The problem with the Geneva Communique from the first Geneva round on Syria is that the government of Syria never subscribed to it. It was jointly chaired by the League of Arab States for Syria, whatever that may mean. Another problem is that it is, as so many diplomatic documents are, highly ambiguous. It plainly advocates a power sharing executive formed by some of the current government plus the opposition to oversee a transition to democracy. But it does not state which elements of the current government, and it does not mention which elements of the opposition, nor does it make plain if President Assad himself is eligible to be part of, or to head, the power-sharing executive, and whether he is eligible to be a candidate in future democratic elections.
Doubtless the British, for example, would argue that the term transition implies that he will go. The Russians will argue there is no such implication and the text does not exclude anybody from the process. Doubtless also diplomats on all sides were fully aware of these differing interpretations and the ambiguity is quite deliberate to enable an agreed text. I would say that the text tends much more to the “western” side, and that this reflects the apparently weak military position of the Assad regime at that time and the then extant threat of western military intervention. There has been a radical shift in those factors against the western side in the interim. Expect Russian interpretations now to get more hardline.
Given the extreme ambiguity of the text, Iran has, as it frequently does, shot itself in the foot diplomatically by refusing to accept the communique as the basis of talks and thus getting excluded from Geneva. Iran should have accepted the communique, and then at Geneva issued its own interpretation of it.
But that is a minor point. The farcical thing about the Geneva conference is that it is attempting to promote into power-sharing in Syria “opposition” members who have no democratic credentials and represent a scarcely significant portion of those actually fighting the Assad regime in Syria. What the West are trying to achieve is what the CIA and Mossad have now achieved in Egypt; replacing the head of the Mubarak regime while keeping all its power structures in place. The West don’t really want democracy in Syria, they just want a less pro-Russian leader of the power structures.
The inability of the British left to understand the Middle East is pathetic. I recall arguing with commenters on this blog who supported the overthrow of the elected President of Egypt Morsi on the grounds that his overthrow was supporting secularism, judicial independence (missing the entirely obvious fact the Egyptian judiciary are almost all puppets of the military) and would lead to a left wing revolutionary outcome. Similarly the demonstrations against Erdogan in Istanbul, orchestrated by very similar pro-military forces to those now in charge in Egypt, were also hailed by commenters here. The word “secularist” seems to obviate all sins when it comes to the Middle East.
Qatar will be present at Geneva, and Qatar has just launched a pre-emptive media offensive by launching a dossier on torture and murder of detainees by the Assad regime, which is being given first headline treatment by the BBC all morning
There would be a good dossier to be issued on torture in detention in Qatar, and the lives of slave workers there, but that is another question.
I do not doubt at all that atrocities have been committed and are being committed by the Assad regime. It is a very unpleasant regime indeed. The fact that atrocities are also being committed by various rebel groups does not make Syrian government atrocities any better.
But whether 11,000 people really were murdered in a single detainee camp I am unsure. What I do know is that the BBC presentation of today’s report has been a disgrace. The report was commissioned by the government of Qatar who commissioned Carter Ruck to do it. Both those organisations are infamous suppressors of free speech. What is reprehensible is that the BBC are presenting the report as though it were produced by neutral experts, whereas the opposite is the case. It is produced not by anti torture campaigners or by human rights activists, but by lawyers who are doing it purely and simply because they are being paid to do it.
The BBC are showing enormous deference to Sir Desmond De Silva, who is introduced as a former UN war crimes prosecutor. He is indeed that, but it is not the capacity in which he is now acting. He is acting as a barrister in private practice. Before he was a UN prosecutor, he was for decades a criminal defence lawyer and has defended many murderers. He has since acted to suppress the truth being published about many celebrities, including John Terry.
If the Assad regime and not the government of Qatar had instructed him and paid him, he would now be on our screens arguing the opposite case to that he is putting. That is his job. He probably regards that as not reprehensible. What is reprehensible is that the BBC do not make it plain, but introduce him as a UN war crimes prosecutor as though he were acting in that capacity or out of concern for human rights. I can find no evidence of his having an especial love for human rights in the abstract, when he is not being paid for it. He produced an official UK government report into the murder of Pat Finucane, a murder organised by British authorities, which Pat Finucane’s widow described as a “sham”. He was also put in charge of quietly sweeping the Israeli murders on the Gaza flotilla under the carpet at the UN.
The question any decent journalist should be asking him is “Sir Desmond De Silva, how much did the government of Qatar pay you for your part in preparing this report? How much did it pay the other experts? Does your fee from the Government of Qatar include this TV interview, or are you charging separately for your time in giving this interview? In short how much are you being paid to say this?”
That is what any decent journalist would ask. Which is why you will never hear those questions on the BBC.
Live from Kiev and the 7th circle of hell.
http://rt.com/on-air/ukraine-kiev-police-protesters/
@ John Goss
Somewhile ago you (ably) translated an unpleasant sentence in Russian from Usbstan or some similar name.
As you’ve often spoken out for transparency and openness, would you be inclined to share with us when, where and why you took the trouble to learn Russian so well?
A list of six more outrages for just one day. Imagine the hurt caused and the resentment felt if it was happening to us here.
Israel approves more illegal settlement homes
NEWS / Source: Al Jazeera / Thursday, 23rd January, 2014
Government approves 381 new homes near Ramallah, bringing to 2,530 the number of new homes signed off this year.
Israeli settlers uproot, steal 800 olive trees near Ramallah
NEWS / Source: IMEMC / Thursday, 23rd January, 2014
A group of Israeli settlers on Wednesday uprooted 800 olive saplings planted by Palestinian farmers in the village of Sinjel.
PA ministry condemns Israeli attack on Al-Quds campus
NEWS / Source: Ma’an News / Thursday, 23rd January, 2014
The Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education on strongly condemned an Israeli raid on Al-Quds University campus in Abu Dis.
Samer al-Issawi’s Home Raided
NEWS / Source: IMEMC / Thursday, 23rd January, 2014
An Israeli force raided former prisoner Samer al-Issawi’s home in the Issawiyeh District of occupied east Jerusalem, local media said.
Israeli airstrike kills 2 Palestinians in Gaza
NEWS / Source: Ma’an News / Thursday, 23rd January, 2014
An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip including one accused by Israel of ordering rocket attacks.
http://www.foa.org.uk/
Why the secrecy? Do they know that the people are getting what’s going on?
De Blasio, in Private Speech to Aipac, Stresses Commitment to Israel
By KATE TAYLOR
JAN. 24, 2014
Mayor Bill de Blasio gave an unannounced speech at a gala of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby group, in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night, assuring its members that “part of my job description is to be a defender of Israel.”
The appearance at the New York Hilton was not listed on the mayor’s public schedule, and a reporter who tried to attend was escorted away by security.
The seemingly secretive nature of the mayor’s appearance led to questions on Friday about the transparency of Mr. de Blasio’s young administration, especially given the mayor’s repeated pledges during last year’s campaign to oversee a more open and inclusive City Hall than his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.
Mr. de Blasio, facing sharp inquiries from reporters on Friday, offered a measured mea culpa, saying he would urge aides to be more careful to inform the public about his whereabouts.
“We do owe you a clear understanding of where I am and what I’m doing,” the mayor said at a news conference in the Blue Room at City Hall.
The mayor noted that the organizers of the event, held at a Midtown hotel, had requested that no journalists be allowed to attend. He said that, “in many cases,” he would make his remarks available to the public in instances where the press was not given access.
/..
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/nyregion/de-blasio-in-private-speech-to-aipac-stresses-commitment-to-israel.html?_r=0
Last time I saw him, he was red in the face shovelling snow. Heart attack imminent I thought if he didn’t watch it.
MARY, at 16h28, mentioned the UN Human Rights Council in a favorable way, presumably because it is dealing with a report condemning Israel for various misdemeanors.
I wonder if MARY would agree with me that the credibility of this Human Rights Council would be greatly enhanced if it did not include, as present members, the following bastions of human rights and freedoms and good governance:
Algeria
China
Congo
Cuba
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Morocco
Pakistan
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
FYRPM
United Arab Emirates ?
(Ghoulishly) charming as ever, Mary writes the following about Mayor Bill de Blasio
“Last time I saw him, he was red in the face shovelling snow. Heart attack imminent I thought if he didn’t watch it.”
_________________________
I can think of some one else who’s in line for a heart attack if she keeps shovelling her anti-Israel obsession onto every single thread so unremittingly. The only question would be : death through paroxysms of rage or grief?
There is a silver lining in every cloud.
I used to live near John Milton’s cottage in Chalfont St Giles. He went there to escape the plague.
John Milton coined the phrase ‘silver lining’ in Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634
‘I see ye visibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill
Are but as slavish officers of vengeance,
Would send a glistering guardian, if need were
To keep my life and honour unassailed.
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
I did not err; there does a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night,
And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.’
Hold on to your hats, again. The smoke is clearing from the mirror.
Emerging-Market Slide Deepens
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303448204579340480156732234
‘A slide in emerging-market currencies, bonds and stocks broadened Friday, stoking investors’ fears that a pullback from these countries was just getting started and would hit strong and weak economies alike.
This week’s drop in emerging-market assets hasn’t matched the full-blown panic selling of last summer. But it is being guided by a growing conviction among investors that a shift in global growth—driven by developed, rather than developing, countries—will pull down all emerging markets, from the most vulnerable economies such as Turkey to sturdier economies like Mexico.’
Histrionic voices from China Mary. They may be on the verge of another meltdown such as that from the US in 2008.
Some correction on currency being rumored. These things usually are done on weekends, so if you have cash in the bank you might want to pull out. I hope I am not being unduly negative, but I have squirreled some cash like nuts in the winter 🙂
Peter Dale Scott
http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott
At your leisure, Mary.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-24/5-things-ponder-weekend-valuations-triggers-inequality
“Halt doch mal die Klappe, Du…” In case you’re traveling abroad and are in need of proper Germanic phrases.
Anata wa hontou ni yapari baka desuyo!
@ Ben,
Too many elected officials with their hands tied behind their backs and their balls squeezed by Zionists/Dual Israel Firsters.
The Difference Between Judaism and Zionism.
But AIPAC’s loosing ground: Top Israel Lobby Group Loses Battle on Iran, But War Not Over, BDS’ gaining traction, so there’s a sliver of hope.
Just to Repeat…Guano –
“I’ve a mind to add BrianFujisan to my list of trolls for this idiotic comment above: “f free and fair elections were held tomorrow in Syria ……President Assad would likely win.”
AFTER the word ‘win’ above, THE REST READS –
This is the result of the ethnic and religious minorities in Syria that have rallied behind President Assad, since they’ve witnessed the consistent religious sectarian atrocities committed by the U.S.-backed rebels (which the U.S. media loves to ignore or minimize).
Assad would probably win an election since there is also simply no one else on the government side or the opposition side with his name recognition or popularity. The U.S.-backed rebel war in Syria has vastly strengthened Assad’s political hand, but you wouldn’t know it from the Western, anti-Syrian media.
Demanding Assad’s ouster also does not reflect the situation on the ground. The U.S.-backed rebels have never controlled more than one Syrian city, namely Raqaa, which is dominated by al-Qaeda and is governed under a Taliban-style interpretation of Islamic law, which includes a strict ban on music. Thus, the rebels don’t have the ground power that would even enable them to make the demand that “Assad must go
Guano…out of respect for Jon, and Craig i’m not going into a war of words…. But Shame on you, for calling Nevermind a Troll, then trying to back it up…i have actually met Nevermind and his Lovely Wife, thoroughly Decent People.
June 15, 2013
“Deutsche Bank, 60 times Over-Leveraged and a $72 trillion Derivative Exposure”
https://alternativeeconomics.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/deutsche-bank-60-times-over-leveraged-and-a-72-trillion-derivative-exposure/
January 19, 2014
“German watchdog plans to step up FX probe at Deutsche: report”
http://wkzo.com/news/articles/2014/jan/19/german-watchdog-plans-to-step-up-fx-probe-at-deutsche-report/
Jan. 20, 2014, 5:53 a.m. EST
“Deutsche Bank latest to count the cost of bank probes
Posts €1 billion loss after taking charge for legal costs”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/europes-big-banks-count-the-cost-of-probes-2014-01-14
“The Missing TRILLIONS: Where The RICH & MIGHTY Hide The CASH. Tax Havens EXPOSED”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd2QVvWc6Nw
A couple of Sections from a piece by Ajamu Baraka For Global research.
That is why commitment to regime change, rather than to a peace based on Syrian realities and the needs of the Syrian people, is the price of admission to this week’s conference in Montreux, Switzerland. It is a conference that it would be more accurate to call a ‘war conference’ rather than a ‘peace conference’ due to U.S. Secretary of State Kerry’s insistence on keeping the scope of the agenda confined to the terms of the Geneva I communique, which calls for a political transition in Syria.
“On January 16, Kerry restated the U.S. position on Geneva 2. ”It is about establishing a process essential to the formation of a transition government body — governing body — with full executive powers established by mutual consent,” he told reporters.
The consent of whom? Who assumes power and will a new government represent the aspirations for democracy, civil liberties, workers’ rights, respect for religious and community difference that the “revolution” promised or is Syrian’s future already written from the Libyan experience?
There are now voices inside and outside the Administration saying that the U.S. should abandon the Syrian National Coalition and work instead with the Salafi-Wahhabi fundamentalists who have joined together under the umbrella of the Islamic Front (IF) and are being presented as the “moderate” alternative to the radicalism of al-Qaeda. However, the Syrian people, who have a history of secularism and respect for different religions, have not signed on to a post-Assad society and government ruled by a group that has publically stated its opposition to democracy and intention to establish an Islamic state under Sharia law.
But who cares what the Syrian people want? It does not seem to matter to the U.S. that supporting Salafi-Wahhabi fundamentalism is the antithesis of the justification it gave for supporting the “revolution” against al-Assad. It does not matter because in the end the interests of the Syrian people are of little concern to these policymakers who prioritize U.S. imperialist interests above every other consideration.
In the long annuls of crimes by U.S. and Western imperialism, the slow, protracted destruction of the Syrian state, including the tens of thousands of lives sacrificed, is starting to emerge as one of its most significant crimes. It can be listed with crimes like the Christmas season carpet bombing of North Vietnam in 1972 and the millions murdered in Iraq during the period of sanctions and full-blown military attack.”
More from this piece @
http://www.globalresearch.ca/geneva-ii-us-orwellian-subterfuge-al-qaeda-acts-as-americas-boots-on-the-ground-in-syria/5366145
Nevermind
‘exposing their simple minds’
Exactly right they have simple minds that see through the Liberal froth of the West. Brian Fujisan again blows my simple mind by referring to democratic numbers in relation to Syria. Whatever has democracy got to do with a tyrant? Do you think the democracy of Iraq has been an improvement on the autocracy of CIAddam?
Assad forces regularly pulled people out of their homes and murdered them or carted them off for torture. Every protest was genocidally put down. It is absolute and complete Islamophobic wishful thinking to imagine that the Syrian people would ever vote for him.
Or, as they say in liberal circles, the next government of Syria are going to be Muslim – Get over it.
Just for the fkn record… when i met Nevermind and his Wife…i was wearing middle East type head gear…..A chief Joseph t shirt… and open shirt Sporting Japan Embroidery… and yet Nevermind and his wife, were, within a short time ( half hour )..offering me a bed… if i’m down south…But that’s Real people for ya.
Who are the Real War Criminals?
The underlying intent of this latest propaganda dribble is to present the Syrian government as a criminal entity while at the same time whitewashing the real war criminals, those who have committed extensive war crimes against the Syrian people.
Western governments and their allies –including the US, Britain, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar– have blood on their hands. They are directly responsible for triggering a humanitarian disaster. This is a war of aggression using terrorism as a diabolical instrument of conquest.
Western Handlers of Al Qaeda are War Criminals
We are dealing with staged intelligence ops: The atrocities committed by the various Al Qaeda terrorist entities integrated by foreign mercenary forces were ordered by their Western handlers who share full responsibility for these horrendous crimes.
In a twisted logic, the crimes directly ordered by Western military alliance are casually blamed on the government of Bashar Al Assad. The victims of war are blamed for the crimes committed by the aggressor nations.
The Al Qaeda rebels are paid killers, they follow orders, they are trained by Western, Saudi and Qatari special forces. They are sent in as part of an intelligence operation. Those responsible for these horrendous crimes are the heads of State and heads of government of NATO and GCC member states.
The Western military alliance is pressuring Syria to surrender and accept “regime change”. If these conditions are not met, they threaten to send in more terrorists.
plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…….
‘The usual refrain is that Westminster cannot make RBS and Lloyds do things differently because, in order to survive, these banks need to behave like other competitors: generating as much profit and paying their staff as much.
This argument may be right if the existing business model of British banks and other financial companies is fine. But it is not. It is a business model that has caused the biggest financial crisis in 70 years and created imbalances and inequalities that threaten the future viability of the British economy. The fact that the political class, including Miliband himself, cannot even imagine state-owned banks ditching such a model is a testimony to the power of the financial industry lobby.
From the day when RBS and Lloyds were bailed out, the Labour government was at pains to emphasise it would run them along the same lines as before nationalisation. The only thing for which Labour and, subsequently, the coalition government have used the government’s dominant shareholding position has been to restrain bonuses. But this is really missing the point.
The problem with bonuses in the financial industry is not about their levels – if someone makes a huge contribution to the economy, he or she should be richly rewarded. The main problem is that these bonuses are given to people for doing the wrong things well – things that harm the economy in order to enrich the shareholders, the top managers of banks and other financial firms.’
[..]
‘Unfortunately, few regulations have been introduced since the crisis that have materially changed the goals of financial companies. The result has been “business as usual”.
All those complex and risky financial products that were at the centre of the 2008 financial crisis – such as mortgage-backed securities, collateralised debt obligations, credit default swaps and other financial derivatives – are back in vogue again.
The credit rating agencies, whose incompetence and cynicism in rating those financial products has become legendary after the crisis, are still operating in the same way.
Thanks to Help to Buy, the mortgage-lending market is nearly back to its old self. Now you can get loans that are 95% equal to the value of the house – not quite the 125% you could get before the crisis, but nearly there.’
The Banking Industry’s Biggest Problem isn’t Bonuses or Market Share
Ha-Joon Chang
The Guardian, January 21, 2013
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/the-banking-industrys-biggest-problem-isnt-bonuses-or-market-share
Jon / Craig Alcanon’s 5 mins edit time is a brilliant idea….
COS…i forgot a link –
http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-who-are-the-real-war-criminals/5366179
Well said Brian for both of your earlier posts. But why were you awake?
Now here’s a job opportunity for someone in these financially straitened times.
Palace Seeks Housekeeper To Run Baths
The Royal Household has put out an advert for a “meticulous” new member of staff to join its team at Buckingham Palace.
http://news.sky.com/story/1200754/palace-seeks-housekeeper-to-run-baths
Well someone’s got to do it. You can’t expect them to turn the taps.
Try getting HSBC to hand over your own money! Who do they think they are? They have probably got the wind up ever since they were done for money laundering in the US.
HSBC imposes restrictions on large cash withdrawals http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25861717
At the bottom of that page is this little snipper about BLiar’s pal Jamie Dimon (Diamond?)
Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of the banking giant JP Morgan, saw his pay increase to $20m (£12.1m) for 2013, according to the company
What is a snipper? Snippet!
@ Mary
“At the bottom of that page is this little snipper about BLiar’s pal Jamie Dimon (Diamond?)”
______________________
I suppose that the “(Diamond?)” is your courageous way of hinting that he’s Jewish?
And then various Eminences deny that there is a nasty undercurrent of anti-semitism on this blog……
PS – his parents were Greek (Greek Orthodox, to reassure you)
***************
“Life is getting better, life is getting merrier!” (J. Stalin, ca. 1932)
Further Allegations of US War Crimes in Fallujah
by Felicity Arbuthnot / January 24th, 2014
The United States Marine Corps … its hallowed rituals, and its unbending code of honor…
— Thomas E. Ricks, Making the Corps, 1997
As the US-unleashed Grim Reaper continues to cull Iraqis in ever rising numbers, this month of the 23rd anniversary of the 1991 US-led onslaught on Iraq and just weeks away from the 11th woeful wake for the 2003 illegal invasion, yet another atrocity in a litany of those under the illegal US-UK occupation has come to light.
Fallujah, now under attack from US installed tyrant Nuri al Maliki’s sectarian militia, armed with US supplied weapons, with the US also “… looking to provide additional shipments of Hellfire missiles to Iraq … as well as ten Scan Eagle drones and forty eight Raven drones” (Guardian, January 7, 2014), now another previously unreported US war crime of the myriad heaped on the city in 2004, also returns to haunt them.
The Americans invaded, chillingly “house to house, room to room”, raining death and destruction on the proud, ancient “City of Mosques.”
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/01/further-allegations-of-us-war-crimes-in-fallujah/
Terrible. These atrocities were and still are ongoing as Kerry strode the corridors of the Montreux Palace Hotel mouthing the word ‘peace’ before heading off to join the crooks and gangsters at Davos.
Some here will not like this piece written by Philip Weiss of Mondoweiss about Jewish power in the US. I assume the author knows what he is talking about.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/10/liberals-like-to-deceive-themselves-about-jewish-power.html
When I saw the headline, I thought that it referred to Sir John Scarlett late of MI6 and the JIC.
No. It’s the Oxfam/Sodastream supporter, actress Scarlett Johansson. Her agent had better extricate her from the mess before her career follows the same path as the Sodastream share price.
Scarlett and Oxfam chat over Palestinian land loss
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/01/scarlett-oxfam-palestinian.html
~~~
The spooky Scarlett is now on the board of Murdoch’s Times. That fits.