Syria and Diplomacy 2917


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.

 

 

 


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2,917 thoughts on “Syria and Diplomacy

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  • Anon

    Doug,

    We were discussing Thatcher and pits closures. I quoted some widely acknowledged statistics from the Commenter website. Your response was to write that the Commenter is a Zionist hasbara site. I’ve no idea of the Commenter’s stance on Israel, but the fact that you find it relevant to a discussion about UK coal production before and during the Thatcher era speaks volumes.

  • mark golding

    Anon – you remind me of politicians in general – the propaganda and lies that highlight the absurdity of our so called representative democracy.

    ‘war crime’ – your words [propaganda?]

    Lies – I have faith in one women who knew the facts relating to the sinking of ARA General Belgrano, the Geographer of the Royal Navy, Diana Gould.

    http://belgranoinquiry.com/article-archive/diana-v-maggie

    Remember not one British serviceman had been killed on May 2nd 1983 when the torpedoes sped towards Belgrano. As a naval insider I know Mrs Thatcher spoke to her commanders at Northwood headquarters who thought taking out the cruiser was a great way to test ‘Tigerfish’ that we had feverishly prepared at MSDS Portsmouth and also a ‘tour de force’ that would keep the Argentinian navy in harbor (Belgrano had a crew of 1000 men).

    It would be a ‘slam dunk’ because GCHQ had intercepted her communications on the 29th April and satellite intel showed she had ‘wooden crafted ‘Exocet’ missiles, no sonar or depth charges too boot.

    Thatcher also knew there would not of course be any peace agreement after such a devastating attack.

    It was I’m afraid another ‘red line’ piece of sh*t we recently concluded in Syria.

  • doug scorgie

    Dieudonne the French comic has been banned from entering Britain.

    “The Home Office has declared the performer persona non grata and warned he will not be allowed into the country. It has alerted airlines, other transport companies and border officials that the performer, whose stage name is Dieudonne, is an “excluded” individual. A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Mr Dieudonne is subject to an exclusion order.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/03/dieudonne-banned-uk-nicolas-anelka-quenelle

  • Anon

    No one cares, Mark. The Argentine invasion was an aggressive, unprovoked attack on a British possession – all the inhabitants supported Britain and no natives were turfed out, so it’s as clear cut a case for war as there ever has been. I’m afraid that even Argentine top naval brass admit that the Belgrano was a legitimate target, being a war ship in a war zone and all that. You’ll have to try harder to find dirt on the country you despise so much.

    “As a naval insider I know…”

    Oh dear. First your claims of being in contact with an SAS officer operating out of Dubai and now this. I’m calling you Walt Golding from now on!

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    John Goss

    You will get round to answering my question of 19h35, won’t you?

  • mark golding

    You are entitled to your opinion Anon and some of us do care. Britain had secretly been negotiating with Argentina for some time before the war and still are – over oil and gas.

    Far from despising, I love my country and her people, defended her from a young age and helped design/build some of her weapons.

    Who told you here that Syria was a proxy war using foreign fighters trained in Qatar nearly three years ago? What are you pushing for, the name of my contact?

  • Anon

    Yes Mark, it’s your contact’s name we want. Just hand it over and we’ll give you a safe house and a new identity. Will Walt Golding do?

  • Black jelly

    Bah, they dont want to take the bait, OK so what about the last few ballpoint pen written chapters of the Diary of Ann Frank, is that a good enough boilie?! Will it be enough to pull one more yarmulke to our side or do they want to remain on the side of satanyahu who just bore false 8200 witness to the false flag gassing of 400 children to get the RAF to bomb Syria?

  • Mary

    More shame falls on this benighted country as our involvement in the Amritsar massacre is finally revealed following all the denials. How shabby.

    UK advised India before temple raid
    UK military advice was given to India before the 1984 Golden Temple attack but it had “limited impact”, the foreign secretary says.
    Hague: Temple raid statement Watch Indian media: UK ‘link’ in Golden Temple raid
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26027631

    ‘But Lord Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, called Mr Hague’s statement “smug and condescending”.

    On the claim that UK advice had a “limited impact” of the Golden Temple attack, Lord Singh said: “It is like saying that I had only a minimal involvement in a massacre or a holocaust.”

    He said the language in the documents was “insulting” to Sikhs – suggesting they were all extremists – and the UK’s real motivation in assisting India was keeping its arms contracts.’

    ‘David Cameron ordered the review last month after Labour MP Tom Watson said he had seen papers from Margaret Thatcher “authorising Special Air Services (SAS) to work with the Indian government”.

    Mr Watson cited two letters released under the 30-year rule. He said a 1984 letter from the prime minister’s office stated that a British adviser had “visited India and drawn up a plan” which had been approved by the Indian government.

    Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said “serious questions” remained about British involvement, and called for all relevant documents to be released.’

    Heywood’s findings

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/277292/Cabinet_Secretary_report_to_PM_on_allegations_of_UK_involveme….pdf

  • Someone

    “And in other news… “In 2006, in the months after Mr. Clinton’s visit helped secure Giustra’s company the right to mine uranium in Kazhstan, Mr. Giustra donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation. This figure is at variance with the one released by the William J. Clinton Foundation (on the 18 December 2008), as part of an arrangement with President-elect Barack Obama. It reports Frank Giustra as giving between US$10–25 million.” source: Wikipedia”

    http://tradewithdave.com/?p=20007

  • mark golding

    Anon – Give me a safe house – thankyou!

    Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Cabinet
    has recently agreed in principle[Dec 2013] the creation of regional Protected Persons Units, as part of the existing regional crime arrangements – the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs).[Sentinal Vol. 2]

    The ACPO is of course a private company which means members of the public cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to scrutinise its operations.

    Interestingly it has recently evaluated a high power electromagnetic device that can stop the engine of a modern car by confusing the ECU or engine control unit.

    Probably knock-out your smart-phone and bluetooth at the same time.

  • Mary

    War Crimes Tour of Palestine
    by Vacy Vlazna / February 4th, 2014

    At the black heart of Israel’s 65-year destruction of Palestine is the Jewish National Fund (JNF) which once went by the more germane, Jewish COLONIAL Trust; an opportunistic real-estate jackal that has aggressively engaged in Zionist chicanery throughout the ancestral land of Palestine.

    From its inception in 1901, JNF’s mission of the theft of Palestinian land for the Jews-only Greater (Eretz) Israel is racist, colonial, criminal (colonial expansion is a war crime under Article 8.2(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute) and bloody.

    Max Blumenthal writes:

    JNF director Yosef Weitz was instrumental in hatching Plan Dalet, the campaign to ethnically cleanse at least 400 Palestinian villages and expel their residents in 1947 and 1948. After the war of 1948, Weitz orchestrated the planting of hundreds of thousands of non-native trees west of Jerusalem to cover up the scores of villages that had just been ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias.

    These days, to cover up its criminal activities, JNF has reinvented itself as ‘the caretaker of the land of Israel on behalf of its owners–Jewish people everywhere’. To promote this benign image of the normalisation of ethnic cleansing, JNF offers tours and missions of Israel that are “intensely emotional, educational and spiritual experiences” of Orwellian Newspeak and war crime whitewash.

    /..
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/02/war-crimes-tour-of-palestine/

  • Kempe

    “Mr Dudley was speaking as head of BP – a multi-national corporation. ”

    Whether you like it or not the opinions of multi-nationals matter. BP is the biggest investor in the North Sea and directly employs 2,500 people in Scotland (and indirectly supports thousands more). It won’t do an independent Scotland any good to make it difficult for BP, or anyone else, to operate efficiently within its borders.

  • Kempe

    Mark; from the very end of you link:-

    “Yet the fact that the Belgrano was sailing west at the time of her sinking is now universally acknowledged to be immaterial to whether or not the decision to sink her was correct or not. To over-simplify: ships on patrol sail back-and-forth. Hector Bonzo – the captain of the Belgrano – admitted that they might turn back west. The day before her sinking she had been ordered to attack the British fleet, an order that was only cancelled hours before she was sunk. Admiral Molina Pico, former head of the Argentine navy, admitted that she had been part of a co-ordinated attack on the British Fleet and was only holding off looking for a better opportunity. During the questioning Thatcher asserted that documetns due to be released in 30 years would show that she was right – and they did, since they showed that signals had been intercepted ordering the Belgrano back towards the Falklands.

    Everything that has come out since this interview shows that on this single issue, Thatcher was right, Gould was wrong.”

    Conqueror fired three Mk VIII torpedoes at the Belgrano, Tigerfish was not used. Some accounts claim this was because Tigerfish was regarded as being unreliable.

  • doug scorgie

    Anon
    4 Feb, 2014 – 8:05 pm

    You say:
    “I’ve no idea of the Commenter’s stance on Israel…”

    Somehow I don’t believe you: but just in case I’m wrong, go to the home page and have a look:
    It says:
    “We argue that now is not the time for big government; it’s not the time to bow before tyrants, dictators or terrorists; and it’s not the time to abandon our only true ally in the Middle East: Israel.”

    By the way it’s the Commentator not the Commenter (my mistake)

    Then you say:
    ”…but the fact that you find it relevant to a discussion about UK coal production before and during the Thatcher era speaks volumes.”

    It is relevant to a discussion on UK coal production because The Commentator is a right-wing anti-union propaganda site as well as a Zionist supporting site.

    Why do you think what I said “speaks volumes”?

    Volumes about what?

    Please elucidate.

    Please don’t interrupt Habbabkuk

  • doug scorgie

    Capitalism

    The “engine driver” of the capitalist train is a get rich or die gambling addict prepared to take out the whole planet in pursuit of that BIG WIN!

    He has disabled the breaking system and won’t listen to passengers who are screaming at him to slow down.

    Constant growth in economies is akin to an increase in the speed of the train which, to the driver, represents success.

    Climate change; destruction of the environment; crop failures; water shortages; poverty for the majority and all the conflict and war that will follow doesn’t matter.

    By the way there is no speed limit (de-regulation).

    It’s going to end in a big crash where the driver and all the passengers die.

    The passengers are the 99% ers, the driver is the 1% er.

    We can’t have democracy slowing things down can we?

    The driver will go to the big casino in the sky but with the conviction that he honestly believed he was doing the right thing.

  • mark golding

    Thanks Kempe – It is a pointless argument to deny the sinking of Belgrano was anything but ‘a legitimate act of war against a ship involved in “co-ordinated attack” on the British fleet that had temporarily been cancelled to await a better opportunity.

    That said I agree with Diana Gould for two important reasons:

    1. The Peruvian peace plan must have been known to Francis Pym and thus Mrs Thatcher before the attack on Belgrano.

    2. I strongly believe that Mrs Thatcher steered into a war by signalling to the Junta that we no longer wanted to defend the Falklands. She was saleswomen for a military Industrial Complex as is agent Cameron and Ed Millibane.

    3. Admiral Woodward firmly believed that British submarines should be under his control because of “..quickly changing circumstances that would require very early action.”[Steven Harper AD-A279-554]. He was over-ruled by Northwood & Thatcher.

    Tigerfish was unreliable in the deep running Mod0 version and a redesign lead by Marconi working with AUWE on Portsdown Hill produced the Mod1 with surface running capability and later the Mod2 which improved reliability.

    Tigerfish had the best sonar in service.

    Admiral Woodwards greatest fear was the loss of his aircraft carrier or ‘airfield’ for British planes. He said he would, “not be able to continue the war unaided if this platform was lost.”

    RIP my best mate ‘eggy’ HMS Sheffield 4 May, 1982
    RIP Dave Strickland HMS Coventry 25 May, 1982

    Captain David Hart-Dyke suggested in his book that his destroyer was unable to defend itself against Argentinian air attacks and was in fact put in the position of decoy for the main landing force.

  • BrianFujisan

    Sorry for your losses Mark…

    And indeed you are a man of HIGH Tolerance… taking the time to explain these things…

    Re thatcher… Aye she was Evil… Blair, Cameron, and the Fucking Rest….

    It’s all Stepping Stones….

    Cameron Knew a Long time ago that he would be P.M…he was Chosen at least 20 years ago –

    By Patrick Haseldine

    Patrick Haseldine is a former British diplomat who was dismissed by the then foreign secretary, John Major, in August 1989. He is often referred to as the “Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies”.

    After 25 years study of the topic Patrick Haseldine reveals the shocking truth.

    A little over two weeks ago, my wife and I were seated beside the flower bedecked pulpit in a packed Westminster Abbey.

    There was an eerie hush as Big Ben’s muffled chimes tolled 7:00 pm – the exact moment 25 years earlier when Pan Am Flight 103 was sabotaged over Lockerbie in Scotland on 21st December 1988.

    All 259 passengers and crew were killed, as were 11 people in the town. The names of the 270 Lockerbie bombing victims were listed alphabetically in the Order of Service, and five relatives took it in turns to read them out.

    Thus it was Jane Swire, mother of victim Flora and wife of Dr Jim Swire, who read the name of the 43rd victim on the list: Bernt Wilmar Carlsson.

    United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, was Lockerbie’s highest profile victim, yet the authorities and the media never mention him. Why?

    As comedian Kenneth Williams used to say: “I think the answer lies in the soil.”

    More specifically, I believe the answer lies in the processed uranium ore (Yellowcake) that was illegally extracted from Namibia in the period 1976 to 1989. A TV documentary film in March 1980 described succinctly what was going on:

    “World In Action investigates the secret contract and operations arranged by British-based Rio Tinto Zinc Corp to import into Britain uranium (Yellowcake) from the Rössing Uranium Mine in Namibia, whose major shareholders are the governments of Iran and South Africa.

    “This contract having received the blessing of the British government is now compromising the UK’s position in the United Nations negotiations to remove apartheid South Africa from Namibia, which it is illegally occupying.”

    Thatcher “proud to be British”

    Within four months of the Lockerbie disaster, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher decided to make a whistle-stop tour of southern Africa, and found time to visit Namibia’s Rössing Uranium Mine where she was accompanied by David Cameron, then a youthful Conservative Central Office researcher.

    Mrs Thatcher was so impressed by the Rössing Uranium Mine that she declared it made her “proud to be British”.

    While Mrs Thatcher was in Namibia, she put improper pressure on the UN’s man, Martti Ahtisaari, head of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group, to permit the South African Defence Force (SADF) to take action against SWAPO soldiers who were peacefully returning to Namibia to vote in the November 1989 independence elections.

    As a result, as many as 308 SWAPO soldiers were killed – “shot in the back” according to former SADF major Nico Basson.

    Whether Mrs Thatcher could have persuaded UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, to agree to such treachery we shall never know since Mr Carlsson was assassinated fifteen weeks earlier, on 21st December 1988.

    On 9 September 2013, the London-based Hammarskjöld Commission reported that there was “significant new evidence“ about the plane crash that killed United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and recommended that the adjourned 1962 UN Inquiry should now be reopened.

    UN Assistant Secretary-General Bernt Carlsson was the highest profile victim on Pan Am Flight 103 which was sabotaged over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988.

    Since Bernt Carlsson’s death has never been investigated, the British Government should propose extending the remit of the new UN Inquiry to cover the deaths of both senior diplomats: Dag Hammarskjöld and Bernt Carlsson.

    Up To their fkn necks in it Evil Thatcher…Evil Blair… Evil Cameron…..

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-downing-of-flight-103-over-lockerbie-it-was-the-uranium/5364222?print=1

  • guano

    Mark Golding

    ‘Interestingly it has recently evaluated a high power electromagnetic device that can stop the engine of a modern car by confusing the ECU or engine control unit.’

    Thanks Mark, maybe that’s why my expert VW mechanic can’t find the fault that’s knocked out my van’s engine after a week of trying.

  • Mary

    More of the UK’s creeping fascism.

    Photographers fear police image seizure will soon be easier
    By Chris Cheesman
    3 February 2014

    UPDATE 4 FEBRUARY: Press photographers fear police will find it easier to legally seize images if a key part of the Deregulation Bill, which receives its second reading in the House of Commons today, becomes law.

    The British Press Photographers’ Association (BPPA) has joined other media groups, including The Newspaper Society, in condemning the bill.

    NEWS UPDATE 4 FEBRUARY: Bill ‘clears first Commons hurdle… unaltered’, reports BBC

    They are concerned that it will allow a judge to authorise police seizure of photos and other journalistic material without the media being present to raise any objections.

    /..

    http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/photo-news/540381/photographers-fear-police-image-seizure-will-soon-be-easier

    ‘It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest.’
    Harold Pinter Nobel Literature Prize speech 2005. If only we had another Pinter alive now.
    http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html

  • fred

    “Yes that’s true Fred; which makes Dudley’s intervention political and designed to frighten off the undecided voters of Scotland.”

    Well of course it’s political, just like Salmond telling the voters there will be monetary union is political.

    Only difference is that when the head of BP says monetary union is far from certain he’s telling the truth.

  • Beelzebub (La Vita è Finita)

    “Nobody can support anybody anymore. The unions have been divided and conquered.”

    I must admit it’s hard to support Bob Crow while he suns himself in Brazil on his £145k salary.

    That argument’s not restricted to unions, is it?

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/457756/Tim-Yeo-deselected-by-his-constituency-party-as-2015-election-candidate

    Some details on Yeo’s ~ £140K (plus his MP’s salary) income here…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9473917/Climate-committee-chairman-Tim-Yeo-under-pressure-over-industry-links.html

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