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.
GDF buys Balfour Beatty’s UK facilities unit
The formula is pretty straight forward, a company takes over the public services sector, with all the personnel, stock, and plant. The said company then proceeds to asset strip and cream off the fat, upon completion of the raid, then the company sells it to some other entity usually a foreign European entity and moves onto the next target on the list. Perfectly legal, and above board plunder of the public assets without the slightest of the objections. As Mel Brooks says; it is good to be the king!
Educated speculation Hasbarista as penned by Morpheus here:
http://www.titanians.org/how-911-was-done/
Mark Golding said,
Or is it some kind of a counterintelligence disinfo injected into the fray for the benefit of debunking the debunkers?
The notion that “three Arabs in Hamburg are killed for their passports”! why should the perpetrators need to kill anyone to get Arab passports? They can have as many passports as they want just grease a few palms. Also Arabs and Jews look very similar, in fact there are stories of Arabs getting imprisoned for “rape” after they have been posing as Jews and sleeping around in zionistan .
In addition the explosives getting planted in the buildings, there were many opportunities for any such operations and to paint a Keystone Kops scenario is a plot too far.
John Goss,
Yes I am with Virgin. I know they were doing some major work over the last day or two. I lost Internet access for a number of hours late Thursday night/Friday morning. A quick check on twitter (via my mobile phone) showed a lot of people tweeting from across the UK (also by phone presumably) that their Virgin broadband was down. I tried to go to their fault checking/reporting website via my 3G cellular connection but they were all responding with a “Down for maintenance” message. I was able to phone the 24 hour fault line where a person in India told me there was a widespread problem and they were working on it.
So I am thinking more cockup than conspiracy right to explain the misplaced block later in the same day but who can ever know for sure. You might though want to consider moving to Linux if you haven’t already. You can still dual boot into Windows any time you ever actually need to.
Tech Savage, there’s no need to be abusive. Doug’s question about whether Israel is serious about the peace process seems to have been asked in good faith. You will no doubt be aware that calling someone a racist does not shed any light on a debate (and it gets thrown around here by both the Left and the Right so often that it now often means “anyone who disagrees with me”).
Oddly though, you also say that the peace process is a sham, which I suspect means you think Israel isn’t approaching the talks table in good faith. That’s inconsistent with assuming supporters of Palestine are just motivated by hate.
For my money, I agree that Israel isn’t approaching the conflict with the intention of genuinely ending it. However, I differentiate between the psychopaths they have in government and their people, who are endlessly bombarded with militarist propaganda. There are of course ordinary Israelis who offer electoral and financial support for the murder of Palestinian civilians, and their conscious actions are to be condemned, but it’s worth recognising that there are Israelis and Jewish people opposed to the occupation despite the cultural environment they live in. Equally, even for people who take lazy, hawkish positions, should we not apportion some blame to the mass media who have inculcated those views, as we would in (say) the UK or the US?
“Israeli” above makes the interesting point that peace is too expensive for Israel. I agree, and it’s worth considering why this is. First, a peace settlement should require Israel to give up most (if not all) occupied land, which would require the abandonment of Israeli factories, shopping precincts, offices and housing. Thus, investors have a real interest in keeping the conflict going.
Also, the arms and security industry might suffer in its current state – a peace settlement would still require security, but hopefully not the same kind, nor to the same degree. Companies don’t like having to forcibly reconfigure, even if they are a dreadful industry that morally ought to. Morality doesn’t come into balance sheets or stock market reports, sadly.
Also, the wider industry in Israeli is IT/technology heavy, and undoubtedly provides secondary services to the military ecosystem. A lasting peace settlement would likely, in the euphemistic words of the monstrous markets, “inject uncertainty”, even if the capitalists would rarely admit they value their wealth more than the lives of vulnerable people.
In the long term, it is my hope that Israel can rid itself of its neoconservative and violent politicians, and then it will be in a better position to approach peace talks (despite any financial losses it would sustain if successful). At that point, US aid would probably dry up as the Americans discover they are decreasingly able to project power from their client state, or that the cost/output ratio of this project drops too low for them to justify the billions of dollars they sink into it.
John
Have you tried Duck Duck Go
https://duckduckgo.com/
AND THIS makes one wonder if there’s hope yet, and there was me thinking they ( Elite ) have everything stitched up
U.S. Federal Court Hits President Barack Hussein Obama With Three Charges Of Abuse Of Office
The indictments assert that President Obama “acted as a dictator” to exceed his powers of office to appoint officials behind the back of Congress during a recess period.
http://beforeitsnews.com/obama-birthplace-controversy/2013/02/breaking-news-u-s-federal-court-hits-president-barack-hussein-obama-with-three-charges-of-abuse-of-office-2455332.html?utm_content=awesm-fbshare-small&utm_medium=facebook-post&utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&utm_term=http%3A%2F%2Fb4in.info%2FfEes&utm_campaign
Duck Go is where TOR takes you, isnt it Brian?
Brian; I went to your link (Beforeitsnew) and when I reached this “Mr. Lyndon Larouche, a well-connected journalist and political activist” I had to stop.
Mark @ 11;52am
Good post on 9/11
Have you heard about these set of Four new videos taking apart The NIST Lies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQI6gOw9y-c
56 cops injured in Belfast.
“The trouble began when loyalists staged a demonstration the city centre, against a republican parade that was due to pass along Royal Avenue, in one of the city’s main shopping districts.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-23645607
Ben Franklin – thanks for your kind words earlier.
DuckDuckGo has no connection to Tor as far as I know, although for people who need high levels of security, both could be used. I use DDG all the time – their !shortcuts are very useful from a browser search box, and their search results have strongly improved in the last few months.
Edit: I should add that I miss Clark also. His forensic and scientific enquiry was a great asset here, and hopefully he’ll have the time in the future to join back in.
All, I think Craig meant to post about this speech ages ago, but hasn’t done so. It’s one of his recent speeches on the Scottish question, and it’s very good: https://vimeo.com/69392412.
“Good post on 9/11”
Yet more evidence free drivel. If MOSSAD used explosives how does that explain the evidence of thermite, an incendiary not an explosive, that the truth movement claim was found in the ruins? Furthermore the current “thinking” on 9/11 from the conspiracy theorists is that there were no planes, it was all faked using CGI and somehow, as at Sandy Hook and Boston, all the so-called eyewitnesses are fakes and somehow everybody else was excluded from the area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04LCvk2KYfY
How can these contradictory theories be reconciled?
[Mod/Jon: anti-Jewish material referencing “yiddistani politics” deleted]
Jon/Ben,
Duckduckgo is pre-installed in latest TOR browser bundle but not the default. ixquick/startpage (current default) have asked the TOR project to remove them as the default search engine in the TOR browser – claiming for capacity reasons. The TOR project has asked duckduckgo if they are willing to become the new default. Duckduckgo have said yes.
Or so it seems from the following links.
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9117
And also https://duck.co/topic/duckduckgo-as-default-search-engine-for-the-tor-browser-bundle
Thanks AA and Jon; It seems there is no safe email
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/09/lavabits-ladar-levison-if-you-knew-what-i-know-about-email-you-might-not-use-it/
hold on, hold on, there are no safe letters, either. at least, post for the people at the start of greenham common used to regularly arrive with sellotape over the envelope.
Disgraced former minister Chris Huhne lands energy job paying £100,000 for just two days a week
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388524/Disgraced-minister-Chris-Huhne-lands-energy-job-paying-100-000-just-days-week.html
Perverting the course of employment?
Jon, Alcanon,
Thanks for that info on DDG, i only hear about it the other day, so haven’t had a chance to look into it myself.
Here’s some stuff on the Origins of government Spying on the people / Patriot Act,
Lawrence Lessig, a highly respected professor of law at Stanford University, famously revealed some years ago that 9/11 was simply an excuse.
“The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event that would allow them” to pull it out.
Lessig continued, “Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner once and [former U.S. anti-terrorism “czar”] Richard Clarke was at the table, and said to him, ‘Is there an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event for them to come in and have the excuse for radically changing the way the internet works?’ And he said, ‘Of course, there is’.”
More on this Here –
http://socialistorganizer.org/whats-behind-the-assault-on-civil-liberties-in-the-united-states-pt-1/
And Here, all with many more interesting Links
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/08/u-s-government-planned-indefinite-detention-of-citizens-long-before-911.html
Kennedy rejected the proposal and became another notch on the gun, but false-flag attacks seem normal now
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/Northwoods.html
a. Incidents to establish a credible attack (not in
chronilogical order):
(1) Start rumors (many). Use clandestine radio.
(2) Land friendly Cubans in uniform “over-the-fence”
to stage attack on the base.
(3) Capture Cuban (friendly) sabateurs inside the
base.
(4) Start riots near the entrance to the base (friendly
Cubans).
Appendix to
Enclosure A
7
Page 11
(5) Blow up ammunition inside the base; start fires.
(6) Burn aircraft on airbase (sabatage).
(7) Lob morter shells from outside of base into base.
Some damage to installations.
(8) Capture assault teams approaching from the sea
of vicinity of Guantanamo City.
(9) Capture militia group which storms the base.
(10) Sabotage ship in harbor; large fires — napthalene.
(11) Sink ship near harbor entrance. Conduct funerals
for mock-victims (may be lieu of (10)).
b. United States would respond by executing offensive
operations to secure water and power supplies, destroying
artillery and mortar emplacements which threaten the base.
c. Commence large scale United States military operations.
3. A “Remember the Maine” incident could be arranged in
several forms:
a. We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and
blame Cuba.
b. We could blow up a drone (unmannded) vessel anywhere
in the Cuban waters. We could arrange to cause such incident
in the vicinity of Havana or Santiago as a spectacular result
of Cuban attack from the air or sea, or both. The presense
of Cuban planes or ships merely investigating the intent of
the vessel could be fairly compelling evidence that the ship
was taken under attack. The nearness to Havana or Santiago
would add credibility especially to those people that might
have heard the blast or have seen the fire. The US could
follow with an air/sea rescue operation covered by US
fighters to “evacuate” remaining members of the non-existant
crew. Casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful
wave of national indignation.
4. We could develop a Communist Cuba terror campaign in
the Miami area, in other Flordia cities and even in Washington.
A wee tall of a BIG Tranformation
I arrived in Baghdad believing that Iraqis were simple people in need of having civilization thrust upon them, and that we were the enlightened civil ones who would show them the right way to live. To me, they were less than human.
One pivotal night three years ago, I bragged to my wife and cousins about a family I had terrified by pointing my rifle at them to get them to stop in traffic. I laughed about the way the father and mother had frantically waved their arms at me, begging not to be shot.
When I told this story in the past to my fellow soldiers, they had laughed and told me similar stories of their own. On this night, no one laughed. To my great surprise, my wife, my cousin, and his girlfriend were horrified. I even scared the waitress. They let me know in no uncertain terms that it was wrong to laugh about such a thing.
I was immediately defensive. “You guys don’t understand,” I told them. “If you had been there, you would get it.” But, they insisted that it wasn’t funny.
Where I saw humor, they saw a terrified family whose only crime was travelling from one place to another.
The conversation stuck with me. I began to wonder why it was funny to me and not to them. Why was I unmoved by that family’s fears, while my family was horrified by my laughter?
Brandon Toy
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35794.htm
Conservatives have just unveiled their new campaign symbol
https://twitter.com/kck1965/status/365410159159291904/photo/1
@ Jon/Mod:
Just on a question of blogging etiquette :
Is it usual for a moderator to participate in discussions, as you have done just above?
I should have thought that it was not, and that a moderator would post his own views on a different blog to the one he or she is moderating, but of course I’m willing to be told otherwise
BTW, allow me to congratulate you on the gentle, almost kind way in which you responded to Tech Savage’s hate-filled post; I’m so glad you didn’t feel it necessary to issue a stern rebuke or even delete it. Keep up the good work!
Good insight Brian and Ben – The recent clashes in Northern Ireland recalls Operation Demetrius or internment without trial of nearly 400 people were arrested, many tortured and the families verbally abused and assaulted.
Some of these people I can report accurately from a family member were ‘subverted’ or turned into government decoys, informers or spies.
These techniques were subsequently taught to the CIA/FBI.
[more to follow] – Check this implication out:
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/aug/08/david-cameron-human-rights-act
With Egypt strike, Israel violates two borders in three days
‘Two incidents in three days, in which Israel’s military was caught with its hand beyond its borders, raise questions of sovereignty and what it means to Israel.’
http://972mag.com/with-egypt-strike-israel-violates-two-borders-in-three-days/77202/
Bodies of migrants found on Italy beach
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/08/2013810124128151642.html
Thought to be Syrians and Egyptians
@ Fujisan (18h56)
You appear rather indignant about the “stuff” (your word) you posted about the Patriot Act and a possible i-Patriot Act.
Personally I find it rather reassuring that govts do some forward thinking and contingency planning on how to respond to national emergencies or threats to the national emergencies.
Surely much better and much more sensible than govts just sitting on their backsides hoping for the best and then possibly having to adopt measures or legislation in haste
after an event?
CORR.: “…or threats to the nation”
@ Mr Golding (19h36)
I take it you’re aware (Dreoilin can correct me if necessary)) that the govt of the Republic of Ireland used internment without trial provisions against the IRA for many years after WW2?
In fact, I do believe internment without trial was used for much longer in the Republic of Ireland than in Northern Ireland.
@ Jon/Mod
Ever eager to help you in your Herculean task of reading ALL posts and not just mine, I draw your attention to the following from Hasbarista at 16h15 :
“…ehud borg has allegedly “retired” from yiddistani politics..”
Key word : “yiddistani”. More acceptable than “faggot” or “nigger”?
Why no protests from anyone?
[Mod: this is now deleted]
@ Fujisan at 19h17 re “A wee tall of a BIG Tranformation”
_____________
I fail to see what’s so revelatory about this story. The phenomenon of front-line combattants dealing with trauma by transforming it into humour is well recognised by psychologists and even by the informed wider public, is it not?