Pulling Imran Khan off a plane in Canada, and making him miss his Eid fundraising lunch in New York, is pretty crass of the United States, a country that claims its foreign policy is motivated by freedom. The idea that low level US immigration operatives needed clarificiation on Khan’s well-known views on killings by US drones in Pakistan is plainly nonsense. But this wasn’t routine or an error; Khan wasn’t questioned at a desk on arrival in New York, he was pulled off a plane by US operatives in Canada. It was an exercise in humiliation.
But if you look under this event you find some interesting, creepy crawly creatures.
From the Toronto Sun report linked above:
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition from Phoenix, Ariz. wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this week, pressuring her to revoke the U.S. visa granted to Khan because of his sympathetic views towards the Taliban.
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition followed this up with a press release with the notably un-Islamic contact name of Gregg Edgar of Gordon C James Public Relations.
From Wikipedia on Gordon C James:
James grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and moved to Iowa in 1969 where he served several years in the Iowa National Guard. James worked in the real-estate management business in Des Moines, renting space to presidential candidates in town for the caucuses. In 1978, he met and rented space to former President of the United States George H. W. Bush (then Ambassador Bush).[1]
After the 1988 election James worked as Lead Advance Representative at the White House for two years under President George H.W. Bush and Director of Invitations and Ticketing for the 51st Presidential Inaugural Committee.[2] James was also employed as deputy director of events for the 54th and 55th Presidential Inauguration.[3] In 1990 he founded the public relations firm Gordon C. James Public Relations.
In 2004, James was employed by former U.S. Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to improve U.S. public relations in Iraq during the transition of governments.[4] For more than five months he served as the Director of Advance and Special Events in the Office of Strategic Communications and Director of the Presidential Palace Studio for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. While there he advised Ambassador Paul Bremer and was responsible for coordinating the Ambassador’s relations with Western and Pan-Arab media outlets and produced several events including the signing of the Tal (Iraq’s Declaration of Independence) and 100 Days to Sovereignty, the countdown to the transfer of power from the CPA to newly founded Iraqi government.[5]
In 2004 James assisted in several political stops with the Bush-Cheney campaign and in 2005, he was employed as lead advance representative for President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton’s tour of the Tsunami-hit regions of Indonesia.[6]
James has traveled to five continents as a lead advance representative for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
There are some Muslims in the American Islamic Leadership Coalition. In Phoenix with Gordon C James is M Zuhdi Jasser, of Syrian origin but for eleven years a medical officer in the US Navy. And the AILC has another interesting Syrian, leader of “The Reform Party of Syria”, Farid Ghadry. The AILC website includes the quote:
“Gossip is he is the next president of Syria”
Ghadry lives in Washington and is the author of such fascinating blog posts as “Israel Builds for Nobel Prizes, Arabs are Suicide Bombers”.
Like the Quilliam Foundation in the UK, doubtless the AILC has hoovered up plenty of public funds for its useful work for the security services. BUt the idea that it genuinely represents a strand in Islamic thinking is ludicrous. It is marvellous what being an establishment shill can do for your media profile though. Zuhdi Jasser addressed his largest mass rally of supporters – highly optimistically estimated by the media as three dozen – in a New York rally in support of NYPD’s controversial surveillance and agent provocateur operations against Muslims. Rather than laughing at it, the tame mainstream media covered it infinitely better than they cover anti-war rallies 1,000 times larger, and portrayed it as a genuine sign of Muslim community support for the surveillance.
Just as none of the mainstream media reporting the current Imran Khan story – most of whon quote the AILC – say anything about who the AILC really are. What do people working in the mainstream media think the purpose of their existence actually is?
watch this minority coalition cuts its own feet off, the debate about an increase in EU contributions just got on the way. live on not so free view parliament channel.
If they throw any more spanners, they might find the EU ganging up against them and change the open market all together.
‘were high flyers, not burger flippers’ the flavour of the debate.
Annie Machon
From MI6 Al Qaeda Plot to Kill Gaddafi to Spying on Domestic Dissent: An MI5 Whistle Blowers Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rDibHD11XYw#!
Contains interesting info on our SIS
Shame on the City of London police and on those pulling the strings.
No fraud charge for Adam Werritty – CPS Mr Fox (left) resigned from the cabinet last October
Police consider Fox friend probe
The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that no fraud charges are to be brought against Adam Werritty, a close friend of MP Liam Fox.
Mr Fox resigned as defence secretary last year after pressure over his working relationship with Mr Werritty.
City of London police investigated an allegation of fraud that Mr Werritty distributed business cards falsely claiming he was an adviser to Mr Fox.
The complaint was made by Labour MP John Mann.
The CPS concluded there was insufficient evidence to justify any criminal charges.
It is understood that the absence of trademark protection for the crowned portcullis emblem had a material impact on the CPS’s decision.
31 October 2012 Last updated at 16:57
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20159699
Ben Franklin 4.27pm
Thompson has been economical with the actualite on Savile.
Former BBC chief Mark Thompson’s office ‘had TWO alerts about Savile child abuse claims’
Mark Thompson’s office was notified at least twice – once by a journalist and once again by ITV
Mr Thompson was apparently not told of allegations on two occasions
YouGov poll: 48 percent of respondents believe Thompson had not been honest about Savile affair
Corporation is battling claims that its head of editorial standards, David Jordan, knowingly misled parliament last Tuesday
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224236/Jimmy-Savile-rumours-Mark-Thompsons-BBC-office-TWO-alerts-child-abuse-claims.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Excerpts from Oliver Stone’s newest book….sorry Glenn, even this doesn’t justify a protest vote for third party or Romney. Bad doesn’t logically, require worse, in the final estimation.
“On Wall Street reform: “The biggest winner under Obama was Wall Street.”
(Also on POLITICO: The latest with the 2012 elections)
On health care: “Obama’s failure to articulate a progressive vision was also apparent in the fight over health reform, which was to have been his signature initiative…Obama’s health care reform effort, marked by the inability to even refute Republican charges of death panels, was so unpopular that it became an albatross around the necks of Democrats in the 2010 election.”
On a troop surge in Afghanistan: “When it finally came down to decision time, Obama didn’t have the courage or integrity of a post-Cuban Missile Crisis John F. Kennedy. He settled on a 30,000-troop increase, giving the military leaders almost everything they wanted and more than they expected.”
On civil liberties: “Among the greatest disappointments to his followers was Obama’s refusal to roll back the expanding national security state that so egregiously encroached on American civil liberties.”
On ‘imperialism’: “[He] was not offering a decisive break with over a century of imperial conquest. His was a centrist approach to better managing the American empire rather than advancing a positive role for the United States in a rapidly evolving world.”
On defense spending: “While cutting defense spending, pulling combat forces out of Iraq and beginning the drawdown in Afghanistan represented a welcome retreat from they hypermilitarism of the Bush-Cheney years, they did not represent the sharp and definitive break with empire that the world needed to see from the United States.”
linkee, sorry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/30/obama-first-term-racism-charges
I have mixed emotions about Oliver Stone, like, as if my Mother-in-Law went over a cliff in my prized Maserati.
Sometimes he seems to be more disinformational, than informative.
Mary;
They all just want to protect their precious careers, and paycheck. The Public Trust is not bankable, in their estimation.
Palestine briefing
October 2012
Israel ‘to blame for Palestinian jobless’
Alan Duncan calls for Israel to lift Gaza blockade
Palestinians should be allowed to exploit gas fields
Report on DfID questions on Palestine Wed 31st October, 2012
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/todays-commons-debates/read/unknown/9/#c9
A minister called on Israel yesterday to lift the five-year economic blockade of Gaza so that Palestinians can exploit their offshore gasfield in the Mediterraean and eventually pay their own way without aid from the international community.
International development minister Alan Duncan blamed the Israeli blockade for the high levels of unemployment in Gaza (28%) and the 540 roadblocks and building ban in Area C of the West Bank for the unemployment level there (17%).
He was responding to Conservative MP Andrew Turner who said: “More needs to be done to persuade Israel to remove the barriers that prevent Palestinians crossing the border in order to find work and more opportunities are seized to create work in Gaza and the rest of Palestine.”
He told him: “We support the IMF’s recent assessment that Israeli controls on external trade and access to Area C are a serious constraint on Palestinian employment levels.”We want people and goods to be able to cross border freely with the minimum constraint necessary to ensure Israel’s security.
“We want the Palestinian Authority to be able to exploit their own resources, such as the gas fields off the coast of Gaza, so that the Palestinian Authority can pay its own way and eventually require less support from the international community.”
Labour MP John Denham told him the cost of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, now in its 45th year, should be paid by the Israeli government and not by the EU, the largest international donor who gave a total of €459 million (£370m) to the Palestinians last year.
“Now that Israeli settlements are making a two-state solution impossible, what is the government going to do to make sure that the Israeli government pays for the cost of the illegal occupation, not the European taxpayer?” he asked.
The minister replied: “I understand the concept that he is suggesting somehow our aid subsidises the occupation. The solution is an enduring peace process by which a secure Israel can live alongside a viable Palestinian state, so that aid compensation or any kind of financial support is rendered less necessary.”
Another call to end the blockade came from Labour MP Richard Burden: “Fisherman are prevented by the Israeli blockade from fishing more than three miles off shore at the same time as fish can be imported though illegal tunnels, but the indigenous people of Gaza can by and large not afford to buy those fish. Wouldn’t it be better to end the blockade, open the crossings and close the tunnels?”
The minister replied: “Our funding aims to support the creation of an independent viable Palestinian state with a flourishing economy. Our assessment is that over time such a state would become self-sufficient and no longer require aid.”
Alliance MP Naomi Long pressed the minister to take steps to ensure that water is no longer used as a weapon against some of the most vulnerable people in the region.
Martin Linton, ex Labour MP Battersea
Sorry no link, By e-mail
woww.fruitloops,com/catalogue
People who bought Daniel Pipes
Also liked John Bolton
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/10/09/123427/bolton-pakistan-democracy/?mobile=nc
Add to basket
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The CPS concluded there was insufficient evidence to justify any criminal charges.
It is understood that the absence of trademark protection for the crowned portcullis emblem had a material impact on the CPS’s decision.
How weak can you get? But great to know that when I get my next order of personal stationery, I can have the portcullis embossed on it. Now all I need is a minister to tag along with while I blag my way into security conferences.
Ben-
http://www.crewsmostcorrupt.org/mostcorrupt
Dishonorable Mention, #3.
Looks as if he’s protested his allegiance sufficiently to neutralise whatever it was the JDL bombed him for in 2001, but not very actively pro-Israel even so. Wouldn’t expect a Lebanese Christian to court the neighbours in case someone else bombed him…
G***o F****s claims to have met Werritty recently, in Fox’s company. If true, it’s refreshing to see the Ancient Mariner still carrying the albatross around. Or maybe he just can’t get it out of his trousers?
lynx, sorry,
http://order-order.com/2012/08/02/foxs-penance/#comments
Mary, that was a surprise that Adam Werritty was not guilty of fraud in claiming to be Fox’s advisor, with his own portcullis logo cards. They threw it out apparently because there was no copyright on the portcullis. That makes me wonder if I had been forging the old threepenny bits when they were legal currency, or the new penny, it would have been legal.
Like a good boy I’ve been commenting on the ‘CIA Look to Swamp Correa’ post exposing the contributor Anonymous as being Mr Rudling through a simple piece of analysis. Today he was exposed on Flashback for commenting under more than one name.
“. . . it appeared yesterday that Rudling made a fool of himself in the English chat rooms where members could prove that he had at least two different nick except his real name, his agenda is thus quite clear now.”
That should have read “the contributor Anonymouse” not “Anonymous”
Alan Duncan, MP may find himself the subject of a scandal that will necessitate his resignation from the Government. That often is what seems to happen to those in senior UK Government positions who dare openly to criticise Israeli policies. Either that, or we will see a grovelling apology. Might not happen – hope not – but keep an eye out for such things. I always remember what happened to David Mellor, though I’ve no means of proving any kind of link in that case. The timing just seemed oddly interesting (or interestingly odd).
I posted earlier: Don’t criticise Israel!!
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/i-am-not-anti-semitic-claims-vincent-browne.html#entry30129172
It appears not to have been accepted.
Is there a problem I should know about?
‘modo@ 6:14
This is why we can’t have nice things.
BOLTON: [D]emocracy and civilian governments in Pakistan have been so discredited because of incompetence and corruption.
Are Darrell Issa and Pipes cut from the same cedar? (rhetorical question alert)
HMG lose commons vote on EU budget by 13 votes.
Resign Cameron and Clegg now!
Doug – But his remarks drew a strong reaction from Israel’s deputy ambassador to Ireland Nurit Tinari-Modai, who said her grandparents were brutally murdered during the Holocaust.
Which has exactly what to do with someone criticising Israel 60+ years later? I think we need a statute of limitations on this. PS – Mel Philips is defending drones on The Moral Maze as I write. She’ll probably lug the holocaust into it somehow. If I say they always do, I’ll be an antisemite.
Yes, Ben, let’s have a corrupt and incompetent military government because our democratic government is so corrupt and incompetent. (Might actually be a refreshing change – at least the elections would be less tedious)
Chapter and verse
EU budget vote: Rebel MPs defeat government over spending cut call
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20157063
I admired your engagement of anonymouse/?rudling John Goss, but found the lexical match of “don’t understand” to be funny but short of conclusive. For a stronger case I thought about computing lexical signatures for the comments and comparing suspects with controls, but i recoiled at the hallowickedness of such computational art. A lexical arms race could ensue, adding layers of stealth and inorganic processes to the virtual chorus.
“Yes, Ben, let’s have a corrupt and incompetent military government because our democratic government is so corrupt and incompetent. (Might actually be a refreshing change – at least the elections would be less tedious)”
But, Komodo; nobody took me up on the offer of a Benevolent Dictatorship ! 🙂
Question Time tomorrow 10.35 An incentive here to do something else, read a good book, listen to some music or go to the pub!
01/11/2012
Duration: 1 hour
David Dimbleby presents from central London in the week before the US presidential election. On the panel are former foreign secretary David Miliband, US television presenter and former Democratic Party mayor of Cincinnati Jerry Springer, Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng, Colleen Graffy, former chairman of Republicans Abroad, and Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty.
Mary, 9:12pm on 31.10.12: Agreed. One already can sense the nasueating sanctimoniousness of that lot – of most lots – ooze from the TV screen. I’d rather go for a very long walk and dream of interstellar travel. Or eat gruel. Or even break a brick.
Will probably try and get my head round partial differential equations. Again.
(Forgot Captcha Again. Nearly needed the calculator for that one…)
This one, Nevermind? If not do you have a title (prob in German)?
http://www.no-burn.org/article.php?id=1433
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2012/10/fascism-anyone-14-signs-were-already-there-2485514.html
Obviosly going to see the retch would be to teach him some truths and to disrupt his demons.
Suhayl Saadi:
…. and Robin Cook