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.
“DWP guidance on £2,275 wage incentive for youth jobs in Adult [sex] Entertainment Industry [ #job2014 ]”
http://refuted.org.uk/2014/02/06/pornjob/
Video
When Tony Blair met Harry Patch
Written by Heathcote Williams on 18 August 2013.
On 6 June 2006, Tony Blair posed with Harry Patch, no doubt seeing a flattering photo opportunity with the longest surviving soldier from World War 1. “War is organised murder,” Harry told Blair, who only three years earlier had taken Britain into the illegal Iraq war. Blair scuttled away.
http://noglory.org/index.php/when-tony-blair-met-harry-patch
Brilliant poet.
In total ignorance of the advice dear old Harry Patch gave to us, we are on this wrong road to death and destruction.
http://news.sky.com/story/1207191/taranis-uk-armed-drone-prototype-revealed
http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/2/5/287180/default/v1/cegrab-20140205-192019-380-1-942×530.jpg
What evil.
“What evil.”
Its what rules the world, always has done!.
Grahame Morris is the new chair of Labour Friends of Palestine.
This is him speaking yesterday.
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)
I am grateful to Sir Tony Baldry for bringing the debate to this Chamber and to right hon. and hon. Members for their contributions to it. It has been worth while, although I recognise the limitations of Back Benchers.
I want to make a few remarks. I first make my declaration in reference to the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am concerned, because anyone who speaks up for justice for the Palestinians and speaks out against the abuses of human rights is characterised by the pro-Israeli lobby as anti-Semitic, an apologist for terrorists and a holocaust denier or worse. None of that is true, however, of hon. Members speaking here on humanitarian grounds in favour of a fair deal for the inhabitants of Gaza. I object most strongly to the vilification of hon. Members, including me, when we speak up on these issues.
It is clear that, for 1.7 million people—men, women and children—living on this tiny strip of land, Israel’s military blockade has meant economic collapse, extreme
poverty and shortages of food and medical supplies. Gaza is indeed suffering. To suggest that this is a natural disaster simply beggars belief. As the occupying power, Israel should be held to account by the international community. It is important that we Back-Bench MPs hold our Ministers to account and that our Ministers hold the Israelis to account for their actions.
Mr Duncan, the International Development Minister, cited an International Monetary Fund report in the House of Commons last year, saying that the blockade and other restrictions imposed by the Israelis cost the Palestinians 78% of their GDP. These people deserve a future and the opportunity to prosper.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2014-02-05a.106.0&s=speaker%3A24715#g125.3
“This is all very much on the hush-hush. Barely reported in the international media, Henry Kissinger, the man with arguably more blood on his hands than any other human being alive today, snuck through German customs over the weekend to speak at the 50th edition of the Munich Security Conference — an event that attracts Masters of War from across the globe to discuss the security challenges and, of course, opportunities of our age.”
http://ragingbullshit.com/2014/02/04/the-prince-of-darkness-is-back/
“What evil.”
From my local PSC
I have just received a copy of an article in a major Swiss paper which is very interesting. A summary translation follows. You might note in particular what an executive of SodaStream said to the journalist anonymously.
It is working!
====== Le Temps 1 Feb 2014 ======
This major Swiss newspaper had the following article by Serge Dumont in Tel Aviv (summary translation):
Israeli companies want peace
Sixty top Israeli executives, including for instance Microsoft, have paid for large panels to be placed in all the main towns asking Netanyahu to accelerate peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
This is because the BDS actions are beginning to impact on their position. Key industrial leaders joined him in Davos, and on his return he announced the formation of a special ministerial committee to counter the boycott.
In the industrial zone of Barkan 25km from Tel Aviv, one of 20 such opened in the Palestinian Territories since 1967, the bosses of 120 companies are well aware that their golden age has passed. Already, in 2010, several big factories have relocated to Israel proper, for instance Mul-T-Lock, global specialist of armoured doors and security locks, and the Unilever producer of biscuits.
“We are beginning to feel the cold wind” declared anonymously a manager of SodaStream, installed in Mishor Adumim. “Until now we were not bothered but in last months Dutch, German, British and North European pension funds have sold the shares of big enterprises working in Palestinian Territories. Commercial banks are beginning to ask embarrassing questions, and this frightens us. That is why these companies have decided to get actively engaged for peace, even though most of them have done well out of the occupation since 1967”.
At present 600 companies employing 5,000 Palestinians are implanted in the Occupied Territories. Their output is less than 1% of Israeli exports, insignificant but highly symbolic.
“Now some European clients demand a declaration that we have no links with the army” revealed Moshe N., manager of a facility making kitchen implements near Tulkarem. “The wind has turned, we have to prove our innocence to obtain contracts
::::
I would dispute the use of the term ‘Israel proper’ above.
@Goss
“One day Mary there will be philosophers running economies who make statements like:
“War is when a government tells you who the enemy is. Revolution is when you work it out for yourself.””
Yep just what we need people who think they are philosophers because they dream up a stupid slogan running our economies – though I daresay you think it works pretty well in your Rothschild free North Korea.
@Mary
“Google Blair Topless in images but make sure you specify Tony otherwise you get Linda in all her glory.”
This says so much about you – dear old Tony makes you sick but you still had to ogle his body in the line of duty?
You must be joking there in your last line. It was to prove that the Wail photo was a photoshop. Don’t try using your dirty tricks on me.
Blair is a hollow man,simply the hired help to the kleptocrats.
Same as Rebekah Brooks’ real gig was to fix Cameron for her masters.
Same as Wendi Deng and her role to fix Blair for Murdoch.Probably a divorce of convenience;that pair are probably still hand in glove.
Blair is their puppet,owned outright.
The TB photoshop DM guff/Wendi Deng gossip distraction is just that.
Some serious power plays are afoot,debts being collected,ownership of souls confirmed,chess pieces being lined up.
Lotta high level bankers jumpin’ recently.
There is a connection.
Serious shit ahead.
‘Yep just what we need people who think they are philosophers because they dream up a stupid slogan running our economies’ (English as a Second Language Only)
http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php
Like these? Granted, the pig-ignorant, blase and overbearing Bullingdonites might feel rather insulted to be described as philosophers, but they seem to feel entitled to run things.
http://mydavidcameron.com/posters/ashcroft3
I expect everyone is sick of hearing about these paedophiles going through the courts system. One of this pair was also a coward and caused great shock and trauma to a train driver.
The former headmaster of a school attended by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has been jailed for eight years for sexually abusing pupils.
Roland Peter Wright, 83, of Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire, abused five boys at Caldicott Preparatory School between 1959 and 1970.
He was found guilty of assaulting five pupils aged between eight and 13.
His sentencing went ahead despite the death of another former teacher who had been due to appear with him.
Hugh Henry, 82, apparently threw himself under a train on Tuesday.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26073155
“I expect everyone is sick of hearing about these paedophiles going through the courts system.”
So why tell us? I am glad that they are going through the courts however,
“If you read the report fully you will find that the 1000 cancers per year over the last 2 years in Gaza is an INCREASE in cancer rates. ”
Doesn’t say that at all, it says there were an average of 1000 cancers per year over the past two years.
In 2013 12% of deaths in Gaza were due to cancer, much lower than most parts of the developed world (30% in Australia for example) moreover, Cancer rates in Gaza are also in line with other Arab countries in the region. Dr. Khalid Thabet, head of the Oncology Department at the Hamas government-run Shifa Hospital in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that “the rate of cancer in the Gaza Strip is the same in Egypt, Jordan and among Arab citizens of Israel – i.e., 60 to 70 cases per 100,000 citizens.”
YESLO, some of us can differentiate between truth and the lies the Bullingdonites running the country tell. Thanks for that Beelzebub (La Vita è Finita).
The video of that debate yesterday on the Humanitarian Situation in Gaza has now been restored to include the first hour which has been missing all day!
Here it is. http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=14727
Watch out for James Clappison, arch Zionist, later on. He is the son of a Yorkshire farmer and is now vice 9chair of the Conservative FoI. Wonder why he has this obsessive interest and support for Israel?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5324625/James-Clappison-claims-100000-but-owns-24-houses-MPs-expenses.html
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10106
I liked this comment on Medialens about another Bullingdon boy. My link below the comment.
Neat point made on legitimacy of the vote…
Posted by MikeD on February 6, 2014, 4:41 pm, in reply to “Boris Johnson to blame for tube strike”
Neat point made on legitimacy of the vote
Johnson noted that, although 76% of RMT members who voted backed strike action, turnout had been 40%, equating to just 31% of the electorate.
Johnson’s re-election as mayor was with 44% of those voting in a 38% turnout, adding up to just 17% of Londoners eligible to vote.
~~~~~
LOL
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1201536/Let-tell-secret-Bullingdon-posturing-David-Boris-Oxford-contemporary-looks-decadent-image.html
My attempt at a Cameron poster.
http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php?poster=625453
“The same Hedge Fund fate that doomed Greece may yet befall Denmark.”
http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/wiping-out-the-whistleblowers-four-jumpers-a-missing-person-spell-panic-in-the-establishment/
“Goldman Sachs in Denmark”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/03/goldman-sachs-in-denmark/
From the Resident Denigrator
“I would dispute the use of the term ‘Israel proper’ above.”
_______________________
Why would you dispute that term?
Are you one of those people who believe Israel shouldn’t exist?
One of the “drive them into the sea” brigade?
“Cancer rates in Gaza are also in line with other Arab countries in the region. Dr. Khalid Thabe.Dr. Khalid Thabet, head of the Oncology Department at the Hamas government-run Shifa Hospital in Gaza, told Al-Monitor that “the rate of cancer in the Gaza Strip is the same in Egypt, Jordan and among Arab citizens of Israel”
_________________________
An excellent point, Kempe.
I made a rather similar one regarding the water consumption rate by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Which is higher than that enjoyed by neighbouring Arab states!
The Eminences choked on that one as well, you may remember.
Mary, Clappison’s first two voting entries show where he’s coming from:
How James Clappison voted on key issues since 2001
“Voted moderately against university tuition fees.
Voted for raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year.”
What a twat!
Mr Goss
“..the Bullingdonites running the country…”
__________________
Well, there’s PM Cameron and the Mayor of London. They were indeed members of the Club and they could be said to be among those ‘running the country’.
Who else were you thinking of?
Mary squawks, like one of the Capitol geese :
Watch out for James Clappison, arch Zionist….. Wonder why he has this obsessive interest (sic)and support for Israel?
Habbabkuk roars :
Watch out for Mary, arch pro-Palestinian….Wonder why she has this obsessive interest in and support for Palestine?
I call him Smoothface John. He does look very s m o o t h in that photo.
I rather liked this version on that website It is true.
http://mydavidcameron.com/images/cam-nhs1b.jpg
I note the chief troll comes to life around 7pm GMT and sometimes early in the morning after which there is a gap. Any clues there as to location??
btw He is getting his species a bit mixed up. He must be thinking of my hens who do ‘squawk’ from time to time. What a silly troll! And useless too.
“Ecuador Pulls Out of Regional Mutual Defense Treaty”
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/117375-ecuador-pulls-out-of-regional-mutual-defense-treaty
Clappison has done his masters’ bidding. The most important vote in bold.
How James Clappison voted on key issues since 2001
Voted moderately against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices.
Voted moderately for laws to stop climate change.
Voted very strongly against the hunting ban.
Voted moderately for reforming the NHS so GPs buy services on behalf of their patients.
Voted strongly for increasing the rate of VAT.
Voted very strongly for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system.
Voted moderately for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits.
Voted moderately for reducing central government funding of local government.
Voted a mixture of for and against equal gay rights.
Voted strongly against a more proportional system for electing MPs.
Voted moderately for a stricter asylum system.
Voted strongly for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”).
Voted very strongly for the Iraq war.
Voted very strongly for an investigation into the Iraq war.
Voted very strongly for an equal number of electors per parliamentary constituency.
Voted strongly against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability.
Voted a mixture of for and against automatic enrolment in occupational pensions.
Voted moderately for encouraging occupational pensions.
Voted moderately against more EU integration.
Voted a mixture of for and against a smoking ban.
Voted strongly for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU.
Voted moderately against restricting the provision of services to private patients by the NHS.
Voted strongly for greater autonomy for schools.
Voted very strongly against allowing ministers to intervene in inquests.
Voted moderately for a transparent Parliament.
Voted strongly against introducing foundation hospitals.
Voted moderately against Labour’s anti-terrorism laws.
Voted strongly against introducing ID cards.
Voted moderately against university tuition fees.
Voted for raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year.
Voted strongly against removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
Voted moderately for a wholly elected House of Lords.
Voted very strongly for fewer MPs in the House of Commons.
The effect of the two votes he made for NHS privatision will be felt in a few years hence.