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.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
27 Jan, 2014 – 10:29 pm
“Mary is currently homing in on actresses.”
Habbabkuk why the plural “actresses” when you know only one actress is at issue?
“Tip to Mary : some actresses are…..Jewish!!”
Yes Habbabkuk Scarlett Johansson is Jewish but does that matter?
If she is advertising Soda Stream for personal remuneration only, it is important that it be brought to her attention the activities of that company in the illegal settlements of the West Bank and pressure should be put on her to stop her endorsement of the firm.
Her Jewishness is not an issue. There are no anti-Jewish racists on this blog.
“Loretta Fuddy”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/60406
“There are no anti-Jewish racists on this blog.”
Only because you are defining being anti-Jewish as not being racist I fear.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
27 Jan, 2014 – 11:00 pm
To Herbie about Saddam and Assad:
“Presumably, if you think that the West was mistaken to consider them to be goodies, then you should welcome the fact that the West changed its mind and subsequently thought of them as baddies.”
The west has never been “mistaken” about dictators and tyrants; they support the ones conducive to western interests and depose the others; both positions cause great suffering for the people involved.
It is the nature of animals (and humans are of the animal kingdom) that the powerful exploit the weak.
The emergence of civilisation and democratic institutions was supposed to prevent such exploitation. Sadly that is not the case in reality.
The US and other western nations gang together and use their collective power to exploit the weaker emerging nations for their own gains; just as happens in the animal world.
Dog eat dog; survival of the strongest.
What happened to humanity?
James Corbett and co discuss some of the curiousities surrounding the Snowden affair, voicing some scepticism about how the story has been sold:
http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-813-jimenez-secker-corbett-roudtable-on-snowden-james-bond/
Meanwhile here’s Snowden’s latest interview on German TV:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f93_1390833151
It should be remembered that there have actually been more significant whistleblowers than Snowden in very recent years and you don’t hear so much about them.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
27 Jan, 2014 – 11:03 pm
“John, you treat us to your views on many things. So why do you decliunbe to answer this question?”
Pissed again Habbabkuk?
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
28 Jan, 2014 – 3:45 pm
“PS Suggestions for the collective nouns for royal residences?
How about : “a National Heritage” ?
Sorry Habbabkuk not valid grammatically.
How about a thievery of royal residences?
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/01/syria-and-diplomacy/comment-page-3/#comment-439040
My family tree is my own business. I am not in the public domain like Ms King who is a parliamentarian and a legislator, neither am I in a position to vote for offensive wars against other nation states like Ms King.
She is yet another hypocrite.
Her voting record as an MP.
Voted very strongly for introducing ID cards.
Voted very strongly for a stricter asylum system.
Voted very strongly for equal gay rights.
Voted very strongly for university tuition fees.
Voted very strongly for removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
Voted very strongly for a wholly elected House of Lords.
Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals.
Voted very strongly for the Iraq war.
Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war.
Voted for encouraging occupational pensions.
Voted a mixture of for and against laws to stop climate change.
Voted moderately for Labour’s anti-terrorism laws.
Voted very strongly for the hunting ban.
Voted a mixture of for and against a smoking ban.
Has never voted on a more proportional system for electing MPs.
Has never voted on replacing Trident.
Voted moderately against greater autonomy for schools.
Pal of Ann Clwyd too infamous for these lies/allegations against Saddam Hussein.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein's_alleged_shredder
On 22 January I said:
‘I am reliably informed that ESLO was once one of the many “Anons” here, then “I am the lizard Habbabkuk” and then “For the return of Habba and Free Speech”. Perhaps ESLO could verify that this is correct.’
On the following day Eslo replied with this paranoid remark.
‘Mary I’m not sure why you are asking me, who you no doubt consider to be a unreliable source, to confirm what you have been told by a source you deem to be reliable. Nevertheless, the changes in the handles I used were all pretty well documented at the time. Interesting all this suggests that Mary and others have some form of network outside this blog – perhaps this is why they assume that their opponents behave in a similar co-ordinated manner. I do trust that I am on the list of those to dealt with come the Revolution – I wouldn’t want to be left off.’
LOL as the saying goes.
Mary
You have patently failed to answer my question as to why Oona King’s family history (and family life for that matter) is of any relevance to her political views. You are being the hypocrite in expecting that right for yourself but not for Oona King.
Mary
Be assured that I do not need any help or encouragement from anyone to attack your dubious methods. Just answer my question as to why Oona King’s family history (and family life for that matter) is of any relevance to her political views?
More on Sodastream
Channel 4’s new series The Jump began last night. The series is sponsored by SodaStream, which has a factory located in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim (the factory is in the settlement’s industrial sector, Mishor Adumim). This is the web homepage for The Jump, with ‘Sponsored by SodaStream’ prominent on the right hand side: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-jump
More info on the deal: http://www.thedrum.com/node/138266
Please write to Channel 4 to point out the inappropriateness of signing a sponsorship deal with a company whose factory is located on stolen land, whose water resources are stolen (80% of the water drilled in the West Bank goes to settlements), which pays taxes to an illegal settlement thereby helping it to grow and sustain itself, whose presence in the West Bank, along with the settlements, helps to destroy the Palestinian economy, and whose complicity in the theft of Palestinian land means there is little or no land left for a Palestinian state?
The settlement of Ma’ale Adumim is built on the land of seven destroyed Palestinian villages – Abu Dis, Azarya, Atur, Issauya, Han El-Akhmar, Anata and Nebbi Muss.
The email address to write to is: [email protected]
It’s highly unlikely that Channel 4 will pull out of the sponsorship deal at this point, and, contractually, probably can’t do so.
However, registering a high volume of complaints about this deal should make them think twice about working with SodaStream again, and this will be important in the BDS campaign against SodaStream.
If you’re interested in PSC’s current campaigns against SodaStream (including targeting John Lewis), please see our latest update: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/pscupdate20140102/
ESLO asks:
“why Oona King’s family history (and family life for that matter) is of any relevance to her political views”
Normally we’d expect that such background info would be of central importance in shaping one’s political views.
In the US and other places such details are usually gone through with a fine toothcomb.
But you find this strange. I wonder why.
Perhaps it’s that you don’t have much in the way of expectations in this machine politician world. King certainly seems to have voted along the lines dictated by Blair Central Command, but I’d certainly argue that we need more politicians who think for themselves, so it was great to see her booted out at election. Central Command ignores things like democracy though and foisted her upon us again, initially through promoting her gob in media at every available opportunity and then by giving her an unelected seat in the upper legislature.
She certainly does appear to have had a gilded public life, in her short career. I’m not sure I’ve noticed anything from her that one would lead one to expect her having such greatness thrust upon her, so what is it?
But you find this strange. I wonder why.
I find it strange because it was of no relevance whatsoever to the views that Mary expressed about her politics.
“email from Prof. Dr. Ebrahim Afsah Faculty of Law University of Copenhagen to Corsera students”
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=5ff38c67999ca06e31f17a6351128dcd&showtopic=21000&hl=
ESLO
How can you argue that Oona King’s background played no part in the formation of her political views, when she herself has used her background as the frame for her political views?
Fred
“If your savings are whittled away by inflation…..”
_______________
Inflation is theft of a sort, to be sure. But who are the thieves? Some might feel that among the thieves are those who demand wage increases the increase which are out of line with their productivity increases.
@ Mr Scourgie
“Habbabkuk why the plural “actresses” when you know only one actress is at issue?”
_____________________
As always I’ll limit myself to correcting you on points of fact.
If you would care to look back more carefully, I think you’ll find that Mary has slagged off Scarlett Johansson and Susan Sarandon. That makes two actresses, I believe.
I didn’t actually know that Scarlett Johansson was Jewish; Mary probably didn’t either, as I find it difficult to believe that she would not have made mention of this damning fact (ref. former MP Oona King, cf. above)
“Inflation is theft of a sort, to be sure. But who are the thieves? Some might feel that among the thieves are those who demand wage increases the increase which are out of line with their productivity increases.”
Oh dear. Habby obviously hasn’t noticed that the only significant wage increases over the past 20 odd years have been at senior corporate level.
Mary says (not a quote, for once..) art 10h48
“It is obvious that 9/11 was a set up.”
_________________
That’s interesting. I believe this is the first time you’ve written that?
One honourable gentleman who appears to have the best of qualities for being an MP is Mike Thornton M.P. Eastleigh. He has raised questions about electrical safety in private rented housing and about mental health issues. I wanted to add my thoughts to the former, that electrical testing should be like an MOT, Pass or Fail, recorded officially. No letting and no insurance until a Pass is achieved.
But they said I would have to write to own MP, war criminal, gravy trainer, New Labour slime merchant. Huh! Today my van had to have a new Crank Sensor. Its going to set off flashing orange lights whenever I start to get angry.
Were we really concerned about multicultural outcomes in public and other significant areas of life, as Ms King claims to be herself, then we’d have to look at how differing communities are represented.
You know like are some communities under represented, and if so how can we explain this, and are other communities over represented, and if so how can we explain that.
There was much talk during the Blair regime about Scots over running the place. In N. Ireland it’s Catholics everywhere you look. During the Thatch regime there was talk about the number of Jews in her cabinet, mostly from other Jews who were concerned that such prominence in such numbers was a tad inyerface.
But, these are legitimate areas of concern if we’re to take multiculturalism seriously.
No sniggering at the back…
@ Herbie
“Oh dear. Habby obviously hasn’t noticed that the only significant wage increases over the past 20 odd years have been at senior corporate level.”
___________________
You are right to some extent, although I would extend the list of beneficiaries slightly (eg, doctors, solicitors, estate agents, etc etc).
But I am old enough to remember noticing the high inflation of the 1960s and 1970s (I believe it was 25% in 1975?) and that was certainly caused by large groups of industrial and public sector workers gaining high wage increases without any corresponding increases in productivity.
@ Mr Scourgie:
“What happened to humanity?”
_______________________
To go by the posts on this blog, my suspicion is that it has been hijacked by you and your fellow-Eminences and that there is none of it left over for anyone else. You haven in effect, created a monopoly in humanity. Am I warm?
Sheik Yamani and the rise in oil prices were the much bigger factor in inflation by the 1970s, and there were certainly massive rises in productivity in the post-war period. That’s what it was all about, at least until Germany and Japan got their engine going again.
There was obviously a lot of borrowing in the post-war period, a massive increase in the money supply and the fall in sterling which increased the price of imports.
Summary of Israeli Violations of International Law in 2013
The year 2013 witnessed over 20,000 severe violations against the occupied State of Palestine and its people, who have suffered a number of violent attacks and incursions at the hands of Israel, the occupying power. These violations include attacks by both Israeli authorities and settlers, along with home demolitions, arbitrary arrests and the ongoing construction of illegal settlements.
Since the resumption of negotiations at the end of July 2013, Israel has announced almost 6200 new settlement units, throughout the occupied State of Palestine.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/summary-of-israeli-violations-of-international-law-in-2013/5366646
Herbie
“Sheik Yamani and the rise in oil prices were the much bigger factor in inflation by the 1970s, and there were certainly massive rises in productivity in the post-war period. That’s what it was all about, at least until Germany and Japan got their engine going again.”
_________________
That’s a bit of an amalgam, isn’t it?
UK inflation in the 1960s, ie BEFORE the first oil price rise (which was anyway a rather modest one compared to what followed)??
Massive rises in productivity in the UK (remember, we’re talking about the UK) –
some good rises in the 1950s, much less impressive in the 1960s and 1970s.
What is that last sentence of yours supposed to mean?
Do you have any idea of the percentage wage rises that were demanded and then obtained through strikes or the threat of strikes in the 1960s and even more the 1970s?
Tell us something we don’t know Mr Brahimi.
BREAKING NEWS:UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi says he doesn’t expect to achieve “anything substantive” in first round of Syria talks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25953278
Perhaps next time, if there is a second round, Kerry and co will not wade in with their hostile rhetoric and demands for President Assad to go.
Aye Mary …A bunch of Complete worms the lot of them…with Washington sending a delegation to G2… after the bastards had already voted SECRETLY to send more arms and Money to the terrorist canibals…ahh sorry “Moderates”….they are happy to see the carnage continue… makes me sick….
Congressional lawmakers have quietly authorized sending small arms, an assorted variety of rockets, and financial backing to so-called “moderate” rebels fighting in Syria’s civil war, according to a new report.
American and European security officials told Reuters that the US will provide anti-tank rockets, but nothing as deadly as shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles (known as MANPADs), which can be used to bring down military or civilian aircraft.
US Congress secretly approves sending small arms to ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels
Legislators voted in closed-door meetings to fund the opposition forces through September 30, the end of the US government’s fiscal year. The decision is an about-face from congressional debates last year, in which the same committees were reluctant to supply arms over concerns that American weapons would wind up in the hands of radical Islamists fighting in the region, the Al-Qaeda-backed Al-Nusra being the most well known.
http://rt.com/news/congress-approves-weapons-syria-secretly-270/
Craig’s piece is referred to in this Medialens thread http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1391013660.html
concerning a Sunny Hundal advocating military intervention in Syria. The BBC has accommodated his warmongering.
Syria: Call for UK military intervention from Sunny Hundal
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25934705
Who is this Sunny Hundal and what are his antecedents? Anyone know?