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.
Is he the same Evans from the D division? The same guy who was a friend of your favourite P. Wright?
BTW I don’t buy into Peter being the KGB mole. Further, what say you about the Tara Group, and the Kincora
pimpshosts? Wright should have known about it, saying as he was interrogating Blunt for six years. However, have you any data or any hints as to Blunt’s assignment in Germany on behalf of a certain house, that is verboten to be talked about?Blaming America for sponsoring and arming rebels in Syria will not leech the source or seeds of asymmetric terrorist warfare. America is primary motivated by the petro-dollar, power and domination because it has and can. Corporate America understands and embraces the Zionist political thought, approach and technique.
Deception has lived on earth since the dawn of time. The earliest impact of cunning was the Judas kiss of intermarriage between Canaan and Egyptian Pharaoh, kept secret for a millenium.
A modern day example of cunning was the Zionist-Hashemite alliance of the 1930s and 1940s. This was a convergence between the interests of Israel and those of Hashemite Transjordan against other members of the bickering Arab coalition, and especially against the Palestinians. The original Hashim clan ruled the Hejaz region of Arabia which later was incorporated into Saudi Arabia.
This tiny historiography I think gives us a unique perspective of modern day Middle East nuance and the ‘war on terrror’ duplicity combined with an agonising awareness and recognition the Jewish State was built on the ruins of the indigenous people of Palestine, whose livelihood, houses, cultures and land had been systematically destroyed. The exodus of Palestinians was in fact a flight from destruction and genocide.
Making sense of the assembled pieces and winding the clock forward, taking in Saudi money and Saudi arms deals on the way, we arrive at the Takfiri (atoning) movement, the Saudi General Intelligence, Prince Bandar, Bush and the Al-Nusra Front.
Thanks to funding from the Saudi General Intelligence Department and support from the Saudi Intelligence in Lebanon, al-Nusra was able to swiftly arm its forces, and make the Syrian regime suffer painful blows through its expertise gained from Iraq bombings and death squads assisted by British and American intelligence and special forces muscle.
Does it not make sense to heavily arm these terrorists and exploit the Saudi gifts of oil reserves, opulance, wealth, luxury, riches and gold?
Yes, to many(1%) it does, regardless of the humanitarian suffering, tragedy, torment and loss of freedom the world over.
Ask Blair.
Well said, good Mark. Context is what’s missing from most opinions du jour.
Phil
“Habwonk does intrigue me in one respect. The colloquial sometimes goes over his head and he uses pretentious words awkwardly, so I speculate he is a (youngish) man with (good) english as a second language. This makes me wonder if PR companys are outsourcing their troll hiring (much like the call center industry did twenty years back). A unit in, say, Mumbai would be a very tempting saving over a Soho basement to the likes of bell pottinger.”
You are treading on very dangerous ground here, although I personally think you are correct.
I recently tried an experimental Assalamu Alaykum on him, but he avoided a knee-jerk response. I have been heavily criticised by my fellow under-dog-lovers for suggesting that my fellow Muslims hate the caring, intelligent side of the English people because it’s so much easier to label us all as heathen, grasping, lying, colonials.
My conclusion is that Heebijeebs is a Pakistani who is paid to be cynical about UK values and portray them as hypocritical. And that he himself is a fully paid-up member of the Wow-Wahabi sect which also considers itself above the rest of us Muslims.
There is a class system in sub-continent Islam between Gujus ( low, farm types and Rajas ( managers ). So I suspect that his persona thinks he is well above the highest characters from any of us. I presume he crawls back into the cowpat of his own superiority at night to feed on nutrients that higher life-forms, viz cows, have pre-digested for him. Nice work if you can get. But he never strikes me as having grasped the niceties of rational, humanitarian concern which this blog represents.
I’m waiting for the fan-assisted cowpats to rain down and calls for the deletion of my comments. I have saved this one so if it is deleted by my disgusted coleagues, I can re-post it. This is really how low the intelligence agencies are stooping, not the sending weapons to Al Qaida bit, but the funding Muslim trolls on ex-Ambassador’s whistle-blowing comments pages.
Howdy there Guano, nice to have you back with us again! I was getting worried that Fisons had got you bagged up and that you’d been spread over a field somewhere.
*************
La vita è bella, life is good!
Must be the same Evans.
And don’t forget that Wright also made Richard Helms, the most dangerous DCI because he bought Wright’s crackpot realism about what the Soviets needed, and were doing.
And I don’t care if you “buy” into my ideas about him.
I am not running some bargain sale in a store – I am discussing the Soviets’ leading spy – what made the British elite look the world’s leading collection of idiots.
This is what I know, and is verboten for Brits to talk about.
@Villager. 12:00 am
“Kibo don’t venture towards Krishnamurti, not for children.”
On the strength of your example do you imagine I’d be remotely tempted?
I visit this blog because I respect Craig’s commitment and observations and find so many valuable things out from other posters. It helps me make sense of the world I live in.
I suppose I should just learn to scroll through obvious spoilers so I have only myself to blame. But I have to admit it bothers me to witness the constant campaign to disrupt and bully the genuine contributers.
So I have to hand it to you. Tonight you have a small success and I fed you.
Tomorrow you’ll still be spending your energy trying to upset people. I’ll have my finger ready with the “scroll down” button.
“Dad. What did you do during the years of the Global Corporate Coup.”
“Son. I worked hard to maintain deluded narratives to make sure that power remained with my masters.” Wow! What a legacy!
…………………….
To all who make this blog wonderful. Thank you. You have my respect.
Goodnight All.
Hazza
Groomed any pasty teenagers recently? Clever stuff this spying, with a little bit of s**t on someone you can get them to do almost anything.
Now then, now then, then now! Getting tetchy and go on about commercial transactions.
The Brit were made to look a collection of idiots long before that, Maclean, Philby, Burgess, Blunt,…..* However the question put to you so far is not answered (not demanding an answer, if you wish not to divulge); about Blunt’s secret assignment in Germany.
* And before that there was there was the little matter of the nuclear spies.
PS. Peter is a rabid fascist remember.
“Howdy there Guano, nice to have you back with us again! I was getting worried that Fisons had got you bagged up and that you’d been spread over a field somewhere.”
LOL Habba where do you pull these one-liners out from?!
Flaming June
17 Jun, 2013 – 9:43 pm
“Meant to post this before. It’s a video from last week’s Ch 4 News. Caspar Bowden has words of wisdom and gives us information on what powers the US are taking and against which the individual has no recourse. He is warning us.”
Interesting video June.
I found General Jonathan Shaw a bit of an odd ball; chair-swivelling, overconfident, blasé even and he didn’t know about PRISM even while head Cyber-security at the MOD.
Why was he on the show?
“you and Habbakuk seemed clearly to be working as a team” — Kibo Noh
I don’t see any such thing. And I agree with Villager when (s)he says
“On abuse, i haven’t seen any one else have more abuse showered on him but he’s proven that he can rebut it without enjoining them in their lowered standards.”
I have not seen 1/10th the abuse from Habbabkuk as I have seen thrown at him/her. Some people here don’t practise what they preach, unfortunately.
And while flinging the word “troll” around, they ignore the most common piece of advice on the internet:
“Don’t feed the troll”
It’s becoming a pain in the neck. And it’s not the fault of Habbabkuk who rarely, if ever, indulges in ad hominem.
Meanwhile Mary objected to the word “vagina” when its use had nothing to do with her. I mean, come on, for god’s sake …
And yes, either blockquotes, or italics, or quotation marks, would be useful in deciphering Mary’s comments. [She has taken recently, sometimes, to adding a single apostrophe at the beginning of what I assume are copy and paste items, but frequently she doesn’t “close” with another apostrophe, so it’s useless. One still doesn’t know what’s her and what’s quotation.]
I can only assume that refusing to use any method of identifying her copy and paste is sheer bloody-mindedness or arrogance. She did tell me she didn’t need “lessons in style” and then said, “so tough”. But unfortunately, she does need such lessons. Or else, she needs to get off her high horse.
PS And Mary knows how to use italics, as she used them in a recent thread.
PPS And no, I’m not ‘in cahoots’ with Villager whom I don’t know from Adam. And I only post under one name.
Here, Ben, take the floor. I’m off to bed.
Kibo, don’t forget to take your pink blankie with you to bed, after having hit us so hard with your limp noodles you really deserve a good nights wallowing in your deep ignorance.
“Here, Ben, take the floor. I’m off to bed.”
Holy shite, Dreoilin. How’d I get roped into this?
“VIOLENT PROTESTERS TRY TO DISRUPT SUMMIT!” … That’ll be the flavour of the headlines generated by the G8 summit meeting in N. Ireland.
My partner and I went down to Glen Eagles the last time the G8 was held in Britain. Eventually we got through the roadblocks, police searches and misc. police harassment and joined the protest march. Thousands of us made our way towards the hotel, the route becoming more and more constricted by higher and stronger fences as we approached the heavily guarded entrance gate. There was time for a bit of half-hearted fence rattling and lots of heartfelt slogan chanting around the gate before moving on and letting those coming up behind have their symbolic moments in the sun.
A hundred metres past the gate, the route took a right down a street which would return us to the starting point where the buses were waiting. On one side of the street was a field which, unlike the rest of the route, had no security fence. It was a beautiful day and rather than return to the start immediately, two or three hundred people had gone into the field to hang around, mostly just sitting on the grass. On the other side of the street, in three of the gardens, were scaffold towers with TV cameras on them, pointed at the field. I was a bit puzzled by this, I couldn’t figure out why the cameras were there rather than in a location which had a view of the main gate where all the action was. It soon became apparent.
At the far side of the field, from behind some trees, hundreds of police appeared, some on horses. They formed into a long line and began moving towards the protesters in the field. A couple of minutes later, over the rooftops came two fucking great Chinook helicopters, the double-rotored ones you see in Vietnam movies. They made spectacular landings at different points in the field and dozens of police disgorged from them. Police from three directions converged on those absolutely peaceful protesters and waded in with shields and batons. I saw dozens bleeding as they were driven from the field.
Sure enough, the evening news had spectacular TV footage of the airborne delivery of our bobbies, come from on high to save us all from violent anarchy, all faithfully recorded by those ‘fortuitously’ situated cameras. I’d been part a choreographed illusion. They’d written the script before we arrived, and we all unwittingly played our parts. Never underestimate the bastards.
And never trust double agent Bob Geldof.
🙂
Sorry, Ben. I know you’re in another time zone. So you could be here for another while. Me, I’m wrecked.
I am not the least bit excited about one-line updowns.
I have not done nor care to do work on Blunt who I consider by far the least important one of the so called Magnifisant Five, though I will give Blunt a renewed look when my books finally arrive from Sweden.
And you apparently have not read my article on Wright where I claimed that he was the most important of the Soviet atomic spies.
The most recent interview with Assad Dated 17th June
Interviewer: Mr President, Britain and France claim to have clear evidence that chemical weapons have been used. The White House has stated that it possess information to ascertain this claim, which consequently led to the death of 100 to 150 people in one year, in addition to that you have denied the UN investigators access to areas in Syria except for Aleppo. How do you explain the situation?
President Assad: Let’s begin with the statement from the White House regarding the 150 casualties. Militarily speaking, it is a well-understood notion that during wars, conventional weapons can cause these number of deaths, or even higher, in a single day, not in a year. Weapons of mass destruction generally kill thousands of people at one given time; this high death toll is a primary reason for its use. It is counterintuitive to use chemical weapons to create a death toll that you could potentially reach by using conventional weapons.
America, France, Britain and some European officials claimed that we have used chemical weapons in a number of areas. Regardless of whether such weapons exist or not, we have never confirmed or denied the possession of these weapons.
Had they obtained a single strand of evidence that we had used chemical weapons, do you not think they would have made a song and dance about it to the whole world?, then where is the chain of custody that led them to a such result?
These allegations are ludicrous. The terrorist groups used chemical weapons in Aleppo; subsequently we sent an official letter to the United Nations requesting a formal investigation into the incident. Britain and France blocked this investigation because it would have proven the chemical attacks were carried out by terrorist groups and hence provided conclusive evidence that they (Britain and France) were lying. We invited them to investigate the incident, but instead they wanted the inspectors to have unconditional access to locations across Syria, parallel to what inspectors did in Iraq and delved into other unrelated issues. We are a sovereign state; we have an army and all matters considered classified will never be accessible neither to the UN, nor Britain, nor France. They will only be allowed access to investigate the incident that occurred in Aleppo.
Therefore, all the claims relating to the use of chemical weapons is an extension of the continuous American and Western fabrication of the actual situation in Syria. Its sole aim is to justify their policies to their public opinion and use the claim as a pretext for more military intervention and bloodshed in Syria
http://www.globalresearch.ca/president-bashar-al-assad-fighting-terrorism-in-syria-rebuilding-in-the-wake-of-the-crisis-interview-with-the-frankfurter-allgemeine-zeitung/5339481
Hazza Babe
It isn’t just naughty NSA and CCHQ doing the spying is it? I know they get free vehicle, diesel, travel time. The obvious people to spy on Muslims would be Muslims wouldn’t it. But that would be a little bit too haram for your high stinkiness.
Selling brother Muslims is reserved also for cleverer minds than your own, who use Takfir, which does not mean atonement Mark. It means declaring that your brother Muslim is not a Muslim and cleaning your conscience about selling or harming him.
Yes , if you can get a bit of tasty muck about someone, you can force them to do any and every kind of major sin/crime. You’re on a winner dude!
The ordinary police on the beat are fully involved in the intelligence acquisition process, converting minor sexual demeanours like shagging skinny teenagers and looking at porn into blackmail to troll on conscience blogs like this one and bus down to GCHQ offices to work on spying.
What if you’ve got a war-crime on your MI6/CIA/ex-dictator’s files. You could be turned into a groomer for Zionist Jihad. Sorry Haz, I’m not talking about you here. I’m talking about your minders/friends.
Muslims routinely spy on other Muslims, to avoid exposure of their own misdemeanours and to recruit/dupe the faithful into helping the neo-con narrative of Muslim terror.
Haz, I know you love the job, the pay, the camaradie of crime. It’s not everyday you can get paid for insulting respectable, intelligent, caring females. But you know what they say about perfume, it rubs off on you if it’s a nice one, and if it isn’t so nice, it still sticks around.
May I plug my recent article in the Summer Edition of Lobster Magazine?
“Canada’s Spy Agency gone rogue: Prime Minister Harper couldn’t care less”
http://lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/lobster65/lob65-canadian-spy-agency.pdf
http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/issue65.php
To my mind, the pre-requisites for democracy are elections, a free press/freedom of speech, and rule of law. We seem to have forgotten in Canada that without the rule of law we cannot be a democracy.
On Israeli interference in the Syrian conflict.
Sapping Assad’s strength
Israel stirs the pot in Syria
by Jonathan Cook / June 17th, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/06/sapping-assads-strength/
.
MoD serves news outlets with D notice over surveillance leaks
BBC and other media groups issued with D notice to limit publication of information that could ‘jeopardize national security’
The Guardian, Monday 17 June 2013 20.54 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/17/defence-d-bbc-media-censor-surveillance-security
@GF “What is worse is that these so-called ‘intelligence’ agencies are not only spying – they also make use of the information collected. Maybe one day we shall all hear the more horrifying story about how these intercepted communications can be used and manipulated.”
If you wait until you hear the story, you’re fucked.
Questions for Scottish nationalists here:
1) will GCHQ, SIS, and MI5 be retained as UK (or Scot-plus-rUK) bodies, allowed to operate in Scotland? You say you don’t know? OK, so are you going to make it an issue? I mean now.
2) as you know, big business interests control the UK state, including the public authorities in Scotland, which are just as corrupt as all the other public authorities in these islands? Are you going to ensure that this gets undone, somehow? Are you going to make it an issue? I mean now.
3) never mind ‘Euro’ questions that have saturated the political pages in the media for so long – what about the US military and intelligence presence in Scotland? Are you going to make it an issue? I mean now.
You know what they say – to change something, you’ve got to recognise it first.
Over to you.
Kibo Noh
“To all who make this blog wonderful. Thank you. You have my respect. Goodnight all.”
You’re welcome. Goodnight and God bless. 🙂
Clark, good to hear from you again and thanks for including the link to Abu Qatada’s legal costs and why Jack Straw should pay them.
Put succinctly the question is, and I’ve been asking it too, what is Abu Qatada’s crime?
http://newsjunkiepost.com/2013/05/03/is-hatred-of-islam-the-uk-home-secretarys-religion/
Before certain individuals suggest that my previous comment is off-topic if they read the link that Clark posted, it questions whether one of the reasons the government want to get rid of Abu Qatada or keep him locked up is a suggestion that he worked for the secret services, which is tangentially bang on.
Spying is not only our duty, it is acting on knowledge gained from spying.
If the Rotherham rape gangs were spied on more by everyone concerned; there blatant and fragrant avoidance of social justice mayhave been avoided….
Nosey bastards.
Whhhhheeeeey Agent Cameron has thrown a hissy fit; Cameron wants Syria peace plan, with or without Russia:
The butter up before the upper cut is delivered by toadies assigned to deliver the “ultimatum”; we will go it alone! The causes beli delivered:
In other words Putin has not been selling out for some beads, mirrors, and fire water (The high margined Red Indian transactions are still sought, and highly in the vogue), and instead he has taken the line: get stuffed, fuck this for a game of soldiers!
The desperation of the bunch of ne’er do wells in G something (G20, G8, G7 reminds of; ten green bottles hanging on the wall, nine green ……) is almost palpable, they cannot get the war they want, and the stamping feet and hammering fists on the table episode is fully under way.
The world domination, has to wait for a while longer yet. The slight miscalculation of the masters of the universe is; The world has grown fucking sick and tired of the perpetual war for the sake of supremacy of a bunch of wankers who never thought beyond the invasions, and smash and grab phase.
FFS It is more than a decade into the twenty first century, and it seems the belligerents are pissed off their plans for a hundred years war is getting thwarted. Give me fucking strength.
Obama and Putin at G8. The photo says it all.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68225000/jpg/_68225654_68225653.jpg
Thanks June.