GCHQ and the NSA between them employ tens of thousands of people. I am bemused by the shock at the “revelation” they have been spying. What on Earth did journalists think that spies do all day? That includes electronics spies.
Since Katherine Gun revealed that we spy on other delegations – and the secretariat – within the UN building, it is hardly a shock that we spy on other governments at summits in the UK. For once, the government cannot pretend that the object is to save us all from terrorism, which is the usual catch all excuse. Nor in the real world is any of the G20 nations a military threat to the UK. The real truth of the matter is that our spies – GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 – are themselves a large and highly influential interest block within the state. Lots of people make a great deal of money out of the security state, and this kind of activity is actually simply an excuse for taking money from taxpayers – which is from everyone who has ever bought anything – and giving that money to the “security industry”.
I do not view spying on other governments as quite as despicable as spying on ordinary citizens, which is an unspeakable betrayal of the purpose of government. Spying on other governments is a game they all play to extort money each to their own security elites. But I will say that spying on the South African government seems pretty low. Why?
Interception of diplomatic communications is plainly a gross breach of the Vienna Conventions, even if the forms of communication have changed since they were drafted. I have never studied the particulars of international law as they relate to spying, but it seems to me an area that in the modern world needs regulation. There must be room here for the UN to be involved in preparing a Convention to outlaw the interception of international communications, with recourse to the International Court of Justice for those victim of it.
There is more work for the UN on Syria. We should all be grateful that Russia is holding out against the very dubious western claims that the Syrian government has deployed chemical weapons. But while Obama can declare all the red lines he wishes, they do not give any country a right to take action on Syrian soil without UN authority. That needs to be restated, strongly. There is no basis at all for the continued and massive Israeli attacks on Syria – they are absolutely illegal. Israeli strikes have definitely killed more people than the alleged deaths from chemical weapons. Can someone explain to me why that is not a red line?
The UN Secretary General should be speaking out, and the UN Security Council should be meeting, to discuss the Israeli attacks on Syria. The system of international law has broken down irretrievably.
“If you are serious about an assassination, I would start with another general, General David Petraeus, who Hastings tore apart on CNN.”
I didn’t know that. I wonder is it worth chasing up on YouTube.
And Ben said,
“And to your point, Craft/Academi is a more politically palatable name than Blackwater. The baggage required a name-change.”
I knew Blackwater became Xe and then Academi, but are you saying they are now Craft? I thought Craft were a separate outfit.
“Certainly storing everyone’s data ad infinitum is a form of investigation.”
Yes Jives. We are all potential suspects. And you don’t have to break any law to become a full-blown suspect. If they can demonstrate (to their own satisfaction) that you were even thinking about it … subscribed to the wrong magazine or website …
“Who will be the firsst commenter to addresss that important issue, I wonder?”
“You, as far as I can see…”
I don’t think so. I believe it was “Flaming June” at 7.04am.
No, she raised the issue. And Hubba’s getting sssibilant, too.
My preciousssss…
You guys can stew around about the Hastngs assassination till the cows come home, but the most likely suspects are the Mossad, General David Petraeus, and Paula Broadwell Krantz because Hastings ripped their guts out by his writings and public comments which went all the way massacreup to Obama”s re-election, the Libyan consulate , and Israel trying to throw it for Romney.
If you want to get beyond your own crackpot realism about the murder, start reading Hastings stuff on business insider, and my article about why Jorg Haider was assassinated.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2344398/Google-futurist-claims-uploading-entire-MINDS-computers-2045-bodies-replaced-machines-90-years.html
Yes.By 2045 the tech curve could mean not just our data but all our conversations and thoughts will be stored.
Terrifying.The potential for massive abuse is staggering.Thank God Feinstein and Hague are there to look after us all with care,integrity and infallability.
*****************
O/T and apropos zilch but Kurzweil also designed superb synthesisers and keyboards.Industry defining ones in their time that still lead the pack today.
“Journalist Michael Hastings dies in car crash”
“And he was incredibly tense and very worried, and was concerned that the government was looking in on his material as they are on a lot of the top journalists in the country.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/20/hast-j20.html
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/06/work-for-the-un/comment-page-2/#comment-413719
So what Dreoilin. Keep going on why don’t you. You are petty.
Someone keeps messing with my lap top, so I can hardly be sure what it will come up with now, bur the word ‘massacre’ was put after the word ‘consulate’ by me, and, of course, I am talking about Hastings.
FFS Komodo …
I used to be a great multitasker. Not so much now after so many decades. I can’t keep up with the topic changes here. I know I post O/T occasionally myself, but
On this page only (not even counting the whole thread) we’ve had, so far,
Australia Post issues Israeli propaganda stamps
An e-petition
Iraq damages cases
Drilling in the Golan Heights
Syria: Arming the rebels
Michael Hastings
Storyville on BBC4
Riots in Brazil
Oliver Kamm
Tony Blair (again)
John Pilger on the New Fascism
Stephen Green
Organ Trafficking (Israel – again)
Gulnara
and various other bits and bobs that I’ve missed.
It’s unreadable. If not unreadable, it’s un-followable.
Perhaps Villager’s suggestion about a Chat thread, where people can bring up anything they like, is not a bad idea. I’m not sure exactly how it would work, but right now it sounds good.
Gone
Clegg is in trouble for referring to the Saatchi/Nigella incident on his LBC phone in programme and saying he did not know if it was a fleeting thing! He has since put out a statement that he condemns all domestic violence.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10131747/Nick-Clegg-fails-to-condemn-Saatchi-assault-on-Nigella-Lawson.html
Has anyone ever listened to him on LBC? I haven’t.
“… an experimental Assalamu Alaykum.” Guano.
Is that ‘peace be upon you’ with a funny handshake?
🙂
Dreoilin, wrt ‘multitasking’ and focussing, etc., you may wish to consider visiting the ‘second’ Al Hilli thread instead; 16,000 comments (the first had 8,000) and climbing. But actually, though there have been digressions and expansions, that thread – frequented in the main by an entirely different set of contributors from the rest of this blog – has stayed remarkably focussed.
@ Dreoilin’s departing footsteps –
Don’t forget Yemen….
Seriously, once the comments have gone onto page 2, the topic’s evaporated, and ’twas ever thus. And I do know what you mean, but every time someone points this out, it gets acrimonious.
Straw poll: On a scale of 0-10, where do the following behaviours rate, IYHO?
1. Female circumcision
2. Stirring the shit in the Middle East (all)
3. Taksim Square protests
4. Brazilian protests
5. Bankers’ bonuses
6. Two exceedingly rich and famous-for-being-famous pissheads having a public fight in a swanky restaurant.
If(6) scored more than 1, congratulations. You’ve been diverted.
Legal Aid petition -less than 6000 signatures needed –
(see Clark 19 Jun, 2013 – 11:31 am)
94,152 signatures, including mine.
Place bet now. Hurry, hurry.
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48628
@ Dreoilin
My God, you’re right! Mary raised it at 07h04 – which just goes to show that when Mary’s around you have to get up really early if you want to be the first to bring readers up to date with the actualité 🙂
I hope, Dreoilin, that you enjoyed Komodo’s refutation of your comment – Mary didn’t “address” it, she just “raised” it. Yeah, sure, big difference. LOL
@ Flaming June :
“So what Dreoilin. Keep going on why don’t you. You are petty.”
____________
Boo hoo!! Sob sob!! Some nasty person has dared to disagree with me again!
@ Dreoilin
“It’s unreadable. If not unreadable, it’s un-followable.
Perhaps Villager’s suggestion about a Chat thread, where people can bring up anything they like, is not a bad idea. I’m not sure exactly how it would work, but right now it sounds good.”
______________
I also think Villager’s idea was a good one.
But it would never work.
Not for practical reasons but because readers would tend not to bother to refer back to such a thread on a regular basis.
And that would be unacceptable to the Eminences because it would mean that the brilliance of their reasoning and the profundity of their thought (not to mention the elegance of their style) might be…overlooked! Unnoticed, even!! Wasted!!!
And Mary’s running BBC/msm quotation service would lose even more of the little point it currently has.
You see, the Eminences, including Mary, always have to be at the front of the pack and you’re not allowed not to have what they want to communicate rammed down your throat subitissimo.
@Habbabkuk 2:19 pm
NB. Not poetry,
Mary’s rising time?
“addressed it” or “raised it?
WTF has that got to do with anything?
Half the world is being screwed and that’s the best you can do………Oh why am I feeding you again?
I think the idea of a Chat Room is neither required, nor would really work; O/T comments will naturally always occur over a period, especially always on the latest Thread, as breaking news or other items of general interest are going to be reported & discussed.
In a way, there is a sense that even the apparently O/T items, are not really totally unconnected with the general themes & issues that motivate us all to come here in the first place (trolls excepted); it’s not like somebody was posting latest developments from the world of Train Spotters or other such obscure interest groups !
As the Al Hilli thread has been mentioned, I repeat my suggestion to Jon/Craig, that perhaps it would be a good idea to have still active threads shown on the side, with easy access clickable goto links.
Flaming June asks, à propos Nick Clegg’s LBC programme and Nigella Lawson (I’ll say it again, she’s a peach!) :
“Has anyone ever listened to him on LBC? I haven’t.”
_______________
Perhaps she should have. By so doing, she would have heard his remarks in their entirety, in his voice and with the tone of his voice, any hesitations (or absence of such) and in their complete context and have been able to make up her own mind rather than relying on whatever spin the Daily Telegraph (Mary’s source here – usually despised by her) may have chosen to give to them.
@ KingofWelshNoir (07h44)
Thanks for that and I’ll come back to you (and perhaps also to Macky if I think it’s worth it), but later on. I have a rather pleasant event I have to speed off to in a moment (clue : tea is involved 🙂 )
Oh, dear. What’s he trying to divert us from now?
This, maybe?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-palestinian-israel-children-idUSBRE95J0FR20130620
Palestinian children in the Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said.
“Palestinian children arrested by (Israeli) military and police are systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture, are interrogated in Hebrew, a language they did not understand, and sign confessions in Hebrew in order to be released,” it said in a report.
Israelis say lol, this is old stuff (you should see what we’re getting up to NOW).
Dreoilin, don’t despair. When you come to realise that this blog has now become a parody of itself you can then appreciate how posting comments can improve your typing skills. On occasion, people will help with grammar, etymology, latin and sarcasm. And sometimes, regulars will offer gardening tips, a delicious new recipe or a new way of venting their end-of-life frustrations.
@ Komodo
“6. Two exceedingly rich and famous-for-being-famous pissheads having a public fight in a swanky restaurant.”
___________
Pleasant event or not, I can’t leave Nigella undefended!
1/. She’s well-off, but not THAT rich. And anyway, even if she was, so what?
2/. Famous for being famous? Not really fair, that. They’re both talented people in their fields – fields which do put them in the public eye.
3/. Pissheads? I don’t know about Charles, but Nigella certainly isn’t.
If I go on like this, I’ll be calling her “fragrant”, like that twit of a judge who called Mary Archer that during her husband’s trial and I really don’t want to go there, so byeeee
@Macky 2 32pm
“….a good idea to have still-active threads shown on the side, with easy access clickable go to links.”
Yes please.
And Jon, thanks for allowing the conversation to wander. Doesn’t it both give the core issues context and allow for surprising facets to be revealed?
With any luck information and debate pop up here which, I’m sure, spark off real-world conversations on these issues. That’s surely where the dismantling of the false narratives needs to be happening if we are to have any positive change.
Also I think we need to let off excess emotional charge occasionally after the first focused flurry of any thread. A handy lightening rod is alwas at hand! Bless him/her. (Originally no “her”. Sexist I know, but I just can’t imagine the chief troll as a “her” myself.)
No need for trolls when you’ve got Posters who are unable to keep from having nasty pops at others; sowing discord, all in a day’s work for laughing trolls.
Ah. It IS the UNCRC report.
You guys should get employment with the LA coroner.
He still isn’t convinced that Hastings was in his Benz which exploded and burned early Tuesday morning, and won’t be sure for weeks.
It was the same office which determined that whistle-blowing FBI agent at Burbank Steve Ivens – who was set-up as a potential Obama assassin during the high point of the presidential campaign in May 2012 because he knew what was really going on at its Bob Hope International Airport, and then was conveniently murdered – was a suicide after his body was finally found just blocks from where he lived and a mere 100 yards from the church he attended after an 85-day manhunt..
LA seems to be the ideal location for a controversial murder, and getting away with it.