The Respectability of Torture
St Mary’s University College, Thurs 1st August, 7.30pm
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, was a whistleblower who was removed from his ambassadorial post by Tony Blair for exposing the Tashkent regime‟s use of rape and systematic torture, including the boiling to death of political opponents. He has also spoken out against Central Asia‟s appalling dictatorships, regimes which are allies of the West, involved in torture and rendition, and was accused of threatening MI6‟s relationship with the CIA. Now a human rights activist, author and broadcaster, he outlines the dynamics of torture and the hypocrisy of incriminated Western governments.
My first public appearance for a while will be in Belfast on 1 August where I shall be giving a talk. Long term readers of this blog will recall that, while my focus is largely on international affairs, the domestic political achievements I most hope to see are a united Ireland and an independent Scotland.
From those who brought you the exploding underpants
Now their (al kaidy) “liquid explosives” is applied to clothes through means of soaking, then the clothes are tumble dried. Presto the explosives does a Houdini and it is an undetectable gazzillion megagigatrillionkilotone thermonuclear bomb of that can blow up the planet, the moon, and the solar system and will not be detectable by any of the measures in the airports. No amount of foundling will yeild postive results either, the only way is for the passengers to be stripped naked, coshed unconscious and strapped onto flat frames and stacked in the cargo holds. That is the only way for safe travel and stopping the planet from getting blown up by the al kaidy franchise.
The phone call transcript is as follows;
Aymon- Hallo Nasser!
Nasser- Hallo Aymon!
Aymon- these infidel pig dogs have bombed the back yard again, and Mrs Aymon has to use to tumble dryer to dry her washing.
Nasser- I know they bombed mine two day ago, and third Mrs Nasser has kicked up a fuss that I should buy one of these new fangeled washer dryers. But the infidels have bombed Abdul’s emporium and dentistry. Do you know who else sells those?
Aymon- Nasser, Nasser you are being too attentive to the females, we need ……
EU warrant opt-out ‘could free Julian Assange’: Campaigners warn of four-month loophole before UK rejoins treaty
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-warrant-optout-could-free-julian-assange-campaigners-warn-of-fourmonth-loophole-before-uk-rejoins-treaty-8744948.html
“The WikiLeaks founder, wanted in Sweden to answer sexual assault charges that he denies, could “evade the law” for up to four months if his European Arrest Warrant (EAW) becomes invalid, according to experts.
“Last month, David Cameron formally notified the EU council that the UK will repatriate police and criminal justice powers. It will “opt out” of 133 measures, including the EAW.” (more at link)
I know, John, I know …
Nitro-glycerine? Highly unstable, unpredictable.
“A U.S. military judge reduced potential prison time for Private First Class Bradley Manning to 90 years from 136 years on Tuesday by ruling that some sentences for leaking secret files to WikiLeaks should be merged.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/06/military-judge-cuts-bradley-mannings-potential-sentence-to-90-years/
Not exactly cause for celebration
4 Yemenis have been killed by a drone strike today due to the supposed Al Qaeda threat. I wonder if any of them were military. When the Yanks killed al Awlaki they also killed a 16 year old US civilian and more than 30 others.
“In January 2011 Shaye was imprisoned in Yemen on anti-terrorism charges. The Yemeni government, presumably in an attempt to curry favor from the US, or possibly because of promises of aid, told the world media that it had killed Anwar al Awlaki and three other US citizens not under suspicion of terrorism, one being a sixteen-year-old boy. However, Shaye discovered at the site of the drone killing materials that were not in the Yemeni arsenal, including fragments from a US tomahawk missile and cluster bombs, which he photographed and distributed to the press; he also reported that the victims of the drone attack had included 14 women and 21 children.”
– See more at: http://newsjunkiepost.com/2013/06/04/the-united-states-of-extra-judicial-murder-and-imprisonment/#sthash.Pi9kAkqq.dpuf
When Shaye was recently released from prison I thought it was a campaign success story. Now I’m not so sure whether this journalist, who is not allowed to leave Yemen, was released from prison so he could be killed in these planned drone strikes.
Beat me to it, Dre. Like he can do 90 years standing on his head, but 136? Civilian prosecutors try to refrain from ‘piling on’ charges related to one offense, so this is hardly a gift.
How many are convicted of murder, receive life sentences, then get parole after 7 years?
90 years in a military stockade is worse than execution, except to those who don’t wish to make him a martyr.
John; The 16 year-old was Alwaki’s son, John.
Flaming June
6 Aug, 2013 – 5:23 pm
I saw this in the provisional agenda
http://www.excellenceinpolicing.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Programme-v0.30.pdf
June I looked at some of the speakers invited here there seems to be a lot of private sector involvement.
Speakers (None-police)
DAY ONE
12:20
Mutual Gain: The case for active citizenship
Dr Andrew Fisher
Blue Locust Network [Who they ?]
Matching resources to demand: new ideas for workforce
Planning
Rosemary Wildblood
Mouchel Business Services [Who they?]
13:10 Lunch
14:30
A review of force and Commissioners’
perspectives on police – private sector
partnerships
Rosemary Wildblood
Mouchel Business Services
14:45
Commissioning policing services Speaker to be announced
Public-private partnership: a case study Speaker to be announced
16:30
Insights from the private sector EIP13 Key Sponsor [?]
DAY TWO
09:20
Insights from the private sector EIP13 Key Sponsor [?]
10:00
Learning the lessons from police/private sector
partnerships
John Shaw
Managing Director, Policing
Support Services, G4S [no less]
AND
Roy Toner
Director, UK Business Dev.
G4S [surprise surprise]
An introduction to viral change
Chris Burton
Viral Change UK [?]
Privatisation of the police?
My lighthearted contribution for the day
https://twitter.com/dbbandit/status/364525298886250499
(we’ve all got to keep smiling)
Dreoilin
6 Aug, 2013 – 6:42 pm
“Was The Al-Qaeda Terror Threat Used To “Divert Attention” From NSA Uproar?”
Yes I think so. The USA and UK need to justify the NSA/GCHQ illegal activity of spying on their own citizens. So this is a diversion but there may be more to it, time will tell.
“There’ll be a massive bomb blast of some sort in Yemen, in which no Brits or Americans will be killed (they’ve more or less all been airlifted out anyway) in which case they can say, “Look what we saved you from!”
Expect an announcement on the lines of “If it hadn’t been for NSA/GCHQ co-operation bla bla bla…
Ben, thanks, I knew that. But he was still a boy who was not old enough to have developed mature political opinions and the sins of the father should not be visited on the son. The others were just ordinary civilians.
‘Barb Weir: Professor Lyon, I’ve never heard of a lexicontortionist. What exactly do you do?
Lyon: I invent new definitions for old words. For example, I shrunk the definition of torture to almost nothing during the Bush administration. I also changed ketchup from a condiment to a vegetable. Or take the phrase “legitimate government”. It used to mean one that is elected through free and fair elections.’
Egyptian takeover not a “coup”; ketchup still a vegetable
http://glossynews.com/top-stories/201308030200/egyptian-takeover-not-a-coup-ketchup-still-a-vegetable/
😉
Yemen, Definitely a psyop.
Frank ‘I was there’ Gardner was holding forth on the 6pm News.
Helpfully, the BBC provide this précis.
Frank Gardner
BBC security correspondent
‘Western governments are taking seriously the perceived threat from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), because the group has an established track record of highly innovative bomb plots. The bulk of its members are Yemeni militants with a local, Yemeni agenda, but the group has also attracted experienced al-Qaeda operatives from Saudi Arabia with more regional and international ambitions.
These include the elusive Saudi bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri, who sent his brother to blow up a prince with a bomb concealed on, or possibly even inside, his body. Further plots from Yemen have followed, all thwarted, including the Nigerian Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to detonate a bomb in his underpants on a flight to Detroit in 2009.
AQAP’s leaders have been intensively targeted by US drone strikes in recent years, but by hiding out in remote tribal areas, they have managed to remain largely beyond the reach of the authorities and to continue to plot attacks.’
The film showed him when visiting Yemen looking out over the empty vastness in the style of T E Lawrence.
US embassy closures extended over militant threat fears
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23570832
I’ve just had a look at Russia Today’s take on what’s happening in the Yemen and the man they interviewed thought that the reason the Yanks (and allies) are creating these latest drone-strikes is partly in retaliation to Edward Snowden’s revelations. Snowden’s revelations have pushed the NSA to issue a false flag threat to show its populace how necessary these telecommunication interceptions are and it is too close to the revelations to be separated from them. The interviewee said that attacks from al Qaeda are now a real threat like a self-fulfilling prophecy created by the US.
Today, Hiroshima day, I spent on a vigil outside the drone engine-making factory at Shenstone in Staffordshire. The board of directors comprises predominantly Iraeli executives. It is a sad irony to come home to more deaths by the Great Perpetrator of death from the latest weapons.
Fedup
6 Aug, 2013 – 7:32 pm
“From those who brought you the exploding underpants”
The next thing Fedup will be the Al Qaeda scientists in Bora Bora caves inventing a liquid to be drunk before boarding a plane that will turn everything they have eaten that day, and on-board too, into exploding faeces that will take out the back of the plane.
No need for underpants really.
Zawahiri surely is aware of the NSA disclosures. I think he might be having fun with a game of rope-a-dope after leaving a bread-crumb trail in communications.
Whack-a-mole is a kids game, too.
I should have said the 1pm news.
Gordon Corera has also been adding to the theatricals.
3rd-5th entries here.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1375777687.html
Jon (mod) can you please have a look at the “Why I am convinced Anna Ardin is a liar” thread? Of the last eleven comments starting with “Hi to every one, the contents present at this site are in fact remarkable for people experience,
well, keep up the good work fellows.” 10 of them are spam. Thanks.
@ Dreoilin 6 Aug, 2013 – 7:21 pm
Hey, don’t put all teabags in the same pot. Many on the Tea Party side are Rand Paul Libertarians, at least on the issue of NSA snooping. There is a serious split over Manning/Snowden as traitors or heroes, plus the endless and flexy War on Terror, though you’re probably correct that most generally equate Muslims with bad guys on religious grounds.
Hayden is noted for lying to Congress. Jealousy of Snowden’s pole-dancing babe and Anna Chapman’s marriage proposal has now driven him terminally insane.
“inventing a liquid to be drunk before boarding a plane that will turn everything they have eaten that day, and on-board too, into exploding faeces that will take out the back of the plane.”
I take it that means the tail is no longer the safest seats for surviving.
Sky is no better.
‘It also emerged that a five-missile drone strike had killed four alleged al Qaeda members in Yemen’s central Marib province. The hit targeted a vehicle, turning it into “a ball of fire”, according to Yemeni officials.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the media, they said they believed that one of the dead is Saleh Jouti and another Saleh al Tays al Waeli.
Waeli was on a list of 25 “most wanted” al Qaeda operatives included in a list released by the Yemen government on Monday.
The men are wanted in connection with an alleged plot to launch a major attack before Ramadan ends and the Eid al-Fitr feast begins, either on Thursday or Friday.
Tuesday’s drone strike is the fourth of its kind since July 28. The raids have killed 17 suspects in one week.’
US extrajudicial killings continue apace.
http://news.sky.com/story/1125137/yemen-terror-alert-embassy-staff-withdrawn
June;
“The developments in Yemen came as it was disclosed that an intercepted telephone call between al Qaeda leaders triggered the terror alert that led to the temporary closure of 19 US diplomatic posts across the Middle East and Africa.
During the conversation, al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahri instructed the head of the terror affiliate in Yemen, Nasser al Wuhayshi to carry out a major attack as early as last Sunday.”
Don’t you find the ‘telephone’ usage to be a dead giveaway?
“Egyptian takeover not a “coup”; ketchup still a vegetable”
Good one, Mary 🙂
“Hayden is noted for lying to Congress. Jealousy of Snowden’s pole-dancing babe and Anna Chapman’s marriage proposal has now driven him terminally insane.”
There’s always an upside 🙂
O, my youtube has crashed. And I was trying to play ‘The Only Living Boy in New York’.
Another whistlebower hot off the press (er radio). I’m saying nothing.
http://financearmageddon.blogspot.ca/2013/08/whistleblower-pattie-brassard-second.html
You must not interrupt me. 🙂 I am watching the 10pm news and the top item is……Frank Gardner again. A repeat of the 1pm stuff. He is going large on the underpants bomber and its clever inventor the bomb maker who has got his items past airport security three times?? He is in the studio (propaganda factory) and has a large map showing the location of the embassy closures in the region.
There are now 9 versions of their report over the day.
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/672183/diff/8/9
USS Enterprise and Barksdale were nipped in the bud by patriotic US servicemen, it cant be a US job now, too many whistle-blowers, its gotta be another subcontracted ehud borg 911 special, mebbe he “retired” just to focus on this venture. A major strike on the opposing hassidics of NY would kill two birds with one stone.
John; If Craig sees your post…DOOM. Patty sounds like a man.
Who fears Nibiru when a solar system with 7 planets approaches?
http://beforeitsnews.com/space/2013/08/planet-x-second-sun-w-7-planets-around-it-approaching-august-2013-2464074.html
“I take it that means the tail is no longer the safest seats for surviving.”
No, it is best. I learned this from an American lady in the back seat. I was positioned (recklessly) one row in front of her. The tail is where Baby Jesus sits. She was quite sure about this, and persuaded me. I certainly couldn’t see him anywhere else.