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.
@Habbabkuk
12 Aug, 2013 – 11:21 pm
“And another possibility – although it might in the end only have put off the matter by some years – would have been for the US to do what it did at Suez and reverse the occupation. Is there any credible writing out there explaining the change in US reaction as between between 1956 and 1967?”
It seems to me that your implicit question: why did the US not reverse the occupation? could also provide the answer to many subsequent questions.
Could it be the lobby, perhaps?
Funding problems, Herbie?
With half the Cabinet bought and paid for?
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne-james-jones/pro-israel-lobby-in-britain-full-text
Peter Oborne – not by any means a bleeding-heart liberal. Written just after “Cast Lead”
It was only senior MPs whose careers are winding down that felt able to voice what many MPs told us in private. One of them, Michael Mates, a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee and former Northern Ireland minister, told us on the record that “the pro-Israel lobby in our body politic is the most powerful political lobby. There’s nothing to touch them.” Mates added: “I think their lobbying is done very discreetly, in very high places, which may be why it is so effective.”
CFoI – the largest organisation in Western Europe devoted to Israel….
Oborne did a docu on the Israel lobby in UK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfw5aLYiq5k
I think they probably fund where it’s most effective. Performance related kinda thing.
Habby is certainly running out of juice. I’d expect a new team to pop up shortly.
Let’s hope the impressionables don’t get taken in this time, eh.
The “Israel Lobby” threatens freedom of speech in Germany
Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Dr. Ludwig Watzal
Due to the pressure from the “Israel lobby”, events and exhibitions about Palestine can hardly take place in Germany anymore. The pro-Zionist “Israel lobby” is well organized. When an event is announced publicly, perfectly organized machinery is set in motion, which exercises massive pressure on those who provide the premises for a Palestinian event. Consequently, it has become almost impossible to have an open discussion about Israel’s brutal occupation and the colonization in Palestine.
The latest “success” of the public bullying of organizations was garnered in Berlin. The cultural department of the Iranian Embassy in Berlin wanted to organize a conference entitled “Palestine – Peace based on justice” on Friday, August 16, 2013 at the educational institution “Urania”. All formalities were cleared. Speakers were committed among them the journalist Petra Wild who just published a book entitled “Apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestine: The Zionist settler colonialism in word and deed”, the film-makers Stefanie Landgraf and Johannes Gulde who’s film “We refuse to be enemies” was highly acclaimed but also defamed by the lobby in cooperation with one of the cities deputy majors in Nuremberg, Dr. Gabi Weber who runs the organization “Café Palestine” in Freiburg, Raif Hussein, the chairman of the German-Palestine society, and Dr. Yavuz Özoguz who operates the website “Muslim Market” who is also regularly defamed.
/..
http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9273:the-qisrael-lobbyq-threatens-freedom-of-speech-in-germany-&catid=66:oped&Itemid=151
Someone
13 Aug, 2013 – 12:19 pm – a sad situation in Hull.
Cameron said ‘fracking’ had, “a real potential to drive energy bills down..”
Patently money (profit) is of course the temptation. Fracturing the English countryside when the outcome is dubious is delusional, lunacy. Britain can fit in the American state of Oregon. We are small and our land is at a premium, it is scarce. That means messing with the English countryside affects people’s lives.
We would not fracture the ground below our buildings, our homes and our pastures, especially and notably when that fracturing provides the potential of ‘pollution to sensitive receptors (species and habitats, including streams with a pathway to the river (Ouse) should any contaminated material (solid or liquid) enter the woodland and the watercourses.’ [environmental agency decision document – Cuadrilla Limited]
That is abnormal. Fracking or fracturing the foundations of our island will without doubt render our place, our homes and our pleasure, a cesspit for future generations to mourn. Please Protest.
https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/file/2585024
Well said Mark. In complete agreement.
Probably no fracking (horrible word for a horrible process) allowed at the Cameron family home in the photo here.
http://www.socialistrevolution.org/7004/jobs-housing-youth-britain/
US submits 100+ page report to UN Committee against torture. How can it explain ongoing impunity?
Periodic Report of the United States of America to the United Nations Committee Against Torture (Third, Fourth, and Fifth Reports)
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/213055.htm
@Mark, about a year ago I watched the documentary “GasLand”, which first alerted me to the catastrophic effects of fracking, and now I see there is a sequel;
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
What to make of this ?;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2390642/400-surface-air-missiles-STOLEN-Libya-Benghazi-attack-says-whistle-blowers-attorney.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
Not sure if this has been expressed by anybody before, but I find the fact Snowden chose to whistle blow, after & despite what the US has been inflicting on Manning, tremendously inspiring; instead of being cowed by the vindictive measures the US has adopted to stop whistleblowers, it seems that there will always be brave people who will risk all because of their conscience.
The Village Vs The State
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/08/13/village-vs-the-state/
Chilling interview with owner of Lavabit, Ladar Levison
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/8/13/exclusive_owner_of_snowdens_email_service
Thanks for the great links Mark G. someone and FJ, fracking is bigger than Twyford and the Government knows this, hence the Hush monies.
But if enough is known and enough of us are aghast, willing to do it all over again, then Balcombe can be anywhere in the South by the looks of it.
Direct action can be on a large scale, but people are gullible and will take the shilling, the time must be right, but actions can already be planned and put in the drawer.
Lord Howell’s gaffe was diverting the attention to the North whilst most potential seems to be in fracking the shit out of the Shire’s, the Southdowns and half of east Anglia.
This map shows the licenses and holes drilled, don’t kn ow how accurate it is.
http://www.thegwpf.org/good-true-britain-shale-gas-1500-years/
It’s bigger in America.
How the Israeli Lobby controls US govt and media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7tUEqjmIWE
Dreoilin @ 12;11
it would indeed be Spectacular to see Bradley being awarded the Peace Prize only to turn it Down
Why the Nobel committee needs Bradley Manning more than he needs their peace prize
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/usa-war-on-terror/2624-why-the-nobel-committee-needs-bradley-manning-more-than-he-needs-their-peace-prize
Nevermind
Talking of Hush monies, how crazy is this
Two young children in Pennsylvania were banned from talking about fracking for the rest of their lives under a gag order imposed under a settlement reached by their parents with a leading oil and gas company. The sweeping gag order was imposed under a $750,000 settlement between the Hallowich family and Range Resources Corp, a leading oil and gas driller. It provoked outrage on Monday among environmental campaigners and free speech advocates.
The Hallowich family had earlier accused oil and gas companies of destroying their 10-acre farm in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania and putting their children’s health in danger. Their property was adjacent to major industrial operations: four gas wells, gas compressor stations, and a waste water pond, which the Hallowich family said contaminated their water supply and caused burning eyes, sore throats and headaches.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/08/07/children-given-lifelong-ban-from-talking-about-fracking-as-water-activists-labeled-terrorists-by-government/
Fracking
A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water
Fracking boom sucks away precious water from beneath the ground, leaving cattle dead, farms bone-dry and people thirsty
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water
and
New Study Finds High Levels of Arsenic in Groundwater Near Fracking Sites
http://occupyamerica.crooksandliars.com/propublica/new-study-finds-high-levels-arsenic-gro
TESLA !!!!! HELP
Fukushima: Uncontainable
According to anti-nuclear activist Karl Grossman:
Avoiding potentially catastrophic accidents “requires perfection and no acts of God.” Humans and technology aren’t perfect. Natural and other disasters happen.
“We can’t eliminate them. But we can – and must – eliminate atomic energy.” Otherwise it’ll eliminate us.
Nuclear expert Helen Caldicott’s clear and unequivocal, saying:
“As a physician, I contend that nuclear technology threatens life on our planet with extinction.”
“If present trends continue, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink will soon be contaminated with enough radioactive pollutants to pose a potential health hazard far greater than any plague humanity has ever experienced.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/fukushima-uncontainable/5345754
Alcanon, Clark
Some beauties Last night, including a brilliant Exploding one ( perside ) at 1;40 am
Bring on Novembers Comet ISON
Radcon 5 alert near Buffalo NY. Looked everywhere for a definition, but those most likely to provide are apparently down.
http://ec2.netc.com/
Cuckooclock
There is a disturbing dearth of info coming out of Fuk fall-out, but there is virtually NO information as to the carry-over into atmosphere (jet-stream) and oceans across the Globe.
You might want to eat only farm raised fish for a while.
If one remembers Three-Mile Island in 1979, there was a release of steam to relieve pressure on the containment. It was deemed ‘safe’………
“CHAPEL HILL — Exposure to high doses of radiation shortly after the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island may have increased cancer among Pennsylvanians downwind of the plant, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say.
Dr. Steven Wing, associate professor of epidemiology at the UNC-CH School of Public Health, led a study of cancer cases within 10 miles of the facility from 1975 to 1985. He and colleagues conclude that following the March 28, 1979 accident, lung cancer and leukemia rates were two to 10 times higher downwind of the Three Mile Island reactor than upwind.
A paper Wing and colleagues wrote appears in the January issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, scheduled to appear Feb. 24. They first presented their findings last July at the University of Portsmouth in Portsmouth, United Kingdom, at the International Workshop on Radiation Exposures by Nuclear Facilities.”
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb97/wing.html
Fuk is being called worse than Chernobyl by multiples. It was more catastrophic in terms of the fire and immediate deaths, but it was landlocked. Fuk is perched over the Pacific.
Hey I just saw a post by Clark. Howzit?
“DWP Whistleblower Letter”
More at bottom of the page.
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/131781238
Government say’s “There are no targets”!!!.
It’s so quiet here, I thought Craig had put up a new thread.
Thanks people on ‘fracking’ much appreciated, bless you. I am taking UKCollapseRadio to Balcombe on Friday to give a talk on hydraulic fracturing
Not sure if this on Fukushima has already been put up.
August 13, 2013
The News is Bad
The Fukushima Nightmare Gets Worse
by HARVEY WASSERMAN
Just when it seemed things might be under control at Fukushima, we find they are worse than ever.
Immeasurably worse.
Massive quantities of radioactive liquids are now flowing through the shattered reactor site into the Pacific Ocean. And their make-up is far more lethal than the “mere” tritium that has dominated the headlines to date.
Tepco, the owner/operator–and one of the world’s biggest and most technologically advanced electric utilities–has all but admitted it cannot control the situation. Its shoddy performance has prompted former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Dale Klein to charge: “You don’t what you are doing.”
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/13/the-fukushima-nightmare-gets-worse/
PS Unlike the author, I never thought for one minute that ‘things might be under control’.
Good luck, Mark
Cuadrilla (aka Riverstone/A J Lucas} seem to have bitten off more than they could chew at Balcombe. They will probably creep off and try somewhere else.
Cuadrilla says full production at Balcombe ‘unlikely’
Balcombe protest Protesters have gathered outside the gates of the site for the past 17 days
Related Stories
PM urges UK to ‘get behind fracking’
Move to accept oil drilling ‘wrong’
Activists vow to halt oil drilling
Energy firm Cuadrilla has said its exploration site at Balcombe in West Sussex is “unlikely” to become a full production location in the future.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-23688653
The usual suspects
‘Riverstone is planning to raise at least £500million from floating Riverstone Energy to invest in oil, gas and renewable energy.
Lord Browne jointly oversees the world’s biggest renewable energy fund with £2.25billion in equity.
He is also chairman of shale gas explorer Cuadrilla Resources, which has caused some controversy with drilling in Lancashire and Sussex.
Riverstone owns 44 per cent of Cuadrilla, which it jointly controls with Australian engineer AJ Lucas.
/..
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/420921/Riverstone-set-to-list-new-firm-on-stock-exchange
“Gunter describes the Japanese Government as “in chaos,” with a clear failure of command and control of Fukushima and a dangerous reluctance to turn to international assistance.”
http://japanfocus.org/-Andrew-DeWit/3984
That’s optimistic. Didn’t think we had that long given all the weirdness floating about the net right now. 🙂