I learn the interesting news that David Aaronovitch tweeted to Joan Smith and Jenny Jones that I am:
“an angry and dangerous man who could as easily be on the far right as the far left”.
I had no idea I was on the far left, though I suppose it is a matter of perspective, and from where Mr Aaronovitch stands I, and a great many others, look awfully far away to the left. I don’t believe you should bomb people for their own good, I don’t believe the people of Palestine should be crushed, I don’t believe the profit motive should dominate the NHS, I think utilities and railways were better in public ownership, I think education should be free. I guess that makes me Joseph Stalin.
But actually I am very flattered. Apparently I am not just angry – since the invasion of Iraq and the banker bailouts everybody should be angry – but “dangerous”. If I can be a danger to the interests represented by a Rupert Murdoch employee like Aaronovitch, I must have done something right in my life. I fear he sadly overrates me; but it does make me feel a little bit warmer, and hold my head that little bit higher.
Today’s Independent has a big article on the subject of how apparently decent men are, in fact, rapists. It relates in some disturbing detail how the author was raped by a man while she was asleep, possibly drugged, who apparently didn’t think there was anything wrong with penetrating a woman (19 years old) who happened to be out cold in his bed.
It mentions the JA case throughout, and concludes that rape cannot be redefined just because “… in the name of conscience and whistle-blowing and Wikileaks and JA – it has to stop.”
Just by coincidence, the double-page spread found space for a small article concerning “Police arrest orders confirm no safe passage for Assange.”
Et tu, Independent?
*
Private Eye has had it in for JA since the beginning, the Granuiad turned on him after their agreement broke down, and now even the Independent is going for him. All on the grounds that – apparently – rape is a really serious crime, don’t you know, and we shouldn’t be dismissing it for whistle-blowing convenience.
Yes it is serious. So why aren’t the Swedish police doing their job and questioning him about it? “That’s a question for the justice department”, the Swedish diplomats and politicians say, a question they apparently haven’t been asked.
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/global-issues/london-2012/see-britain/22695810
More crap on the FCO site, this time about that Edinburgh Festival creep, Jonathan Mills, referred to in my previous. He is obviously endorsed by Billy Hague. (Q Wonder what Ffion calls him?)
PS Never have had any trouble getting on to this site or to the comments section, but it is very creaky today for some reason. Have we got visitors?
Glenn_UK. Would that be the self publicist, Penny Red, aka Laurie Penny? There has been a very long discussion on Medialens about a piece by her which sounds similar.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1345758942.html
Viva, it is analysis, PJ Crowley’s analysis.
I guess the reasons it angers you is that he doesn’t conform to your narrative of everyone who would like justice to served and due process followed being an evil agent of american imperialism?
It is possible to be both disgusted at the treatment of Bradley Manning and to find JA’s abuse of political asylum distasteful.
If the plan is to execute Assange in the US, as many of us think it may be, might they be planning to make his judicial murder a major cultural and political watershed?
I.e. such that in the lead-up to the judicial murder, and after it, anyone who wants to get ahead in their career not only keeps quiet about stuff even more than they do already, but they enthusiastically join in kicking any rebels currently on their way to the scaffold; and such that any remaining ‘have a go heroes’ who baulk at ‘the way things are’, who step out of line in any bloody way whatsoever, get similar treatementt?
They might be.
My anger is up because I’ve just read Robert McNeill’s column in the Belfast Telegraph. To get the full effect, read down to the last sentence.
This is the courage of kicking a man who, as everyone who can think for themselves knows very well, has been stitched up; a man who has facilitated the blowing of whistles regarding mass slaughter (and we’re not talking Ian Brady or Anders Breivik – we’re talking more than a million people); and who if the US government gets its way, will face the death penalty. It is kicking him, it’s having a good laugh while doing so, and it’s showing contempt at him for getting kicked.
Robert McNeill would have done very well for himself under Hitler or Stalin or Pinochet.
@CE
References to fascism are very apt. It’s the “messiah” accusation that’s cheap. I assure you my intellect was engaged in the process by which I reached the conclusion that Julian Assange’s persecutors are trying to make an example of him in a big way. Faith wasn’t involved. I don’t think his coming has been prophesied, nor that he is any better a person than I am or most people are.
“The basis for his legal challenge was not on the basis of – and to my knowledge, never referenced, though I’m open to correction – any potential extradition to the US.“. Quite correct. He would have been wasting his time applying for asylum in the UK.
As for no US intent to prosecute, are you joking or what? The evidence is overwhelming: Fred Burton (Stratfor) email, 26 Jan 2011; report from Australian embassy in Washington DC; the Victoria Nuland ‘gaffe’, 20 Aug 2012.
The Sydney Morning Herald makes the UK press look like…exactly what they are: fawning lying lickspittles. That’s unless you believe the smirking nonsense of the Australian diplomats who say they’re preparing for the ‘possible contingency’ of a US prosecution but oh no, absolutely no no no, they haven’t got any reason to suspect that such a prosecution is being prepared. They’re lying in our faces, just as slagging off a man for his perfectly normal haircut and saying that he’s detracting from whatever it is he’s on about by having such a haircut, is dishonest, vile, and the sort of thing that only disgusting and pathetic bullies find amusing. It’s possible to say that kind of crap about anyone. Of course the Australian officials have been told about the sealed indictment. They just haven’t been given the go-ahead from Washington DC and Langley to admit it yet.
Wrong CE. It is not analyis. Analysis is something objective. That piece is far from objective. It is a VIEWPOINT. Interesting, the latter is the word used when you follow the link to the full piece.
It is still hopelessly biassed. Like you.
Wrong again Bert, no-one wants to judicially execute JA and no EU country will extradite someone facing a possible death penalty. Wait for the goalposts to be shifted again though.
More scare stories put out to hide the inconvenient truth. Take these trhings witha large dose of salt.
Apologies, bad Iphone and fat fingers combination! 🙂
CE:
Whether he faces execution or not, there is enough evidence out there that the US wants this guy and bad.
You yourself admitted that you’d be scared to step outside of the embassy were you in JA’s shoes.
First they charged him, then they dropped it, then they charged him again.
Then they come up with nonsense like they can’t interview him outside of Sweden.
Tons of police surround the Embassy as if this man is the most dangerous threat in the world.
The British govt. refuses to have a dialogue with the Ecuadorian embassy.
Not to mention all the links to articles, documentaries etc. covering leaked emails, declassified Aussie govt. documents, confirmations of grand juries, deleted twitters, political connexions of the complainants etc.
We provide the context, you provide the ad hominem against JA.
I guess the moderator had a wild night last night because another comment has gone straight to moderation.
[Jon/Mod: both approved now. sorry for the delay.]
It’s been nice to meet you, CE. I expect we won’t be hearing from you again after JA is ‘disappeared’ into one of the American gulags.
“Wrong again Bert, no-one wants to judicially execute JA and no EU country will extradite someone facing a possible death penalty. Wait for the goalposts to be shifted again though.”
Wrong again CE.
Sweden has already extraordianrily rendited 2 men,wholly illegally,at the behest of the CIA where they were tortured and many who are tortured there are commonly executed afterwards.If you live to survive torture in such countries you are very fortunate indeed.
All the recent brouhaha about the Julian Assange rape allegations and George Galloway sticking his nose in (so to speak) reminded me of an occasion some years ago. I met a young lady at a very ‘boozy’ party. At the end of the evening this lady and I went back to my place for sex. Unfortunately a condition known colloquially as brewer’s droop, scotched that plan and we fell asleep.
The next morning, just before waking, my member must have restored its full health as, when I awoke fully, the lady in question was astride me and going like the clappers. Needless to say I pushed her off and immediately called the police. Sadly, it was confirmed – judging by their laughter – that the police don’t take these matters seriously.
Funny that people can make beauty out of the most awful materials. During the Picnochet regime, the Chilean cueca (handkerchief dance) became a ritual of protest – women dancing alone because their husbands/lovers had disappeared. Here’s one ‘cueca sola’:
tinyurl.com/d2q6ngj
.and from Inti Illimani, La Preguntona “Woman asking questions” (translation on application)
tinyurl.com/d2v9g2x
Declaration by UNASUR, the Union of South American Nations.
Source: UNASUR (in Spanish)
*****************************
E Declaration of GUAYAQUIL
IN SUPPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR
THE COUNCIL OF FOREIGN MINISTERS OF THE UNASUR COUNTRIES
The Council of Foreign Ministers of the UNASUR Countries – Extraordinary Meeting in the city of Guayaquil, 19 August 2012
CONSIDERING
THAT the Minister of Foreign Trade and Integration of Ecuador informed the Council that on 19 June 2012 citizen Julian Assange claimed political asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, a matter on which the Governments of Ecuador, the UK and Sweden have been holding diplomatic talks, both about the request for Mr Assange’s extradition and the request for asylum;
THAT Ecuador is analyzing the request for asylum in accordance with the principles of protection of human rights and international law;
THAT on 15 August 2012, the Government of the Republic of Ecuador reported publicly receiving an aide memoire from the UK Government threatening to “take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current facilities of the Embassy” by invoking its national law on Diplomatic and Consular Facilities of 1987 (Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987);
THAT pursuant to Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, of which the UK is a signatory, “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” and “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”;
THAT according to the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, States must refrain from the threat or use of force and from acting in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations in international relations and must solve their differences peacefully;
THAT the Security Council of the United Nations, in SC/10463, its Press Release of 29 November 29 2011, condemned in the strongest terms violations of diplomatic immunity and recalled the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic missions States consular receptors in relation to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
IT STATES THAT
1. It expresses its solidarity and support to the Government of the Republic of Ecuador with regard to the threat of violation of its local diplomatic mission;
2. It reaffirms the sovereign right of States to grant asylum;
3. It strongly condemns the threat of use of force between states and reiterates the full observance of the principles enshrined in international law, respect for sovereignty and the faithful observance of international treaties;
4. It reaffirms the fundamental principle of the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions and consular offices and the obligation of the receiving States, in relation to the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations;
5. It reaffirms the principle of international law under which no law can be invoked as justification for failure to comply with an international obligation, as is also reflected in Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.
6. It reiterates the relevance of the institutions of asylum and refuge to protect the human rights of people who believe that their lives or persons are threatened;
7. It urges the parties to continue dialogue and direct negotiations in search of a mutually acceptable solution under international law.
Guayaquil, 19 August 2012
*****************************
Here’s what CE defends.
tinyurl.com/cmgohfv
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military’s seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende’s UP coalition. All other parties were placed in “indefinite recess,” and were later banned outright. The government’s violence was directed not only against dissidents, but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence, and approximately 31,947 tortured according to the later Valech Report, while 1,312 were exiled. The latter were chased all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was made in the frame of Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to “save the country from communism”. In 2011, commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during the Pinochet regime. This led to the total number of victims being revised to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet
~~~
I read somewhere that some were taken out to sea in helicopters or planes and dropped. This also happened in Argentina.
To think Pinochet was Thatcher’s friend and allowed to escape from universal jurisdiction, the latter now abolished by her boy Cameron.
The Krazies and their guns.
NY police fire hurt passers-by
All nine people injured in a shooting outside the Empire State building were hurt as a result of police gunfire, New York’s police chief confirms.
I am pretty sure someone must have commented, but in reflecting on the whole Julian Assange affair an ironic contrast flashed in my mind:-
Pinochet, a pariah, murdererer and torturer in government, was embraced and protected by HMG when efforts were being made to enforce an arrest warrant against him – versus – Assange who has exposed misconduct in government is to be yielded to the powers that be.
Iran is not mentioned in this recent CSIS Asian Pacific document. Another CSIS document is relevent:
http://csis.org/files/publication/111026_US_IranStratCompLevant_Chapter.pdf
The two documents form the pillars of a Chatham house paper not in the public domain alluding to retaining power in the West.
(1)Military option against Iran in which Britain would play a supporting role.
(2)Political option involving the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative calculated to disarm Iran of its Arab, Palestinian credentials and create a new regional environment that would in turn render any Arab alliance with Iran unnecessary and would uncover Iranian regional expansion as an endeavour sought per se by Tehran.
(2) is favored by America and and required the Arab League’s suspension of Syria and regime change. Turkey would take a leadership role – the de facto power – another US-led conspiracy”.
Mark Golding 25 Aug 2012 3.36 pm
In August, Turkey hosted the ‘Anotalian Eagle 2012’ exercise at Konya. Turkish F-4 and F-5 fighter-bombers were joined by Saudi Tornado bombers, Mirage 2000 fighter bombers of the UAE Air Force, Eurofighter Typhoon fighter bombers from Italy, and Jordanian, Turkish and Pakistani F-16 fighter bombers. Details and photos are all over the aircraft spotter sites.
Sabre rattling in the Age of the Internet.
“Pinochet, a pariah, murderer and torturer in government, was embraced and protected by HMG when efforts were being made to enforce an arrest warrant against him ”
Some years ago I attended a concert in Glasgow given by Inti Illimani in memory of the Chilean singer/guitarist/songwriter Victor Jara (tortured and terminated by Pinochet). Way back then I thought that only fools like me (guitarists) had ever heard of Jara or Inti Illimani, so picture my surprise when I found myself in a very crowded auditorium at Glasgow Concert Hall. And not music fans – it was the Great, the Good, and their associated Luvvies – Donald Dewar ‘Father of the Scottish Parliament’ (unlikely sobriquet for a constitutional abortionist) hanging very close to Robbie Coltrane and equally worthless others of that ilk. Someone in PR had obviously said: this is a very poignant memorial for a lefty sort of person, so you lot had better show up.
It was very embarrassing, but happily it didn’t stop short of being hilarious. Hamish Henderson was supposed to appear to say something at some point but couldn’t or wouldn’t come, so we had the warm up act (Salsa Celtica, awful beyond words) on for about an hour.
Eventually Inti took the stage and of course were wonderful. Then came the interval. A wee girl came on stage clasping a piece of paper, from which she began to read an address from Gordon Brown (can you believe this?) saying how much he supported this and that – but whatever solidarity El Gordo might have wished to advertise was drowned by cries from the audience of ‘hypocrite’. Just a few days before he and his pals had let Pinochet leave, when Garzon in Spain had offered to put the rascal in the dock.
Inti Illimani resumed but before continuing their ‘musical director’ (charango player) said, very quietly: “Democracy has missed an opportunity, there will be other opportunities”.
I was very ashamed. I hope he was right and there will be other opportunities. Protecting Assange could be one.
@Mary
Pinochet was the darling of the Thatcherites and monetarists (e.g. Milton Friedman), and spearheaded the privatisation of much of the welfare state, or what passes for it, in western countries. (Search on José Piñera for more information.)
He was considered a hero by the western right and bourgeoisie more generally, for crushing workers’ struggles and for seeking to destroy the notion that people in the lower orders – or in any order of society, e.g. the liberal middle classes – should have any say in matters whatsoever, if they aren’t OK with fascism.
He declared war and it was a case of “Think differently, do you? Well here’s what happens”. In every area, people were rounded up. In Britain the Tories have never been especially interested in foreign politics, but how they loved Pinochet! He didn’t stand any nonsense from trendy schoolteachers, trade unions, or bleeding hearts; he wasn’t wishy-washy; he declared war on the enemy within and won.
Those numbers from Wikipedia are huge underestimations. The number of exiles from Chile wasn’t 1312; it was in the hundreds of thousands. The number of people who were tortured was similar.
In the 1970s much of the bourgeoisie in Britain were itching for a similar clampdown here, as evidenced not just in the ‘Wilson plot’ but also in the widespread view among the British bourgeoisie that anything to do with the Labour Party or the trade unions was basically “communist” and paid for by the Kremlin.
What is hard for those of us who have some basic humanity to appreciate, because it is so vile, is that the forces who instituted the policy of torture in Chile did not just see it as a useful tool; they had a whole philosophy of torture as a great way for running a country, as the key to getting just the sort of country they wanted. I am not exaggerating. It goes back to Jean Ousset and, although we should not forget the contribution made by Nazis and figures such as Klaus Barbie, the thread especially goes back to French and Hispanic worshippers – on the extreme Catholic militaristic right – of the fascist victors in the Spanish civil war.
The same policy was applied in Argentina, as you say. (See especially archbishop Antonio Caggiano, who published Ousset in Spanish.
If the progressive governments of Chavez, Morales, and Correa are overthrown, this will happen again.
OK this is a little bit off-topic…but if the mods don’t mind…
I contributed some stuff to ‘Comment is Free’ at the Guardian a while back. I was thinking of contributing some more, but the way they have acted in relation to Assange, and also the story with Treviño – the lies, the underhandedness, the general turn of the ratchet a couple of notches further to the right – have made me think again. Yes OK they publish Glenn Greenwald, and probably a couple of other people who are OK too (I don’t read the newspapers much!), but that doesn’t feel like enough for me to want to jump in again.
Anybody got any alternative suggestions?
WARNING
Unless you want to lose your lunch, avoid the Goydian website for a while. All the loathsome cionist zunts have crawled from under their rocks and are spewing lies about Assange. So dismally predictable how the links slot into place. JA is not a jew, so doesn’t like murder, torture, robbery and rape, which israhell and amerika DO like. So let’s
accuse him of all those things!
Oh, and that George Galloway too …gasp….he’s…NOT FROM NORTH LONDON…..It is heartening that the more the Golders Green girlymen snivel and bleat and whinge, the more resolute Galloway, Pilger, CM etc become.
@Vronsky
“….I was very ashamed. I hope he was right and there will be other opportunities. Protecting Assange could be one…..”
Yes.
If ever there was a time to stand up and be counted, I reckon it’s now.
The Pinochet extradition case was another where the British authorities laughed behind their hands as they acted with outrageous contempt for the law, claiming they were only doing what was proper. Jack Straw ruled that Pinochet was so ill he couldn’t stand trial. Then, whaddayaknow, as soon as he returns to Chile, Pinochet has a miraculous recovery, and leaps out of his wheelchair to acknowledge the adoring fascist crowds.
People may also remember the crook Ernest Saunders, one of the ‘Guinness Four’, who made a similarly remarkable recovery after being released from jail because all the most objective and professional medics swore blind that in their best professional opinions he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Generally understood to be incurable, but not in Ernest’s case. What a coincidence, eh?
MI6 doesn’t just have a stock of judges and publishers; as Corinne Souza has described, it also has a stock of medics.
“Anybody got any alternative suggestions?”
Yes. Don’t bother with CiF. Look around (as we all do) and report back if you find something of interest. Don’t self-censor. Welcome to the team.
N_25 Aug, 2012 – 9:50 pm
The best anti-tyranny current events overview, with muchos links, reprints, is Jeff Rense’s site, scoring highly in world rankings. There’s a lot in it, with a large archive. http://www.rense.com
Dear Vronsky I found your little report about the concert given for the memory of Victor Jara very touching and also moving, especially the hope expressed by the group’s leader with quiet dignity. I should imagine there was some squirming in the seats of the the great and the good but then I am assuming, probably wrongly, that they possessed some
humanity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJxXNJx3C-0
Verenceremos – We shall triumph. Sorry it’s not v good sound quality.
N_ thanks too and Bert. I did know a bit about what went on with Straw and Pinochet. How does he live with himself? ‘Easily’ is probably the answer.
http://www.remember-chile.org.uk/index.htm
TOP EARNERS OF THE PAST YEAR
GORDON BROWN, LABOUR £900,286: Speeches, academic, and charity work
DAVID MILIBAND, LABOUR £410,171: Consultancy and public speaking
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STEPHEN PHILLIPS, CONSERVATIVE £329,297: Barrister and crown court judge
SIR MALCOLM RIFKIND, CONSERVATIVE £246,359: Director of farming and asset management firms and consultancy work
DAVID BLUNKETT, LABOUR £241,151: Consultant, media work and public speaking
TIM YEO, CONSERVATIVE £212,043: Company director
NICHOLAS SOAMES, CONSERVATIVE £198,583: Director and adviser
ALISTAIR DARLING, LABOUR £172,345: Book deals and speeches
JOHN HEMMING, LIB DEM £146,540: Owns company
JOHN REDWOOD, CONSERVATIVE £138,523: Company chairman and adviser
SIR TONY BALDRY, CONSERVATIVE £137,560: Company director and barrister
JACK STRAW, LABOUR £136,130: Consultant, media work and speeches.
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