Feile An Phobail Belfast 4110

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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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  • Passerby

    Komodo said:

    That should guarantee you about 100 pages of feminism, Passerby….I mean, asking for it or asking for it?

    I will have to just cut and paste!!! 🙂

  • Dreoilin

    “These menopausal women, I have come across a lot more friendlier pit bull terriers.”

    Make up your mind. I can hardly be on a zimmerframe and menopausal at the same time. Doesn’t work like that.
    And at least if I make an error (because you typed “at al” instead of “at all”) I acknowledge it. Something you never, ever, do because you don’t have the guts.

    “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”
    – John C. Maxwell

  • Dreoilin

    “and other sites deemed offensive will be blocked”

    and guess who decides what’s offensive and what isn’t …

  • Flaming June

    Does Norwegian Nobel Committee Have the Integrity and Guts to Do the Right Thing?
    by Kim Petersen / August 12th, 2013

    The Nobel Peace Prize is for the person who “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Obviously the committee that awards the peace prize erred miserably when it presented the prize to Barack Obama. Obama has been anything but a peacemonger. Since Obama never received the award for any peace-related actions on his part, it is widely assumed that the committee awarded the prize based on projections of what Obama would do (if otherwise, then the committee members are either naive bumpkins or a fifth column that has subverted Alfred Nobel’s peace prize). Obama’s words spoke louder than his actions.
    [..]
    Therefore, a Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Manning would be just and fitting, and it would be highly symbolic; it would fillip the peace movement (and maybe throw a wrench in the military-industrial complex). As it is now with all the warring, war crimes, torture, incarcerations, occupations, intrigues, and the threatening and persecution of peacemongers, the conscience of the world stands aggrieved. Until peace comes to the forefront, until human rights and social rights are adhered to, until miscarriages of legal and social justice are righted, an evil shadow remains cast over humanity. The Nobel Committee members will have their sanity slandered (as happens to all who oppose US imperialism); US media will lambaste Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese and Norwegian farmed salmon (a terrible food anyway). Yet if the Norwegian Nobel Committee has an iota of the fortitude displayed by the martyr Manning, then there is a chance for the committee to win back its dignity, restore the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize, and — hopefully — set in motion the lifting of the malevolent shadow of militarism.

    /..
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/08/does-norwegian-nobel-committee-have-the-integrity-and-guts-to-do-the-right-thing/

  • Anon

    I believe the term “beacon of democracy” refers not to Israel being a beacon to democracies, but rather to its status as a “beacon of democracy” when compared to surrounding Arab states and regimes throughout the Middle East and beyond, which, I am sure, even the most ardent anti-Zionists (and, indeed, many Palestinians) will agree is the case.

    Komodo refers to former UN ambassador Jeremy Greenstock as a “slippery” individual. I wonder, whilst genuinely knowing very little about the man and his career, other than what I can glean from a quick Google search, what evidence Komodo has to back this assertion? I thought Sir Jeremy spilt the beans with regard to Iraq?

  • nevermind

    Anon, just because the money spent on Fatah did not have the right result, the elections Hamas won are as democratic and most likely more proportional than the beacons you are alluring to.

    Anyway, what measure is democracy when it produces the same party political establishment here and the wi(l)der west, over and over again?

    Democracy was always the game of those who had their slaves providing for them and nothing has changed much.

    With diminishing percentages voters are making it clear to party politicians that their ‘democracy’ sucks.
    And party politicians, by presenting an AV ultimatum, made it clear that they are not prepared to give proportion to anything, whether its the voting system, the continuing cuts to the poor game, the nose candy which makes them feel good about their crap solutions and their size of their own dicks.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Greenstock… or Greenstick? Slippery, indeed. When it mattered, he went along (even though he knew better) and he always seem to do so. Wise fatre the event, seeks redemption. but when it might have made some difference, he agreed to oil the war machine. So, yes, definitely slippery. there is a greenstick fracture between those, like Craig, who act when they see wrongdoing,and those, like Jeremy, who do not. Or, a greenstick fracture bends (and bends and bends), but never breaks (with power).

    And so, he has come to be re-named, ‘Jeremy Greenstick’.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Anon,

    Very good to see you back, Anon! I’ve been holding the fort here together with assistance from fellow lie-hater and silliness-exposer Villager, but it’s always good to have a commenter with your punch, subtlety and wit back in action again! As you can see from the last few pages of this thread, there’s plenty to get one’s teeth into!

    BTW, especially liked your first, at 08h38 today!

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Fatah and Hamas both have proved not much use to the people of Palestine. Both are run in totalitarian fashion. Hamas won the election in Gaza, then devided that wasn;t enough and had a coup to remove all traces of Fatah from Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel decided to lock up the elected Hamas politicians, thus rendering unto them, additional martyr status and credibility as freedom fighters.

    Sadly, Arab socities have yet to develop the robust civil societal structures that predicate accountability and governance. Israeli Arabs (not Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip) actually have more civil rights than Arabs in Arab countries and Israeli Arabs certainly have more rights than Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab countries.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Nevermind:

    “..the nose candy which makes them feel good about their crap solutions and their size of their own dicks.”

    _____________________

    By way of a public service announcement not directed specifically or exclusively at Nevermind, may I draw attention to the existence on the market of devices guaranteeing to enlarge dick size on the vacuum principle? I’m told that they’re relatively expensive but that should not be an obstacle to anyone – whether in this blog or in the real world – who feels anxious in that department.

    **************

    La vita è bella, life is good!

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Suhayl

    “Sadly, Arab socities have yet to develop the robust civil societal structures that predicate accountability and governance. Israeli Arabs (not Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip) actually have more civil rights than Arabs in Arab countries and Israeli Arabs certainly have more rights than Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab countries”
    ________________

    Although we have disagreed on several issues, you have earned my respect with that comment – and by daring to post it.

    I await with keen anticipation the reaction of the Luminaries and Excellences – will it be embarrassed silence, a torrent of abuse or frantic attempts to deviate?

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    “Not recent but this came in by e-mail today. Neither of the Obamas have a law licence yet Barack Obama was one time editor of the Harvard Law Review”
    ____________________

    So what?

    You need a law licence to practise. If you do not intend to practise, or no longer wish to practise, you don’t need a license.

    Over 20% of trainee teachers in the UK don’t go on to teach, and of those that do, many leave teaching within five years.

    Which proves as little about anything as does the above comment about the Obamas.

    Anyone here want to extend the discussion to whether Obama’s US birth certificate is a fake?

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Suhayl

    And nor did I say or imply that it did. But they are facts which commenters might bear in mind when using expression like Israehell or on other appropriate occasions.

    Also, thank you for your wishes, which I reciprocate with pleasure!

  • Kempe

    “Monsanto incorporates the chemical into some of the seeds it produces; in the United States, neonicotinoids are heavily used on the country’s huge corn crop.”

    In the USA. In europe it’s still been Bayer and Syngenta who have been lobbying hardest against the ban. Particularly in the UK as far as Syngenta is concerned. I know Monsanto are the big bad bogeymen who steal babies from their cribs and melt them down to make GM fertilizer but the focus on them distracts from companies which, in europe at least, are the main culprits.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)

    @ Dreoilin re certain previous posts addressed to you :

    There you go – step out of line and that’s what you get.

    PS – as a good Catholic boy or girl, I hereby forgive you your remark about me. I know you don’t really mean it 🙂

  • technicolour

    Yes, Syngenta and Bayer:

    In a letter released to the Observer under freedom of information rules, Owen Paterson told the chemicals company Syngenta last week that he was ‘extremely disappointed’by the European commission’s proposed ban. He said that ‘the UK has been very active’ in opposing it and ‘our efforts will continue and intensify in the coming days’

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/apr/29/environment-secretary-letter-syngenta-insecticide-ban

    US gov lobbying EU on behalf of Monsanto (thanks, Wikileaks)

    U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks reveal the Bush administration drew up ways to retaliate against Europe for refusing to use genetically modified seeds. In 2007, then-U.S. ambassador to France Craig Stapleton was concerned about France’s decision to ban cultivation of genetically modified corn produced by biotech giant Monsanto

    http://www.responsibletechnology.org/resources/interviews/WikiLeaks-Cables-Reveal

    and the rest of the world:

    http://rt.com/usa/wikileaks-monsanto-cables-report-273/

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