I was invited then disinvited to discuss Bradley Manning on BBC Breakfast TV this morning. I was delighted and really surprised that the BBC were prepared to give such prime media exposure to the case against the persecution of Manning. I should have realised it would not be allowed to happen.
I was asked to appear twice, once after 7 and once after 8, and to explain why the case of Bradley Manning ought to concern people in the UK. BBC Breakfast is based in Salford. So the BBC sent me train tickets, booked a room in the Holiday Inn and organised a cab for me from Manchester Piccadilly. I had reached so far as Euston from St Pancras yesterday when I discovered, rather by chance that my slots on BBC breakfast had been cancelled. I was instead offered a single live interview at 6.40 am that would not be repeated.
I suppose the BBC are at least being more subtle; instead of management intervention outright to cancel a possible airing of dissident thought, they are pretending to give it a voice by broadcasting it before 95% of the audience are awake. I was not prepared to participate in such tokenism, so I turned round and came home.
It of course brings back memories of when I was on my way to Leeds to take part in BBC Question Time, and was cancelled en route, and replaced by another neo-con clone. A Freedom of Information Act request for the documents and emails concerning that cancellation was refused by the BBC on the grounds of a Freedom of Information exemption for journalism. Censorship is not journalism.
Good to see that the odious war criminal James Purnell is earning his £295,000 a year by keeping the air waves free of thought.
Given the extraordinary amount of time the BBC has devoted to promoting the ludicrous trumped up charges against Julian Assange, their non-coverage of the Bradley Manning trial today is chilling.
“Google and the CIA”
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=4aade049a17cb19eb80505ea6f580e51&showtopic=20235&hl=
David Cronin on Amnesty’s failure to declare Bradley a prisoner of conscience.
How Amnesty has let down Bradley Manning http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david/how-amnesty-has-let-down-bradley-manning
David is a great inspiration to us.
David Cronin is the author of Europe’s Alliance With Israel: Aiding the Occupation (Pluto Press, 2011). He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal Europe, European Voice, the Inter Press Service, The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune. As a political activist, he has attempted to place both Tony Blair and Avigdor Lieberman under citizen’s arrest for crimes against humanity.
@Methuselah Now
“If you would have said anything newsworthy, your interview would have the Minot possibility of being rebroadcast.
Most importantly, in the modern era, the time doesn’t matter, as long as it can be recorded and made available/viral for anyone to view in the future”.
Hate to point out but the BBC controls any recordings made and only the BBC can decide whether what Craig may have said would have been “newsworthy” (by their definition) at some future undefined date or if the recording (assuming it exists) would be made “available”.
Given their ‘unbiased’ record to date either scenario would appear to be unlikely.
The pro paedophile pro Zionist BBC are unable to report reality with respect to Julian, Bradley and Palestine and anything else that undermines the Neocon Zionist domination. Ian Katz the well know Zionist has just been made producer of Newsnight. Do you think the BBC is going to report reality? I don’t think so.
You restraint is admirable Craig. I’d have arrived home and sat down and sent them a stinker of an email (and probably regretted it.)
They are beneath contempt.
This is Craig speaking in support of Bradley Manning outside the US Embassy last Saturday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feLrcd-UJ0M
“Truth is a universal concept, and the ability of governments to bury the truth is a universal problem.”
Former Ambassador Craig Murray speaks in support of Bradley Manning in front of the US Embassy. 1st of June 2013.
Thanks are due to Queue Politely for the video which has excellent clarity of sound and picture.
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I’m suprised that you ‘re suprised Craig .The bullshit brainwashing corruption is total as anyone who bothered to watch last wednesday’s documentary on Iraq must realise.They have given up on any attempt at “balanced” reporting in favour of the Goering strategy “Tell the lies often enough and they will become the accepted truth” We are being squeezed from every angle, the filth were corraling and arresting anti fascists only last week!It is getting uglier by the day.Please keep trying Craig but watch your back.
Someone at 12.25 pm. Take a look at this regarding not just the death of Dr David Kelly but the BBC’s false reporting of the demolition of building 7 on the day of 9/11, paedophile trusties at the BBC, and programmes pulled. It is right on topic.
http://www.abeldanger.net/2012/10/marine-links-bbcs-pedophile-trusties-to.html
Doug Scorgie, 9.19am
Nathan Fuller of the Bradley Manning Support Network has given up his own press pass to the trial to get the Freedom of the Press Foundation’s crowd-funded court stenographer in:
https://twitter.com/trevortimm/status/341532189734887424
Hurrah! Contrasts hugely with the lack of generosity of the big media players, the Guardian, NYT and the like, who got three press passes apiece.
Meanwhile, I found this blog post about Bradley Manning particularly moving:
https://walterglass4.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/b-manning/
I hope this aspect of the Bradley Manning trial starts getting a bit more attention:
As Manning Trial Opens, Prosecution Hides Name of “Enemy” He Allegedly Aided:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Manning-s-Secrets-v-Ove-by-Robert-Parry-130602-470.html
Whoops, wrong link. I meant this one:
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/as-manning-trial-opens-prosecution-hides-name-of-enemy-he-allegedly-aided-130603?news=850195
(but I hope the point Robert Parry discusses in that other link also gets more of an airing too…)
To refuse the early interview or not?
To refuse…
1. It may allow the BBC to claim balance on the Bradley Manning issue while effectively hiding one side of the debate by airing it when very few people are watching.
2. In Craig’s case, it’s an insult to be offered this as a replacement for a Breakfast TV slot.
To do the interview…
1. It won’t allow the BBC to claim they tried to get a balance of opinions but one side refused the opportunity, or that they tried to get a specific individual, but that individual turned them down.
2. When there are few opportunities available for making public comment on issues such as Bradley Manning and his trial, these opportunities should be taken.
Of course we can only speculate as to how the interviews would have gone, or how Craig and his point of view would have been treated.
It is of course very disappointing that Craig should again be pulled from a high profile BBC appearance. I presume no credible explanation was offered as to why this happened. To guess that someone higher in the editorial or production hierarchy intervened doesn’t seem an unreasonable assumption. It would be interesting and instructive to know exactly who, and exactly why.
I can well imagine that an unsympathetic member of BBC staff tipped off someone in the govt and they arranged the cancellation.
Did you manage to scalp those tickets, Craig?
BBC = maggot media,
how shameful they let a child abuser run rampant for so long, but I suppose given the type of people who hold powerful positions in BBC hurting children is second nature, why don’t we boycott these devious bastards
Jemand,
The disrespect shown to Craig is simply the ‘iron curtain’ of low level intelligence, the ‘psst’ blue pencil from the scumbags of society that shadow World Radio.
The power of intention is one certain way to progress reason and truth. Without sounding Bohemian or beatnik, we have to deepen, strengthen and network our mental connections, our love for/of each other.
Craig is part of that matrix and the embryonic thought. A discussion, any discussion Craig makes is therefore a flawless expansion of wisdom and understanding.
Ben
3 Jun, 2013 – 11:36 am
“…of course the bbc is state media, but you always hold out hope that it’s not entirely enthral to the whim of the government…”
Ben, don’t confuse the government with the state; governments come and go the state does not, it a self-sustaining oligarchy.
The state is controlled by the unelected elite, comprising senior civil servants, senior military and the security services. The state is not democratic.
To quote the anarchist – Emma Goldman:
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal”
“He {ie Bradley Manning}would not be the first Nobel prizewinner to be imprisoned but it would put pressure on the most repressive country since the second world war.”
___________
Come on, John Goss – the USA is “the most repressive country since the second world war” ???
Ever heard of the Soviet Union, to name just contender?
And, in the specific area of American whistleblowers, ever heard of Daniel Ellsberg, who never served a day in jail?
I think your posts are, on the whole, much better than those of many of the Eminences, but this one was not good.
I’m no conspiracy theorist, but consider this:
I work in a major department of the UK Civil Service. In a spare moment around lunchtime today, I did a quick browse of what (if anything) the corporate media were saying about the story.
I found that all stories relating to Bradley Manning on the sites of The Grundiad, The Independ-not and the Toryglyph were being blocked by the department’s web-blocking software. I couldn’t try the BBC ones because we’re still having to use IE6 and clicking on any links on the BBC News front page crashes the browser.
Only those stories; stories about, say, Syria or fiddling peers were all accessible. Knowing the people in charge of IT in the department, then cock-up is a possibility, of course, but why only the stories about BM?
Paul Adams of the BBC who was in the court, speaking on a video here.
Bradley Manning ‘systematically harvested’ documents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22749745
“For the government, and I suspect for a majority of Americans, he is a traitor….”
We won’t say what we think Adams is.
The Judge at 9.15 p.m. Exactly. Many things I try to access are forbidden. 404 messages are a regular occurrence with important sites. I, and others, think the US economy is about to pop. The US National Debt is growing so fast that all the earnings of all the Global US concerns together if they do not pay wages cannot cover this exponentially increasing debt. Germany is calling home its gold. Russia and China too. Things are going to be hard for all of us, particularly communication.
As an example, this week is the week of Bilderberg at The Grove in Watford. Last week I put up a blogpost about the Bilderberg Fringe Festival. It has taken the least number of hits of any blogpost I’ve put up. The latest blogpost I put up twenty four hours ago and it has already taken nearly three times as many hits.
The good news is they cannot monitor us all, all of the time. And if telecommunications fail their problem will be worse than knowing where political activists and writers are.
Fascinating case, undermining Zionist attempts to define anti-semitism in line with their own political project.
by MIKE MARQUSEE
“Taunting and tainting opponents with the charge of anti-semitism is a long-standing Zionist ploy, familiar to everyone involved in the Israel-Palestine issue.”
Some of the gems:
“Fraser and his celebrity lawyer, Anthony Julius, argued that debates and decisions on Israel-Palestine issues within UCU amounted to “harassment” against Fraser as a Jew. They made ten specific allegations to support this charge; every one of them was dismissed by the Tribunal as false or irrelevant.”
“The judges had harsh words for a number of Fraser’s witnesses, particularly the chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, Jeremy Newmark, whose testimony as to his alleged treatment at a UCU meeting was labelled “false”. Two Labour MPs, John Mann and Denis Macshane (still in Parliament when the hearings were held last autumn), appeared for Fraser but did him no favours. They were criticised by the Tribunal for giving “glib evidence…Neither seemed at ease with the idea of being required to answer a question not to his liking.””
“Unions in general should be relieved that the judges have found that they are not liable for psychological “damage” arising from debates among members.”
““A belief in the Zionist project or an attachment to Israel or any similar sentiment cannot amount to a protected characteristic,” they declare, adding “It is not intrinsically a part of Jewishness.” It’s welcome to have this simple truth, so fiercely denied by Israel’s advocates, upheld as logical and lawful.”
“a political view cannot claim “protected” status simply because many members of a particular religion or “race” hold it. If that were to be the case, political debate would be shut down.”
““We greatly regret that the case was ever brought. At heart, it represents an impermissible attempt to achieve a political end by litigious means… ”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/03/how-a-london-court-repudiated-zionist-abuse-of-the-anti-semitism-charge/
Thanks to Everyman at Medialens for drawing my attention to it.
Thanks Herbie, there is still some justice. Unfortunately this was only a tribunal and demonstrates while there are still legal authorities who are not prepared to be bribed there remain those who are. However, and if there are any Law Court, High Court or Supreme Court judges reading this blog, be warned that there is a welter of documentation of trials that have been unfair, like that of Babar Ahmed, Talha Ahsan, Abu Qatada and a whole host of other persecutions from former and present prime ministers and home secretaries, generally directed at Muslims. Remember Nuremberg. It will not be the persecuted Jews when the next judgement comes to pass.
Neary took the Bait on that one But i do agree that Ignoring it is best …But Fucking Somtimes…Aggh
Anyway…Evil Bliar tries to act as some sort of Saviour… Mr Ikes reptililian Ailiens Aside… but reptiles are native to Earth … ….So few Humans do real nature anymore..But almost all want peace
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/tony-blair-watch/2523-daily-mail-gives-platform-to-murderous-hate-preacher-tony-blair
I was gonna post a foto i took on a beach in West Kilbride, It has Majestic Arran in Back ground across the Clyde….its written Large in the sand, Reads ( Free Bradley Manning ) a foto taken last year
But the moniker i use for photo site, i use on many other places, with much personal info, family fotos ect ect … If someone could tell me i’m a wee bity paranoid ats kool
Agent Cameron & family dispatches:
https://3dformation.com/
The chickens come home to roost?
Habba
“Come on, John Goss – the USA is “the most repressive country since the second world war” ???
Ever heard of the Soviet Union, to name just contender?”
Well, look at the total spectrum of the swing-meter to date, i.e. from where to where to the present moment. And if the US is not the most repressive, it certainly is the most violent and most unhealthy nation today on the planet. Worse still, throwing its violence and poor health, including GMO seeds all round the world. Don’t bury your head in the sand.
Thanks for the support Villager. Mr Habbabkuk has probably spent his life soaking up BBC propaganda about how bad the USSR was. It actually turned a repressive monarchy into a superpower which provided health-services and education for all. Yes there was Beria and Stalin, and incursions into Hungary (1956) and the Czech republic (1968) and you might even include Afghanistan (1979) though it was asked there. But the US, even after nuking Japan, was involved in some of the bloodiest most deadly wars using its latest most abominable weapons in countries ranging from Korea, through Vietnam to the first Gulf War, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Libya and lots of other countries where it spread its evil tentacles. No comparison H. Go back to school.
Chris Hedges on the Gibney film.
‘We Steal Secrets’: State Agitprop
By Chris Hedges
June 03, 2013 “Information Clearing House” — Alex Gibney’s new film, “We Steal Secrets,” is about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. It dutifully peddles the state’s contention that WikiLeaks is not a legitimate publisher and that Bradley Manning, who allegedly passed half a million classified Pentagon and State Department documents to WikiLeaks, is not a legitimate whistle-blower. It interprets acts of conscience and heroism by Assange and Manning as misguided or criminal. It holds up the powerful—who are responsible for the plethora of war crimes Manning and Assange exposed—as, by comparison, trustworthy and reasonable. Manning is portrayed as a pitiful, naive and sexually confused young man. Assange, who created the WikiLeaks site so whistle-blowers could post information without fear of being traced, is presented as a paranoid, vindictive megalomaniac and a sexual deviant. “We Steal Secrets” is agitprop for the security and surveillance state.
/..
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35155.htm
@ Villager and John Goss :
@ Villager
“And if the US is not the most repressive, it certainly is the most violent and most unhealthy nation today on the planet”
1/. I shouldn’t have thought that the US comes out that badly in the repression stakes compared to many other countries. But that of course depends to an extent on how you define repression (is the death penalty an example of repression, for instance).
2/. It may well be a violent and unhealthy nation, but that wasn’t was John Goss said, was it. He claimed that the USA was “the most repressive country since the second world war”, which is not the same thing.
@ John Goss :
1/. Your supposition is incorrect: most of my knowledge of the former USSR comes from sources other the BBC.
2/. “It actually turned a repressive monarchy into a superpower which provided health-services and education for all.”
And you could equally well say that the USA, for much of the same period, turned a {insert whichever word you wish} into a superpower which provided economic opportunity and the highest standard of living in the world for its people.
3/. “Yes there was Beria and Stalin, and incursions into Hungary (1956) and the Czech republic (1968)”
To which you might add the enslavement of Easter Europe and half of Germany fpr the trifling period of 45 years?
Flaming June, thanks for Chris Hedges’ analysis of “We Steal Secrets”. Another principled writer. I won’t waste my money going to see this crock of schmaltz so I’m going to have to sit down and read the script, when I get an hour and a half to spare. As if we don’t get enough propaganda from the BBC. By the way, I don’t suppose you’ve come across April Showers in your travels have you?