The Guardian hit a new low in Amelia Hill’s report on Julian Assange’s appearance at the Oxford Union. Hill moved beyond propaganda to downright lies.
This is easy to show. Read through Hill’s “report”. Then zip to 20 minutes and 55 seconds of the recording of Assange speaking at the event Hill misreports, and simply listen to the applause from the Oxford Union after Assange stops speaking.
Just that hearty applause is sufficient to show that the entire thrust and argument of Amelia Hill’s article moves beyong distortion or misreprentation – in themselves dreadful sins in a journalist – and into the field of outright lies. Her entire piece is intended to give the impression that the event was a failure and the audience were hostile to Assange. That is completely untrue.
Much of what Hill wrote is not journalism at all. What does this actually mean?
“His critics were reasoned, those who queued for over an hour in the snow to hear him speak were thoughtful. It was Julian Assange – the man at the centre of controversy – who refused to be gracious.”
Hill manages to quote five full sentences of the organiser of the anti-Assange demonstration (which I counted at 37 people) while giving us not one single sentence of Assange’s twenty minute address. Nor a single sentence of Tom Fingar, the senior US security official who was receiving the Sam Adams award. Even more remarkably, all three students Hill could find to interview were hostile to Assange. In a hall of 450 students who applauded Assange enthusiastically and many of whom crowded round to shake my hand after the event, Hill was apparently unable to find a single person who did not share the Rusbridger line on Julian Assange.
Hill is not a journalist – she is a pathetic grovelling lickspittle who should be deeply, deeply ashamed.
Here is the answer to the question about cyber-terrorism of which Amelia Hill writes:
“A question about cyber-terrorism was greeted with verbose warmth”
As you can see, Assange’s answer is serious, detailed, thoughtful and not patronising to the student. Hill’s characterisation – again without giving a word of Assange’s actual answer – is not one that could genuinely be maintained. Can anybody – and I mean this as a real question – can anybody look at that answer and believe that “Verbose warmth” is a fair and reasonable way to communicate what had been said to an audience who had not seen it? Or is it just an appalling piece of hostile propaganda by Hill?
The night before Assange’s contribution at the union, John Bolton had been there as guest speaker. John Bolton is a war criminal whose actions deliberately and directly contributed to the launching of an illegal war which killed hundreds of thousands of people. Yet there had not been one single Oxford student picketing the hosting of John Bolton, and Amelia Hill did not turn up to vilify him. My main contribution to the Sam Adams event was to point to this as an example of the way people are manipulated by the mainstream media into adopting seriously warped moral values.
Amelia Hill is one of the warpers, the distorters of reality. The Guardian calls her a “Special Investigative Correspondent.” She is actually a degraded purveyor of lies on behalf of the establishment. Sickening.
Thanks, Nevermind. The UK response will be to affirm its solidarity with the UN by sending more arms salesmen to Tel Aviv, no doubt.
http://www.caat.org.uk/resources/countries/israel/
🙂 🙂 🙂
Gotta love this graft-free globalism…
@ Mark Golding – Children of Conflict 31 Jan, 2013 – 3:20 am
Someone’s looking out for Amelia, that’s for sure:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/no-charges-for-journalist-amelia-hill-over-leaks-7801023.html
The only question is: cause or effect?
Just heard billiard ball Hague bumbling response, not castigating Israel for attacking a sovereign country, but talking of chemical weapons and Assad.
If this was an attack on chemical weapons, the whole area should be strewn with either precursor chems. and all sorts of hardware.
If it was just an attack to divert the news from the UN ruling, then it has clearly achieved its point.
would it be too presumptuous to allure that WW3 is here!
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1557.htm
everybody is getting right tetchy and Iran’s blustering today vowing to avenge Israels attack on Syria works into this scenario.
And to look at the other side, troops amassing on Irans northern border, is their brief to intercept what might come of Israel’s cooperation with Azerbidjan in the case of war with Iran?
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-19/europe/31209102_1_dagestan-troubled-region-troops
And then there is this detailed report from Reuters, Sep. 2012, I think we looked at it last year when it came about.
The comments below are especially interesting, I like the last of them best and most appropriate.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/30/us-iran-israel-azerbaijan-idUSBRE88T05L20120930
Stand up for Julian Assange
by Mairead Maguire, winner of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland.
Published on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 by Common Dreams
“Last month, on December 13th, 2012, I visited Julian Assange, Australian founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, in the Ecuadorian embassy, in Knightsbridge, London.
[…]
When I met Julian Assange, I was struck by his bright, intelligent and compassionate mind, and glad to see that in spite of all the persecution and abuse of his human rights, he is in good spirits and good health. For seven months now, he has been confined indoors with no possibility of even five minutes outside in the fresh air, which is a basic right for all political prisoners. If he tried to go outside, he would be immediately arrested by the many British police outside the embassy, and extradited to Sweden or the U.S..
Unlike most political prisoners, he has no idea how long his virtual imprisonment in the embassy will last–6 more months or 6 years. The diplomatic standoff continues. This is indeed cruel, inhumane and mental torture. His only crime was to tell the truth and bring transparency to the illegal acts of the U.S. Government and its allies around the world.
I believe the U.K., Swedish and U.S. governments are all complicit in the mental torture of Julian Assange, and I appeal to the Australian government, human rights defenders, brave media, and people who love truth and freedom around the world to stand up for Julian Assange and his human rights, and the assurance that he get the chance to answer all accusations against him in the U.K. or Sweden without being extradited to U.S., where he could meet the same ‘cruel and inhuman treatment’ as Pt. Bradley Manning has suffered.
The least we can do is raise our voices to protect Julian Assange–and Bradley Manning–who have made such brave attempts, at the cost of their own freedom, to expose war crimes and defend freedom and democracy.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/29-8
Who fancies nominating Julian? Craig a possibility as well but Julian’s probably more deserving considering his circumstances right now.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/observer-ethical-awards
Meanwhile, as UK forces try to relive the early 1940s by digging themselves in in North Africa (how long until Oxford ‘historian’ Niall Ferguson explains that this is the thinking man’s best policy for now and the future), the BBC are telling what I suspect are outright lies about Iran, doing their bit to help with the propaganda work required in support of today’s attack by Zionist warplanes on Syria.
The lying about Iran comes after a headline focusing on Russia, a reference to an “alleged” Israeli attack, and a caption saying Israel has “not commented”. (Oh well, I suppose BBC rules require that any unprovoked military attack must be described as “alleged” until the perpetrators have admitted it. Except if the perpetrators aren’t Israelis.)
According to the British Hasbara Corporation:
“Iran’s Fars news agency quoted the Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying the raid would have “grave consequences for [the major Israeli city of] Tel Aviv”.”
Well that’s fucking peculiar, because the Fars news agency publish numbered news reports on their website, and I didn’t manage to find anything like the above. Maybe someone who knows Farsi could also have a look.
Did Fars say this, or are the BBC lying? Or of course, maybe the BBC are just repeating what the Israelis told them?
The BBC also say
“Any Israeli attack on Syria could cause a major diplomatic incident, analysts say, as Iran has said it will treat any Israeli attack on its ally Syria as an attack on itself.
Yes, when a state sends in its warplanes and bombs a military installation in the territory of another state, that does tend to cause a bit of a diplomatic flurry.
I don’t actually know whether Iran has an alliance with Syria – I don’t believe what I read in the newspapers – but maybe it does. Alliance means military cooperation when required. So what’s better? A mutual defence pact to aid each other when one of the countries is attacked by an aggressor? Or a ‘help the US attack numerous countries around the world which haven’t attacked either the US or any of its allies’ arrangement, like the one the UK has got with the US?
And even if he did say it, what’s that lying parenthesis doing in the square brackets, explaining that “Tel Aviv” is “[the major Israeli city of]Tel Aviv”.
In actual fact, Fars routinely use the term “Tel Aviv” to denote the Israeli government. Click here for an example.
Saying something would have consequences for the Israeli government is very different from saying it would have consequences for a given city, as if a threat is being made against that city.
It’s not just Amelia Hill who’s a fawning lickspittle. So are the senior executives of the BBC.
Assange running for Australian Senate seat. Anyone know if he can serve in absentia?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9836966/Julian-Assange-to-run-for-Senate-seat-as-his-mother-says-he-will-be-awesome.html
O/T Help needed for the Love Dungeness campaign. A pro forma letter is on the website to send to Kent County Council. EDF Energy are amongst the applicants for permission to remove the shingle. There is not much time left for objections to be accepted.
http://www.lovedungeness.org/the-issues/
Komodo;
I think soon Amelia will be out of your hair and into ours, like Piers Morgan. She will land on her feet at the New York Times.
I’m with Mr Bates, not for his choice of words, but for his opinion of Thatcher.
A FAN sent a tweet to Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle and was told by the star who plays valet John Bates: “Go f*** yourself.”
The actor — famed for his Bafta-nominated portrayal of the respectful flunky in ITV1’s period drama — hit the roof in a spat over his hatred of Lady Thatcher.
NHS consultant Roberta Knighton told him Twitter comments he posted about the ex-Tory PM were “beneath” him.
Fuming Coyle, 49, hit back: “Hard to know how to respond to that… but go f*** yourself feels about right.”
He then said: “You have no idea what is beneath me… p.s. go f*** yourself x”. Then he blocked her from viewing his account.
Roberta, 53, who kept his replies on her phone, said in Shefford, Beds: “He comes across as utterly sweet and gentle then speaks to people like that. I was shocked.”
Coyle — currently in Vietnam — was unavailable for comment last night.
Press TV says
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/31/286551/iran-warns-of-israeli-attack-fallout/
Making clear the threat was of consequences for the Israeli government not a threat against a specific city as the BBC twisted.
A Downing Street press release masquerading as journalism in The Guardian.
Posted by Peter on January 31, 2013, 3:12 pm
Their senior political editor, Patrick Wintour, has accompanied David Cameron on his trip to Libya, and here’s what he has to sa about it, among other things:
– Cameron ‘flew from Algiers in a personal statement of support for the Arab spring’.
– ‘In a sign of his concern for civil order, Cameron on his arrival at the airport travelled in a heavily armed 16-vehicle convoy to visit a sprawling police training college outside Tripoli’.
– Cameron ‘received strong applause and shouts of “God is great” when he pledged: “In building a new Libya you will have no greater friend than the United Kingdom. We will stand with you every step of the way”‘.
– He ‘was greeted by jostling crowds and Libyans taking photos of him as he discussed the fate of the revolution just 100 yards from Gaddafi’s old palace’.
– Cameron ‘visited Tripoli and Benghazi with the then French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, in September 2011 in the wake of Gaddafi’s fall, receiving a hero’s welcome. The Nato-sanctioned no-fly zone operated by France and UK cleared the way for the uprising’.
– Cameron ‘will promise to stand by the Libyans and to improve governance, including a package on policing and defence aid’.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/31/david-cameron-libya-surprise-visit
From Medialens
~~~
Cameron has announced that British police are to visit Libya to investigate Lockerbie. Wait for full posthumous demonisation of Gaddafi. His terrible death is not enough for Cameron and co.
Cameron speaking to Libyan police force. http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/01/31/article-2271243-1744B848000005DC-947_634x400.jpg
Just reported on Radio 4. It is believed by the BBC, mind,that Israels strike was against a Russian made surface to air missile system.
Still it is an act of war and Iran is right to be alarmed at this provocation. So, what if Syria hits back at Israel, a one off/one way mission to hit illegal settlements in East Jerusalem?
Can you imagine the wailing mode the western media would go into, they be crying their eyes out in ‘disgust at blatant provocation’ etc. etc.
Yes, I know it’s the Daily Mail — but why has this article been pulled?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270219/U-S-planned-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-Syria-blame-Assad.html
Another false flag. At least this time the “mainstream” are actually reporting it.
Comments on RT and elsewhere suggest that there was a coordinated attack. Ground based “rebels” took action which temporarily disabled Syrian air defence systems, then the Israel jets attacked.
Unconfirmed comments again elsewhere (RT comments etc) say that Russian systems may have acquired and tracked the Israeli planes but were not given permission to fire. No idea if this true but certainly possible.
I should have explainedL If you google the key words in the above link you can read the first paragraph of the news piece. The deception is becoming obvious, now.
U.S. ‘planned to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’ | Mail Online
A leaked email exchange, reportedly between top officials at defense firm Britam, details a plan to use chemical weapons in Syria that has allegedly been ‘approved by Washington’.
Read more at http://www.dailymail.co.uk
http://inagist.com/all/296372778284748800/?utm_source=inagist&utm_medium=rss
Full article here. Since been deleted by Mail and Twitter
http://niketalk.com/t/523439/leaked-u-s-planned-to-initiate-chemical-attack-on-syria-then-blame-it-on-assad
U.S. ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime’
Leaked emails from defense contractor refers to chemical weapons saying ‘the idea is approved by Washington’
Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that use of chemical warfare was ‘totally unacceptable’
By Louise Boyle
PUBLISHED: 14:16 EST, 29 January 2013 | UPDATED: 14:16 EST, 29 January 2013
Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.
A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.
Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people.
According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam’s Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.
It reads: ‘Phil… We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.
‘We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.
‘They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.
‘Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?
‘Kind regards, David.’
Britam Defence had not yet returned a request for comment to MailOnline.
The emails were released by a Malaysian hacker who also obtained senior executives resumés and copies of passports via an unprotected company server, according to Cyber War News.
Dave Goulding’s Linkedin profile lists him as Business Development Director at Britam Defence Ltd in Security and Investigations. A business networking profile for Phil Doughty lists him as Chief Operationg Officer for Britam, United Arab Emirates, Security and Investigations.
The U.S. State Department had not returned a request for comment on the alleged emails to MailOnline today at time of publication.
However the use of chemical warfare was raised at a press briefing in D.C. on January 28.
A spokesman said that the U.S. joined the international community in ‘setting common redlines about the consequences of using chemical weapons’.
A leaked U.S. government cable revealed that the Syrian army more than likely had used chemical weapons during an attack in the city of Homs in December.
The document, revealed in The Cable, revealed the findings of an investigation by Scott Frederic Kilner, the U.S. consul general in Istanbul, into accusations that the Syrian army used chemical weapons in the December 23 attack.
An Obama administration official who had access to the document was reported as saying: ‘We can’t definitely say 100 per cent, but Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15 was used in Homs on Dec. 23.’
Mr Kilner’s investigation included interviews with civilians, doctors, and rebels present during the attack, as well as the former general and head of the Syrian WMD program, Mustafa al-Sheikh.
Dr. Nashwan Abu Abdo, a neurologist in Homs, is certain chemical weapons were used. He told The Cable: ‘It was a chemical weapon, we are sure of that, because tear gas can’t cause the death of people.’
Eye witness accounts from the investigation revealed that a tank launched chemical weapons and caused people exposed to them to suffer nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, delirium, seizures, and respiratory distress.
The symptoms suggest that the weaponized compound Agent-15 was responsible. Syria denied using chemical weapons and said it would never use them against citizens.
Speaking to Pentagon reporters at the time, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said his biggest concern was how the U.S. and allies would secure the chemical and biological weapons sites scattered across Syria and ensure the components don’t end up in the wrong hands if the regime falls, particularly under violent conditions.
Government forces and rebels in Syria have both been accused by human rights groups of carrying out brutal warfare in the 22-month-old conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270219/U-S-planned-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-Syria-blame-Assad.html#ixzz2JPINOEFp
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Cameron’s press coverage is being upstaged by Beckham being welcomed to Paris St Germain by Nasser Al-Khelaifi. The club is owned by, yes you’ve guessed it, the Qataris. Good move there Becks. Coining it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Saint-Germain_F.C.
Israel informed the US of its attack beforehand…
So the concerted action goes as follows, you tread on their toes and when they scream or hit back in self defence, we come to help you.
Syria has summoned Golan UN commander to express its outrage at Israel breaking the 1974 disengagement agreement
https://twitter.com/Reuters
And this from El Arabiya, the same story, more detail.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/01/31/263639.html
The Syrian email about a false-flag appear to be a forgery with the rest genuine.
See http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1794vf/britam_defence_hacked_confidential_documents/c83hlfm
See discussion about Message-IDs (identical to another email) and time stamps.
BBC Breaking news
FOOTBALL:Beckham on Paris move – ‘My salary will go to a children’s charity in Paris’
LATEST:US officials tell BBC that target of Israeli raid on Syria was convoy of surface-to-air missiles
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21281923
So?
Rummy shakes hands with Saddam
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
Bliar kisses Gaddafi
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JBMJZu_GTbc/TsTyLA-bNnI/AAAAAAAACAo/TvBCMpCxBJQ/s1600/gaddafi-blair_w.jpg
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld
LOL and ROTFLMAO
@ post by N_ at 15h31 :
“..how long before Oxford ‘historian’ Niall Ferguson explains that…etc etc”
Why the inverted commas around the word historian?
Whrn I last looked, Ferguson read history at university, taught and still teached history at universities and has written several books on various aspects of history.
But perhaps N_ has his own definition of what a historian is. If so, I should be interested to hear it.
Thanks in advance.
More here:
Hacked Emails Reveal ‘Washington-Approved’ Plan to Stage Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
http://www.infowars.com/hack-reveals-washington-approved-plan-to-stage-chemical-weapons-attack-in-syria/
The Syria chemical weapons plot was uncovered last year David and reported here together with a reminder that British special forces were caught carrying out false flag bomb attacks, dressed as sectarian extremists in Basra during the Iraq war.
I have been told the aborted plot to pin the use of chemical weapons on the Assad regime in Syria cost the British tax-payers around £250,000 in ‘Increment’ man-power and MI6 intelligence.
Syria have not signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Israel has signed but not ratified and Iran ratified in December 1997.