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.
Doublespeak on the BBC.
When is a ‘rebel’ a ‘militant’?
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1371800048.html
Prejudice, racism and violence against the Palestinians.
Big Racists vs Little Racists
How Israeli apartheid is coming unstuck
by Jonathan Cook / June 21st, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/06/big-racists-vs-little-racists/
I watched QT last night and am appalled that the BBC now needs to goad the public into reacting with the likes of elanie Phillips. Not only was the audience more clued up, even the panel did not agree with her.
I don’t know about the past history of Melanie Phillips and Dick Dimbleby, but her appearance on this infotainment program is clearly down to more than just bias.
@komodo, Yona Metzgers arrest was only for fraud, money laundering and accepting bribes, Who knows what the archbishop of Canterbury gets up to, or the new pope, people in position of trust and power, blah blah.
Just shows that humanity whence placed into any position of power, regardless of its ethics aims or objectives being communitarian and/or humanitarian, it will be abused for personal gain.
What this means is that the value systems ion this world are collapsing like a pack of cards. Trust in religious organisations who for decades have abused their congregation and their offspring has resulted in a flight from established religions throughout the western world and I expect us to enter a period of anarchy in all its forms.
“A short item on the story appeared at the end of the “Today” programme but there has been no further mention, indicating that the BBC is fully on board with the D-Notice.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/21/cens-j21.html
“Questions surround death of journalist Michael Hastings”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/21/hast-j21.html
I don’t watch QT any longer. Though I have heard that Melanie Philips was booed and jeered by the audience in the last night episode. This ziofuckwitess along with the rest of the hasbara brigade (check her bio note the sycophantic undertones probably written by the hasbara personnel) are relentless in their fight against their perceived enemies of the zionistan that is mainly everyone on the planet other than the ziofuckwits themselves.
These virulent, racist (evidently she has referred to the audience as “Ignorant” and “brainwashed by the Muslims”), crazy bastards have been the diet of the bbc current affairs for so long, and this it the kind of shite spewed that formed the basis of my decision not to watch QT anymore. Fact that these lunatics have been proved to be mendacious liars and have zero credibility to be shoved into the living rooms of the people whom have been mugged for the license fee, is beyond the pale.
Are you referring to Welby Nevermind? Will he go to Gaza or to the ‘West Bank’? We will see.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-first-jewish-archbishop-of-canterbury-heads-to-israel/
Thanx Mary I did not see your post, will watch the nodes you have highlighted (I have brought no bucket along, so cannot watch the whole of the program).
The thread on Medialens http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1371755902.html
about last night’s QT includes a link to this sneering piece from White of the Guardian.
Russell Brand rules Question Time’s clash of the egos
BBC lines comedian up with Boris Johnson and Melanie Phillips but the arguments fizzle rather than sizzle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2013/jun/21/russell-brand-question-time
yes I was June, who can trust any of the cassocks these days.
@Someone, the eyewitness account of ‘hearing an explosion like a bomb, making the windows rattle’ sounds pretty comprehensive.
Why should a car explode when hitting a palm tree front on? the tank is in the back, its unlikely to say the least.
But if you put a timed charge next to the petrol tank and one next to the steering rack and follow his car with a detonator at the ready, this could be done.
I don’t think that there will be much evidence left to prove very much, fire works.
How long did it take for the fire brigade to arrive? anybody know?
Kamm retweeted this White remark the other day. You get the drift.
MichaelWhite @MichaelWhite 15 Jun
Stop the War coalition protesting outside US embassy against arming Syrian rebs. No mention yet of STW demo at Russian embassy. Wonder why?
Retweeted by Oliver Kamm
https://twitter.com/OliverKamm
Re Michael Hastings…
Why would the car engine end up 100 yards away if the car hit the tree head on?
Weird.
Do cars engines usually end up travelling so far in accidents?
Like i say,weird.
but her appearance on this infotainment program is clearly down to more than just bias.
She’s been a regular on The Moral Maze (R4) for years, Nevermind. And she’s a very pushy lady (think she’s female). If the BBC wants to escalate her to the position of national object of ridicule, I have little objection lol.
“No such thing is likely to happen. Instead, as 2013 progresses, a further downturn will become visible through the orchestrated statistics. This time the Fed will have to get the printed money past the banks and into the economy, and inflation will explode. The dollar will collapse, and import prices–as globalism has turned the US into an import-dependent economy–will turn high inflation into hyperinflation. Disruptions in food and energy deliveries will become widespread, and a depreciated currency will cease to be used as a means of exchange.”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/06/20/the-rational-market-myth-paul-craig-roberts/
Take a look at this picture and it becomes evident that the car did not strike the tree “head on” but slid into it sideways, the impact area being about where the driver’s door is.
http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ap51c10f33.jpg
In such an impact it would be quite feasible for the engine and gearbox to be flung out; furthermore the fuel tank is not at the back. Modern safety legislation requires it to be positioned ahead of the rear axle so It’s protected in the event of a rear end collision. That would place it in or near the impact area in this case so rupturing of the tank is by no means impossible.
David Swanson (War Is A Crime.org) has just been on RT speaking on this obscenity.
The US military is scrapping $170m worth of equipment in Vietghanistan as he calls it yet the Congress is currently pushing through a bill to increase military spending.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/scrapping-equipment-key-to-afghan-drawdown/2013/06/19/9d435258-d83f-11e2-b418-9dfa095e125d_print.html
‘In such an impact it would be quite feasible for the engine and gearbox to be flung out; furthermore the fuel tank is not at the back. Modern safety legislation requires it to be positioned ahead of the rear axle so It’s protected in the event of a rear end collision.’
Unless it was a Chrysler Jeep!
Chrysler agrees to recall 2.7m Jeeps after initially refusing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22962589
~~~
On the same website I see that Google has been ordered to destroy data illicitly collected on Street View. But they have not been fined here in the UK. No, of course not. But they were in the US.
Street View: Google given 35 days to delete wi-fi data
Data gathered by Street View cars in more than 30 countries included passwords, emails and other data
Related Stories
Google staff ‘knew of snooping’
Google fined in Street View probe
Google has been given 35 days to delete any remaining data it “mistakenly collected” while taking pictures for its Street View service, or face criminal proceedings.
But the UK Information Commissioner’s Office did not impose a fine.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23002166
~~~
Reminder of Agent Cameron’s cosy connections to Google.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/53582/time-get-tough-google-yes-are-relations-too-cosy
Now police forces are doing everything they can to cover up the Hastings murder.
An unidentified LAPD officer has told the LA Times that there is no evidence of foul play in the accident.
This is the same police force which claimed that there was no evidence of FBI agent Steve Ivens having bee murdered either, though it had done nothing to even find his body, it seems, since it was found by two hitch hikers after 85 days in the area where police had conducted an intensive manhunt.
The fact that it had been conveniently moved, like in Dr. David Kelly’s murder, simply escaped the police.
Then the FBI has done what it can by volunteering that it was not even investigating him – what is true, but is intended to help cover up another murder that the Mossad has undoubtedly done. The Bureau was asking around to see if Hastings was on to its investigation of why Mossad agent Paula Broadwell had threatened Jill Kelley to steer clear of DCI General David Petraeus for fear that Kelltey would learn how Broadwell had ensnared the good General for the Israelis.
You cannot make this stuff up – our so-called counter terrorists just keep cranking it out.
This is the largest retrograde mission in history.”
AKA “the biggest retreat ever”, for budding students of the jargon.
But some people are never satisfied. Haven’t we been saying since the depression began that the Keynesian solution of increased public spending would be a better remedy than kicking the poor in the balls and giving their money to the banks? And what better way of increasing public spending than investing the government’s income (lol) in munitions production?
Now all we need is someone to be even more terrified of than AQ, and it will all make perfect sense, trust me.
Komodo at 1.44 pm was @ FJ at 1.21pm, btw. Having trouble finding a topic to be on, candidly.
With respect to your first point; as in monopoly when someone has all the money and the property the game ends, and the winner is declared. Alas in the real world the banksters windup with all the money again and again, again, along with corporates because they are too big to fail. Trouble with this model is, the economy tanks and unless the game is restarted ie the money is back in the proletariat hands there is no game, and the banksters have to play all by themselves.
with respect to your second point; there are the aliens in their flying saucers, and the money that can be spent on stopping these little green men from doing their voodoo, can be a handsome earner, for anyone in the business of security. However the eighteenth century tossers planning, conducting and conducting the current blood fests cannot think in the modern terms, and are too busy shoving the same old “barbarian at the gate” story. The illusive flying saucer pilots can scare the dickens out of any rapture lovin, moonshine guzzling, gun slinging, “freedom lovin” soul.
Do you recollect Andrew Fastow? He shot himself in the back of the head with a lead slug (hit man special, for the uninitiated) twice, and the police verdict was suicide. Police have always been so thorough in their investigations when dissidents, and persons of “interest” (whose interest?) are concerned.
I’m sure it’s been said, but not a cheep on the BBC about the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child report detailing the hundreds of Palestinian kids murdered by Israel over the last 10 years. If only Ian Pannell could show us the misery in Gaza (as opposed to Syria) it might spur our Governments into action…
Shameful.
No need for you to add your own porkies about Andrew Fastow, Passerby. The last I knew the former Enron finance officer was alive and well, and saying his tale about its corruption all over the place.
Correct me if I am wrong, but if not, why don’t you just STFU?
The sadder thing about police corruption, officials whose job is to catch criminals, is judges and professionals who have no professional benefit in going along with it.
Just think of Lord Hutton delegating what happened to poor Dr. Kelly to suicide expert Dr. Keith Hawton, and he determined that Kelly had done so, thanks to some TV police having moved his body away from where the struggle occurred where he subsequently died to a nice peaceful spot on Harrowdown Hill where one could kill oneself.
Let’s face it: today’s world simply sucks!
I think Passerby is thinking of another Enron exec, John Clifford Baxter, who, in 2001, shot himself (allegedly) once, in the side of the head, with a Glaser Safety (sic) bullet- designed to fragment rather than ricochet. Doubts were expressed as to whether this was, as the police claimed, a suicide.
BTW if Passerby’s fact-checking isn’t always perfect, then whose is? Yours? Hmmm.
Now then, now then, then now! Stop being vulgar, and good to see that you came back with your answer. Just a little “ping” to see if you are sleep or awake?
It was the other Andrew Fastow that I meant!
Really it should have been J. Clifford Baxter, he was shot with a rat shot although now the rat shot has transmuted into “Glaser Safety Slug”. However you are correct about the evident endemic corruption.
Poor Dr. Kelly he was murdered for an open secret, that now everyone is aware of and know well! Kelly’s last communication was with a “journalist” in US made, he made his last contact out of a phone box. Sadly as we all know, there has never been any hints of what was his last death bed confession? To date the “journalist” concerned has not so much as breathed a word of what Kelly told him before his kidnap and murder.
Do you recollect Roberto Calvi? He too “suicide-d” so the Met investigations concluded! (to begin with)
PS After pressing the submit button I noticed my mistake, about Fastow but then the devil got me to keep quiet and see how many people would actually notice the mistake. You have been awarded the gold star Trowbridge.
Thanks there. I am sorry our comments crossed, and you have a double gold star, not only you spotted the mistake but corrected and further explored the rat shot too.
Quite Mike. Not a peep on this atrocity from the BBC. I can only find it reported in the Independent and the NYT. Imagine the furore if the poor woman had been Jewish. Monsieur Hollande would have been raising the roof.
Today’s Zaman 2013-06-18
Pregnant Muslim woman attacked in Paris loses baby
Despite all medical efforts, a pregnant Muslim woman who was attacked by two Islamophobic men in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil on Thursday suffered a miscarriage and lost her baby, her lawyer said on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old Muslim woman, who was four months pregnant, was physically attacked by two men. The attackers first tried taking her headscarf off and later cut off her hair and tore part of her clothing. After she screamed out that she was pregnant, one of the attackers started kicking her in the stomach.
She was taken to Argenteuil hospital where she underwent treatment for injuries.
/..
http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=318574
Regarding Michael Hastings’ car engine ending up 100 feet from the scene of the crash and a neighbour hearing an explosion like a bomb, do you think we should all write to Mercedes to ask if their cars are safe?
Further to Phil’s post yesterday to ‘this is what victory looks like’ here is an account of the changing circumstances in Kabul.
Its becoming more dangerous for NGO’s NATO soldiers and Karzai’s administration at large. The Taliban are in charge and whatever we are hearing, our forces are in now in retreat.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/us-talks-with-taliban-in-doha-mark-capitulation-in-afghanistan-a-907199.html
“On Thursday, pressure from the United States and others led the group to rename the office the “Political Office of the Afghan Taliban.” Doing so openly depicted the Taliban as a parallel government that President Karzai was now supposed to come to an agreement with about sharing power.
The move incensed President Karzai, who viewed it as an affront to his government’s sovereignty. On Wednesday, he withdrew his delegation from the talks. However, according to the Associated Press, Karzai is now willing to join the talks as long as the Taliban flag and nameplate are removed from the office and the US government sends him a formal letter of support for his government.”