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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  • mike

    I saw that, Fred. But if you look back at the recorded solar cycles there’s one helluva correlation between solar activity and long harsh winters and poor summers.

    Is there a “pause” in AGW or is there not?

  • fred

    “I saw that, Fred. But if you look back at the recorded solar cycles there’s one helluva correlation between solar activity and long harsh winters and poor summers.”

    I remember last summer as being remarkably good and this winter so far extremely mild, haven’t had any snow to speak of and hardly a frost so far.

    2013 was the fourth hottest year on record and we haven’t had a below average year since 1976.

  • Resident Dissident

    Fred

    Read the whole post there has been no democratic mandate in any bit of Palestine since 2010.

  • fred

    “Read the whole post there has been no democratic mandate in any bit of Palestine since 2010.”

    But there was in 2006.

    If democracy doesn’t give the people the government they vote for what use is it?

  • technicolour

    Honest to goodness, free Gaza and Snowden, but Mary and Habbakuk: from an observer’s point of view you are both being equally provocative and impolite.

  • BrianFujisan

    Omar Barghouti has spoken of Israelis’ view of Palestinians as only “relatively human”….And, along with countless examples what else could this be called –

    A Palestinian worker working for an Israeli contractor, without work permit, was seriously injured at a renovation site in Tel Aviv, and instead for calling for professional medical help, the Israeli contractor dragged him onto the ground and left him to die on the sidewalk. –

    http://www.imemc.org/article/66130

    But this notion of inferior peoples aint new…. whilst historians attempt show some racists in a glowing light…such as –

    Theodore Roosevelt…

    America’s first twentieth century president, alleged American hero, and Nobel peace prize recipient, Theodore Roosevelt. This Indian fighter firmly grasped the notion of Manifest Destiny saying that America’s extermination of the Indians and thefts our their lands “was ultimately beneficial as it was inevitable”. Roosevelt once said, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth”. (Stannard, Op.Cit.)

    Thomas Jefferson…

    In 1812, Jefferson said that American was obliged to push the backward Indians “with the beasts of the forests into the Stony Mountains”. One year later Jefferson continued anti-Indian statements by adding that America must “pursue [the Indians] to extermination, or drive them to new seats beyond our reach”

    more @

    http://www.greatdreams.com/lies.htm

    But back to The Plight of Palestinians…We see it all the time…the Cowards of Israeli army’s mistreatment of Palestinian children….

    Here is Video that shows them up…By Australian channel ABC

    The 45-minute investigative film concerns the Israeli army’s mistreatment of Palestinian children. Along the way, it provides absolutely devastating evidence that the children’s abuse is not some unfortunate byproduct of the occupation but the cornerstone of Israel’s system of control and its related need to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society.

    Video @

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/israelis-army-mistreatment-of-palestinian-children-australian-tv-dares-to-show-the-real-occupation/5368452

  • Someone

    “Two Dead As Venezuela’s Anti-Goverment Protests Turn Bloody – Live Feed”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-12/two-dead-venezuelas-anti-goverment-protests-turn-bloody-live-feed

    “Document Evidences Destabilization Plan Against Venezuela”

    http://www.chavezcode.com/2013/11/document-evidences-destabilization-plan.html

    “State Department Confirms Authenticity Of Intercepted Ukraine Phone Call: Accuses Russia Of Dirty Tricks”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-06/state-department-confirms-authenticity-intercepted-ukraine-phone-call-accuses-russia

    “CIA and the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddeq”

    http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=20367&hl=iran

    “John Pilger: Cause for optimism, 40 years on from Chile coup”

    https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/55010

  • John Goss

    Habbabkuk, I made a pledge to myself before I went out. Either you answered the question I posed, which your hardly attempt, or you would never hear from me again. Consider this my last message to you.

    Actually I think you are a prize twat, but everybody deserves a chance, and I tried to give you one after you were banned for abuse. Anybody who believes that the torture and killing of people in Guantanamo and Bagram is legal and moral does not deserve the consideration of anybody. People with such viewpoints are evil. Do not try to communicate with me again. I deafed you out once. This time it is permanent as far as I’m concerned.

    A piece of advice. Nobody needs to answer your provocative questions. I tried to get some commonsense from you over a long period. You are a troll. You will get no response from Mr. Goss again, you evil believer in torture and killing. It would not matter whether you were Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Australian aboriginal, Phillipino or Russian. Anybody who believes the killing and torture of anybody is legal is a twat. Wear the cap.

  • Irish butter

    Someone ;Was reading that same info today and wondered how much of this is external in origin.

    I think we all know.

  • A Node

    Mary 12 Feb, 2014 – 8:23 pm

    “What a girl! Lorde. Her speech at the Grammy’s.”

    I was checking out this story earlier today. I can’t be sure but it looks to me like a wind-up. Everybody seems to be referencing the same source – the snoopman.wordpress.com site. It doesn’t smell right. I’d lay a small bet it’s a hoax or a PR stunt.

  • Clark

    Mike, 12 Feb 10:46 pm: from what I’ve read, atmospheric temperature hasn’t risen much recently, but the oceans have continued to warm and more ice has melted than water frozen. Water and ice both have greater specific heat capacity than air, so more heat is still being accumulated.

    So no, global heating hasn’t paused.

    Anyone claiming that CO2 isn’t heating our world would have to explain how. The physics of CO2 heat retention are well understood, and the increase in CO2 concentration is easily measurable. This also defeats the argument “but human CO2 production is insignificant in comparison with emissions from volcanoes”; we measure an ongoing increase in CO2 concentration, but volcanoes never had that effect on their own. We know that the increasing CO2 concentration is caused by humans burning carbon-based fuels, and we know that CO2 traps more solar radiation.

    In short, if you put on a coat you expect to get warmer; you only need a good explanation if you don’t warm up.

  • mark golding

    N.B. Maybe it is the twelve week internet communication and information analysis, modified ‘creative disruption’ course that young IS recruits’ with strong social networking and composition skills are required to take as part of their psyops assessment.

    http://webscience.blogs.usj.edu.lb/files/2011/07/poster.pdf

    ‘Intelligent Flaming’ is the focus of this ‘crew’ and I give an example here:

    “Pigs will fly and Mary’s cocks will suddenly start laying eggs before you get her opinion on that. I’ve a fiver on it if you’re game.”

    We break this down into “Pigs will fly” -which invokes weakness and shame on the target association ie “[Mary]’s cocks will suddenly start laying eggs”

    “I’ve a fiver on it if you’re game.” – Create a gamble and a challenge at the same time.

    Good psychological posts that can invoke response and/or taedium vitae ending up dark.

    Maybe it is good to keep that light shining.

    Also playing sympathetic ‘good cop bad cop’ or the psychology of persuasion is often used to support the ‘principal’ and manipulate the direction of the thread.

    It’s all good fun…

  • Clark

    Resident Dissident, 12 Feb 9:56 pm, thanks for informing me that elections in Palestine are overdue. You wrote:

    “…although Hamas may have been democratically elected back in 2006 its mandate ran out in 2010 and since then no Palestinians have been elected…”

    Not just in Gaza? Please clarify. I’d appreciate links, too.

    My own view is that the election of Hamas was an understandable reaction to (1) the extreme oppression within Gaza and (2) Gazan perception of a sell-out by the alternatives. This compounds the problem in that criticism of Hamas serves as useful propaganda for the pro-Israeli cause, thus helping to lock the conflict in place; Israel and its supporters can cry “look! They’re all terrorists! They elected terrorists! We’re justified in treating them as sub-human!”

    Conflict serves expansionist Israeli ambitions, therefore Israel cultivates conflict. And the US bankrolls Israel, which makes money for US corporate elites. The Gazans have least choice at all; Israel wouldn’t lower the blockade even if Gaza did elect a moderate government.

  • Mary

    Up to your old game again Technicolour? You were last seen on an October 2013 page of the ill-fated Edward Snowden thread doing much the same and having a go at me and others. I greatly resent your earlier remark last night. It is unfounded.

  • Mary

    Both Mike Whitney and Paul Craig Roberts have similar analyses of the US attempt to use Ukraine as a proxy in their attack for domination over Russia.

    Secret Tape Reveals US-backed Plot to Topple Ukraine’s Democratically-Elected President
    Caught Red-Handed

    by MIKE WHITNEY

    “In the latest debacle for the US State Department and the Obama Administration, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was caught on tape micro-managing Ukraine opposition party strategies with US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. That the Ukraine regime-change operation is to some degree being directed from Washington can no longer be denied….The taped conversation demonstrates in clear detail that while Secretary of State John Kerry decries any foreign meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, his State Department is virtually managing the entire process.”

    – Daniel McAdams, “‘F**k the EU’: Tape Reveals US Runs Ukraine Opposition“, Ron Paul Institute

    Washington is at it again, up to its old tricks. You’d think that after the Afghanistan and Iraq fiascos someone on the policymaking team would tell the fantasists to dial-it-down a bit. But, no. The Obama claque is just as eager to try their hand at regime change as their predecessors, the Bushies. This time the bullseye is on Ukraine, the home of the failed Orange Revolution, where US NGOs fomented a populist coup that brought down the government and paved the way for years of social instability, economic hardship and, eventually, a stronger alliance with Moscow.

    That sure worked out well, didn’t it? One can only wonder what Obama has in mind for an encore.

    Let’s cut to the chase: The US still clings to the idea that it can dominate the world with its ham-fisted military (that hasn’t won a war in 60 years) its scandalized Intel agencies, its comical Rambo-style “Special Ops” teams, and its oh-so-brilliant global strategists who think the days of the nation-state will soon be over hastening the onset of the glorious New World Order. Right. Ukraine is a critical part of that pipe dream, er, strategy which is why the US media puts demonstrations in Kiev in the headlines while similar protests in the US are consigned to the back pages just below the dog food ads. In any event, the crisis is likely to intensify in the months ahead as Washington engages in a no-holds-barred tug-o-war with Moscow over the future of civilization.

    /..
    http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/02/12/caught-red-handed/

    ~~~

    Washington Orchestrated Protests Are Destabilizing Ukraine
    by Paul Craig Roberts / February 12th, 2014

    The protests in the western Ukraine are organized by the CIA, the US State Department, and by Washington- and EU-financed Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that work in conjunction with the CIA and State Department. The purpose of the protests is to overturn the decision by the independent government of Ukraine not to join the EU.

    The US and EU were initially cooperating in the effort to destroy the independence of Ukraine and make it a subservient entity to the EU government in Brussels. For the EU government, the goal is to expand the EU. For Washington the purposes are to make Ukraine available for looting by US banks and corporations and to bring Ukraine into NATO so that Washington can gain more military bases on Russia’s frontier. There are three countries in the world that are in the way of Washington’s hegemony over the world–Russia, China, and Iran. Each of these countries is targeted by Washington for overthrow or for their sovereignty to be degraded by propaganda and US military bases that leave the countries vulnerable to attack, thus coercing them into accepting Washington’s will.

    /..
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/02/washington-orchestrated-protests-are-destabilizing-ukraine/

  • Mary

    More of the same. Again and again the Palestinians are betrayed. It is yet another sell-out. What role has the high maintenance Quartet Envoy played in this? Shame on Kerry and the rest.

    John Kerry peace plan “to recognise Israel as a Jewish state”

    John Kerry’s framework agreement for Middle East peace will describe Israel as the state of the Jewish people, it has reported, despite fierce Palestinian opposition

    By Robert Tait, Jerusalem
    11 Feb 2014

    An outline Middle East peace agreement being drawn up by John Kerry will propose recognising Israel as a Jewish state, according to a leaked report, in a development that represents a major coup for the Israeli leadership but which risks an outright Palestinian rejection.

    Mr Kerry, the US secretary of state, has overridden vocal Palestinian objections in stipulating that Israel’s Jewish character should be an explicit part of a final status accord, the conservative Israeli newspaper, Maariv reported.

    /..

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10631293/John-Kerry-peace-plan-to-recognise-Israel-as-a-Jewish-state.html

  • Mary

    An advertorial here by the BBC for privatisation of a public service, this time the Fire Service.

    The reporter omits to mention the price of the contract awarded to SGI. It was £680,000 pa from 2012 – 2015.

    He asks the question ‘Why is Surrey outsourcing flood rescues?’ but fails to provide any good reason or justification for Surrey CC awarding the contract.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26160456

    This is the Fire Brigade Union response.

    Surrey fire contract branded as ‘disgraceful’
    31 Oct 2012

    A NEW fire contract that will see public money going into private hands, when cuts are being made to the service, has been branded “disgraceful”.
    http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/surrey-fire-contract-branded-disgraceful-4808827

  • Rabbi Ovadia

    Its that pesky map of disappearing green Palestinian areas since 1947 thats causing all this argy bargy here at this blog, I wish we could make Bantustan denial a holohoax crime as well, to shut up these uppity dumb goyim here. Dont they know the Talmud is way better than the bible/koran, the sanhedrin are promised 72 Thai ladyboys in Hell whilst the muzzies only get 72 virgins, militant gayboy Victor at Betfair will vouch for the better deal.

    BTW mod the solution is simply to delete the paid shills narrative after habba has spent hours penning it,they do that at VT, the sanhedrin will go away.

  • Mary

    Ariel Sharon: Another War Crime Surfaces

    By Jonathan Cook

    February 12, 2014 “Information Clearing House – Forty-two years late, another Israeli war crime emerges from the shadows. In this case, dozens, and more probably hundreds, of Israeli soldiers kept a decades-long vow of secrecy. One of them is Shlomo Gazit, today a respected (in Israel, at least) academic at Tel Aviv University.

    In January 1972, Ariel Sharon decided that 3,000 Bedouin were in the way of a massive military exercise he wanted to conduct in the southern Negev and northern Sinai. So he summarily expelled two tribes in the el-Arish area of the Sinai from their homes, during a deep winter spell. At least 40 people died, mostly babies, children and the elderly.

    A young army researcher, Clinton Bailey, heard from other Bedouin of the expulsion and went to meet the families. He photographed 28 small graves at their new makeshift location.

    He then brought the expulsion to the attention of the head of the army, David Elazar. Although Elazar ordered the tribes to be returned to their land, it was too late for the dozens who had died. No action was taken against Sharon or anyone else. In fact, Sharon’s military and later political career prospered on such “exploits”.

    Bailey and everyone else covered up the crime for four decades, fearful of the damage it would do to Israel’s reputation. The silence has been broken now because Bailey divulged the incident to journalist David Landau, who was preparing a new biography of Ariel Sharon.

    /..

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37631.htm

    PS War Criminals on TV thread now closed.

  • Beelzebub (La Vita è Finita)

    Res Diss – ‘Although Hamas may have been democratically elected I fail to see how that gives it a mandate to carry out the human rights abuses detailed in the HRW report linked to by ESLO.’

    That one cuts both ways, doesn’t it? At least Hamas isn’t pretending to the world that it is a civilised state ready to join the EU and lecture everyone else on human rights.

    http://www.btselem.org/

    ‘And although Hamas may have been democratically elected back in 2006 its mandate ran out in 2010 and since then no Palestinians have been elected or have had the authority to delay the elections (and that it is the view of the Palestinian High Court not my own).’

    Just to wearily reiterate that Hamas was the product of Arafat’s failure (hampered as he was by the persistent hostility of Sharon, to say nothing of artillery fire on his HQ) to achieve anything at all by less radical action.

    And that Fatah is merely a neutered version of the failed PLO, and does exactly what the Israelis tell it to. Otherwise Hamas’s Dec 2013 request – that’s Hamas’s request – to form an interim unity government in order to organise the next election (delayed to suit Fatah) might have some traction. It is Fatah which is evading an electoral test, not Hamas.

  • nevermind

    Thanks for fixing Sofia’s link, Clark. Somebody has to make comparrissons between the HSDAP and the current trend in the US to divide the have’s from the have nots. yesterdays link to a site explaining that US police brutallity is linked to this rfeveals that polarisation of thought is divisive.

    Hamas democratic election will be replicated if the west is interfering in the elections by funding one side. Corruption on both sides will not make it a savoury task to run and elections, when all other humanitarian issues are far more pressing, would not necessarrily be a priority on anyon’e agenda.

    That Israel wants to join the EU is scary, Beelzebub, because it would detach itself from the ME and claim that the EU expansion to include the lands between the Euphrates and the Nile. But that is just one amongst many new and divisive issues that would be advanced in the EU.

    If Turkey is not allowed to join due to human rights abuses, then this should equally be applied to othjer applicants.

    Just as the FoI have undermined foreign policy here, they would undermine EU countries. Those countries who have a rightwing leadership and who have a lot to learn, the Jobbiks of this world, have equal goals of superiority, and the two/three?/five? would use the EU to clash, it would stifle and polarise the EU something rotten with the possibility of it breaking up.

    And if we look at the EU today, these would not be the only divisive issues such application would bring with itself.

    How should the EU view Israels Apartheid situation with its minorities, how should it pertain a positive expansion when it is walls they are running into? How will the EU view Ghaza? and what parts of the west bank is eligible for EU funding and which is not?

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Fred

    Last one from me on this, lif’s too short to spend too much time discussing with a denier.

    ““I would furthermore refer you to the vote of the 207th Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly (11.05.1949) which admitted Israel as a member of the UN.”

    So? That didn’t make it a state. The UN does not have the authority to create states, there isn’t even a universally accepted definition of what the word means. Though one common requirement is a defined territory which rules Israel out.

    Like I said, for 32 countries in the world Israel does not exist, the UN can’t make them recognise it. For them Israel is not a state.”
    _________________________

    Well, Israel wasn’t ruled out, was it, because the UN admitted it as a member. If you’re correct (which you aren’t) then the conclusion must be that the UN (=the international community)admitted something which wasn’t a state.

    Secondly, and following from the above : so what if 32 countries don’t recognise Israel? A large majority of states does. Your “argument” is equivalent to saying that if, for example, sundry Arab states don’t recognise Israel then ipso facto Israel doesn’t exist. But it does.

    PS – you still haven’t answered my question, namely : do you, Fred, think that Israel has the right to exist? Come on, you like to present yourself as a ballsy sort of guy so don’t be coy!

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Fred

    ““Read the whole post there has been no democratic mandate in any bit of Palestine since 2010.”

    But there was in 2006.

    If democracy doesn’t give the people the government they vote for what use is it?”
    _________________________

    Fred, are you deliberately misunderstanding or are you just obtuse?

    Last elections : 2006

    Now : 2014

    That’s 8 years ago.

    Where’s the democracy?

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