The forcing down of the Bolivian President’s jet was a clear breach of the Vienna Convention by Spain and Portugal, which closed their airspace to this Head of State while on a diplomatic mission. It has never been thought necessary to write down in a Treaty that Heads of State enjoy diplomatic immunity while engaged in diplomacy, as their representatives only enjoy diplomatic immunity as cyphers for their Head of State. But it is a hitherto unchallenged precept of customary international law, indeed arguably the oldest provision of international law.
To the US and its allies, international law is no longer of any consequence. I can see no evidence that anyone in an official position has even noted the illegality of repeated Israeli air and missile strikes against Syria. Snowden, Manning and Assange all exposed illegality on a massive scale, and no action whatsoever has been taken against any of the criminals they exposed. Instead they are being hounded out of all meaningful life and ability to function in society.
I have repeatedly posted, and have been saying in public speeches for ten years, that under the UK/US intelligence sharing agreements the NSA spies on UK citizens and GCHQ spies on US citizens and they swap the information. As they use a shared technological infrastructure, the division is simply a fiction to get round the law in each country restricting those agencies from spying on their own citizens.
I have also frequently remarked how extraordinary it is that the media keep this “secret”, which they have all known for years.
The Guardian published the truth on 29 June:
| This article has been taken down pending an investigation. | |
The strange script which appears there happens when I try to copy and paste from this site which preserved the article before the Guardian censored all the material about the UK/US intelligence sharing agreement from it.
As you can see from the newssniffer site linked above, for many hours there was just a notice stating that the article was “taken down pending investigation”, and then it was replaced on the same URL by the Guardian with a different story which does not mention the whistleblower Wayne Madsen or the intelligence sharing agreements!!
I can give, and I would give on oath, an eye witness guarantee that from my direct personal experience of twenty years as a British diplomat the deleted information from Wayne Madsen was true.
http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention/
You said revolution, not me, N_, and as you point out, there was nothing Marxist about the dissolution of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact, which was merely a nice first step. Human rights is considerably more subversive than Marxism/Leninism and NATO was lucky to get it under control. My question was, can you dust it off to use against the other totalitarian regime, the one that took over where the Soviets left off?
Sure, CIA knows how to run a putsch, but they wouldn’t dare use human rights to start one. They’re scared of human rights. CIA was very nervous when Carter glommed onto human rights and they pushed back against Germany’s enthusiasm for Helsinki Final Act Point VII. They wanted predictable ‘stability’ as much as the Soviets did. And even now CIA assets like Otpor make a point of telling you that human rights is bullshit.
So we’re talking apples & oranges.
Morsi and others are under house arrest and a military coup is under way according to Sky’s Tim Marshall who is a fair and well informed reporter in my opinion.
Another great article Craig. Thanks for all the great links Arbed, John Goss and Passerby.
A N_ said, its not going be the middle class spurning change, but the young disaffected long term unemployed, the ‘cuts’ generation.
Those young who persuade themselves that this world of many is still a good bet to raise a family and play society, will get further disaffected.
Whether they will have the gumption or zest of the Egyptians is questionable. What we are seeing is that any opposition that is forming today, to any of their major policies or politi, is being instantly divided, infiltrated by undercover police who can’t keep it in, and split by their efforts.
Any change will come rapid, as Tunesia it will be an emotionally moving issue and it will be startling to see.
All those who still think everything is fine will wake up and hopefully realise that we are approaching the worst, a pseudo democratic, fascist dictatorship.
F.June wrote:
Why? It fits their running mad muslims narrative, never mind the fact the madder they are the more closely allied to UK, US and Israeli hegemonic control aims throughout the region. Do you think the average reader or viewer will connect the perpetrators of these outrages with Hague and Cameron’s pet rebels, kept in cash, weapons and mind-bending ultimately fatal pharmaceuticals at Brit taxpayers expense?
Religion in adults is of course a clear manifestation of mental disorder, but in no way is this observation limited to the muslim faith alone.
Quite separately. It also has to be considered that NATO is now very much out of control and a menace to public safety; the EU too, long a political and economic partner to NATO is fully exposed as a subsidiary organisation of the US-run military alliance, a costly gargantuan public relations exercise glossing over naked US control over western Europe.
There is not an institution, from UK domestic parliament, government and law, to international organisations, culminating in the UN, that is fit for purpose. Extremely aggressive mass de-population (of us too, not just faraway dark-skinned foreigners) whilst populations are still numerous enough to represent a threat to the elites and their demonic agenda, seems an obvious next step, if it is not already underway and well-advanced.
Really does look like a suicide at first glance, given the wife’s attempt to explain it away as at best a physical surprise, and police having no interest in suspecting foul play.
Looks like he might have been blackmailed or too guilty about something still publicly unknown.
Another point about Madsen. They would say that he’s a maverick, its obvious.
Exactly because he’s been a maverick does not mean he’s not right for once, but its convenient to call him that, to be expected as it is part of their repertoire to misinform and split opinions, infamy has always had its jealous detractors.
Craig; Thanks for undertaking the subject. However, I think you are being little hard on Guardian.
They seem to have followed the NSA disclosures pretty well, as opposed to the other paper receiving the scoop, WaPo. I think the concern arises from Madsens background and it seems having some credibility in a world declaring in near unison that Snowden should be apprehended and tried. Just my two cents.
edit;
‘having credibility in the face of a world declaring in near unison that Snowden should be apprehended and tried, is extremely essential at this stage of the game. Just my two cents.
Y@Neorefusenik
“You said revolution, not me, N_,”
Yep – sorry about that. I realised after I’d posted that my use of inverted commas could make it look as if I was (wrongly) quoting you, which I wasn’t trying to do! I should have rewritten, in at least some places replacing the word ‘revolution’ with maybe ‘popular upsurge’, or some term we could both accept as accurately summarising the kind of thing you were talking about. So, apologies for putting words into your mouth here!
“Human rights is considerably more subversive than Marxism/Leninism and NATO was lucky to get it under control. My question was, can you dust it off to use against the other totalitarian regime, the one that took over where the Soviets left off?”
This is not the place for me to go on at length about the gulf between Marx and Lenin, but there is an enormous one.
But the role you give to the subversive power of already-formed ideas (can I say ideologies?)…I don’t agree with that. Ideas that assist with popular movements bringing about radical change have got to come out of people’s experiences and their growing awareness of what those experiences are about. I mean the proletarianised existence of the vast majority, maybe 80% of the population. The culture at the moment is so deeply schizoid; there has to be a massive rejection; it can’t have the truth injected into it, to be nurtured and grow within it, even conflictually. I don’t really want more people to watch the TV news; it wouldn’t be a big step forward. I would say human dignity is a more useful idea than human rights in the usual sense, or the ‘rights of man’ as they used to be called. ‘Human rights’ is a soiled term. If a movement opposed them to the rights of property, things would be a bit better, though.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/edward-snowden-asylum-live
Better way to describe what happened to the Bolivian President’s plane is that it was HIJACKED!
Looks like our so-called counter terrorists have turned into the real thing in spades.
who in the world says that Snowden should be apprehended and tried Ben? would it be all those who signed petitions thanking him for disclosing their fascists traits?
or is it just those who are beginning to realise that their own operations will be highlighted, not just that of the all knowing super-owl US.
If Snowden is cornered and imprisoned, the real extend of this release will not see the light of day. Snowden knew this, why else disperse the material to journalists such as GG?
He has a safety lever somewhere and the US, and its best bitch, Putin, sorry, couldn’t resist, know that they can’t get to it. Snowden has not accepted Putins deal, and the material that is out there is being held back by the Guardian and Spiegel, I’m sure of it.
If he has sent it to the paper in electronic form, it would have been intercepted and the extend of his spying is already known.
But the US says that they are unsure about the extent of his release of taxpayer paid for information, so he must have sent the lot by post, or handed it over to middle men.
Still the world is focussing on the person of Snowden, nobody cares a flying fart as to what he actually has released and what the nature of it is.
“or is it just those who are beginning to realise that their own operations will be highlighted, not just that of the all knowing super-owl US.”
I think you have the same elements in the UK. Bloggers cover this with snark, or objectivity?
In the US it’s the Obamabots versus their derogation ‘firebaggers’. The Obots are so highly invested in Obama they don’t want to spoil his Xmas pudding, (his leagacy).
Then there’s Congress, whose sleepy tenure (or worse, knowingly complicit) are all worried about their careers in politics.
More disclosures need to be made from the Powerpoint to make some critical mass. All there is is speculation and finger-pointing. We need some real juice to get this Full Monty.
Trowbridge: HIJACKED is what Samuel Clemons called ‘Lightning’ as the perfect word, as opposed to the near perfect ‘lightning bug’ word.
This is bound to go to the UN after UNASUR.
Ideally the ALBA countries would break off relations with the US and all of its military allies. That’s what I’d like to see: a derecognition of the US regime, by an increasing number of the world’s countries; formal steps to dissociate from it and to impose sanctions on it as the criminal entity that it is. Let’s recall this is not the first time that Bolivia stands as an example for the world.
However, this would mean a lot of embassies closing, and I wouldn’t fancy Julian Assange’s chances.
So…was the plane searched?
RT are reporting that the Austrian authorities grounded it and ‘decided’ to search it, which I don’t think they have any right to do, under international law, unless permission is given. (I may be mistaken on this point. I thought a presidential plane, carrying a head of state on a diplomatic mission, counted as extra-territorial.) RT are further reporting that Morales did give permission for a search.
Another point: what terribly poor surveillance they must have at (mafia-controlled) Sheremetevo airport, if there could be any confusion about whether or not Snowden boarded the plane. Are they suggesting that he and his associates wanted to make it look as though he boarded the plane, or may have done, whereas in fact he didn’t? Fiendishly resourceful people, eh, to outwit the FSB, formerly known as the KGB?
Because how on earth were Russian security unable to confirm that no, Snowden did not board the plane, unless they were deceived?
Was there a little bit of corridor between the men’s toilet and the door through which Morales’s baggage was moved out to the plane, uncovered by any camera? Were the FSB unable to ascertain whether Snowden had had a case of the runs which required several hours on the pot (maybe they thought it would be indecent to look over the cubicle doors?), or, on the other hand, whether he’d made a quick dash across the corridor to hide among the suitcases before they were taken into the plane’s hold? Or what? As usual, it doesn’t stack up.
If Russian security thought he might have got onto the plane, they’d have gone looking for him at the airport. Yes, even in the toilets.
What we do know, and I’m repeating myself here, is that major problems may soon beset world trade.
N_; They were given permission to search by the Bolivians. It’s a false security, because it’s similar to a search warrant they send out for, while they keep you in custody they prevent anything from being removed, until the warrant arrives. In this case they refused to allow their departure until permission given.
My Goodness, but the Bolivians are steaming… This is the speech their VP, Alvaro Garcia Linero, gave last night, surrounded by the entire Bolivian cabinet (rush translation into English):
https://hiredknaves.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/bolivian-vice-president-alvaro-garcia-linera-today-certain-countries-of-europe-are-subjected-to-the-most-terrible-ignominious-obscurantism/
“it is no longer the time of empires, because it is not the time of colonies; today is the time of peoples, today is the time of dignity.”
Love that line! 🙂
So are the Germans, Arbed, absolutely fuming.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/secret-documents-nsa-targeted-germany-and-eu-buildings-a-908609.html
has anybody heard of Clarke, he’s not answering my emails, last I knew was that he’s fixing computers, saying that he’s going to be ‘as quick as he can’.
let us know he’s OK.
@Ben, I wouldn’t be so sure about any aspect of this.
Certainly if Russian security thought someone might have flown off on a plane, but weren’t sure, and it was important to them, they’d search the airport.
If Edward Snowden is ‘free’ in the transit area, airside, then presumably he is communicating with people who are following news reports, and he has access to them himself, so I wonder why he hasn’t at any time said publicly “Hey everyone, here I still am in Moscow; I’m not on anyone’s plane!”
We don’t know whether he is at Sheremetevo or where he is.
Nor do we know whether he is at liberty, even in the restricted sense of being able to walk around an airport transit area.
We do know that Obama implied that US forces wouldn’t kidnap Snowden if he flew over US territory on his way to Cuba, and today’s events should make it clear to those to whom it wasn’t already clear that that was a dirty lie by the head of state of a criminal regime which rejoices in sticking two fingers up at international law.
The European Commission could solve many of these problems by granting Snowden asylum in Brussels, and appointing him to the EU-USA Joint Committee to investigate all the problems Anglo-American data-mining is causing US-EU trade relations.
He certainly is well informed about what has been going on, and by giving him asylum, it would tale his whereabouts, criminality, and safety out of the picture.
Enlarging on my earlier terse comment.
It is the religions and forms of religions which posit that they and their fellow followers are better, superior, morally or in any number of ways, or more doctrinally correct in their own interpretation of their own ‘big magic book’ than those of of another religion or of no religion, that are particularly dangerous in themselves and dangerous in that they can be used for nefarious indirect ends. The British state (formerly known as England) has always used religious extremists and extremism in this way, from John Knox in 16thC Scotland to protestant settlers in Ireland, to the present Syrian rebels, in a way ‘religifying’ disputes and issues about sovereignty, equality, freedom of conscience and freedom from external influences and control; adding destabilising irrationality and fear to matters which would otherwise be clear cut external interference and rejected overwhelmingly as detrimental and insulting to the populace at large in the target country or region, without the impenetratable religious fog and smokescreen masking such machinations as well as providing a recourse for the weak of mind as well as the calculating and exploitative to fall into predictable and thus controllable lines of (self) division. “Isms and Schisms”.
Kempe
3 Jul, 2013 – 10:41 am
More Troll shite Kempe:
“Sorry if I have this wrong but I thought Diplomatic Immunity guaranteed free passage and immunity from prosecution to particular individuals. Snowden is not an acredited [sic] diplomat so does not have immunity from arrest.”
A deliberate misrepresentation of Craig’s post which had nothing to do with diplomatic immunity for Snowden.
The US pretty much have copied Israel’s operation methods. Deny everything, ignore International Law and accuse anyone who disagrees with them as being terrorists… And we support their insane policies.
And as for what they try to tar Wayne Madsen with, its just the same as they do with all whistle blowers.Blacken their names, make whatever they say sound conspiratorial and keep them as media clowns to continually take the piss out of.
I’ve read quite a bit of his stuff. He seems to be a very analytical bulldog. Doesn’t let go.I’ve no way of knowing if what he says is true, but quite a few things so far have been.
Craig,
Its all old news!.
“EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Session document”
11 July 2001
“This report makes an important point in emphasising that Echelon does exist, but it stops short of drawing political conclusions. It is hypocritical for the European Parliament to criticise the Echelon interception practice while taking part in plans to establish a European Secret Service.”
http://cryptome.org/echelon-ep-fin.htm
“NSA/GCHQ – The New Praetorians and the New Cold War”
http://www.golemxiv.co.uk/2013/07/nsagchq-the-new-praetorians/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/03/evo-morales-controversial-flight-over-europe-minute-by-heavily-disputed-minute/?hpid=z2
What’s this fresh hell?
One little itsy bitsy point is going missing in all the comments so far;
How did the incompetent US spy apparatus that is so good at spying on anyone who talks on the phone, or types on the internet, somehow get the wrong end of the stick (thinking Snowden is secreted on the plane) and put the word out about Evo’s ride ?
Also of interest is how quick the toadies jumped into action by denying their air space, and how come Austria was chosen? Also why has Austria shown such a contempt for Bolivia?. Clearly someone is playing the whole bally lot of these bully and coattail hangers thereof for chumps, and wank hands.
However, no doubt the decision for interdiction of Evo’s ride and subsequent search of it further highlights that this decision ought to have been taken at the highest authority levels. Thus who is the tosser now? This has so far been kept secret.
Although there could exist the theory that pre-emptive sucker punching poor Evo, has been designed in the way of proving how earnestly US is chasing its fugitive, in a fashion after Wyatt Earp and Doc Halliday. This episode is in fact an attempt to warn anyone who may be entertaining the idea of helping Snowden.
Finally we didn’t get here into this lawless world today , without the assiduous disregard of the laws, convention, treaties, and morality by zionistan for the last seven decades. The current state of the lawlessness could only have been possible, and so prevalent by the ziofuckwits running amok and making lawlessness so acceptable, and tolerable.
I hope the silver lining to all this is that the South American countries will come together to find a solution to Snowden and present it as a joint solution so that the eventual country is not singled out for persecution. I can imagine that once settled a Russian military plane could render him to his asylum. Belarus is now being mentioned as a possible host.
I’d love to know the contents of the Correa-Biden call. Could it be that Assange’s safe passage was discussed? Since Correa seems so satisfied with that call.
OMummy? ObamMorsi?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/expd/9195393513/