Work for the UN 1072


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.


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1,072 thoughts on “Work for the UN

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  • Dreoilin

    No, Komodo, my “compliance” is not “assured”. With anything or anybody. I march to the beat of my own drum. I agree or disagree with whatever I feel like at any given time. I don’t like cliques, here or anywhere, and I haven’t joined any.

    ———————————-

    And Macky, asking someone to distinguish between quoted text and their own words has nothing to do with ‘semantics’. Look it up.

    As for “meaningful discourse”, that remains difficult when someone is lobbing ping-pong balls of a “news feed” in the window every 5 or 10 minutes, irrespective of whether they’re relevant or not.

    Oh, and ‘La vita è bella’ is a film, yes, and it’s a comedy.

    Have a nice day

  • doug scorgie

    “Labour leader Ed Miliband is to attend a meeting of the government’s National Security Council in Downing Street to discuss the situation in Syria.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23044447

    I wonder why?

    The government has promised MPs a vote on the arming of Syrian rebels but the vote is non-binding. However, it would “look better” if the government position is seen to be supported by the opposition.

    I fully expect Miliband to be “turned” to support the government stance.

    Miliband has said previously that “Labour will only back arming the rebels in Syria if it could be guaranteed that the arms would not fall into the hands of extremists and that such a move would not prolong the conflict.”

    Obviously no such “guarantee” is possible and arming the rebels is clearly going to prolong the conflict.

    So I wait with interest how Miliband and the shadow cabinet will justify any U-turn.

    “Prime Minister David Cameron has said the government reserves the right to act in the national interest without Parliamentary assent…”

    Remember those words, any of you who may be under the illusion that the UK is a real democracy.

  • Komodo

    Dreoilin – I said it was about the holocaust, and it is. Whether it was a comedy or not is supremely irrelevant, though I suspect a non-Jew making a comedy about the holocaust would speedily attract the unwanted attention of the Wiesenthal Centre.

    From Wikipedia, since I make a point of not watching this transparently propagandist kind of thing –

    Later during World War II, after Dora and her mother (Marisa Paredes) have reconciled, Guido, his Uncle Eliseo and Joshua are seized on Joshua’s birthday, forced onto a train and taken to a concentration camp. Despite being a non-Jew, Dora demands to be on the same train to join her family. In the camp, Guido hides their true situation from his son, convincing him that the camp is a complicated game in which Joshua must perform the tasks Guido gives him, earning him points; the first team to reach one thousand points will win a tank. He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn extra points.

    Guido uses this game to explain features of the concentration camp that would otherwise be scary for a young child: the guards are mean only because they want the tank for themselves; the dwindling numbers of children (who are being killed by the camp guards) are only hiding in order to score more points than Joshua so they can win the game. He puts off Joshua’s requests to end the game and return home by convincing him that they are in the lead for the tank, and need only wait a short while before they can return home with their tank. Despite being surrounded by the misery, sickness, and death at the camp, Joshua does not question this fiction because of his father’s convincing performance and his own innocence.

    Guido maintains this story right until the end when, in the chaos of shutting down the camp as the Americans approach, he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this being the final competition before the tank is his. Guido tries to find Dora, but is caught by a soldier. As he is marched off to be executed, he maintains the fiction of the game by deliberately marching in an exaggerated goose-step as he passes Joshua’s hiding place.

    Funny as fuck, eh?

  • Dreoilin

    “Funny as fuck, eh?”

    I wouldn’t know, Komodo, I haven’t seen it.

    “Life is Beautiful became commercially successful. After its release on October 23, 1998, the film went on to gross $57.24 million in North America, and $171.60 million internationally, with a worldwide gross of $229,163,264.[5]

    “The film also received mostly positive reviews, with the movie aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a “Fresh” 80% rating.[6] Despite its acclaim, actor-director Roberto Benigni received criticism for its comedic elements incorporated into the backdrop of the Holocaust. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2 stars, stating, “At Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use of humor in connection with the Holocaust. What may be most offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity. The film finds the right notes to negotiate its delicate subject matter.”[7] The film has a rating of 8.5/10 on the Internet Movie Database and is currently ranked as the 48th greatest film of all time on IMDb’s Top 250 chart.[8]”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Beautiful

    ———————————-

    Meanwhile, I would recommend that some people here grow the F up. This from Macky – “I guess that your antagonism towards Mary must be due to some sort of jealous rivalry, as you do sometimes tend to post very similar links” – is the same level of adolescent silliness he displayed when he posted a link to a hairy man in a bikini.

  • Komodo

    Sorry…That should be ” the ADL disagrees…”. Fury got the better of sense for a moment.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    Komodo’s post at 08h51 was really egregiously silly.

    Let’s look at some examples of this.

    “The recruitment of the more impressionable commentators on this blog…..”, followed by

    “..this guy has a cause.”

    raise the following questions:

    (1) how am I recruiting fellow posters? Through the action of commenting? If this is the method, then I suppose that everyone who comments on this blog is equally guilty of ‘recruiting’.

    (2) does Komodo consider that commenters who might agree with the one or other comment of mine do so merely because they are ‘impressionable’? If so, then it would stand to reason that anyone who agrees with a point Komodo has made is equally impressionable. Furthermore, it would seem to indicate that those commenters who happen to agree with something I write have no mind or opinions of their own, which is rather patronising to say the least and an opinion to which Komodo is only doubtfully entitled by virtue of his own intellectual capacity as demonstrated in the various threads of this blog.
    __________

    “..common ground isn’t any coincidence between the political views of the recruiter and recruited,..”, followed by

    “Divide and rule.”

    Now these two statements would appear to indicate that Komodo is dismayed that not everyone on this blog should have exactly the same views on every topic. Is that reading correct? If it is, then may we assume that he believes that his own views and those of Mary and a few of the other ‘legitimate’ (as he would see it) posters are the views which should set the tone on the blog and which should attract unanimous agreement?
    __________

    “…persist so long in disrupting a public discussion.”

    Here we’re back to the old chestnut of disruption. A careful re-reading of threads confirms me in the thought that for Komodo and others in the thought police disruption is a synonym for daring to question something another commenter has written – whether the questioning relates to fact, interpretation, motivation or relevance. Of course I stand ready to be corrected by Komodo, and while he’s correcting me and explaining exactly what disruption is, he might also take the opportunity to explain why questions are disruptive but why constant off-topic digressions of the sort Mary specialises in are not.
    _________

    “I’m a little disappointed in Dreoilin, I have to say. I thought I saw some strength of character there.”

    Dreoilin is more than capable of answering for herself, but, putting aside for a moment my disappointment at your disappointment, I wonder on what precise basis was Dreoilin not a cause of disappointment previously and what enabled Komodo, previously, to have discerned ‘strength of character’ in Dreoilin. Could it be that Komodo felt certain that Dreoilin would never disagree with the eternal verities as handed down by himself, Mary and consorts?
    __________

    The above is but a selection of Komodo’s inanities. But I’m glad that Komodo posted it because with this post, and others like it – and not only from him, of course – he condemns himself out of his own mouth. Let’s face it – there are some obviously seriously disturbed people on this blog (eg Trowbridge Ford, Mark Golding..) but there are also some whose internal disturbance is usually better concealed; posts like this one of Komodo’s perform a useful task in bringing the disturbance out into the open. And for that we should be grateful.

  • Komodo

    ‘Fury’ Komodo?? At blog comments?

    No. At Israel’s shameful activities.

    Don’t flatter yourself. Pixels.

  • Flaming June

    Macky and Komodo I was really pleased to read your comments. Your powers of perception are at a higher level than some here.
    More importantly, the division and separating of the group has been obvious as you imply. That was the intention from the beginning of course. It certainly has been an uncomfortable time on here. I have never experienced bullying which is what it was and nobody knows how it affected me but I did not give in. I hope it is now at an end.

    Villager 10.03pm last night.

    I consider I have a well developed sense of humour although there is not a lot to laugh at currently is there? This blog is too important to be turned into a jokes/trivia forum.

    Anyway I think you are ‘funny’. 🙂

    Also is a troll is a troll is a troll IMHO.

  • OldMark

    From the Hasbara link posted by Komodo @08.51 today-

    ‘It also stresses the importance of labeling or “name-calling” – the linking of a person or idea to a negative symbol.’

    Hubba’s extrusion @01.22pm today-

    ‘but there are also some whose internal disturbance is usually better concealed; posts like this one of Komodo’s perform a useful task in bringing the disturbance out into the open.’

    Q.E.D.

  • Komodo

    But we were talking about a film about the Holocaust. Don’t dissemble, please.

    I was thinking about shills for Netanyahu. Blame them.

    Anyway, point proven, case closed. I am sure Hubba will give you the approbation you so desperately need.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    The Old Biddy writes at 15h07 :

    “Macky and Komodo I was really pleased to read your comments”

    Cast down into the depths after having been given a well-deserved ticking off by Dreoilin and others, Mary gratefully accepts a few pats on the back and a stomach-tickling from a couple of her fans with ‘higher powers of perception’ (did she really mean Macky and Komodo?) and is restored to euphoria.
    ___________

    “More importantly, the division and separating of the group has been obvious as you imply.”

    I do apologise on behalf of those contributors who have had the temerity to question your posting ethic …
    ____________

    “That was the intention from the beginning of course”

    Of course. Your importance in the resistance movement is such that the entire resources of several state agencies have been directed to the sole aim of hurting your feelings.
    _________

    “nobody knows how it affected me but I did not give in.”

    Plucky girl! I’ll propose you for a bravery medal.
    ____________

    “I hope it is now at an end.”

    Dream on. It’ll end when you stop disupting threads every hour or so withy news flashes, when you stop making snide, sly little insinuations all the time and when you decide to post in a more adult way. (I’m not holding my breath)
    ___________

    “I consider I have a well developed sense of humour”

    Huh? Was that claim an example it?
    __________

    “This blog is too important to be turned into a jokes/trivia forum.”

    Another example of humour? If your sense of self-importance – already commented on by others – were of more modest proportions, you’d understand that (1) this blog is not that important in the overall scheme of things and (2) it is not being turned into a jokes/trivia forum (BTW – did you really say “trivia”? You?)
    ______________

    Difficult to know if this post beats Komodo’s in today’s silliness stakes. On balance it probably does, because of the terrible lack of self-awareness and the unbecoming sense of self-importance it displays.

  • Flaming June

    A member of the House of Lords, Lord Allan of Hallam has just been on Radio 4’s The Law in Action which is presented by Joshua Rozenberg.

    He is the director of policy for Facebook Europe and was at pains to assure the listener that nothing untoward happens to the data held by the company. Everything is safe in our hands etc etc He outlined what data remains even if it has been deleted by the user. Smooth.

    A German preceded him. He had sent 22 e-mails to Facebook before he was provided with a CD holding his data.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Allan

    The Right to Be Forgotten
    Duration: 28 minutes
    First broadcast:Tuesday 25 June 2013
    The Right to be Forgotten: What information do internet companies and social networks have on us and can we delete it? Joshua Rozenberg explores the legal battle going on in Europe about a new law to enable consumers more rights to delete information held on them. We hear what Facebook thinks of the proposed law.

    Plus, how does the military court system work?

    We have an exclusive interview with the Judge Advocate General, Judge Jeff Blackett. He is the most senior judge in the military courts. He raises concerns about how some aspects of these function, namely that the board, their equivalent of a jury, can convict people with just a majority of one.

    Presenter: Joshua Rozenberg.
    Producer: Charlotte Pritchard.

    To be repeated Thursday 8pm
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02ykrdy

  • mike

    Again, I gotta ask — Where the fuck is the BBC’s OWN investigation into GCHQ/Prism? What a spineless, supine organisation, frightened off a story that effects every one of us by a D Notice.

    No wonder people are turning from the mainstream in droves. Haven’t they worked it out yet? Speak truth to power and you’ll never lose fans.

  • Flaming June

    From the American group, Jewish Voice for Peace, an appeal to petition the Israeli Ambassador to the US. There is also an Avaaz petition direct to the Knesset for international use.

    ‘Late yesterday in Israel, the Knesset approved the first reading of the infamous Prawer Plan – a blueprint for removing 40,000 Bedouin people from their ancestral homeland.’

    http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1277765

    http://www.avaaz.org/en/no_to_forced_eviction_of_negev_bedouins/?tsyKdab

  • Flaming June

    85 billion euros! Are all those housing estates still empty and rotting. I believe the bust Lough Erne golf resort was another Anglo Irish Bank project, an appropriate location for the recent £15m G8 shindig.

    Tuesday 25 June 2013

    Irish bankers reeling after phone talks broadcast

    Embarrassing conversations between former executives of Anglo Irish Bank, which was rescued by the taxpayer after running into trouble, are leaked to a Dublin newspaper.

    The talks, at the height of Ireland’s financial meltdown, suggest that senior executives were aware the bank was in a worse state than previously admitted. At several points in the conversations, there is laughter and swearing.

    Rescuing indebted banks led to Ireland receiving an 85bn euro IMF/EU bailout in 2010, leading in turn to austerity measures whose effects are still being felt today.

    Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he understood voters’ “rage and anger” over bank bailouts.

    The phone conversations between John Bowe, Peter Fitzgerald and David Drumm were obtained by the Irish Independent newspaper.

    In one excerpt, Mr Fitzgerald asks Mr Bowe how the bank had come up with a figure of 7 billion euros for the proposed rescue of Anglo Irish, which eventually cost taxpayers 30bn euros.

    ‘We need more’

    Mr Bowe says: “If they (the central bank) saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice. You know what I mean?

    “They might say the cost to the taxpayer is too high. Yeah, and that number is seven, but the reality is that actually we need more than that.”

    /..
    http://www.channel4.com/news/anglo-irish-bank-ireland-tapes-phone-conversations

  • technicolour

    oi! much as I love Dreoilin, I would like to say that, although Habbakuk initially had a few points I agreed with about Mary’s posts, and much as I wish Mary had actually rolled her sleeves up and engaged with said criticisms, instead of trying to ignore them, and much as I wished that Mary’s ‘supporters’ had not muddied the issue with a series of vicious and vituperative posts in her defence which far outweighed the initial criticisms, and much as I wish that Mary had stopped them, or disassociated herself from them, enough is enough, already.

    To paraphrase the words of Suhayl, stop it. Mary, if you feel that ‘rising above it’ is a good enough tactic please do so, and ignore. Habbakuk, if you have no other outlet then you will of course keep posting.

    Mary, if you can see that you might have been too – er – one-minded about the ‘the person I disagree with’s brother in law is Jewish’ stuff, that would be a help. If you could also realise that people who post on the board are just that, that would be good too. But as Kibo No (…) says, useful information is good in itself, and certainly better than repetitive nonsense attacking it.

    Thanks all,

  • OldMark

    ‘I don’t know if this is deliberate misinformation but here it is anyway

    24.06.2013 (Monday) – Oslo

    Pirate Party Norway: – Snowden to Pass Through Norway to Iceland.’

    Seems unlikely. Why would Snowden transit thru a NATO country to arrive in neutral Iceland when he can fly from Russia (St Petersburg to Reykjavik)direct via Icelandair. If Iceland are indeed offering asylum it would also make sense for the national carrier to transport him, despite his passport being declared invalid by the enraged septics.

  • Villager

    Mary

    ” This blog is too important to be turned into a jokes/trivia forum.”

    I hasten to enjoin in and emphasise the trivia bit. As for the jokes, if they happen to come by-and-by woven into civilised conversation, i’m all for it!

  • Dreoilin

    “enough is enough, already”
    “To paraphrase the words of Suhayl, stop it” — Technicolour

    You’re both right. It’s like a war zone in here.
    So, as far as I’m concerned, it’s stopped.

    ————————————

    “Why would Snowden transit thru a NATO country to arrive in neutral Iceland when he can fly from Russia (St Petersburg to Reykjavik) direct via Icelandair. If Iceland are indeed offering asylum it would also make sense for the national carrier to transport him, despite his passport being declared invalid by the enraged septics.” — OldMark

    Iceland is a NATO country.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO

    And as far as his passport is concerned, Snowden was supplied with a “refugee document of passage” by the Ecuadorean government, according to Assange. What if any difference all that makes, I’m not sure.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Most of us are in roughly the same portion of the political spectrum. Despite the nettles which enflame thin skin (like mine) and the depression of our immune systems, we should find honest disagreements an opportunity to learn, and yes sometimes admit we were wrong. Productive, not deliberately disruptive disagreements, can lift all boats. This is a time of great dissension in the World. Let’s make some hay from that by keeping it civil amongst like-minded (but not duplicate) souls. Not pointing any fingers. All (well most all ) of us do it. JMO.

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