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.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2013/08/15/gordon-campbell-on-the-latest-events-in-egypt/ Interesting balanced article on what is going on in Egypt. “Tiananmen Square massacre” revisited.
“in order to save the country, the Army seems likely to destroy it. It has used military might – armoured bulldozers, tear gas and sniper fire, against its citizens. In the process, any public expression of support for the Muslim Brotherhood (still Egypt’s most widely supported political and social movement) has become a virtual shoot-on-sight offence.”
Hague was quick to endorse involving the UK in ousting Assad in Syria, what is the UK government’s policy in Egypt? Watch it get crushed simply to satisfy Israel’s and Saudi Arabia’s domestic political needs?
It has taken 60 years for the US to tell the truth about their involvement in the Mossadegh overthrow.
The truth about the CIA and Iran: US intelligence agency finally admits role in coup
Sixty years on, declassified documents have finally revealed that the agency was behind the 1953 coup – as Iranians long suspected
2http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-truth-about-the-cia-and-iran-us-intelligence-agency-finally-admits-role-in-coup-8775160.html
What happens when we get to pages 14, 15….. and then the comments are closed.
Is it THE END?
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRbTKUCbBXH2wnEBh1ySB-cqeKYKP5Xbg_LH4_wiMEBcrHaiWlM
PS Had this blog ever had this number of pages of comments on one post?
The new improved Hunt style NHS.
‘In part, this is about preventing admissions. But it also requires prompt discharge to free up beds.
A scheme in north London allowing people to go home even when they are still acutely ill is being extended to more patients.’
Humane? No. Safe? No.
The poor people.
Hospital extends scheme to treat patients at home
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23673062
Coming to your area soon.
what T F is this
The outfit that advocates this policy of ‘recovery at home’ is just one of those having a big say in the ‘running’ of OUR NHS or perhaps that should be ‘running down’ OUR NHS.
http://www.zpb-associates.com/The%20team
Imagine their meetings with the Department of Health and the Royal Free Trust and what goes on.
I like their use of the term ‘virtual beds’.
See Ms Garside. In and out of the NHS and private medicine in the UK and US. What a busy life.
‘She began her professional life in management in the NHS and subsequently spent many years studying and working internationally based in the USA. Pam now spends her time working with the Department of Health, with NHS organisations, regulators, and the private sector in health in the UK. She also works with clients in the US and Australia and regularly convenes international health policy meetings.’
No Flaming June..i don’t think we have had this many pages. i was thinking though. that calls for a new post, and a little fighting aside. that it has been a remarkable journey. Jon is right though, more of us should chill a little, for in our own revolution, Wich is surely to come…whom eats the first heart in the effin street…
A follow up note on Medialens from an Australian ref the message from Roger Waters which I posted here earlier.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/07/feile-an-phobail-belfast/comment-page-13/#comment-424191
Re: A note from Roger Waters
Posted by David macilwain on August 19, 2013, 1:59 pm, in reply to “A note from Roger Waters”
I’ll be bringing this to the immediate attention of ABC Classics, who are broadcasting Nigel Kennedy’s prom with the Palestine YO this Wednesday (oddly, two days before the BiBiC). I am assuming that they will be getting the censored version from the BBC, but at least they can be aware of what existed before that cut. In a strange and incomprehensible act of atonement, the ABC last night broadcast 5 Broken Cameras, though of course it wasn’t well advertised, and on the EPG only appeared as ‘Sunday Best’ – a spot for sunday evening viewers on one of the other ABC channels.
It is a shocking revelation of the nature of the IDF, whose appearance in vehicles and behaviour reminded one of those old German war movies… If ever an illustration of Apartheid and Racism was needed this is it.
Thanks for posting this here; it’s a great message to a classical music station in any case, where much Israeli cooperation is endemic.
F.J was just about to poston this topic myself
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Director, Sarah Colborne, said: “The BBC’s censorship is a very unwise political decision for a media organisation that, according to its charter, is meant to be impartial. Nigel Kennedy was letting people know that the young Palestinian musicians on stage with him suffer under a system of inequality and apartheid under Israeli occupation.
“On what grounds can the BBC justify this censorship – every word Nigel Kennedy said was accurate and well-evidenced. While we understand why the Israeli government is trying to keep the truth from the world, we don’t understand why the BBC thinks it can get away with colluding in this.”
Ms Colborne added: “Suppressing free speech and political dissent is the norm for state broadcasters under dictatorships. What is worrying is when we start to see this kind of suppression being practiced by our own state broadcaster, the BBC. PSC calls on the BBC to see sense and not censor Nigel Kennedy when it broadcasts this Prom on Friday.”
In a note posted on his Facebook page yesterday, Pink Floyd star Roger Waters accused the BBC of going “all 1984 on us”, with regard to the Kennedy censorship, and praised Kennedy’s stance. He also called on his fellow musicians to join the cultural boycott of Israel because it is practising apartheid and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/nigelkennedy/
Thanks for that link F.J
You have not had much sleep Brian judging from the gap in the times of your post. Is that a usual sleep pattern for you?
I pushed off to bed early last night. I cannot shake off a strange feverish illness, which has lasted for four days now, which has left me with ear ache, a sore throat and difficulty in swallowing, even water. I am waiting for time to heal me!
I hope Mark Golding is OK as he said he was going to Balcombe. I saw the heavies removing Caroline Lucas’s son before they took her. I noticed that they were using that old trick of pinching his lower ear lobe. V painful.
I can think of many American war criminals who should be ‘given’ 60 years but not Bradley Manning who has not committed any war crimes.
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/govt-calls-for-60-years-in-jail-defense-asks-judge-to-let-manning-have-a-life-trial-report-day-36
Lol .Flaming June…no i realy don’t sleep well, was making an artists friend’s dream catcher at 4 am..with electronic music on headphones… Tell you what though… if you have not already,, hook up with Nevermind and his good lady..wonerfull company..as they say… great to put a face to our coments
Police spies in the construction industry and in anti-racist groups and in the supporters of the Stephen Lawrence family…
The Special Demonstration Squad.
Assange-Manning-Snowden-Greenwald-Murray: An active and prominent anti-establishment plexus.
If they’re there – clearly, in this time of cuts elsewhere in public services, they seem to have plenty of time and taxpayers’ (our) money at their disposal, might they also be here…? Assume it is the case, and get on with it, regardless.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/18/police-activists-blacklisting-agency-alleged
Fuck sake…it still uses that Phrase.with all the carnage going on…
it thinks it can Pick on Nevermind
One of the most beautiful couples i have ever met, i could see instantly, the love in that couple,
Humanity or Profit HabawishihadlovelikeNevermind
In that connection, I understand Komodo’s “unease at letting the Nazis dictate the terms of our discourse” (post at 14h35) but would remind him that, like it or not,history has brought about that certain words have certain resonances for succeeding generations; a point illustrated by the way in which Israel makes free with the word “holocaust” (as in “the Iranians are threatening a second holocaust”). This works, on occasion and with certain audiences, precisely because of the word’s resonance. In the same way (toutes proportions gardées) as “nest” when used in a comment about Jews.
I’d appreciate a glossary of words which must not be used about Jews, but which are applicable to anyone else, please*. It would prevent me from giving inadvertent offence to the community. ‘Holocaust’, of course, is a word which can apparently only be used of Jews, so it is inapplicable to your discussion.
* It can wait until you have offered us your thoughts on what the best chance is for a peaceful settlement for the Palestinian problem, obviously.
Meanwhile, all is now safe for democracy. The Met report that detaining Greenwald’s partner (who has never to my knowledge been remotely connected with terrorism of any kind) under the Tourism Act for nine hours, and his property confiscated…was perfectly ok under the law. This particular law is secret. And the Guardian has been genteelly turned over by spooks to ensure that Snowden’s data on the excesses of our secret state don’t raise any more questions. Rusbridger is suggesting that the Guardian doesn’t have to report from London, suggesting that he is quite irritated by this, at least:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/20/us-usa-security-snowden-guardian-idUSBRE97I10E20130820
Rusbridger himself:
The state that is building such a formidable apparatus of surveillance will do its best to prevent journalists from reporting on it. Most journalists can see that. But I wonder how many have truly understood the absolute threat to journalism implicit in the idea of total surveillance, when or if it comes – and, increasingly, it looks like “when”.
We are not there yet, but it may not be long before it will be impossible for journalists to have confidential sources. Most reporting – indeed, most human life in 2013 – leaves too much of a digital fingerprint. Those colleagues who denigrate Snowden or say reporters should trust the state to know best (many of them in the UK, oddly, on the right) may one day have a cruel awakening. One day it will be their reporting, their cause, under attack. But at least reporters now know to stay away from Heathrow transit lounges.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters
The Picking Up People We Don’t Actually Have Anything On Act – explained by experts:
http://www.gmp.police.uk/content/section.html?readform&s=379DB3B5D26A772080257A5C0048ABC1
Dear Craig, if you do succeed in your efforts to an independent Scotland, please make darn sure that totalitarian actions like this one will not go unpunished:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters
David Miranda: ‘They Said I Would be Put in Jail if I Didn’t Co-operate’
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article35914.htm
~
I hear that La Mensch was on Radio 4 Today along with the thuggish Blunkett who was discussing the execrable Straw’s legislation that was used on David Miranda. What a bunch.
I hope that Glenn Greenwald takes the UK to the cleaners and exposes as many of our dirty tricks as he can.
From http://www.gmp.police.uk/content/section.html?readform&s=379DB3B5D26A772080257A5C0048ABC1 which instructs police on the implementation of Counter Terrorism: Schedule 7.
”Why have I been stopped?
Unlike most other police powers, the power to stop, question, search and, if necessary, detain persons under Schedule 7 does not require prior authority or any suspicion that the person stopped is involved in terrorism.”
WTF?
Thanks Komodo for digging that one up.
Anti-terrorism is just an excuse for further people-control. The most disturbing aspect is that the US could kill 2000 of its own people in the drone attack on the World Trade Centre twin towers and other buildings to establish what was termed ‘the war on terror’ which is actually a ‘war on Islam’. This enabled the war criminals to set up two acts in the UK which have seen people like Talha Ahsan and Babar Ahmad imprisoned without charge for more than 16 years collectively. Even now as they are held in Supermax prisons in the US for 23 hours a day they have still not been brought to trial. What complications can be delaying these trials? I can tell you what. They are innocent, as innocent as David Miranda.
@ Flaming June 20 Aug, 2013 – 5:10 am
“What happens when we get to pages 14, 15….. and then the comments are closed. Is it THE END? PS Has this blog ever had this number of pages of comments on one post?”
The comments closed date rolls forward as comments continue. Only if all comments cease does the subject close. There’s a discussion on Craig Murray re the Saad al Hilli family & Sylvain Mollier massacre at Chevaline, France that is at 86 pages and 17,000 comments and still going. There was a shorter discussion on the same subject immediately following the murders that went for a few thousand comments.
Thanks for that NR.
John Goss. I think that the book reviewed here is a must read.
False Flags and Hijacking Mindsby Ludwig Watzal / August 17th, 2013
Before I came across the book Hijacking America’s Mind on 9/11: Counterfeiting Evidence by Elias Davidsson, I believed in the official narrative on 9/11. I read the book twice. It completely shattered my former belief.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/08/false-flags-and-hijacking-minds/
I will have to buy it. Surrey Libraries make no new purchases. They even sell off older books on trollies outside the libraries. Some branch libraries have closed and others are run by volunteers.
So much for our enlightened ConDem society.
This article is also recommended.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/06/demystifying-911-israel-and-the-tactics-of-mistake/
“Authorities in Pakistan have formally charged the country’s former military ruler over the murder of Benazir Bhutto, who twice served as prime minister and was assassinated while campaigning to secure a third term.
“In the latest set-back to former dictator Pervez Musharraf, the one-time army chief was today indicted on three counts over the murder of Ms Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack in December 2007.
“The move to bring charges against a former army chief is unprecedented in a country ruled for more than half of its life by the military.”
Full text
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/benazir-bhutto-death-former-pakistan-president-and-army-chief-pervez-musharraf-charged-with-2007-murder-of-prime-minister-8775473.html
Yes, the Al Hilli thread apparently has 86 pages of comments.
But Craig has been gone for rather a long while – 3 weeks? I do hope he’s ok.
Ease up June, it will be silver bullet time!
I thought this was the most telling snippet from Rusbridger’s article:
The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified. “You’ve had your debate. There’s no need to write any more.”
“….you nasty little pleb…” being implied here. Of course the spookmaster had completely missed the idea that turning over a national newspaper with mildly antiestablishment tendencies might just reignite any debate. Which in Turkey, or Kazakhstan, would perhaps be a valid assumption?
“Dear Craig, if you do succeed in your efforts to an independent Scotland, please make darn sure that totalitarian actions like this one will not go unpunished: ”
And this one as well.
http://scottishlaw.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/media-political-legal-links-drive-deep.html
Thanks for that Dreoilin. Musharaf went back to Pakistan of his own volition in order to stand for elections, which opportunity he was eventually denied. Was it a deluded ego that lead him to return to Pakistan, or did the Army in the event let him down?
He must be wondering why he came back to Pakistan. I wonder if Zardari is wondering about his own fate to come.