It is a terrible thing if any US diplomats have been killed in Libya, as now appears likely. My condolences to the families of all affected. They add to the thousands of deaths in Libya, and one can only hope that finally some of the proponents of “liberal intervention” will realise that bombing people into democracy is not a viable policy.
But part of the responsibility for these deaths lies with the US and Israeli far right activists who made a film insulting Islam, with precisely the intention of provoking a spiral of violence. There are many interest groups longing to promote a perpetual climate of war and fear; some of them, like these filmmakers, are easier to identify than others.
Be it attacks on US diplomats in Libya or drone strikes on villagers in Yemen, it is all part of the same hateful cycle of violence – from which fortunes have been made in the arms, mercenary and security industries, and which climate of hatred has given cover and unflinching western support for resource grabs by Israeli illegal settlers.
So many people have poisoned what should be a beautiful world. The deaths of US diplomats in Libya get noticed. The evryday deaths of so many others in this manufactured conflict do not.
Pathetic and craven blog. So much for freedom of expression. In Craig’s world you can criticise the US but not Islam.
If you have worked very hard over several weeks, and prepared like crazy, and practiced the interview with your friends, work colleagues and your boss, thinking of everything that might be asked of you and how you might respond…you have an advantage if you are lucky enough to get the first interview of the day…
Cos you are bright and bubbly, and they have hardly woken up, and don’t know what they are doing…
After the interview, you go for a cup of coffee with them, and say, what a load of bollocks that was..shall we go out for a cigarette…
So a couple of weeks later, they offer you the job…
“SHIT – They actually want You – Me”
FFS
What do you do…
You already know their will is good….
You don’t immediately accept…
You negotiate for more
Are you any good or are you a wimp?
They have chosen you, and if they Really Want You, They Will Pay You a Lot More…
Then They Just Dump it On You….
And You Know You Can Do It, But Intially You Haven’t a Clue How???
So you introduce yourself to the people you are now working with – and admit you know almost nothing about the technology they are working on – nor where the coffee machine is…
I am Tony – What’s your name???
Can you show me???
And they show you the way and give you everthing they can to help a new member of their team.
And we all make it work, to the best of our abilities, because it is so important and failure is not an option.
We said we would make it would work, and we meant it.
Some said it was impossible.
We just did it
Tony
Nevermind,
I disagree with your comment,’its about Libyans and what level of foreign control they want to be under.’ in relation to the violence in Benghazi.
I’m saying that the violence is caused by power dynamics between the region of the east of Libya with Benghazi as its main city and the west of Libya. If Benghazi is seen to be too dangerous then its ambitions to become the commercial centre will be thwarted.
The ambassador was in Benghazi to open the visa section in the US Consulate when he was killed. After this I’m sure many other countries would have followed suit and business would have flowed to Benghazi away from the west of the country.
Alan Campbell says: “Pathetic and craven blog. So much for freedom of expression. In Craig’s world you can criticisethe US but not Islam.”
Where does anyone (less still CM) say one shouldn’t criticise Islam? Find us a quote – I might have missed it. It’s not wise to stir up hostilities in already volatile areas for sure (which was the point), but that’s not to say it’s not right to criticise whacked out religious nutbags of any persuasion. Personally, I think they’re all whacked out and we’d all be better served if they started living in the real world.
Since you like freedom of expression so much, why don’t you call into some working class pub, call for order, and then tell them what you really think about their lifestyles? Difficult one for you, because by your pretended standards, you either (a) approve of their lifestyles 100% or (b) are subject to unfair censorship.
As always, Alan, you swung as hard as you could but missed it completely.
But part of the responsibility for these deaths lies with the US and Israeli far right activists who made a film insulting Islam, with precisely the intention of provoking a spiral of violence.
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Boring, predictable rubbish!.
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You have a very low opinion of Muslims if you think that they are the type of people who cannot be trusted to NOT murder and burn down embassies if they watch something upsetting.
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Hasn’t this YouTube video been online for some time now? Why is it that two groups of people suddenly and spontaneously became inflamed in two different countries months later on a particular date?
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It was co-odinated by an extremist religious group, obviously.
Nevermind: Consider this, the film is the event people expected during the Olympics, a deliberate flaming, inconsiderate and targeted, designed to whip up feelings and justify further war on terror, terror.
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Okay, I’ve considered it; it’s bollocks!
Mary: How very inappropriate. EVE Online should get their priorities right.
American diplomat Sean Smith, killed in Libya protests, is mourned by his EVE Online gaming community
Sean Smith, one of the U.S. diplomats killed in the violence in Benghazi, was also vital to the diplomatic success of the online gaming community EVE Online, many of whose 400,000 users are mourning him today.
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Errr…yeah! How “inappropriate”! Imagine people mounrning their friend after he’s murdered. What screwy priorities those people have. Everyone knows that at times like this they should be, er… writing blogs condemning people for mourning their friends, or blaming The Great Satan or the Zionist entity or whatever else passes for political sulk…er…action these days.
AS! Good to see you again. Hope all is well?
Thanks Glenn! Yes, all is well with me. How about yourself?
by hook or crook thanks to the bush family and liar blair.
thanks to all the new revised contracts.
by hook or crook that sweet oil will keep pumping.
even in war and death the oil will flow.
when it stops only then will the opposition be real until then this is just more hegelian bull crap.
where was his protection.
they send 30 seals to kill osama an already dead man yet this man has no protection very strange.
now the sanctity of the embassy is breached maybe all bets are off.
AS: Very glad to hear it – I was concerned because of the terrible problems Japan has been having the past year or so, and how that might have affected you. We haven’t heard much from you recently, after all.
Nothing out of the ordinary to complain about here. Shocked at how rapidly time passes, and how much older I’m getting all of a sudden, but then I vividly recall thinking along exactly the same lines upon hitting 20 (now over 15 years ago!)
“Since you like freedom of expression so much, why don’t you call into some working class pub, call for order, and then tell them what you really think about their lifestyles? Difficult one for you, because by your pretended standards, you either (a) approve of their lifestyles 100% or (b) are subject to unfair censorship”
Oh, okay, Glenn. I’ll never criticise anyone or anything again because I might get smacked in the mouth in The Dog and Duck.
AC: Oh, okay, Glenn. I’ll never criticise anyone or anything again because I might get smacked in the mouth in The Dog and Duck.
No – you misunderstand – please do so!! Just don’t get too whiny if speaking inappropriately in the wrong company (in a manner designed to wind people up) get’s you into trouble.
Why, you’re not suggesting one might get “smacked in the mouth” in a working class pub, shhurely? Particularly not for you (in this example) telling them what you think of their lifestyles. Not unless you agree with the premise you originally criticised, anyway… do you see how you’ve neatly proven the point?
who funded the film..
who helped whip up a frenzy.
who was in charge of the embassy security
how many body guards did the most important american in libya have.
what country where the trained shooters from
who trained them
did this have any netanyahooly finger prints on it.
who attempted to kill general dempsey a few weeks ago
come on bozos do you really think this is about a dumb film
I’m amused. Not really. I only say that. I don’t know why. Confused, is perhaps better. Saddened perhaps that Angrysoba is posting that the death of this American official warmonger is more remarkable than any one of the hundreds of thousands of innocents slaughtered at his friend’s hands.
This seems bizarre. Beyond Chutzpah, as the brilliant Norm has taught us.
It might not unreasonably be considereed intolerable to have such apologists for the slaughter of innocents amongst us.
But here they are.
Here they are!
Et in Arcadio ego.
What a wonderful world.
“No – you misunderstand – please do so!! Just don’t get too whiny if speaking inappropriately in the wrong company (in a manner designed to wind people up) get’s you into trouble.”
Don’t worry, I will continue to criticise. I’ll leave bowing down before religious bigots to you.
Craig – or anyone else – might know. Was the Ambassador CIA? It’s generally assumed that at senior levels of the diplomatic corps there are strong links to the security services. Either they are actual CIA, or perhaps just have links, friendships and advisors, that kind of thing. Given his role in helping the rebels, the idea that he was CIA isn’t so far-fetched, not to this poster.
If he was then, sadly, the US will respond in its usual manner: stupid willy-waving and ultra-violence. The US has some of the smartest people on the planet, and a large pool of educated people. Lord only knows why they get the Government they do.
Alan Campbell,
Still nihilistically disrupting as ever.
Never a positive offering here,always following sickly negative orders.
Enjoy your sallow coin,alan.
I don’t normally employ ad hominem but after witnessing your complete lack of anything here bar insults i relent from my usual habit and ask:
How do you sleeo ya c*nt?
The pathetic slave Alan Campbell appears, as ever, when things reach a pitch here.
Lacky.
The Dog and Duck crowd are so degraded in their understanding of what’s going on that they’re a total waste of space/time.
Once the Unions died, the workers mostly hadn’t a clue.
They’re a good laugh and all and buy you chips when you’re short and get you fixed with a bird and all, but there ain’t no nascent revolutionary movement thing happinin there. The days of that are over. They had power, at one time. Massive power. But gave it away, as ya do….
The young people are the future, and not just in the obvious sense that they will outlive us, but that today’s 20 something generation is well-positioned to overturn what we’ve created.
They’re better informed than we were. Many more are born to the skills of IT and all that entails. They’re pissed off because the present system makes their lives poorer.
I can imagine that in about 20 years time you’ll get laws getting old people out of their houses and stuff, giving them to young productive people etc.
You may have noticed,over the years here, Alan Campbell, that I rarely move beyond the bounds of decency.
But I’m also happy to make an exception for you, and your weak kind.
Over the years,on this blog, nothing but bile, ignorance, hate, negativity and spite
You’re a fool mate and I personally (hello mods,ban me if you like but I’m sick of these pathetic scum – and no i don’t drink or take drugs) dislike your MO here because it’s always been inhumane, sneering and cowardly.
Pathetic.
Enjoy your bitter pension.
Vague Hague: Saddened perhaps that Angrysoba is posting that the death of this American official warmonger is more remarkable than any one of the hundreds of thousands of innocents slaughtered at his friend’s hands.
This seems bizarre. Beyond Chutzpah, as the brilliant Norm has taught us.
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I did no such thing. The OP was written by Craig Murray, so you’ll have to ask him why he found it “more remarkable” to have posted on the subject. And I don’t know which friend of mine he is alleging has slaughtered thousands of innocents.
“he is” should be “you are”, of course.
Glenn: AS: Very glad to hear it – I was concerned because of the terrible problems Japan has been having the past year or so, and how that might have affected you. We haven’t heard much from you recently, after all.
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Glenn, thanks for the concern. I’m quite far away from the affected areas which are still in a bad state in many ways and yet some of the recovery work there has been amazing.
Don’t worry about the Alan Campbell tag as poster. It’s a fake ID.
Were he really an Alan Campbell, he’d be as loving as us of liberty and critical of the fascism that we’re witnessing all around.
He ain’t no Alan Campbell, nor anything close.
Angrysoba
My view is that this American ambassador to Libya was a major player in the destruction/liberation of Libya.
He was therefore a combatant.
He wasn’t anally raped with a knife and slaughtered on camera.
So what’s the big deal?
He was just killed, like any normal combatant.
He was let off lightly and escaped the usual vicious American procedures so far as I can see.
What are you whining about?
“The ambassador was in Benghazi to open the visa section in the US Consulate when he was killed. After this I’m sure many other countries would have followed suit and business would have flowed to Benghazi away from the west of the country.” Ruth.
Thanks, Ruth, very interesting. Are you implying that this act was in part a manifestation of internecine fighting between Libyan factions? Please do feel free to elaborate. Thanks.
It seems likely that political/military factions – Jihadists, whatever – are using the film as a tool to whip up a frenzy in order to exert traction for their tactical objectives. Of course, they will always find some excuse, some or other ‘provocation’, whether it’s a cartoon or a teddy-bear. It’s a sign of a deep ontological insecurity. In this, they are wholly predictable. Given the apposite configuration, one would only have to intone, in, say, Auchtermuchty, “I hereby name my soft toy pig, ‘Mohammed’! “, for there to be instant, angry demonstrations from West Timor to Rabat, from Bradford to Mogadishu. No such fury over literacy, wealth distribution or the infant mortality rates, sadly. It has indeed been a takeover of people’s minds and it has proceeded over 35 years or so. Yes, Saudi/UAE and (wrt the Shia version), Iran. The USA/UK et al use the Islamists as tactical stormtroopers when it suits their geostrategic ends to do so, nothing new there. Blowback, indeed. Endless cycle. God is good for arms dealers.
It does rather have the look of a turf-war, doesn’t it? Monumentally stupid to kill an Ambassador though, combatant or not. One wonders what promises were made that have not been followed through on, what deals are being made with these criminal gangs. The invasion of Libya was another profoundly saddening and stupid affair, and the humanitarian pretext totally unconvincing, and now that Libya is a mess – as predicted – none of us feel especially good for being right. I’d prefer to be wrong, but when it comes to such ventures I never am: they all end in disaster, and yet we keep on doing them. I know not why.
I agree, for what it’s worth, that he was a combatant. I don’t know if he was CIA, but certainly he was part of the destruction of Libya. This doesn’t mean he deserved to be killed – nobody deserves that – just that he was fundamentally a soldier doing his job, and thus a target for the type of criminals that the US is so keen on arming. That’s the reality, not that you’ll ever hear the MSM say this.