I don’t think any single person who has considered the matter seriously, has any real doubt that Jack Straw was complicit in torture in an active and involved way, and has lied about it continually. There are some who would argue he was ethically justified, but that is a different argument. It is not worth engaging in ethical argument with anybody who maintains that the facts which are the basis of the argument, should not be known.
The Gibson Inquiry was set up by the Government precisely to get to the truth of these matters. It was then cancelled precisely in order to hide the truth of these matters, which is one Hell of a U-Turn. The real reason for the cancellation of the Gibson Inquiry was that it became evident from its initial inquiries, firstly that Gibson was not a vicious calculating placeman like Hutton, and secondly that the number of very senior ministers, diplomats, security service agents and civil servants who were directly implicated in criminal activity was very large.
I confess that the cancellation of the Gibson Inquiry, at which I was determined to give evidence, came as a staggering blow to me. The official excuse for its cancellation was that there are a number of law cases pending over torture of individuals. This was very strange as public inquiries are generally into incidents likely to result in law cases, and the notion that the inquiry cannot run in parallel with law cases is a novel one.
Anyway, I collected myself and I quietly after several police interviews gave my formal, sworn, eye-witness evidence to the Metropolitan Police to assist the police investigation against Jack Straw, Mark Allen and others in the kidnap and torture of Abdel Belhaj and others. That was some years ago, and it is now absolutely plain to me that the very decent and genuine policemen whom I met are being blocked from ever going anywhere with that case.
Now we have the news that the new Justice and Security Act is to be used by the government to ensure that the facts of Belhaj’ civil case against Straw and Allen are forever hidden from the public. It is quite extraordinarily Orwellian that the systematic and deliberate denial of justice is through something called the “Justice and Security Act”.
What an appalling country.
Obsessive cretin/miscreant/wanker/tosser/mad/bad/ugly/ass hat and its meaningless and waste of electron comments ought to be stopped.
Cuz I don’t do fucking ziofuckwits don’t mean I wont fuck you over as and when you step on my toes, in an attempt trying to protect the fucking hasbara assets assigned to this blog.
Komodo: Thanks for exposing to wider view some of Straw’s finances. By my calculations he spends three full working weeks [8 hours x 5 days]each year not working for or representing his constituents. Would some repayments be in order?
It’s important not to confuse the different Straws: the one greedy for power and influence in the Labour Party, the one greedy for money, the one with beliefs – other than those of the first two – which he will defend to the death as a matter of principle [admittedly that Straw is now a rarity, seldom sighted]; and the Straw who had a reputation when in the FCO for being a model of consideration for his private office staff. Straw Watchers should bear in mind Hamlet’s reflection:
” …meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain—
At least I am sure it may be so in Blackburn.”
I have no knowledge of ‘RSS’ Rich Site Summary.
I only have my eyes to read with, my ears to hear with, my brain to think for myself and my mitts to type with.
And you?
PS How can one be a friend of somebody one has not met and does not even know?
Excuse me, Habbabkuk, but my posts have been variously described as “A breath of fresh air amidst an otherwise stale belch of left-wing propaganda” by Vogue magazine and “An incisive collection of neo-classical political essays” by the Triumph Car Club newsletter.
If you don’t like it, then post an 80 line poem to slide the forum.
What Tam Dalyell said about Straw et al. It’s a wonder he wasn’t lynched.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2999219.stm
~~~
They say your parents f*** you up. Straw’s certainly did especially his father.
http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-mysterious-jack-straw.html
Iain Orr: Actually if you tot up his otherwise employed hours for 2012, they come to 887! I guess he never sleeps.
Your turn to add up the £££ on the Guardian link…
Al-Nusra caught with sarin nerve agent in Turkey
Twelve Islamists sarin gas are arrested in Turkey
Were detained in Turkey 12 suspected members of radical Islamist group al Nusra Syrian front, linked to Al Qaeda, in possession of two kilograms of sarin gas, according to three Turkish newspapers on Thursday.
The arrests, carried out by units of Turkish intelligence and counterterrorism, occurred on Tuesday in the province of Adana. The newspapers cited unnamed police sources and so far there is no official confirmation of the seizure of the chemical material by the Turkish authorities.
http://noticias.terra.com.br/mundo/europa/presos-na-turquia-12-radicais-islamicos-com-gas-sarin,847fdf70a20fe310VgnCLD2000000ec6eb0aRCRD.html
Turkish special anti-terror forces have detained 12 people suspected of having links with Al Nusra Front, the al Qaida-allied Syrian rebel group that has been set to topple President Assad’s regime.
The group was seized in southern Turkey. Local media say they carried a 2kg cylinder with nerve agent sarin.
http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_05_30/Turkey-arrests-extremists-with-sarin-gas-for-Syria-media-0554/
Not yet in the western media that I can find
The policies of Erdogan have come to fruition, now th fight is spilling over into Turkey; Police foil al-Nusra bomb attack planned for Adana
Woolwich suspect tortured “at behest of British intelligence”, Parliamentary Intelligence Committee is told: Police’s arrest of witness claiming Woolwich attacker was radicalised by torture, sexual abuse and harassment was “ordered by MI5.”
http://www.nafeezahmed.com/2013/05/exclusive-woolwich-suspect-tortured-at.html?m=1
Poll Shows That UK Public Drastically Under-Estimates Iraqi War deaths
By Joe Emersberger at May 30, 2013
ComRes, a professional polling company, asked a nationwide sample of UK citizens to estimate the death toll from the war in Iraq that began in 2003. The results provide a searing indictment of the British media. Two questions were asked. The first question was
How many Iraqis, both combatants and civilians, do you think have died as a consequence of the war that began in Iraq in 2003? Please just give your best estimate.
The responses are summarized below:
Up to 5,000………………44%
5,001 – 10,000…………..15%
10,001 – 20,000…………..7%
20,001 – 50,000…………..8%
50,001 – 100,000………..11%
100,001 – 500,000………10%
500,001 – 1,000,000………4%
1,000,001+…………………2%
Don’t know/Not stated…….6%
Fewer than 10,000 Iraqis died as a result of the war according to 59% of the respondents. The results are especially shocking because respondents were not asked to limit their estimates to Iraqi civilians or to deaths caused directly by violence. According to peer reviewed scientific studies, the death toll from the war in the first three years alone was between 400,000 – 650,000 Iraqis. About three quarters of the UK public (74%) gave estimates of less than 50,000 – less than half the tally of Iraq Body Count (IBC) which, relying primarily on media reports, counts only Iraqi civilian deaths from violence. Only 16% of the public estimated more than 100,000 Iraqi deaths.
The UK public was not any better informed than their counterparts in the USA. A poll done by AP in 2007 asked the US public to estimate the Iraqi civilian death toll from the war. The median answer was about 10,000.
The ComRes poll also asked the following question
What percentage of Iraqi deaths as a result of the war do you think were civilian ie non combatants? Please give a percentage from 1-100. Please just give your best estimate.
The results were widely dispersed. Fifty percent thought that less than half Iraqi deaths were civilians.
A very reasonable argument can be made that the death toll from the war is about 1 miillion Iraqis – something perhaps 2% of the UK public is aware of according to the poll results. IBC’s limited count would double between 2006 and the end of 2011. Doubling the scientific estimates made in 2006 for Iraqi deaths yields a death toll of 800,000-1,300,000.
The ComRes poll results are a striking illustration of how a “free press” imposes ignorance on the public in order to promote war. Future wars (or “interventions”) are obviously far more likely when the public within an aggressor state is kept clueless about the human cost.
http://www.zcommunications.org/poll-shows-that-uk-public-drastically-under-estimates-iraqi-war-deaths-by-joe-emersberger
Behold poor lowly blogg-dwellers,
For I have for you here, a Marvel,
The Very Pinacle of Subtle Ironic Genius
.
Behold the Work of the King!*
Upon this wonder gaze,
And Despair
.
Oh Great One please go easy:
For I fear that I may Have to build an Altar,
And some hapless aged goat waylay
To show to You my gratitude in any fitting Mannar
.
.
* Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
1:54 pm
“….contents and style …….. only bring this blog into disrepute.”
“April Showers (1’h40) boasts :
“I have no knowledge of ‘RSS’ Rich Site Summary.
I only have my eyes to read with, my ears to hear with, my brain to think for myself and my mitts to type with.”
__________
That’s as maybe, April, but the nature and frequency of your posts do seem to indicate that you think no-one else has eyes and ears.
PS – please (1) try to stay on-topic, and (2) follow Dreoilin’s advice about using quotation marks as an aid to clarity. Thank you.
@ Fedup :
“Obsessive cretin/miscreant/wanker/tosser/mad/bad/ugly/ass hat and its meaningless and waste of electron comments ought to be stopped.”
———
Please stop boasting.
Interesting map of the global kidnapping system, created by American government gangsters, and colluded in by many other western govt gangsters, collated by British researchers.
“A team of academics have launched the world’s largest interactive database detailing suspected CIA rendition flights, many of which may have transported detainees to Guantanamo Bay.
The Rendition Project is a product of a collaborative research between Dr. Ruth Blakely from the University of Kent and Dr. Sam Raphael from Kingston University, London.
Now anyone with an internet connection can understand, view, and track over 11,000 CIA flights detainees may have been aboard between 2001 and 2006 under the US rendition program, a murky operation of secret detention and torture.”
http://www.therenditionproject.org.uk/global-rendition/the-flights/index.html
http://rt.com/news/secret-cia-flights-rendition–930/
The RI can go and fry his fish elsewhere or even fry his own boots. Nobody has the slightest interest in his opinions and critiques.
“The RI can go and fry his fish elsewhere or even fry his own boots. Nobody has the slightest interest in his opinions and critiques.”
splutters April Showers.
———
Well, April, at least I offer some opinions and critiques, which is rather more than you do with your incessant quotations from the msm.
I wonder if you could indicate the last time you took part in a discussion as opposed to just providing quotations?
************
La vita è bella, life is good! (support the shekel)
I note that as soon as our 13 1/2 year old schoolgirl (Sophie, R.I.P.) stopped posting a few days ago up popped a would-be Poetess Laureate (Kibo something).
Coincidence?
Or just a change of genre?
***************
La vita è bella, life is good!
And from his shed, with ceaseless turmoil seething
Ranted The King, his mental grip receding
A mighty fountain crazed and foul was forced
Amid whose rude and castigating force
Huge rancour vaulted like rebounding hail
That all sane thought would ultimately fail
And ‘mid his dancing thoughts at once and ever
A host of bold affronts did quiver.
.
Those heavy arms from Europe had been set in motion
Through wood and dale the vicious arms-flow ran,
Then reached the streets so loved by Syrian,
And added to the lifeless ocean:
And to this tumult Kukla cheered from far
Justifications glorifying war!
“It is not worth engaging in ethical argument with anybody who maintains that the facts which are the basis of the argument, should not be known.”
This is not always the case, but tis true that it may often not be worth having an ethical argument about a particular incident without the facts – i.e. if it is simply not possible to understand the situation without the facts.
Nonetheless there are probably many cases where the facts should not be known. What then?
Like money its a matter of trust.
Hhhmmm always a difficult one.
Turkish security forces found a 2kg cylinder with sarin gas after searching the homes of Syrian militants from the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front who were previously detained, Turkish media reports. The gas was reportedly going to be used in a bomb.
http://inserbia.info/news/2013/05/turkey-group-carrying-2kg-cylinder-with-sarin-for-syria-arrested/
According to a report in Turkey’s state media agency Zaman, agents from the Turkish General Directorate of Security (Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü) ceased 2 kg of sarin gas in the city of Adana in the early hours of yesterday morning. The chemical weapons were in the possession of Al Nusra terrorists believed to have been heading for Syria.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/turkish-police-find-chemical-weapons-in-the-possession-of-al-nusra-terrorists-heading-for-syria/5336917
Well the western MSM have yet to report on this. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm one would expect the MSM to get their teeth into it.
I f Assad,s forces were caught with a cylinder allegedly containing sarin nerve agent it would be on the front pages of every newspaper in the west and the BBC wouldn’t shut-up about it.
So censorship by omission.
Assad tells Israel to lay off.
Assad vows response to Israeli attack
Syria’s president tells Lebanese TV station he has received shipment of arms from Russia and will defend his country.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/20135304599457331.html
The RI cannot help him/herself. He/she uses any verb other than ‘to say’. eg to splutter. Seems to think it’s clever. Don’t think I have ever ‘spluttered’ in my life. As for what he/she produces being described as opinion or comment, in the six months of occupation here, I cannot think of any actual contribution of information being made.
A troll is a troll is a troll.
Kibo Noh Keep going. You hit the nail on the head and are extremely creative.
Where is Sophia btw?
To splutter Make a series of short explosive spitting or choking sounds.
“Where is Sophia btw?”
———-
The Queen is dead, long live the Queen, perhaps ?
“Kibo Noh Keep going. You hit the nail on the head and are extremely creative”
———–
Hardly. It’s just Coleridge, isn’t it, with a few words replaced.
Anyway, I repeat my question to April : when was the last time she took part in a discussion, as opposed to merely drawing out attention to stuff in (usually) the msm?
ADVERT
.
Bothered by those pesky early-morning Trolls?
Well bother no more!
With * Troll-awaY* flailing arms will soon be forgotten.
.
Instructions:
Thoroughly immerse head in *Troll-awaY*
Remove after five minutes and the world will be a wondrous and pleasant place.
* Warning: Active ingredient KSD ( Kibosophyc acid diethylamide)
Give that troll a prize someone.
I’m banking on Coleridge to forgive me and share his fiery pit now and then once I shuffle off this old mortal coil. Can’t wait to hear some of those amazing poems from the horses mouth.
And now, for Habba’s blood-pressure I will conclude my magnum opus.
………………………………………………
Kukla Bak
v.final
The shadow of the War on Terror
Floated daily on the ‘waves;
Gazing from his shed in pleasure
Kukla couldn’t hear the screams
From Bastion, that camp of vice,
That sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!
A henchman with a Dellsimer
In a vision once I saw
It was a flunky, bought and paid
And on his Dellsimer he played
Singing for Distopia
Could I revive within me
His symphony and song
To such a deep distress ‘twould bring me
That with curses loud and long
I would revile that bag of air,
that Wicked Gnome! Whose mad advice
Forever did reside there,
And I should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on pure bull-shit hath fed
And drunk the milk of Parasites.
On topic:
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/10454082.Blackburn_MP_Jack_Straw_backs__snoopers__charter__legislation/
Mandelslime to join Russians.
Peter Mandelson joins board of Russian firm ‘with organised crime links’
Former Labour minister risks controversy by joining AFK Sistema group, which was implicated in 2010 WikiLeaks cable
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/30/peter-mandelson-russia
He was leaving and returning in various guises in the NuLabour Blair and Brown governments but nothing about the Iraq war stuck to him as he left for his EU sinecure in 2001 following the Indian businessmen’s citizenship affair. He returned in 2008 as Brown’s Secretary for Business, Enterprise and Skills. He was extremely well qualified for the latter.
http://www.economist.com/node/492962
I don’t know what his relationship with Straw was like.
What a corrupt bunch they were and still are.
Short memory, Mary…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-18527/Straw-triggered-Mandelsons-downfall.html
(date uncertain)
As someone else mentioned, there are three Jack Straws. The good one sometimes surfaces. There is more than a little irony here, though:
In a TV interview yesterday, Mr Straw said that Mr Mandelson’s downfall had been “inevitable” because he had told an “untruth” and departed from the standards expected by Parliament and the public.
But think about it: would Mandy have anything to do with someone from a poor background? Or indeed, someone as slippery as himself?