It is tempting to treat the jailing of fake bomb detector salesman James McCormick as comedy, so risible were his completely bogus detectors. Indeed, one day I have no doubt we shall be seeing a television film treating him as a lovable rogue; the con-man figure is the staple of many movie plots. He will probably be played by Alfred Molina.
But the seriousness of the case goes much wider than the fact that people have probably died as a result of the non-protection of his fake bomb detectors. This case speaks volumes about the Iraq the western armies have created. We are continually told the media that the war, justified on weapons of mass destruction – a much bigger con, killing far, far more people than Mr McCormick – is post hoc justified because at least we brought democracy to Iraq. What we brought, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, are the world’s most corrupt governments. According to the widely respected Transparency International, Iraq is the 169th most corrupt country in the world and Afghanistan the 174th. Out of 174.
It does not take a great deal of acuity to work out that McCormick’s bomb detectors – which contain no working electronics – are fakes. He did not succeed by persuading buyers they really worked. He succeeded by persuading Iraqi officers, officials and ministers to accept cash in return for buying rubbish with state funds – most of which funds were supplied by the American taxpayer.
But McCormick was just small beer. He was the unauthorised con. The authorised con involved more money by a factor of twenty million; it was a multi trillion dollar con involving entirely fake and planted evidence as a justification for a war in which millions were killed or maimed, the infrastructure of a modern country bombed back to the Middle Ages, and vast personal fortunes made in the arms, mercenary, military support, banking and oil industries.
Yes McCormick should be in jail. But those much, much more guilty are walking around, opening libraries and giving lecture tours.
They’re off again
“The Pentagon has deployed a small number of troops to Mali to support allied forces fighting there, despite repeated pledges by the Obama administration not to put “boots on the ground” in the war-torn African country…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pentagon-deploys-small-number-of-troops-to-war-torn-mali/2013/04/30/2b02c928-b1a0-11e2-bc39-65b0a67147df_story.html
James McCormick was charged and convicted of fraud through making false representations to deceive his victims for financial gain. He gets 10 years in jail.
The big financial institutions and banks have undoubtedly committed serious fraud and other crimes for decades in practically every country in the world. Financing illegal arms deals; laundering drug money; financing coups and the more benign-sounding “miss-selling” of Payment protection insurance etc.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/rate-swap-scandal/9838803/Banks-mis-sold-more-than-90pc-of-rate-swaps-says-FSA.html
The evidence is there for all to see but (for example) the UK Serious Fraud Office was subservient to the Financial Services Authority which preferred fines on the organisations rather than bringing criminal charges against senior individuals.
(From 1 April, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will “ensure” the stability of financial services firms and be part of the Bank of England and The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is now the City’s” behavioural”? watchdog.)
The Serious Fraud Office is now subservient to these two organisations.
The Serious Fraud Office is not an independent criminal investigation entity but is a government department. It is not part of the police fraud squad.
Even if the Serious Fraud Office recommended criminal charges and the Crown Prosecution Service agreed; it can be overruled (and has been in the past) by the (politically appointed) Attorney General.
10 years in jail for criminal bankers?
It won’t happen.
Too big to fail; too big to prosecute; too big to hold to account.
“But those much, much more guilty are walking around”
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-18/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-dot-dodge-phone-hacking-ruin
“Atos Join The Army – MOD Hand Out £25 Million Contract To Bungling IT Firm”
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/atos-join-the-army-mod-hand-out-25-million-contract-to-bungling-it-firm/
Craig,
you have some difficulty understanding that wars are initiated precisely for the purpose of giving a chance to minions like McCormick to push through their “inventions” and thus facillitate rewarding these wizards for their loyality to the regime. people like him, who is nothing less than a solid pillar of the establishment, should be give OBE, life peerage and whatever you can get nowadayes to acknowledge that he did a great service to the country. What does it matter that it did not work? Most things do not work. Does the governement work?? I suspect that his invention was probaly much cheaper than the alternatives and its acceptance thus saved a lot of money that were most probably used for more humanitarian purposes like keeping the old age pensioners warm in the winter. Some foxes made also money from McCormick invention on the side, but I am convinced that these were insignificant amounts. After all these events are quite natural in this mercantile society where slaves of the regime come up with ever more useless invention every year that will make our lives more joyful. McCormick is my hero and I hope that there will be more people like him coming forward with their great inventions in the future.
Rolling Stone
“Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425
Michael Culver,
I do not know what your contacts at MoD are, but if it is someone slightly more educated than a tea lady, than they should have told you that depleted uranium is not entirely depleted but still contains (depending on the method of separation) about 0.3 per cent of the fissile 235U. One kg of this depleted stuff donated by the governement to the needy although a nice paperweight may not be enough to keep an old age pensioner warm in the winter. In any case, I would not recommend to make pots and pans out of this metal.
Craig,
as an afterthought it occured to me that a Nobel peace prize for McCormick might be much more appropriate. OBE can wait. In those days, the main qualification for NPP nominees and eventual laureates seemes to be to their ability of bringing death to many unfortunates in various countries. McCormick fullfills this condition precisely a thus nothing stands in his way of getting the prize.
Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.
They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.
Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past president of the Royal Society, denounced the study published today in the journal Science as doing nothing to further the understanding and prevention of flu pandemics.
“They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever,” Lord May told The Independent.
“The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” he said.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/appalling-irresponsibility-senior-scientists-attack-chinese-researchers-for-creating-new-strains-of-influenza-virus-in-veterinary-laboratory-8601658.html
Off they go.
Israeli attacks on Syria on Thursday/Friday are announced by their proxy America two days later. The BBC say that up to 15 jets overflew Lebanon from where the attacks (I suppose they mean missiles) were launched. Mr Obomber has no intention of putting any boots on Syrian ground. Of course not when Israel can carry out these attacks.
Israel knows no laws and no boundaries, viz using Lebanese airspace.
It’s all business as normal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22409380#
The BBC World Service said that 15 jets were involved.
The reporting is deliberately vague and the facts are hazy.
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/03/18043900-israeli-launch-airstrikes-into-syria-possibly-targeting-delivery-systems-for-chemical-weapons-us-officials-say?lite
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324266904578461841925341434.html
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Report-Israel-conducts-airstrike-on-Syria-311993
Ben Franklin I agree. There was an outbreak of foot and mouth which was linked back to a government laboratory in Pirbright, Surrey where it was later discovered that the drains and pipework from which the escape took place were in a dilapidated condition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_outbreak
http://www.fwi.co.uk/articles/07/09/2007/106574/foot-and-mouth-multiple-biosecurity-breaches-at-pirbright.htm
All pukka now at vast cost of course. http://www.merrick.com/Portfolio/Pirbright-Laboratory-Development-Program?industry=Federal_ls&service=
” He was the unauthorised con” – That’s exactly it!
The unauthorised con.
The mad men and women of the NRA are meeting in Houston to protect their freedom to carry a gun which they perceive as being threatened. I just saw a recording of Palin speaking to them. The gathering has all the fervour of an evangelical religious assembly.
‘On the stage at the George Brown Convention Center, the NRA’s chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, told the crowd that politicians and the media had repeatedly lied about the organisation.
“NRA members have stared those anti-gun elitists straight in the eye, and we’ve stared them down,” Mr LaPierre told the cheering crowd.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22402866
Wayne picks up a cool $1 million.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danbigman/2012/12/21/what-the-nras-wayne-lapierre-gets-paid-to-defend-guns/
Israeli warplanes strike Syrian weapons facility
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/03/israeli-warplanes-strike-syrian-weapons-facility/
Israeli officials acknowledged Friday evening that they had launched airstrikes that hit inside Syria, say U.S. officials.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34815.htm
I was trying to find out if that replacement Animal Health Laboratory is a PFI. This long list of over 700 PFI projects in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales is on the Treasury website. Our grandchildren will still be paying out for them 20 or 30 years hence. I only looked at the first below. Could not stomach the list for those in procurement pn which all those lawyers and accountants will be working.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ppp_pfi_stats.htm
Current projects list
This document contains details of current projects that were signed up to and including 31 March 2012. Data for current projects is for all those still under contract; projects which have expired or terminated are not included.
PFI current projects list March 2012 (Excel 1.2MB)
PFI projects in procurement
This document contains details of PFI projects that were in procurement as at 31 March 2012.
PFI projects in procurement March 2012 (Excel 56KB)
Some of the ‘stakes’ are being traded as ‘assets’.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d13a57e4-b271-11e2-8540-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2SIsWFm6Q
Syria-Lebanon Threat Sparks Surprise Army Reserve Call-Up Drill
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/syria-lebanon-threat-sparks-surprise-army-reserve-call-up-drill/2013/04/30/
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34815.htm
Obama gets ready to strike Assad whatever he is saying to the opposite. Hezbollah drags Lebanon into the war. And guess who is the most likely victim? Why it’s poor little beleaguered Israel. That’s why the IDF have called up 2,000 reservists for a surprise drill in the north.
Sibel Edmonds has a theory about the Boston bombings which seems to be being borne out. That the U.S. did a back door deal with Russia.
Sibel Edmonds talking to Alex Jones:
‘CIA Ran The Boston Bombers’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk7sHueSa-o&feature=youtu.be
‘Adamite’ on the ‘Official Tsarnaev Story Makes No Sense’ thread has posted this ‘photo’ of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the marathon apparently floating with no legs
http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/monday-april-15-2013-photo-provided-bob-leonard-photo-014835910.html
Here’s Boiling Frogs
BFP Boston Terror Update 4 – The Backdoor Deal & Needed Face-Saving Ingredient for Russia on Syria
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/05/01/bfp-boston-terror-update-4-the-backdoor-deal-needed-face-saving-ingredient-for-russia-on-syria/
The Guardian is claiming that Google is an ‘arguably greater authority’ than the UN.
“When the UN recognized Palestine as an observer state last November, Israel retaliated by announcing new settlements. Now an organization of arguably greater authority has recognized Palestine: Google.
On Friday, the search engine changed the tagline on its home page in the occupied territories from “Palestinian territories” to, simply, “Palestine”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/03/google-palestine-palestinian-territories
Or maybe it’s just bad writing. Perhaps they mean that Google is an ‘arguably greater authority’ than Israel …
@ April Showers (Mary), who says :
“For the record I do NOT hate my country or the US or Americans, just very angry about the psychopathic leaders who conned the people into giving them power and then waged war on people with different skin colours to kill and maim them.”
———
If Mary’s posts were all about international affairs/foreign policy then this might just possibly be believable.
But, unfortunately for this assurance, many – perhaps the majority – of her posts are about internal UK affairs.
But I’ve never, in the last 6 months or so, seen one positive post from Mary about the UK or for that matter about its leaders or even other public figures in the UK.
If I’ve overlooked something, I’d be happy if someone (perhaps her Son, Doug Scorgie?) could source me something positive.
This is why I believe that she truly hates the UK.
Another dropping very similar to the ones the visiting fox leaves outside the hen run nearly every night but more acidic in nature!
I found this poem on Dissident Voice today and liked it very much.
My City of War Gods in Ruin
by Charles Orloski / May 3rd, 2013
Crusaders W. Bush and Obama,
I congratulate you both –
Good Christian gentlemen, you set Islam afire,
set stage for Moneychangers permanent return,
a hostile takeover of U.S.A. Temple Treasury,
Such a pity Jesus has not more capitalists like you,
our One-World’s getting very weird.
.
No doubt you heard about Alaric
the Christian Visigoth?
Some “back-sliders” thought him a barbarian,
and come 410 A.D., Alaric’s troops pillaged Rome,
for three days, victors carried off vast booty,
left behind corpses, created refuges, ruined-ruins.
Radio Free Macedonia reported Alaric hollered
“Mission Accomplished” on burning Senate portico.
.
April 2003, with support of Christian Zionists,
apocalyptic End of Worlder dream,
Baghdad, City of Uhr, fell to American Empire;
many corpses, ancient ruin destruction,
Abu Ghraib re-opened for business,
and soon after Iraqi liberation,
Exxon-Mobil carried off vast booty,
oilfield contracts signed with Islamists,
real-men who could do business with W. Bush,
the “Education President” who saw “into Putin’s soul.”
.
Well President Obama,
Nobel Peace Prize and Warrior Bible in-hand,
Conqueror of Taliban, Libya, and counting,
I stay intentionally in your Light’s shadow.
Why don’t you spend a week on Blue Danube,
Get a killer white-tan?
Everyone says it’s a wonderful climate,
a good place to get away from U.S. murder & mayhem,
reconnect with Alaric’s spiritual legacy,
golf 18 with “good” al Qaeda putters, plot more attacks,
for God and Caesar.
.
You are strong, Barack, “be all you can be,”
never say never to 3rd term, “turn-cheek” to no drone,
but hey, wait one moment, please?
What’s that W. Bush said the other day?
Dubya read Camus’ Stranger, Boston Marathon bombing
a conspiracy, and brother Jeb’s primed to take over?
(Such humanitarian language even barbarians prefer to delete)
I never want to watch Dallas sitcoms & Empires rise and fall anymore,
and by the Way, President Obama, the one and only Way,
Did Reverend Wright ever speak about a prosecutor named Paul?
The apostle once took a heaven-bolt, fell off a horse on road to Damascus,
but you shall not, President Obama, you are Chicago invincible,
War Gods are with you, and “who can be against you?”
and a conversation he had with Gary Corseri, another American poet. Orloski sounds like a decent and hard working American, now thoroughly disillusioned.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/07/a-conversation-with-charles-orloski/
Habbabkuk,
You do not know Mary’s-or any other posters-lives,motivation or experiences.
So drop the sanctimonious know-all guff.
Another much shorter poem on Counterpunch with feeling.
Seven Day Eternity
by MARK A. MURPHY
Always, there is some inexpressible grief unfolding
in the world that our bodies
cannot wholly escape,
beyond the apple orchard down the lane
where a boy falls and breaks his arm stealing apples
from the orchard’s greedy owner,
beyond the ‘grand final’ live
and the greedy advertising on billboards,
beyond the latest headlines and the ‘war on terror’,
there is a list of dead insurgents,
a list of dead GI’s,
and always, somewhere, there are those that will cry out:
‘God, save us.’ And then, ‘God, revenge us.’
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/03/three-poems-by-mark-a-murphy/
Beautiful words Mary..Thank you for That
Looky here, a wanker with a weird foreign name (delusions of grandeur; a prophet’s name no less) and a fortune cookie wisdom in foreign to make it sound more sophisticated, as its motto, has set itself up as the arbiter of all things “British” and is hunting the “UK haters” on this blog. Now that takes some fucking doing. Patently, a very British saint, with the fortune cookie motto in the most favoured nation’s language, can set itself up to be the arbiter general.
This tactic a worn out, tired and useless technique; picked out of the “how to defend zionistan” manual, is based on catering to the lowest common denominator, and supposedly seeking other morons onto the target individual.
How very convincing, to see the ziofuckwit sticking up for UK. With defenders like this, we have no worries then!!!!
This is on Radio 4 shortly at 11.15am. I don’t know if I can bear to hear Hoon though.
The Hutton Inquiry
Duration:
45 minutes
First broadcast:
Sunday 05 May 2013
On 29 May 2003, the Today programme broadcast a report criticising the government’s use of intelligence in the lead up to war with Iraq.
At the heart of the report was the allegation that Number 10 had “sexed up” an intelligence dossier to make a more convincing case for war. More specifically, that the government probably knew that one of the key claims in the dossier was wrong before they put it in: the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction that could be “ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them”.
The government, and specifically Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell, were furious. The row that followed was one of the bitterest in BBC history, and was fuelled in part by the death of the story’s source, government scientist, David Kelly. The Hutton Inquiry was set up to establish what went wrong and exposed the inner workings of the BBC, secret services, civil service and government machinery. Its findings, when published in January 2004, caused reverberations throughout the British establishment.
Sue MacGregor reunites some of the people who were caught up in that row: Andrew Gilligan, the Today programme reporter whose broadcast was the cause of the argument; Geoff Hoon, Defence Secretary, who was accused of leaking David Kelly’s name as the source of the story; Tom Kelly, who as Tony Blair’s spokesman was at the heart of the storm and Greg Dyke, who resigned as Director General when Hutton’s conclusions were so critical of the BBC.
Producer: Deborah Dudgeon and Kate Taylor
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s7vzx
On the iPlayer later.
TFS
3 May, 2013 – 8:35 pm
In separate news
http://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/ken-livingstone-on-kincora/
Yes, a good read. This is why I suspect that Jimmy Savile was being used for decades by MI5 to set up politicians, judges, senior police officers, civil servants etc. (using underage boys and girls) in order to control them.
Blackmail is a powerful weapon. We have not seen any current or former (living) MP, judge, peer of the realm et al being questioned by the police running operation Yewtree only, as Craig mentioned in an earlier thread, “low-hanging fruit” in the entertainment industry.
Dad!
Look Dad, I know you are under a lot of stress, what with being on the run with all your former minders combing London in order to catch you and end the embarasment, and I know Adrian’s Laptop (which he really wants back) is a bit of a pain with all those missing key-pads, but really, is that last post really the best you can manage? How the ***k can I even begin to parody that? It’s a bloody insult. I mean, really Dad, what’s the point ? It must be so awful being in your skin and I’m sure there must be some kind of therapy which you could get.
And, please Dad, try to notice, your one-man vendetta against one of this blog’s busiest contributors (Yes Dad “Contributors” that means someone who puts in something worthwhile.) just doesn’t seem to be working. Please get help.