Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands remains a deep shame to the United Kingdom. In the 1960’s we forcibly deported an entire population a thousand miles, very much against their will, to make way for a United States air base. This is not an ancient evil; it continues to seep its poison into current actions, and the remnants of the deported population still linger in Mauritius, dreaming of home.
The Chagos outlines the stark hyprocrisy of UK policy on the Falklands. There we state the will of the islanders is paramount. In the Chagos, we state the will of the islanders is meaningless. Of course, the Falklanders are white-skinned, the Chagossians brown-skinned. That is the limit of the FCO’s attachment to self-determination as a principle. It is not for “Man Fridays”.
“Man Fridays”, according to the US Embassy Cable describing the briefing on Diego Garcia given them by FCO official Colin Roberts, is how Roberts referred to the inhabitants:
Roberts stated that, according to the HGM,s current thinking on a reserve, there would be “no human footprints” or “Man Fridays” on the BIOT’s uninhabited islands.
In the Diego Garcians’ latest attempt to get their home back, Roberts under cross-examination denied emphatically that he had used the term “Man Fridays”. It is difficult to see why the US diplomats who recorded his meeting with them used the term and put it in quotation marks, if Roberts did not use it. Roberts appears, on the face of it, to be potentially a perjurer in court. It was at this point the judges brilliantly resolved this issue by declaring the US Embassy cable ineligible in court on two grounds; firstly, its possession was a contravention of the UK’s official secrets act, as Roberts’ disclosure of the UK government’s duplicity was an official secret; secondly for it to be noticed by a court would contravene the Vienna Convention on the confidentiality of diplomatic communications.
This not only wiped out the problem of the apparent perjury by Colin Roberts; it collapsed the Chagos Islanders’ case that the US Embassy Cable clearly shows that the declaration of a Chagos Islands marine conservation area was merely a ruse to make it impossible for the inhabitants – who are artisan fishermen – to return:
He asserted that establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents. Responding to Polcouns’ observation that the advocates of Chagossian resettlement continue to vigorously press their case, Roberts opined that the UK’s “environmental lobby is far more powerful than the Chagossians’ advocates.”
Of course, I knew at the time what the evil David Miliband was doing, and I blogged about it in May 2010:
Miliband has now produced what is one of the most cynical acts in the history of British foreign policy. Dressed up as an environmentalist move, and with support from a number of purblind environmentalists, the waters around the Chagos Archipelago have been declared the world’s largest marine reserve – in which all fishing is banned. The islanders, of course, are fishermen.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36139130/ns/world_news-world_environment/The sheer cynicism of this effort by Miliband to dress up genocide as environmentalism is simply breathtaking. If we were really cooncerned about the environment of Diego Garcia we would not have built a massive airbase and harbour on a fragile coral atoll and filled it with nuclear weapons.
The subsequent wikileaks release of the cable recording the US Embassy briefing by Colin Roberts – which shows just what an odious, immoral creep Colin Roberts is – confirms the truth at what I am saying. I am still very angry at the environmental organisations which allowed themselves to be used in this way; they were blinkered and stupid. There is nothing more dangerous than a good man with a monomania.
The Guardian rightly execrated the ludicrous court decision to pretend the wikileaked US cable did not exist. It rather undermines the famous legal maxim that “facts are stubborn things”. A truer maxim would be “Facts are things which vicious, authoritarian judges can make disappear when it benefits the government for them to do so”.
The implication that facts, no matter how true, can be ignored in court if the government did not wish those facts to emerge, is a major blow to the very possibility of whistleblowing. A judicial system where the court only considers government approved fact, is a cornerstone of fascism. What happened in that court was very serious indeed. Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Mitting are a disgrace to their profession, the compliant tools of a policy that should disgust all moral men.
Hopefully, you might even realise that there is in fact a state within a state.
“This is why the UK Government will never truly impose proper anti-money laundering controls, because to do so would be to undermine the system which keeps foreigners’ dirty and criminal money from travelling through the City of London, and enables Cameron and Osborne’s school and University chums to wax fat on the proceeds, whether from legal fees, accounting services, banking advice, or just plain old-fashioned relocation services!”
http://rowans-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/russian-money-laundering-in-london.html
If any of us ever have the misfortune to be up before the beak, will any of us ever get a fair trial?
The case of Diego Garcia is one of national shame for this country (though as I pointed out in an earlier comment, sticking a knife in the backs of the Falklanders won’t even things up a bit), but I also remember a British judge turning off Milosovich’s microphone when he was saying something from the dock:- why? “The Framing of Al Magrahi” (traceable on-line) by Gareth Pierce also makes interesting reading. What is to be done?
….bring forth May flowers. Happy Mayday to almost everyone here. Current and silly threats aside, it has been very pleasant for me to have been troll free for a short while.
I am not deceased but is alive and well but am living in a Tory stronghold unfortunately.
The boy Hague has just been on Radio 4 (worried about UKIP tomorrow I guess) extolling the virtues of Conservative county administrations.
‘They have not raised council tax’. WRONG this one has raised council tax by 1.99% just as the local council have done.
‘They are efficient’. WRONG For instance, this one left an old lady alone for 9 days when a care agency they employed went out of business.
We steer round the potholes here and little or no maintenance is being done on roads, drains, grass mowing etc. They have a poor record on children’s social services and more and more children are being taught in portacabins where achool are not large enough or where the buildings are unusable. Libraries have been closed and facilities for elderly day care have been cut.
There was a fall out in the leadership of the county council last year and under the new leader the council has been going off for expensive away days for meetings.
Hague was also evasive on the cut to South African aid. Greening had said that an agreement had been reached with the SA African government. This is untrue.
He was not asked about the useless deaths of three more British servicemen in Nahr-e Saraj. They were in a heavily armoured Mastiff vehicle apparently. Mr Hammond should ask the manufacturers Force Protection for a $half a million refund.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_(vehicle)
~~
Good luck tomorrow Nevermind. As you see, we could do with you down here.
I am not deceased but AM alive and well….
O/T
Extraordinary article in the Guardian which seems to be promoting/admiring Al-Qaida
“Al-Qaida turns tide for rebels in battle for eastern Syria”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/30/al-qaida-rebels-battle-syria
Man Sought After Commons Blaze
A fire was reported in the early hours of Wednesday morning in the Pen Ponds area of Richmond Common. Thirteen fire-crews from across the capital spent six hours bringing a blaze under control. A fire brigade spokesman says the bitter east winds of the last fortnight had left the the underbrush tinder dry and fanned the flames.
Police wish to interview a man seen entering the woods earlier on Sunday afternoon carrying a backpack and laptop bag decorated with Transformers stickers.
And meanwhile Obama doesn’t have the guts to say that Guantanamo is downright wrong, morally, legally, every which way, except
Guantánamo prison ‘not in the best interests of the American people’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/30/obama-guantanamo-hunger-strike-worsens
Dad!
Sunning your self? Ha! We all know that was you hiding out on the common dad cos Ophelia Beckenson and Charlie Mc Quade saw you putting up your tent on Sundy afternoon.
Why do you keep posting that stuff? And I noticed not even you could defend the utterlydisgusting treatment of the Chagos islanders. Well that’s a first anyway. Mr Kemp told mum they weren’t going to pay you any more. They obviously want you to stop really badly so I can’t understand why you carry on doing it.
And that van with the Russian men in it is still outside the O’Brien’s.
And now the radio says the police want you to turn yourself in and mum says you always were a walking disaster.
I came across Reuters policy regarding use of the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’ some time ago, and haven’t seen it since. I think what I originally came across might have been on radio. Anyway, I found this this morning:
When does Reuters use the word terrorist or terrorism?
http://blogs.reuters.com/reuters-editors/2007/06/13/when-does-reuters-use-the-word-terrorist-or-terrorism/
And Adrian says he wants his laptop back and he’s not going to Elocution anymore and I bet the Chagos Islanders were better at cooking their baked beans than you and never burned the whole place down.
O/T and not of interest to the intelligentsia and establishment huggers who love nothing else except more of the same.
Thanks April Showers, lets hope the electorate can be bothered, not holding my breath. Today’s my last day of campaigning and I shall do it in the garden, rows of chard and cavallo nero, rather than doorstepping, cajoling the wary or waking up those too sleepy to bother.
The coverage during the last two days looks like the BBC is pandering to a UKIP which has not even been seen in the pub here, never mind anywhere else. This overt yearning for more right wing racist types who have the full support of the EDL, gosh what a catch, is the last resort to scare us into the existing party political line.
Or if that fails, scare us away from the voting booth by shortening this campaign to a bare minimum of a week.
To make out that UKIP are Independents is the greatest ruse, they are about as independent as Joachim von Ribbentrop was.
@April Showers (08h49) :
“Current and silly threats aside….”
——
Now now! I do hope you’re not starting up hostilities again.
@ Nevermind (1Oh12) :
“To make out that UKIP are Independents is the greatest ruse, they are about as independent as Joachim von Ribbentrop was.”
———
That’s interesting, I hadn’t realised that von Ribbentrop claimed to be, or was considered to be, an ‘independent’.
Could you tell us a little (or even much) more?.
Schoenen Dank!
Joachim von habbakack
has woken up
bless, ready for more cyber stalking he’s still obsessed, still carrying his genital were his two braincells reside.
without contributing anything, zilch, ueberhaupt nichts.
Ruth (at 12.33 am above) – While I agree that in many areas of public life in the UK there are networks that influence in opaque ways [despite public commitments to “transparency”] many appointments to influential positions, my own experience suggests that it is wrong to think that the Clerks to House of Commons Select Committees are chosen because they will not cause problems for the government. None of the clerks I have dealt with in recent years have been other than helpful, and ready to look out actively for written and oral evidence from non-establishment sources to help select committees with their inquiries. It was also a great advance under the Coalition government that the direct influence of party whips was removed from the process of appointing the chairs of select committees. They are now elected by MPs (I think only backbenchers, but I may be wrong.
That said, others have had different experiences. Craig can perhaps provide more details of inquiries where he and other non-establishment voices have offered to give evidence and this has been rejected. But in my experience it is rare for written submissions to Select Committee inquiries not to be published as part of the evidence before the members of the committee.
On judges, especially in the case of the Chagos MPA, there’s more to be said, but I will do that in another comment later today.
Sophie Habercake’s posts are SO funny. Should be turned into a book like Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole.
Nevermind. I saw that the Con tw*t was delivering his missives in our road. The last one boasted of his success with the roads apparently. LOL. Can’t miss him as he has a twee little car (so ecologically friendly NOT with their incinerators all over the county) with a personalized number plate. When he got to mine he looked at the notice on my letterbox – No Party political literature or canvassers here for the duration Thank you – he hesitated and pushed off helped by a bark or two from my dog.
The Con and the Dems are going to be wiped out. Agree with you on UKIP who will appeal to the anti immigration brigade.
Dreoilin
Thanks for the Guardian link about Syria and Al Qaida.
“When we attacked the base with the FSA we tried everything and failed,” said Abu Khuder. “Even with around 200 men attacking from multiple fronts they couldn’t injure a single government soldier and instead wasted 1.5m Syrian pounds [£14,500] on firing ammunition at the walls.
Then a group of devout and disciplined Islamist fighters in the nearby village offered to help. They summoned an expert from Damascus and after two days of work handed Abu Khuder their token of friendship: a truck rigged with two tonnes of explosives.”
Only UKUSIS can assist the safe passage of a lorry of explosives to groups who do not use any legal process with captives.
France put in the Assad clan. Who’s putting in Al Qaida?
Plus ca change, plus the Muslim world begs its enemies to put it in chains again.
The Imperial Anatomy of Al-Qaeda. The CIA’s Drug-Running Terrorists and the
“Arc of Crisis”
“This three-part series on “The Imperial Anatomy of Al-Qaeda” examines the geopolitical historical origins and nature of what we today know as al-Qaeda, which is in fact an Anglo-
American intelligence network of terrorist assets used to advance American and NATO imperial objectives in various regions around the world.”
It’s .pdf which I hate. They often hang my machine.
Nevertheless, interesting stuff. The author (I assume) is this guy here
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/about/
Sorry, left out the .pdf link
http://www.peakoil.dk/TheImperialAnatomyofAlQaeda.pdf
April Showers
If my posts give you a smile and help you forgive the venomous posts my dad spews out then that’s all the reason I’ll ever need. Whatever motivates him, he seems immune to any genuine consideration or rational dialogue and I don’t believe he’ll ever change, but I live in hope.
In the meantime it bothers me to see him ever succeed in diverting people from the wonderful discourse and crowd-sourced journey of discovery that Craig Murray sparks with this blog. Thanks to one and all.
But DON’T think all that gives you the green light with Mr Komodo!! He may be a lizard, with increasingly low standards of oral hygene, but he’s going to be MY lizard……once he sorts out that small task I set him with Bliar.
They tried Germany’s judges at Nurember. As this country is,in all but name, now a fascist state maybe we should demand the corrupt oafs get the same treatment. Miliblands of either sort are equally revolting.People’s Tribunals should be set up as soon as possible to administer justice.
Craig on April 30, 2013 10:00 am
Shame, Lies and Secrecy on Diego Garcia
“Lord Justice Richards and Mr Justice Mitting are a disgrace to their profession…”
In my earlier post – 30 Apr, 2013 – 4:10 pm in which I highlighted the case of a high court judge charged with indecent exposure; I did not make clear that the judge in question was called Lord Justice Richards and was reported on in 2007 by the Daily Record.
I assume that this is THE Lord Justice Richards that ruled on the Diego Garcians’ court case. Am I right or am I wrong?
Has Cameron got a cold? His voice seems to have changed. Or has someone been swinging low on his definite articles to get him to give Israel the contract for security just up the road in Syria in a few weeks time, using the aid budget for people like the Chagos Islands.
It’s called the Faustus syndrome. You happen to be the very man to confide in that Assad has no chemical weapons because they have been removed way before UK snipers started this civil war. But also you will understand that the placing of false-flag bombs under the cover of a security contract would solve the little problem of the Arab Spring freedom justice peace woffle of the Syrian people.
Then your soul belongs to them and you too can have a camp bed in the inner recesses of a pyramid burial chamber or the vaults of a nuclear bunker next to Tony’s and be let out bleary-eyed to protest your innocence from time to time.
Doug Scorgie yesterday
One and the same it would appear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Richards_(judge)
Yes, Nevermind, very funny and very constructive post, but surely your energy could have been better used to answer the question, which was : did von Ribbentrop ever claim to be an ‘independent’ or was he ever perceived as having been ‘independent’?
You really should stop posting things for effect or to get a laugh, that’s not what this blog should be about.
“Sophie Habercake’s posts are SO funny.” assures Mary, aka April Showers.
Mmmmmm.
I’m just wondering whether that assessment should rank higher or lower in the believability stakes than Mary’s solemn assurance that she was going to leave this blog for good…?
Herbie
what you naively attribute to Germans was known and formulated long time before the NS ascent to power. The principal ideas are spelled out by Machiavelli and in a more modern, up to date form in the THE PROTOCOLS OF THE LEARNED ELDERS OF ZION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Who are the Elders?
Protocol I The Basic Doctrine
Protocol II Economic Wars
Protocol III Methods of Conquest
Protocol IV Materialism Replaces Religion
Protocol V Despotism and Modern Progress
Protocol VI Take-Over Technique
Protocol VII World-Wide Wars
Protocol VIII Provisional Government
Protocol IX Re-education
Protocol X Preparing for Power
Protocol XI The Totalitarian State
Protocol XII Control of the Press
Protocol XIII Distractions
Protocol XIV Assault on Religion
Protocol XV Ruthless Suppression
Protocol XVI Brainwashing
Protocol XVII Abuse of Authority
Protocol XVIII Arrest of Opponents
Protocol XIX Rulers and People
Protocol XX Financial Programme
Protocol XXI Loans and Credit
Protocol XXII Power of Gold
Protocol XXIII Instilling Obedience
Protocol XXIV Qualities of the Ruler
to be found at http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/przion1.ht.
If you do not believe it, read the supposed “forgery” but forgery of what?? perhaps Halibabacus, that miserable wretch, who pretends to believe that there are actually “those who fear me (meaning him) and those who admire (again him)” will explain us how things really are.
forgery of what? (and it is a forgery)…
(snip)…The Protocols were in fact “launched” to the wider public on 8 May 1920 by The Times of London, in which an editorial entitled “The Jewish Peril: a disturbing pamphlet. Demand an inquest.” evoked this “singular, short book,” to which the newspaper seem to accord credit. The Times made good a little later, in August 1921, by announcing “The End of the Protocols” and publishing proof of the falsification. The Istanbul correspondent of the British daily had been conducted by a White Russian who had taken refuge in Turkey and, obviously well informed, had revealed to him that the text of the Protocols was the transfer [le decalque] of a French pamphlet against Napoleon III. A rapid verification proved the falsification: the Protocols actually took up the text of the Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, published in Brussels in 1864 by Maurice Joly, an anti-Bonapartist lawyer who intended to show that the Emperor and his coterie were plotting to seize all power within French society. Using this forgotten text,[2] which won Maurice Joly two years in prison, the forger of the Protocols replaced “France” with “the world” and “Napoleon III” with “the Jews.” The crude swindle was exploded by a simple line by line comparison of the two texts. The fake was revealed, but the mystery of its origin remained. One simply knew that the original text was drafted in French and one supposed that the fake had been fabricated at the beginning of the century, in Paris, in the milieus of the Russian political police. (snip)
http://www.notbored.org/protocols-history.html
In other words, it wasn’t even originally about any Jewish conspiracy. The names were changed to protect the guilty. It’s about time this document was treated with the contempt it deserves. Accordingly –
Pffft.
The cause of the Chagossians should be kept alive. Perhaps the NAACP in the USA might be interested, as it is a racial issue involving the USA?