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.
Yes, Mary. It’s not much but it’s important that Palestinians have little successes to make their daily lives more tolerable.
It’s similar in many ways to the experience of other prisoners worldwide. It’s those little successes that make an otherwise miserable life bearable.
This is weird and perhaps disturbing
http://eurdepweb.jrc.ec.europa.eu/EurdepMap/Availability.aspx
The European official radiation monitoring public data hasn’t been updated in 4 days. It’s supposed to be near real-time.
Hasbarista
11 Aug, 2013 – 2:45 pm
“Zion Koan – If there were only 3.2 million jews in Europe in 1932, how many million hassidics must have died from sexual exhaustion from trying to make the “6 million” target of 1944, mentioned in the final few ballpoint pen written chapters of Ann Frank’s Diary?”
Crypto-Zionist alert!!!!
AA; FUK showing ‘standard’. also West Coast of US.
http://radiationnetwork.com/Japan.htm
Same here…all is well.
http://www.blackcatsystems.com/RadMap/map.html
Agent Cameron to Andrew Marr:
“..appalling behaviour from this dreadful regime [Syrian government] using chemical weapons.”
Another lie – totally unproven. The two year civil war involving government forces in Syria and UK/US proxy terrorists has created a current aftermath to date of more than 100,000 deaths, around 4 million refugees within the country, and 1.8 million outside of Syria. these are the results of the two-year civil war. And it’s affecting children the most.
In 2011 agent Cameron said in the House, “we will not stand silent’ over Syria. He went on to allude, “Britain will be tabling a resolution at the Security Council condemning the repression… and if anyone acts against that resolution or tries to veto it, that should be on their conscience.”
Early in 2012 Cameron visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, where, according to the Telegraph, he said “Now, with a newly-elected American president (Tweedle-Dee?), we have got to do more to help this part of the world, to help Syria achieve transition.” (THEN WE CAN SMASH IRAN) my words.
In June of this year, David Cameron told MPs that the government will reserve the right to arm rebels in Syria without holding a vote in the House of Commons, regardless of the consequences. (Shock & Awe?)
Agent Cameron is a 1% bankster Rothchild puppet.
British arms exports increased by more than 60% last year with a government (austerity?)guaranteed loan of £2bn enabling the Gulf state of Oman to buy a fleet of Typhoon fighter jets, according to official figures released on Thursday.
With the British public struggling to put food on the table the loan to Oman accounted for nearly half the total guaranteed last year under the government’s entire export finance guarantee fund.
In Oman agent Cameron said, “We are in a global race (to steal more resources?).. “On human rights, there are NO ‘no-go’ areas.
“I simply object to Mr Golding using a serious issue to make a little dig at David Cameron. It is cheap and, worse, irrelevant.”
Humbug!
Sources:
truthmediatv.org/2012/11/rothschild-puppet-david-cameron.html
telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/defence/9654541/David-Cameron-promotes-Typhoon-fighter-jets-in-Middle-East.html
rt.com/news/cameron-arms-opposition-syria-292/
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22965495
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8563957/David-Cameron-UK-will-not-stand-silent-over-Syria.html
“I believe it is.. people from the outside who are responsible for these terrible atrocities[in Syria] – people who are doing it deliberately.” – Pariarch Gregory III Melchite
http://www.dw.de/popups/mediaplayer/contentId_17011237_mediaId_16980231
Ben,
http://netc.com/
That looks plenty elevated enough but earlier today it had a large number of sites at its highest RADCON 5. I have no idea how reliable it is though. When I saw the supposed elevated readings I thought I’d check the European readings and got a shock. They are NEVER EVER 4 days late like now. A hour or two delay at most. Everything stopped updating about 15:30 on the 7th August.
Thanks AA. Level 3 in soCal and many flyover states…jet stream? Funny thing is southern Japan is three while northern is greenlighted.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
11 Aug, 2013 – 4:20 pm
@ Mr Scorgie
“All the world’s problems” Habbabkuk? I only asked about Israel/Palestine”
@Habbabkuk:
“Oh, very sorry! I had, perhaps, naively, thought that Israel/Palestine was one of the world’s major problems?”
“Perhaps I was misled into so thinking by the inordinately high number of posts on that subject on this blog. How silly of me!”
Yes Habbabkuk there are many posts here dealing with the Israel/Palestine situation but you never get involved in a meaningful discussion on the subject.
Why not?
Do you not have the courage of your convictions?
Ben,
I wouldn’t put too much faith in many of the Japanese sensors – neither official or unofficial. Even the supposed live streaming “citizen’s geiger counter” in Tokyo always went offline anytime a major plume went over Tokyo. And the US “official” sensors were all “re-calibrated” immediately after the original Fukushima incident.
I did trust (mainly) the European monitoring network. But it has sadly vanished for now. If you go to the main page at http://eurdepweb.jrc.ec.europa.eu/EurdepMap/Default.aspx – everything looks fine. Unless you cast your eye up to the date at the top right.
This is an official public service of the European Commission.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
11 Aug, 2013 – 4:29 pm
@ Mr Scorgie, addressed to me (15h17) :
“You, like all Zionist supporters,….”
References and quotations, please.
Habbabkuk, if you are not a Zionist supporter you could have merely stated so.
Perhaps I have missed your posts where you have criticized Israel expansionism.
If you are a Zionist you could say so and justify your stance by reasoned argument.
Alas, it is too much to hope from you.
nevermind,
I appologize for posting my last contribution under your name. It was unintended. Your name somehow slipped it and did not notice it.
[Mod: now fixed]
AA; Are you monitoring every day? I didn’t know about recalibration in US. Many are manned by citizen volunteers, aren’t they? I do remember some locations operated by USG were stopped shortly after the story broke.
“In the Dark With Tepco: Fukushima’s Legacy for Nuclear Power”
http://japanfocus.org/-Andrew-DeWit/3974
“A Suicide Survivor: the life of a Chinese migrant worker at Foxconn”
http://japanfocus.org/-Jenny-Chan/3977
“Guantánamo: A Useful Corner of the World”
http://japanfocus.org/-Paul_A_-Kramer/3983
A carpet of green over UK, AA. Smaller geographic area could reflect consistency as compared to US where it is a smattering.
I did note the 8/7 date.
Ben,
No I don’t normally check daily unless there’s been an incident somewhere or something else makes me want to have a look. There was some very, very worrying data indeed recorded by various US agencies in the days immediately following the meltdowns and all the rest. Over the next few days “corrective action” was taken. Can’t fix the radiation so fix the sensors instead. This recalibration was announced in public – the official reason was that Fukushima had shown them how badly their sensors were calibrated so they needed to fix them. “Fix” being the operative word.
“Citizen’s volunteers”. Hmmm…
I hope the European situation is just a fuck-up. Conspiracy sites haven’t noticed it yet. If/when they do it will get a LOT of attention.
Well, as I said you have a uniform green 3 over the UK that’s 4 days old. Why are they always protecting us, AA?
Herbie
11 Aug, 2013 – 5:02 pm
“The UK is so tied at the hip to US financial scamming, weapons sales and other corporate thieving that it’s difficult to see how the UK would fare should the US change direction, which it may well be forced to do. In such circumstances the UK may well find itself friendless, lacking in resources and scapegoated for US post war crimes.”
Quite so Herbie and the “Atlanticists , Ukip , right-wing Tories and xenophobes want us to abandon Europe!
Ben,
These aren’t especially worrying levels for the UK as displayed on the 7th. We have quite a lot of natural background radiation before you add anything else. The last UK readings are background or perhaps just a bit above. Id like to see what they are now though,
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
11 Aug, 2013 – 6:02 pm
@Ben
“Maybe the bees just suffer from second-hand smoke.”
@Habbabkuk
“Not something I’d ever accuse you of suffering from, Ben. I’m sure all your smokes are fresh.”
“How many have you had so far today?”
@Me
Habbabkuk, thou art a clown and a jester with the intellect of a calf’s head and the wit of a capon.
AA
Are all nations using sieverts as the baseline?
Non-techies like myself don’t readily grasp how the shell-game can be played.
Who’s measuring what?
1 gray (Gy) = 100 rad
1 rad = 10 milligray (mGy)
1 sievert (Sv) = 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) = 1,000,000 microsieverts (μSv)
1 sievert = 100 rem
1 becquerel (Bq) = 1 count per second (cps)
1 curie = 37,000,000,000 becquerel = 37 Gigabecquerels (GBq)
Yes June,
The term “Israel disputes this” is contained in every BBC “news” report regarding international law issues.
The whole world [nearly] is in agreement that Israel commits crimes against international law but Israel always disputes this.
Other countries break international law and are (rightly) held to account but not Israel.
I wonder why, perhaps Habbabkuk could enlighten us?
@ Mr Scorgie (21h03) replies :
“”@ Mr Scorgie, addressed to me (15h17) :
“You, like all Zionist supporters,….”
References and quotations, please.”
Habbabkuk, if you are not a Zionist supporter you could have merely stated so. Etc etc etc… ”
__________________
I can see from your reply that my request – although consisting of only four words – was insufficiently clear for you.
So I thought it would be a good idea to repeat it, this time using words which you yourself used on 26 July at 21h06 on the “gently back into the water thread”, in the hope that you’ll finally understand what’s required of you. Your words were :
“When putting points of view forward your opinions must be supported; you should produce your evidence and explain why this evidence supports your point of view; if used, you should always quote sources and give references”
Of you go, laddie!
Ben,
Trying to keep this basic
Sieverts and Grays are the official International “metric” units. The first is a measure of “intensity” and the other a measure of how much tissue amage is done. For gamma (as detected by most basic “geiger couunters” and humans you can assume 1 Gray = approx 1 Sievert.
A level of 300 nanosiverts/hr on the European site would be 300 microrem/hr if that’s units you are more familiar with.
Oops 300 nanosieverts/hr = 30 microrem/hr
Thanks AA; 300 nanosiverts seems infinitesimal. One further question; why is such a small reading in the midrange of alerts?
@ Mr Scorgie :
“Yes Habbabkuk there are many posts here dealing with the Israel/Palestine situation but you never get involved in a meaningful discussion on the subject.
Why not?”
_____________________
Surely, Mr Scorgie, you’re not suggesting that the numerous posts on that subject on this blog constitute “meaningful discussion”?
My own description would be something like “a long drawn-out, low level, mutually satisfying rant”.
As to your “why not”, I think I’ve already answered you (see my post at 22h22 on 10 August).
Craig, please make Palestine the subject of your next post so that you can contribute to the well being of, and assuage, all these sympathisers, powerless and frustrated as they are looking for others to join in their cacophony in order to assure them that one is on the ‘right’ side of their futile, meaningless ‘campaign’. I have never seen such a bunch of self-righteous people, banging on their keyboards, clueless of how they might actually make a meaningful impact. Please help make them feel better about themselves and give them a few good ideas.
Hope you’re actually feeling better and the foot healing as well as your heart. There has been little substantive contribution from you since you declared yourself fighting fit, which is of concern. A recent visit to a podiatrist made clear to me how important is the construction of one’s shoes if one is facing plantar/spur issues — check out a brand of running shoes called ‘Brooks’ — even makes walking easier.
Anyway, these things take ‘time’ but also call for an understanding of how psychological time needs to be understood and put in its place so that we can move forward in total (mind-body) awareness. All the best to overcome your challenges.