Feile An Phobail Belfast 4110


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.


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4,110 thoughts on “Feile An Phobail Belfast

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  • Dreoilin

    And here’s that clown Bolton

    Bolton on Putin: ‘Cause him pain’

    “I think in order to focus Putin’s thinking we need to do things that cause him pain as well,” Bolton said to Greta Van Susteren on Fox news. “And while I know that not having a chance to have a bilateral meeting with his buddy Barack Obama will cause Putin to lose sleep, it’s not damaging Russian interests.”

    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/vladimir-putin-russia-john-bolton-95327.html

    I doubt if there is anything in the world Bolton thinks can’t be fixed with a baseball bat (or equivalent)

    ————————————

    “I wrote this article to demonstrate how mainstream media manipulates the news to gain approval for such potentially catastrophic disaster sites.”

    I’ll tweet that out, John, thanks.

  • Flaming June

    On growing enough maize for the South African home market to avoid the likelihood of an Arab Spring type revolution.

    Three facts stood out among many within this article

    1. SA grows GM maize
    2. One third of US maize production goes for biofuel production
    3. One million hectares of the best farmland in South Africa has been taken for mining

    How SA will deal with food crisis
    Food security 08 August 2013
    http://www.fm.co.za/fm/Features/2013/08/08/how-sa-will-deal-with-food-crisis

    Not many black people in these lists.
    http://www.grainsa.co.za/pages/about-grain-sa/organisational-structure

  • mark golding

    THE RESULT OF AMERICAN GEOPOLITIK MANIPULATION OF TERRORISTS

    United Nations have said more than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria and a total of 7.8 million of others displaced due to the violence.

    Further, the UN human rights office says it has confirmed the deaths of 92901 people between March 2011 and end of April 2013. Emailed today a revised figure of 7,240 child deaths to July 2013 (new-born to 14 years) with tens of thousands more children orphaned, traumatised, disable and homeless.

    “Hundreds of thousands of Syrian children on the precipice need the international community at their sides, to help them through the months ahead in the face of continuing insecurity and obstacles to humanitarian access.”

    Anthony Lake
    UNICEF Executive Director

    http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/Syria_2yr_Report.pdf

    With the Iraq war lie and subsequent slaughter burnt into their minds the the American public remain acquiescent and impotent, appeased and comfortable on their back-sides while a corrupt and deceitful Emperor Obama led administration augments a proxy genocide with American dollars, NSA/CIA intelligence, lethal weapons and political black-mail.

    My question to the American people; is this the legacy, is this the gift, is this the throwback you leave to future generations of Americans to bear?

  • John Goss

    It’s a good question Mark. “My question to the American people; is this the legacy, is this the gift, is this the throwback you leave to future generations of Americans to bear?”

    Of course there are some good Americans just at the same loss as we are to influence our increasingly fascist governments. Unfortunately we have all paid taxes and therefore contributed indirectly to the crimes.

  • awwwr

    “I foresee a day when nothing is happening on Facebook but Eurasia’s military sockpuppets trolling Oceania’s. Should be fun.”

    Yep. “software that would allow 50 users to control up to 500 fictional personae.”

    All the humans will have abandoned the Facebook panopticon for places like this,

    http://ofrmtr2fphxkqgz3.onion/

  • Passerby

    Mark Golding said;

    is this the legacy, is this the gift, is this the throwback you leave to future generations of Americans to bear?

    The American plutocracy has been breeding a particularly inane population whose solipsist preoccupation do not extend beyond their own backyard. Further, this virulent policy has been exported to the rest of the world as the only way of life.

    Therefore to expect these to even think about their legacy would be a socialist outlook, and as we all know socialism is particularly a bad idea! You are wasting your time to expect any response other the from the token foreign luvin traitors who hate their gubiment and luv third world surrender monkeys to al Qaidy, perhaps commenting on this blog.

  • Komodo

    Apparently the site (‘multi.ver.se’) was developed by the Chinese Pirate Party, John. Someone sank the sampan? Can’t get it either.

  • John Goss

    Talha Ahsan is a lovely man, highly educated, a prize-winning poet with a love of world literature. I know this because I write to him at the US Supermax prison where he is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day. When I write I think of Nelson Mandela and Mordechai Vanunu and other people imprisoned wrongfully. Theresa May, a supposed Christian, had Talha extradited at the behest of the neo-Nazi United States. I urge you to watch this 3 minute film and think of Talha and his family who will not be spending Eid together for the seventh consecutive year. That is seven long years of imprisonment without a trial. What has happened to my beloved country?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txoPYszGfYs

  • johnstone

    Very good article John on nuclear news coverage. Sadly many people seem to have been duped into believing that nuclear is a solution to carbon emissions and GW and like you say the underlying problem is privatization of utilities where selling more not conserving is the goal..yes its just plain greed.

    Cameron claims that his Big Society is based on the ideas of E F Schumacher who predicted the problems of nuclear power and pioneered earth and user friendly technology matched to the scale of community life in his Small is Beautiful.

    Cameron’s piggybacking upon the wise and prophetic and the twisting Schumachers principles to give his own more credibility smacks of Thatchers corruption of Adam Smiths concept of the ‘invisible hand’ D.C Kortens (ex World Bank) Betrayal of Adan smith
    http://deoxy.org/korten_betrayal.htm

    Kortens Betrayal of Adan smith

  • John Goss

    Johnstone, thanks for the link and kind words.

    Adam Smith did have good intentions. Unfortunately his concept of specialization of labour led to mundane jobs and later to piecework sweat-shops where workers were little other than automatons. It also inadvertently led to the “most efficient” companies swamping up the smaller companies which the article shows was not his intention.

    So how do we get Cameron to put a stop to nuclear power-stations?

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    LGBT leadership is typical of bureaucrats. They eliminated Manning as Grand Marshal of their Gay Pride ceremonies in SF. Obama has done what they wanted for their own civil liberties, and now he’s pressuring Russia with that club hoping for a two-fer on Snowden.

    To the Gay community in general, I say thanks to many for coming unglued with their leaders over the Manning disrespect, and collusion with Obama on their NIMBY and narcissism.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    I guess it’s good for the digestion when you get little bytes over time.

    NSA (drip, drip) on to DEA (drip drip) then to IRS.

    (Reuters) – Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/08/us-dea-irs-idUSBRE9761AZ20130808

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Heh, Dre. That revealing context on extradition reminds me of Nixon’s words…

    “When the President does it, it’s not illegal”

  • nevermind

    Thanks for that link to chaos rider. What is it with eople always quoting a t/road system, that is as chaotic as that in the UK.

    Progressing form the 1000 mile motorway of the fifties and seventies, the ring and loop system in Norwich by Mr. Buchanan, systems that were developed for cars first, not for the healthiest fastest and cheapest means of travel from A to B.

    When the British surveyors obliged Adolf invitation, beguiled by a visit to the Autobahn and the Olympics, watching him shake hands with Mussolini, ah what a treat.

    Now if they would have ventured within Berlin, Hamburg or any other City, they would have noticed cycle lanes separated from roads and pedestrian path, next to most major roads. But the little darlings weren’t interested they wanted to see Autobahns.

    There are many countries that could provide a better example than NY commuter man. I agree that those dinky little mirrors are helpful, but that is not normal cycling.
    Have a visit to the Assen races and watch how relaxed drivers/riders are with cyclists. Its about regulating traffic so it makes sense. Cyclists and the disabled have
    first priority, then trams, taxis and buses, then the rest of the motoristas.

    It is hard to change attitudes that are engrained for decades, but you can change future planning to make it more amicable.

    Cycling will get more popular and motorists should start now. Giving cyclists a wide birth when overtaking, I venture all the way over into the other lane, if nothing comes from ahead, for cyclists and minimoto’s, the bigger bikes usually are faster than me.

    Another point, I have my lights on all day, not just nights, because I want to be seen by bikers. If bikers come from ahead, I make sure I drive on the left side of the road, sometimes indicate to let them know I’ve seen them coming, but only if nothing coming from behind me.

    Traffic must flow to work.

  • John Goss

    Komodo, thanks again for the link to the Chinese Pirate Party. There is not much activity there but I guess that’s the plan.

  • doug scorgie

    “Despite renewal of peace talks Israel approves plans for hundreds of residential units in West Bank settlements”

    “The Civil Administration, Israel’s highest civilian authority in the West Bank, approved construction plans on Wednesday for 878 housing units in isolated settlements across the territory.”

    “Israel will make it clear to the European Union that it will not sign any future agreements that restrict European assistance, grants or investments on Israeli entities with a direct or indirect connection to the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. Nor will Israel agree to include in agreements with the EU a territorial clause that requires it to acknowledge the fact that its sovereignty does not extend beyond the 1967 lines.”

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.540522

    Israel has no intention of allowing a viable Palestinian state and the “Peace Process” is a sham. That is my view.

    What are the views of our resident Israel supporters here?

  • Dreoilin

    Nice one, Apple

    Apple has patented a piece of technology which would allow government and police to block transmission of information, including video and photographs, from any public gathering or venue they deem “sensitive”, and “protected from externalities.”

    ­In other words, these powers will have control over what can and cannot be documented on wireless devices during any public event.

    And while the company says the affected sites are to be mostly cinemas, theaters, concert grounds and similar locations, Apple Inc. also says “covert police or government operations may require complete ‘blackout’ conditions.”

    http://rt.com/news/apple-patent-transmission-block-408/

  • AlcAnon

    The TOR exploit wasn’t actually quite a zero-day exploit. Mozilla patched Firefox against the vulnerability and TOR patched the browser bundle back in June. The exploit only worked against TOR users on Windows who hadn’t updated in the last month (despite being prompted to at each startup)

    The authorities planted a “phone home with my hostname, ip address and MAC address” bug on the PC of every visitor to the alleged illegal content with a vulnerable TOR browser. But it seems they also took control of TORmail and may have bugged its users as well. Perhaps TORmail was the real target all along.

    Presumably a lot of nervous TORmail users right now. TORmail is now no more (unless it comes back online run by the FBI of course).

  • awwwwr

    Monsieur Goss, the link is for use with a Tor connection, like so,

    https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en

    Statist propaganda has trained people to blurt ‘porn, ew, ick,’ at any mention of a darknet, the better to keep them under surveillance. It’s reflex by now, like hitting someone’s knee with the rubber mallet. The feds do their part by dumping government-issue porn in there and putting fake pedophiles on patrol. There are 100 fake pedophiles for every real one. How they keep from entrapping each other I don’t know. But hidden services are increasingly crucial if you want to defend your legal right to privacy.

  • AlcAnon

    Tor .onion address posted earlier seems to be

    http://pastebin.com/CFT1kzPt

    multi.ver.se – Uncensored ocial network developed by the Chinese Pirate Party: http://ofrmtr2fphxkqgz3.onion/

    Never been to an “ocial” network before. Don’t think I will now!

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