and seize Julian Assange.
This will be, beyond any argument, a blatant breach of the Vienna Convention of 1961, to which the UK is one of the original parties and which encodes the centuries – arguably millennia – of practice which have enabled diplomatic relations to function. The Vienna Convention is the most subscribed single international treaty in the world.
The provisions of the Vienna Convention on the status of diplomatic premises are expressed in deliberately absolute terms. There is no modification or qualification elsewhere in the treaty.
Article 22
1.The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter
them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
2.The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises
of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the
mission or impairment of its dignity.
3.The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of
transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.
Not even the Chinese government tried to enter the US Embassy to arrest the Chinese dissident Chen Guangchen. Even during the decades of the Cold War, defectors or dissidents were never seized from each other’s embassies. Murder in Samarkand relates in detail my attempts in the British Embassy to help Uzbek dissidents. This terrible breach of international law will result in British Embassies being subject to raids and harassment worldwide.
The government’s calculation is that, unlike Ecuador, Britain is a strong enough power to deter such intrusions. This is yet another symptom of the “might is right” principle in international relations, in the era of the neo-conservative abandonment of the idea of the rule of international law.
The British Government bases its argument on domestic British legislation. But the domestic legislation of a country cannot counter its obligations in international law, unless it chooses to withdraw from them. If the government does not wish to follow the obligations imposed on it by the Vienna Convention, it has the right to resile from it – which would leave British diplomats with no protection worldwide.
I hope to have more information soon on the threats used by the US administration. William Hague had been supporting the move against the concerted advice of his own officials; Ken Clarke has been opposing the move against the advice of his. I gather the decision to act has been taken in Number 10.
There appears to have been no input of any kind from the Liberal Democrats. That opens a wider question – there appears to be no “liberal” impact now in any question of coalition policy. It is amazing how government salaries and privileges and ministerial limousines are worth far more than any belief to these people. I cannot now conceive how I was a member of that party for over thirty years, deluded into a genuine belief that they had principles.
Talk about a nasty piece of work, Mary. The Independent has an interesting article on the “exotic Uzbek beauty” Googoosha, who’s trying to conquer the pop world in the US, backed by the inexhaustible finances of one of the most corrupt despots in the world, who happens to be her father. The article points out that Gulnara Karimova profiteers from child labour and the intimidation of rivals, and mentions her dad’s dubious record of boiling people to death. Karimova also wants to be the Uzbek ambassador to the UK.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dads-accused-of-boiling-people-alive–but-googoosha-just-wants-to-be-a-star-8054036.html
Foul.
After an hour and 40 minutes of questioning, Ms Mensch moved onto the subject of what she called “the BBC’s total non-coverage” of the massacre of five members of the Fogel family in the Israeli settlement of Itamar on the Palestinian West Bank on the night 11 March 2011. It was she said “the most reaction I have ever had for anything in all my time in politics and it came from the Jewish community…”. Her apparent surprise was disingenuous; she must know that lobbies exist to create a reaction, and the Jewish lobby is renowned as being the most powerful.
She told the Director-General that Palestinian terrorists had killed the entire Fogel family, slit the throats of children and decapitated a three-month-old baby. She complained that the BBC had only once run the story on radio, as a lead item, and put it on their web site for a day. She also referred to a piece that she had written on the subject for the Daily Telegraph for which she had received an overwhelming response both from the UK and abroad.
Her article in the Daily Telegraph covered the same ground in slightly more detail and included the allegation that the BBC website had “omitted key facts and failed to mention the subsequent celebrations in Gaza, and the statement by a Hamas spokesman that ‘five dead Israelis is not enough to punish anybody’”.
Some fact checking is in order here. First of all three members of the Fogel family survived this gruesome event, so it is not correct to say that the entire family was killed. Neither was the three-month-old daughter decapitated. Nor is there any evidence to back up the allegations of celebrations in Gaza, nor Hamas approval.
The most sensational of these claims is the beheading of the infant Hadas which is a malicious story that was presumably invented by an unscrupulous and rabid anti-Palestinian to extract the most amount of hatred from a crime that was of itself most foul and abominable. The story may have originated with David Ha’ivri, who was executive director of the pro-settler Shromron Liaison Office, and who in the immediate aftermath of the Gaza Flotilla Raid stated publically that the Mavi Marmara should have been sunk on the high seas. The Liaison Office exists to promote the activities of the settler community in the region of Shromron (i.e. the Palestinian West Bank north of the Jerusalem – Jericho axis). Mr Ha’ivri was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as recounting the story of the beheading.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19365
Craig did report in June that she wanted to become UK Ambassador. This was in the context of Hammond creeping round her father for passage of the UK military junk, the said passage costing us the British taxpayers megabucks.
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http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/06/the-shameful-alliance-deepens/
RT Moscow reporting (on air) their website rt.com is currently under DOS attack by “antileaks” over their Assange coverage. Website is now partially back online but ddos atacks apparently continue.
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Bambuser.com was DDOSed offline yesterday by “antileaks” for streaming live from the embassy.
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So it isn’t that unlikely that this blog might come under attack as well.
RT’s website was down for four hours.
Up now –
http://rt.com/news/rt-ddos-attack-hack-925/
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Also “AntiLeaks registered a Twitter account on August 4, when they claimed responsibility for taking down the WikiLeaks site.
“Tango down http://wikileaks.org #Wikileaks #Cowards” AntiLeaks boasted on Twitter two weeks ago.
The group called Julian Assange “a new breed of terrorist” and said they launched their attack in response to his attempt to seek asylum in Ecuador.
The attack coincided with WikiLeaks’ release of a new portion of emails supposedly acquired by the hacktivist group Anonymous from the server of consulting firm Stratfor. The latest leaks concern the alleged existence of a clandestine US-based surveillance system called TrapWire, which collects images from surveillance cameras across the US and uses them to track individuals and preemptively identify possible threats to national security.”
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The same tranche of emails also contains a reference to the grand jury indictment allegedly prepared and ready to serve on Assange.
O/T When *ankers fall out. LOL.
Rate swap scandal: Richard Desmond sues Credit Suisse
Richard Desmond is suing Credit Suisse claiming the bank mis-sold him a complex derivative, saying the £50m product was “incomprehensible” and left him with an “inappropriately large exposure”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/rate-swap-scandal/9480386/Rate-swap-scandal-Richard-Desmond-sues-Credit-Suisse.html
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Surely Desmond is used to ‘large exposures’?
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and little notice taken yesterday of the seven NoTW ex employees, including Coulson, on trial for phone hacking. Another Newscorp employee, Douglas Wight NoTW Scotland, was charged yesterday with perjury in the Tommy Sheridan case.
John Goss said: It is worth reading all 49 pages, and worth posting widely to the ignorant (not those who contribute to this blog).
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Oh really, what about this then?
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Shona said: Fantastic, I think it’s a tremendous effort by Britain to warn us what’s going on. If they had wanted Julian then he would have been taken last night. The fuss is at the exact right tone to piss off the masters of Britain, which is Israel/America from what I can gather.
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Obviously it could be acute sarcasm, but I doubt it. This is the mind-set of those who work for the government – they acknowledge the UK is America’s slave (because it sounds better than admitting the truth) and take delight in pathetic little ‘victories’ which are nothing more than mass-media illusions.
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Anyone who has not worked out that Assange is working for Israel is a complete moron.
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This is just a media show you fucking idiots.
Gogoosha, as the dictator of Uzbekistan’s daughter, Gulnara, wishes to known, puts me in mind of Salome from the New Testament, who danced for the head of John the Baptist. Perhaps we’ll learn even more about her when Michael Andersen’s documentary is available.
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http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151164827555948&set=a.239113300947.167231.745715947&type=1&theater
MarkU,
Don’t knock Saif al-Gaddafi, he is an intelligent and educated man, fact that Libya was “Democratized” he became to be the villain that we all know him as now, awaiting trial in the hands of the current bosses in that country.
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Gulnara on the other hand has very little in the way of intellectual prowess given Craig’s assessments.
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Komodo
That incident was to do with revenge against the practice of settlers in stiffing the African and migrant workers out of their wages, by getting these to work a full day and not paying them. It had fuck all to do with any Palestinians.
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Dose this unMenschenable Banshee not know that? Further, are we to employee the next director general out of the chaps in writing pools in Mariev, and J.Post because of the sins of Bullshit Broadcasting corporation so far, not to have genuflected low enough to satiate her lust?
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She gave up the work to go and look after “her family” however, she seems to be tethered to her laptop and blackberry instead.
@Anon
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‘Anyone who has not worked out that Assange is working for Israel is a complete moron.’
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Evidence?
‘Richard Desmond is suing Credit Suisse claiming the bank mis-sold him a complex derivative.’
Kissinger’s malevolent remark about the the Iran/Iraq war for some reason came back to me when I read this.
‘This is the mind-set of those who work for the government – they acknowledge the UK is America’s slave (because it sounds better than admitting the truth)’.
John Goss- the Anon who posted this, and who was asked to substantiate the claim that Assange is hand in glove with the Israelis, sounds a bit like a LaRouchie to me.
Passerby, thanks for pointing that out. The Wiki entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itamar_attack
is so obviously written by Israel that some scepticism must be given to the account (which is unfortunately generally accepted):
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“The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades stated that “the heroic operation is a natural response to the (Israeli) occupation crimes against our people in West Bank and Gaza Strip.”[11] An opinion poll indicated that 63% of Palestinians opposed and about one-third supported the attack. One of the perpetrators of the murders was described as a “hero” and a “legend” by members of his family, during a weekly program.”
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Compare and contrast :
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“The military wing of the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah party, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said Monday that its activists had no part in the slaying of five members of a settler family in Itamar on Friday night. Commenting on the nature of the killings, in which five members of the Fogel family were stabbed to death, including a three-month-old baby, the brigades said they “oppose the targeting of civilians and killing of children no matter what the pretext may be.”
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{http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/murder_of_settler_family/0018454}
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(worth reading in full)
Passerby: I think that you have made a mistake, when exactly do you suppose I said anything about Saif al-Gaddafi?
Is Assange working for Israel? Granted, there’s not much of substance in the released cables from TA and Jerusalem, and not many of them. On the other hand, there’s not a lot of substance in the other stuff, which has been hyped to death. It’s a grab-bag of low-security diplomatic commentary*, and I don’t think Assange and Israel even needed to reach any special agreement, as has been claimed. A little more depth here:
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http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/bloggers-claim-wikileaks-struck-deal-with-israel-over-diplomatic-cables-leaks-1.331030
“”The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has been so out of the loop for the last six years that their reporting is about what you read in the Israeli press (probably where they get most of their information ). .
“There’s a channel U.S. embassies use for very sensitive information and I don’t think WikiLeaks has those cables. As for Tel Aviv, the last two ambassadors have not been risk-takers and have had a very low profile. I doubt they have been willing to rock the boat, and may not have had much, if any, inside information.”
What would be more interesting, Abington (Ed Abington, a former U.S. consul general in Jerusalem (1993-1997 )-K) persists, is the reporting from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. “Where is that reporting?” he asks.”
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* If sometimes revealing: {http://azerireport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2618}
Here’s some:
http://www.cablegatesearch.net/search.php?qo=133&qto=20060731
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That underreported nastiness in Gaza while the media were watching the fun in Lebanon…
the issue here is that there is fear from the US goverment in particular not saying other govts dont have the same fear but in smalle scale, the USA has been involved in so many illegal issues, wars, drugs, oil, etc etc, that if this would leak it would probably be vary dangerous for them, so in a way our friend julian assange is a threat to usa and other goverments. i am sure that if they invade the embassy we will hear that julian has been killed, they (usa and others Uk goverment want to silence him.
Slowly USA does what it well pleases, new world dictators.
‘There’s a channel U.S. embassies use for very sensitive information and I don’t think WikiLeaks has those cables.’
The Ha’aretz article you link to Komodo is almost cerainly correct here. If, as seems likely, Bradley Manning was the original source, his security clearance wouldn’t have been high enough to allow him access to this ‘very sensitive information’.
The claims that Assange is some sort of Israeli patsy are absurd, and those who make the allegation probably have their own monomaniacal agenda.
MarkU,
Obviously my Spirit Guide cannot be wrong, you may have wanted to say it, or even thought to say it, so that was a preemptive note there!
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Sorry Mark I was in a rush and my bad. It should have been addressed to Nextus.
Press TV is reporting that the Russian embassy has been attacked and that the British government have been shirking their duty to protect it. Perhaps we are entering a new age of non-diplomacy. Given the ludicrous numbers of security personnel apparently still present in London from the Olympics, it is hard to believe that (lack of) manpower is a problem.
Firstly, you have been missed Craig. Hope all is well with you.
Looking at the actual outcome and impact as well as the potential outcome and impact of the Wikileaks phenomenon I agree there are good reasons to assume Wikileaks is an intelligence operation.
Nothing coming out of WL so far has changed foreign policy or had any practical political impact whatsoever on the way USA, Israel and their minions are going about bullying the world. WL information has even been used to bully, how ironic isn’t that?
On the other hand, from an intelligence perspective, running an operation like WL really would put you where you want to be.
The two main objectives that WL would serve from an intelligence perspective are, being a honey put for whistle-blowers as well as being an excellent tool to introduce total and complete control over the internet.
Both these objectives are best served by maximising the media attention surrounding WL and Assange at every stage, which is what we are seeing. There are so many anomalies surrounding what took place in Sweden that it is beyond chance, it happened by design.
Which would mean that what we are actually observing is the effect of a bunch of intelligence operatives playing with people’s minds using politicians, prosecutors, police and media as their, knowing or unknowing, tools.
Intelligence operations are bad and fail if and when people uncover them, focus instead on the outcome. Cui Bono?
i just thought to share this good man,s view point…. Mr Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant….
They both ended up seeking political asylum – The Ecuador Embassy in London.
Andrea Davison is an ex Arms to Iraq investigator who had direct access to No10 Downing Street and more importantly should have been a “Star Witness” at the Chilcot Inquiry (Iraq Inquiry) but was never called, despite the fact that she did give evidence at the previous Scott Inquiry (held in camera). now think DR David Kelly””
Andrea is afraid she may be ‘suicided’ and cannot protect herself because in April the Court made her virtually penniless by issuing a Restraining Order. This Court Order prevents her from spending any of her own money and also invidiously prevents her paying for legal advice or assistance to challenge the Courts Order.. Without a passport and made penniless by the Order of the Court she feels they are driving her towards suicide but states they will not succeed.
the world’s media to focus their attention to the Ecuador Embassy in London and start asking questions as to whom they are hiding within and to ask our government and in particular our current Prime Minister “Who is Andrea Davison”…………one could even approach Sir Ken Warren in his old age and ask him about Ms Davison who worked for his select committee and ask him to shed some light on her activity and his own involvement in the below.
Ms Andrea Davison is far more! to “establishment,than the CIA conman Julian Assange
Dr David Kelly and Andrea Davison have several things in common both were experts on Biological Weapons and both were involved in the arms that went to Iraq and WMD’s and both were whistleblowers.
[jay-David Kelly,is dead and she,not keen on joining him-fair play,pragmatic view i think]
http://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/uk-may-raid-ecuador-embassy-in-london-but-who-are-they-actually-after
http://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/what-do-julian-assange-and-andrea-davison-have-in-common-final-part-4/
http://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/what-do-julian-assange-and-andrea-davison-have-in-common-part-3-2
http://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/what-do-julian-assange-and-andrea-davison-have-in-common-part-2/
http://eyreinternational.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/what-do-julian-assange-and-andrea-davison-have-in-common/
enjoy- peace be upon us.
Link to MarkU’s embassy attack.
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http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/17/256748/russian-embassy-in-london-attacked/#.UC5t5amPXSk
Who is this unnamed senior government minister in the UK who wants the heat taken out of the situation?
The BBC 6 pm news have dropped Assange. Nothing to see. Move along there…. They led with the jailing of the members of Pussy Riot, South Africa…and ended with Jessica Ennis in Sheffield tonight.
And naturally it’s all Pussy Riot on the Amnesty home page.
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http://www.amnesty.org.uk/index.asp
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I could not spot a mention of Julian or Assange, not even when clicking on ‘read more’.
Although it is a very serious subject this short cartoon where Anna Ardin is talking to a CIA agent made me smile.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=nFTe3I3jH8E&NR=1
Mensch complained about “‘the BBC’s total non-coverage’ of the massacre of five members of the Fogel family”.
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The murder of the Oshrenko family in 2009 formed an eery pre-cursor to the Fogel family murder in 2011. The entire Oshrenko family was murdered whilst asleep, parents and children including an infant 3 months old. The murderer, Karlik, in this case was an Israeli who was tried for and found guilty of murder. He received 6 life sentences. The crime was the result of Oshrenko firing Karlik who was employed as a waiter at the Oshrenko restaurant.
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http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/fired-waiter-confesses-to-brutal-murder-of-all-six-members-of-oshrenko-family-1.4914
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Two almost identical crimes, with diametrically opposing treatments. One remembered, the other swept under the carpet (in news terms).
ROFL Blame the translator:
How lengthy have you been running a blog for?
Not that long really just a couple of miles.
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you make running a blog glance easy.
It is my Aikido, and Tae Kwon Do background.
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The overall look of your web site is magnificent, as smartly as the content material!
Yeah very smartly, in fact as smarting as when I am gonna kick your bot ass.
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Sorry Craig Just could not help it, I ought not have had that last wine gum, and got over the limit.
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The Russian embassy is being attacked on the day of the Pussy Galore no that is James Bond silly, it should read Pussy Riot got their sentences handed to them. These attacks are of coursee in no way orchestrated to coincide and to celebrate the Putin dictatorial methods of running Russia, with a bunch of stone throwing Syrian pissed off that their best terrorist efforts have not paid off so far, because the same bastard dictator so far has not bent over and let UNSC pass a chapter seven resolution and let loose the Nato aircraft to start bombing the fuck out of Syria to liberate the place into same kind of democracies as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia etc.
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What would Pussy Riot get in our courts if they had broken into a synagogue and videoed their song about the devil worshipping Jonathan Sachs?
That’s strange Yonatan. I have just been looking at Mensch speaking to the BBC DG Thompson at the 19 June hearing of the DCMS Select Committee. It was being replayed on the Parliament channel this afternoon. His performance was stunbling. Why he was paid all those £hundreds of thousands we will never know.
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She starts about Israel and Palestine here… towards the bottom of the page on the link. Note how she wants full coverage of the attack on a Jewish family. Note what he says and how he tries to explain away his decision not to air the DEC appeal for Gaza. Good riddance to them both, she to New York to join Mr Mensch and he to take up his job at the NY Times. Perhaps they will socialize.
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http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmcumeds/324/120619.htm
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Mrs Mensch: I have to ask you, though, about one particular story. I know it is difficult to concentrate on one story but this is the most reaction I have ever had for anything in all my time in politics and it came from the Jewish community about the BBC’s total non-coverage of the Fogel massacre in Itamar. This happened just after we confirmed Chris Patten as the Chairman of the BBC Trust, and on that occasion I asked him about the BBC’s perceived bias towards Israel and Jews, about the report that was suppressed and the BBC fought against
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and ends here with her reiterating the murder of the family. No Palestinians have ever been killed by the Israelis of course.
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Mark Thompson: -to all our audiences, of course to include our Jewish and Israeli audiences here and around the world-we broadcast around the world-that we do want to make sure that we are fair and impartial in the way we cover this story.
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Mrs Mensch: You recognise clearly that the BBC should have covered the Fogel massacre.
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Mark Thompson: In this case I believe that we made a mistake, yes.
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Mrs Mensch: Thank you very much.