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.
“Full of shite sire, brain dead and dangerous.”
And I’m taking that.
That traffic regulations cause accidents and slow down traffic is counter intuitive and startling.
I urge anyone interested to read Techniclours links. The implications for our relationship with authority are fascinating.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1533248/Is-this-the-end-of-the-road-for-traffic-lights.html
http://www.fitroads.com/TEC-Award-truth-final.pdf
“That traffic regulations…”
I thought the story was about traffic circles which have proven successful in reducing accidents.
I have observed that when traffic lights are out, the public tends to be more cautious and engaged when crossing intersections. It’s a false sense of security at times when you have the green.
Ben, below from the Bristol report (am going to finish reading tomorrow). Phil, well put: fascinating and counter intuitive. I feel for these pedestrians, even though….
“Once again, we found ourselves writing a report that
concluded that the disabling of all junction controls re-
sulted in improvements to traffic capacity and reductions
in journey time for both vehicles and pedestrian alike,
and hence a reduction in queues and delays. The road-
user satisfaction surveys showed, however, that a high
proportion of pedestrians did not feel as safe without con-
trol and would prefer green man crossing facilities, even
though most acknowledged there was less delay. Indeed,
the idea of the lack of any formal control was particularly
opposed by local visually impaired groups and some dis-
abled pedestrians. Nevertheless, during the weeks of the
trials there were no incidents or accident”
PS a united Ireland would be perfectly sensible, I think.
“Supporters of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan have been getting U.S. military contracts, and American officials are citing “due process rights” as a reason not to cancel the agreements, according to an independent agency monitoring spending.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-30/al-qaeda-backers-found-with-u-s-contracts-in-afghanistan.html
pffffft!
Has 14 pint Billy been drinking the Kool Aid?
“The UK foreign secretary has called Iran’s foreign minister saying he is open to improve ties.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/jul/31/uk-open-to-improve-iran-ties-hague
“Has 14 pint Billy been drinking the Kool Aid?
“The UK foreign secretary has called Iran’s foreign minister saying he is open to improve ties.””
Not necessarily, Mark. The UK befriended Libya…
Beware billies with fourteen pints in’em, I suppose.
The Awkward Truth, Studiesshow that “road
users could quite happily optimise the use of road space
and behave perfectly adequately without any need for
the modern traffic management paraphernalia; just simple, aesthetic urban design.”
Maybe we are already in the throes of a phase-change as the old ways cease to deliver and new ones spontaneously emerge. My earlier reference to the changes that occur in insect colonies alluded to that kind of spontaneous phenomenon.
Who would choose Windows after they have used Linux?
Who would put their long-term faith in fiat currencies when Bitcoin increasingly demonstrates an alternative?
And despite all the effort to suppress human co-operativeness and solidarity things like Prout just keep emerging.
Imagine the difference it would make if our young people were coached in communication, team-dynamics, conflict resolution, non-violent assertiveness and basic trading even once a week.
Can we do and be all the little things that will make them take root? I think so.
Will we always have to deal with human greed and violence? Alas, I think so too.
But I finish this day encouraged.
Thanks everyone.
@Dad! 6 52pm
And I thought you knew EVERYTHING!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Insurrectionary_Army_of_Ukraine
“Over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is winning. I thank the Russian Federation for granting me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations.” Edward Snowden. Aug 1st 2013
Mark at 11 pm. Thanks for the link. “Hague also raised the issue of Tehran’s nuclear dossier which is the subject of an international dispute and talks over it is currently at stalemate.”
Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction were also the subject of an international dispute. You can no more trust Squealer than you can Napoleon.
My G.P. wants to charge me 100 pounds for one job specific medical report, while I am currently applying for work from several companies. Is that fair, when he gets 150 K as a practise manager from the state. Then he fobs me off with steroid creams and statins for my other ailments to save his practise money.
The best doctor in the new NHS is the one who saves the most money for the government and uses his public service employment to squeeze the governments’ patients for personal cash.
John, we are still getting laughs out of the Steve Bell cartoon that Flaming June noticed:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2013/jun/10/william-hague-statement-gchq-cartoon
Mark
As Craig said:
‘States are the enemy and we are the people’
on a previous thread, i posted about Israeli firm, Nikuv, being involved in Zimbabwe & other African countries. followup:
31 July – Businessweek: Lesotho Probes Israel’s Nikuv Over Tender for Identity
Documents
Lesotho’s Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offenses said it’s
investigating an Israeli company, Nikuv International Projects Ltd., over
allegations it paid bribes to win a 292 million loti ($30 million) contract
to supply electronic passports. ..
The investigation is politically motivated and is related to a change in
government that took place in elections last year, (Nikuv’s) Bekker said
yesterday…
The issuing of ordinary passports has been stopped in Lesotho after Nikuv,
which is also running the Zimbabwe voter registration, was contracted to
issue e-passports and I.D. documents…
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-31/lesotho-probes-israel-s-nikuv-over-tender-for-identity-documents
On its website Nikuv says that the company focuses on projects for
“governmental sectors” and initiated its activities in Africa in 1994 in
Nigeria. It had “since expanded its activities to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana,
Botswana and Angola in IT and additional areas like agriculture and
security”….
http://mg.co.za/article/2013-04-12-00-zim-voters-roll-in-hands-of-suspect-israeli-company
SO MUCH For The NSA “only collecting ‘metadata’
A professor writer reportedly received a visit from law enforcement agents after she looked up information on pressure cookers via Google and her husband looked up backpacks.
However, since the original story was published about the incident, some details have come into question.
Still, if Michele Catalano’s story is true, it sheds light on how the continuing and expanding use of the PRISM program run by the National Security Agency (NSA), along with other surveillance programs, is manifesting itself in the lives of American
More at EndtheLie.com – http://EndtheLie.com/2013/08/01/writer-reportedly-gets-a-visit-from-police-over-google-searches-for-backpacks-and-pressure-cookers/#ixzz2allhWOrL
ALSO –
Senate Commits High Treason:
“Classifies” votes to HIDE FUNDING FOR SYRIAN REBELS
“It’s like a pandemic in Washington, D.C., this idea that ‘I don’t have to say anything, I don’t have to justify anything, because I can say it’s secret,’” said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank.
In our increasingly Orwellian country, it’s getting hard to tell the difference between parody and reality. But this is very real. And Harper is correct: it is a pandemic.
Everything is secret in Washington. Who are we at war with? That’s classified. Who is the government spying on? That’s classified. Are we bombing multiple countries on a regular basis with remote-controlled airplanes? That’s classified. Which senators voted for an incredibly unpopular and dangerous plan to give weapons to unaccountable Syrian militias as they fight in a chaotic civil war that should have nothing to do with us? None of your god damned business.
http://extremeprejudiceusa.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/senate-commits-high-treason-classifies-votes-to-hide-funding-for-syrian-rebels/
“London Assembly demands to know why housing cash was diverted from poorest”
http://www.housingexcellence.co.uk/news/london-assembly-demands-know-why-housing-cash-was-diverted-poorest
Phil,
Your rejection of and antipathy towards “competition” is wholly political. Competition is an observable fact of life, as is cooperation, and both are not mutually exclusive.
Competition drives a positive selection process and cooperation drives a synergistic process. Both produce positive outcomes and are necessary to optimize the survival prospects of both individual species and symbiotic communities of different species.
Put simply, competition drives improvement and cooperation drives performance.
. . . .
Regarding road traffic experiments where road rules and/or traffic controls are removed, it sure seems to be working out well in Asia and Africa.
Recommend sorting in descending order of fatalities per 100K vehicles –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
“It’s like a pandemic in Washington, D.C., this idea that ‘I don’t have to say anything, I don’t have to justify anything, because I can say it’s secret,’” said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank.
Lord save us. I’m agreeing with a director at the Cato institute. I didn’t think it was possible.
Personally, I am the view that Obama should be impeached, no question. Jim probably agrees. The world has gone insane.
I am not at all sure that Eire would be enthusiastic about union with the North because of the expense, unless of course the UK agreed to pay for it (fat chance). I wonder whether people like Craig who are not resident in Scotland would even be allowed to vote in a referendum on Scottish independence. The best thing may be to let things stay as they are.
@ Jemand :
“Recommend sorting in descending order of fatalities per 100K vehicles –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate”
_______________
Nice post; nothing like a few facts to put to rest the wilder notions cooked up by some. 🙂
BTW, I trust you noticed the shocking discrepancy between the figure for Israel (3,7) and that for the Palestinian territories (5,6), a difference of around 50%? Surely another example of insufferable discrimination and oppression?
Have a good day, everyone, and drive safely!
@ Abe Rene
“I wonder whether people like Craig who are not resident in Scotland would even be allowed to vote in a referendum on Scottish independence.”
______________
I seem to recall that I was wondering some time ago who would be entitled to vote in that referendum and asking whether any of the prolific posters and pro-independentists knew what SNP policies on that were.
Answers came there none, of course (inconvenient question, I suppose).
We are not all in ‘it’ together.
Half Of UK Nation ‘Living On The Edge’
More than half of all British adults are finding it hard to make ends meet and are “living for now”, a major report says.
http://news.sky.com/story/1123485/half-of-uk-nation-living-on-the-edge
Racist, fascist ‘Great’ Britain.
The new stop-and-search – spot checks near stations to hunt for illegal immigrants
Onlookers described their shock at the operations, with one member of the public saying it was akin to ‘Nazi Germany’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-the-new-stopandsearch–spot-checks-near-stations-to-hunt-for-illegal-immigrants-8742754.html
‘The Labour MP Barry Gardiner has now written to the Home Secretary, Theresa May, demanding an investigation into the checks which he said violated “fundamental freedoms”. The raids come just a few months after Ms May took direct responsibility for immigration from the disbanded UK Border Agency.
“We do not yet live in a society where the police or any other officers of the law are entitled to detain people without reasonable justification and demand their papers,” Mr Gardiner wrote. “The actions of your department would however appear to be hastening us in that direction.”
Witnesses who saw the operations in London claimed the officers stopped only non-white individuals, and in Kensal Green said that when questioned, the immigration officials became aggressive.’
http://scriptonitedaily.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ukba3.jpg
NEWSFLASH: UK Border Agency ID Checking People of Colour At Train Stations
UKBA3
Twitter is full of reports of the UK Border Agency stopping and performing random ID checks on people of colour in South East train stations today.
The above picture (click to enlarge) was taken by twitter user @SaveKRLibrary at Kensal Tube station in the capital this morning. There have been so far unconfirmed reports coming in from other stations.
The following account was reported to the Kilburn Times:
“…according to several witnesses the officers were aggressive, intimidating and were specifically targeting non-white individuals.
Kensal Rise resident Phil O’Shea told the Times he was threatened with arrest when he asked what was going on.
He said: “I thought the behaviour of the immigration officers was heavy-handed and frightening. They appeared to be stopping and questioning every non-white person, many of whom were clearly ordinary Kensal Green residents going to work.
“When I queried what was going on I was threatened with arrest for obstruction and was told to ‘crack on’.
“I asked that officer for his name but he refused to give it and said I could read his number on his shoulder but I couldn’t see a number there.”
Matthew Kelcher, who lives in All Souls Avenue, also witnessed the operation, he said: “They said they were doing random checks but a lot of people who use that station are tourists so I don’t know what message that sounds out to the world.
“They seemed to be picking out foreign people in an intimidating situation.
“Kensal Green is a diverse community which is settled and they (the government) are going about it on the wrong approach.
“This is more about publicity than dealing about the issue.”
This is not the first time UKBA have made such strident public appearances, but the timing of the move seems part of a conspicuous ‘zero tolerance’ pantomime, as the political parties compete in a race to the bottom on immigration policy.
This week, the #RacistVan is touring London streets delivering the government’s new ‘Go Home’ campaign against illegal immigrants. The van is tells illegal immigrants to go home and has received a wave of criticism from the twittersphere, ably coordinated by @PukkahPunjabi. The government plans to roll the #RacistVan out nationwide.
The following picture is the actual #RacistVan
/..
http://scriptonitedaily.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/newsflash-uk-border-agency-id-checking-people-of-colour-at-train-stations/
Before I get taken to task for the naïve optimism of my last “co-operative/competitive” post (11 32pm yesterday) I’d better elaborate a bit.
I used the examples of Linux and Bitcion because both are examples of co-operatiive approaches making something better than what is on offer within the old competitive paradigm. In both cases cutting edge solutions have been created by networks of people inspired by a co-operative ethos.
The undisputable fact about Linux is that it works better than Windows, using less computing power.
It’s early days to be claiming too much about Bitcion but I have a sense that we should watch that space. A currency that has already been traded to the value of over a billion dollars and which cannot easily be parasitised by bankers maybe shows that humanity can do with the tools of exchange something akin to what we have already done with the tools of production information technology and communication.
Both come from an ethos which recognises that, in some areas at least ,we can win with each other more than we can win against each other. Of course there will always be areas where we will have to be fierce and assertive. Rule of law cannot co-exist with rule by the lawless. Shock and Awe (aka Blitzkrieg) can never partner peaceful diplomacy. A culture of unbridled extraction and consumption cannot be called sustainable however many PR campaigns are run.
Of course there is plenty of room for competition to make a better currency, operating system or whatever. I suppose the crucial point is whether competition is with or against.
How we nurture cultures of co-operation is up to us, but we all make thousands of small decisions daily, which cascade into our shared reality.
And even when naked force wins the battle something surprising can grow into the space created. I might be stretching my history here, but from my take on it, although at the Battle of Thermopylae the Spartans put an end to the advance Persian dominated old world order, it was the more “open source” style Athenian culture that was eventually adopted in the mediterranean lands.
@Flaming. 8 10am
Re putting darkies in their place.
What do these people say to their families when they get home after a days work? I bet not much.
Proud to be British?
Anyone resident in Scotland is entitled to vote in the referendum.
@ BrianFujisan 2 Aug, 2013 – 2:18 am
“SO MUCH For The NSA “only collecting ‘metadata’”
“Do you own a pressure cooker? My husband said no, but we have a rice cooker. Can you make a bomb with that? My husband said no, my wife uses it to make quinoa. What the hell is quinoa, they asked. The joint terrorism task force did not press Catalano’s husband on the dilemma facing liberals over whether quinoa consumption is ethically sound – many Bolivians can no longer afford their staple food now everyone in Brooklyn is eating it.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/new-york-police-terrorism-pressure-cooker
I apologize to any of you indefinitely incarcerated without charges or perhaps prematurely vaporized because of my prior lame comment here regarding a conspiracy to import punnets. Shoulda known agencies are humourless.
“In the mid-year review for 2010/11, GCHQ proclaimed: “Our partners have felt the impact of our capability too, with NSA in particular, delighted by our unique contributions against the Times Square and Detroit bombers.””
http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/aug/01/gchq-spy-agency-nsa-edward-snowden#part-four
Are there parallel universes? Both those disasters were barely averted only by the perpetrators defective equipment, not by anything the agencies did. Or are they congratulating themselves on gathering evidence post-fizzle?
“Anyone resident in Scotland is entitled to vote in the referendum.”
Probably, but strictly speaking we don’t know until the franchise is defined in a (Scottish) Government White Paper expected in November. Whatever, it will be different from the franchise at other elections if only by the inclusion of 16-year-olds, so we have no database of voters. Expect voter registration to be an issue.