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.
Well, well. They, Nazi scientists and the CIA, were all in it together.
“Operation Paperclip” U.S. Government Recruited Nazi Scientists To Work For The C.I.A.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx9p-RKPeNw#t=15
The secret program that brought Nazi scientists to America
February 14, 2014 10:28am
Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America
By Annie Jacobsen
It’s been known for decades that a considerable proportion of the Cold War’s cutting-edge technology contests—from the space race to nuclear weapons development—turned on which side, Soviet or American, did better out of its share of the Second World War’s human booty, the scientific aces of the Third Reich. By 1952, the year a secret American intelligence committee fingered as the most likely date for “total war” with the U.S.S.R., the U.S. employed more than 1,600 of its former German enemies. (In the Pacific theatre, American intelligence agencies had been equally busy sheltering Japanese biological warfare specialists from prosecution.) By following 21 of Hitler’s technologists through a trail of no-longer-secret reports, including postwar interrogation accounts and private papers provided by the American descendants of those German scientists, Jacobsen assembles an unsettling portrait of what was gained, and at what cost, by Operation Paperclip.
/..
http://www2.macleans.ca/2014/02/14/operation-paperclip-the-secret-intelligence-program-that-brought-nazi-scientists-to-america/
What evil.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!
16 Feb, 2014 – 3:41 pm
Says:
“The more the Eminences post, the more they reveal about their mindsets.”
“When someone – eg Barroso in this instance – points to facts which the Eminences find inconvenient, he’s immediately accused of interfering.”
Habbabkuk, Mr Barroso did not point to any FACTS. If you disagree please point out these “facts”.
In my view Barroso is a dodgy character who will say anything for the right price. Look into his history.
This outside interference is undermining democracy in Britain (such as it is).
Of course you support democracy Habbabkuk, if it delivers the “right” result.
And so were the Stasi, KGB and the Nazis.
http://www.dw.de/book-claims-stasi-employed-nazis-as-spies/a-1760980-1
Strangely enough I don’t seem to remember a certain Mr Putin making much of a fuss about this when he was in his liaison role with the Stasi.
Warning. Great danger lies ahead.
Israel Supports US plan to Arm Syria Al Qaeda Rebels. Financing Terrorists To Wage the “Global War on Terrorism”
February 16, 2014
The president of the Israeli regime has supported the United States plans to provide foreign-backed militants in Syria with weapons.
Washington announced last week that it would send arms to foreign-sponsored terrorists in Syria to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power after more than two years of uncertainty over the unrest in the Arab country.
In an interview with Reuters, Shimon Peres described the plan as “wise,” saying that the US government had no other choice but to supply arms to Syria militants.
/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-supports-us-plan-to-arm-syria-al-qaeda-rebels-financing-terrorists-to-wage-the-global-war-on-terrorism/5369041
~~~~~
Convicted Criminals Serve as “Freedom Fighters” in Syria: Saudi, Pakistani and Iraqi Prison Inmates Replenish Al Qaeda Ranks
February 16, 2014
Al-Qaeda militants kill 24 civilians near Ras al-Ain
Several hundred prisoners who escaped from carefully guarded prisons in Iraq have recently joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as well as the Al Qaeda affiliated rebel force, Jabhat Al Nusra.
According to the NYT: “the prison breaks also reflect the surging demand for experienced fighters, which led to a concerted effort by militant groups, particularly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, to seek them in the one place where they were held en masse — Iraq’s prison cells.(Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt, Escaped Inmates From Iraq Fuel Syrian Insurgency, NYT, February 12, 2014):
“American officials estimate, a few hundred of the escapees have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, several in senior leadership roles.”
Acknowledged by the NYT, the prison breakouts are part of the recruitment of jihadists to serve in the Syrian insurgency. What is not mentioned, however, is that the recruitment of mercenaries is a covert operation, coordinated by NATO, Turkey and Saudi Arabia with the support of the Obama administration. Moreover, known and documented, most Al Qaeda affiliated forces are covertly supported by Western intelligence including the CIA, Mossad and Britain’s MI6.
/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/convicted-criminals-serve-as-freedom-fighters-in-syria-saudi-pakistani-and-iraqi-prison-inmates-replenish-al-qaeda-ranks/5369055
Resident Dissident/Mary’s Love child*
OK, thank you.
We agree that some people make unjustified accusations of anti-Semitism to suppress criticism of Israel.
Can we also agree that some people deliberately conflate Zionism with Judaism as a pretext to make unjustified accusations of anti-Semitism to suppress criticism of Israel?
*delete sock puppet as applicable
Mr Scourgie
“Habbabkuk, Mr Barroso did not point to any FACTS. If you disagree please point out these “facts”.”
__________________
With pleasure, Mr Scourgie. If Scotland becomes independent, the rest of the UK is the successor state and remains a member of the EU (referendum allowing) and Scotland will have to apply for membership. The latter was pointed out by Barroso, the Commission’s Legal Service being of the same mind, by the way. That is the fact I referred to.
Interference? I think not. As the President of the European Commission, Barroso has a perfect right to speak of matters which are or might be the concern of the Commission (inter alia); possible future accessions to the EU is clearly one of those matters.
PS – I like the non-sequitur about democracy at the end of yours. So very Mr Scourgie! 🙂
A Node
“And now a question to you : do you believe that some people, including some on this blog, criticise Zionists as a cover for their anti-semitism?”
_________________
Since you’re still posting away, don’t forget the above question I put to you. What’s your answer?
Wakey wakey, there!
Mary’s Love Child
“And so were the Stasi, KGB and the Nazis.
http://www.dw.de/book-claims-stasi-employed-nazis-as-spies/a-1760980-1”
_____________________
Correct! You might wish to know that there’s some interesting stuff on this in the Anne Applebaum book I referenced/recommended a while back.
Mary inclines :
“Dedicated to the originator of the three in a row above.”
____________________
I can do you 10 in a row if you wish, lassie.
God knows there’s enough nonsense around to be set straight.
At 3:21 pm a Jewish lady was singing this in the trolls’ ears and since then the blog’s deteriorated into what it has become.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghd5weu5Mpg
Just as has happened in Syria, an elected president and government are under attack in Venezuela.
No mention of Capriles of course. Are the CIA stirring things up as per usual?
http://www.latintimes.com/venezuelan-government-says-violence-protest-caused-conspirators-trained-mexico-152467
James Petras is the man to tell us what has been going on.
US-Venezuela Relations: A Case Study of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism
by James Petras / October 20th, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/10/us-venezuela-relations-a-case-study-of-imperialism-and-anti-imperialism/
‘Have US-Latin American relations permanently changed? Has Venezuela consolidated its independence and achieved the definitive defeat of imperial intervention? It would be premature to draw firm conclusions despite the substantial victories achieved during the first decade and a half of the 21st century.
Pro-US regimes and elites still wield influence throughout Latin America. As was evident in the Presidential elections in Venezuela in April 2013, the US-funded opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles, came within 2% of winning the election. And Washington, true to its vocation to destabilize, has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the election. Since then several officials of the US Embassy have been implicated in plots to overthrow the Maduro government. The ongoing, intrusive imperial cyber-spying system under the US National Security Agency introduces a new element in colonial intervention reaching into the highest political and economic spheres in the entire region, incurring the wrath of Brazil, the largest country in Latin America. Unrepentant, Washington has affirmed its right to colonize and dominate Brazilians and Venezuelan cyber-space and control all communications between strategic elites.
Obama’s affirmation of the US ‘right to spy’ prompted new anti-imperialist measures, including proposals to end ties to US-based and controlled information networks. In other words, new imperial methods of colonization based on new technologies triggers new anti-imperial responses, at least for independent states.’
Resident Dissident
15 Feb, 2014 – 12:04 pm
There has never been a UN resolution establishing Israel.
“So what was UN General Assembly Resolution 181??”
Resolution 181 was the 1947 partition plan.
Israel accepted the plan the Arab states did not.
Israel unilaterally declared independence on 14th May 1948.
The US recognised Israel the day after followed by other UN members.
Just to put things straight: the UN did not establish Israel.
Could the infantile troll using the name Mary’s Love Child please desist. I know who it is btw.
I can imagine what the readership here and those who do not comment here think of the troll antics.
Negative attention is the coolest. When my illegitimate father is present, his attention is elsewhere as he has many responsibilities to others more important. It’s hard being ignored but I find a way to get around it. Mischief such as braiding his short hairs while he’s asleep is tricky, but works well. It’s not like he’s violent when he punishes me. Nerf bats don’t do any physical damage. I don’t like the way he smiles when he strikes out, but when he rants, at least he’s screaming at me, and not some poor schlub on the internet.
He doesn’t seem to get that the worst punishment he can deal out is to ignore me all the time.
At the Bilderberg meeting in Watford last summer one of the items on the agenda was The Challenge of Africa. What was important about this was not a single African representative was invited to the meeting. And now this, which I missed last week. So apologies if someone has already linked it.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-military-intervention-in-africa-the-east-african-response-force-a-creation-of-the-pentagon/5368284
Yes Mary, you noticed Resident Dissident’s slip-up. He forgot to change his sock-puppet handle when he replied to a question I had addressed to Res Diss here:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/01/syria-and-diplomacy/comment-page-12/#comment-440946
then admitted his deception to Habbabkuk here:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/01/syria-and-diplomacy/comment-page-13/#comment-440947
He pretends to be the respectable face of the opposition, occupying the moral high ground, regretfully obliged in the interests of truth and rationality to point out to us our woeful errors of judgement. But it turns out that’s just one of his personae. In his alter ego of ‘Marys Love Child’, he mocks, taunts and bullys. He’s a good cop/bad cop all on his own. I wonder how many other sock puppets he uses. It seems clear he is here to disrupt using a variety of tactics.
A Node, I noticed the second one, the admission, but mostly I give these clowns a wide berth. Not worth the pixels!
And so on what basis did the UN accept Israel into its membership?
Nothing to do with the Arab League acting in defiance of resolution 181 I suppose?
Strange how often claims are made of the State of Israel acting in defiance of International law – which would of course be nonsense if that state had no status as the some here so idiotically proclaim. What I suspect they mean is that they hold the position in the Hamas Charter that the State of Israel should be driven into the sea or such other nonsense.
12 46 pm.
It’s like the orcs have unveiled their latest groteque siege engine. A battery of Lambegs pounds out a menacing beat, a variation of the same old theme, and it grinds slowly forward swaying alarmingly as it lurches towards Mary’s battlements.
4 07pm.
A few haples orcs fall, slowly spinning, into massed crowd below. Then a wheel falls off and the whole structure judders to a halt, teetering drunkenly while gutteral orders are barked.
4 19pm.
The wheel is rolled back, squashing those who are slow to make way, and hammered back on.
4 32pm.
The whole process starts again, and onward it wobbles, as menacing as a grubby blancmange
Orcs don’t need to learn, just so long as there are more suckers to whip up to the front line.
Could the infantile troll using the name Mary’s Love Child please desist. I know who it is btw.
Well spotted Flaming June or is it Foul February? How long did you keep that pretence going for? Rather more than the couple of hours I managed is my guess.
Sofia
Haven’t you read that Tolkien is all a bit BNP and not the sort of thing that a toy town revolutionary such as yourself should be reading.
Please revise your bourgeois reading influences.
If Tolkien did humor, he would write Peter Seller’s three roles from this knee-slapper in honor of
Hav-a-sack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7L7WLFBYR4
“Dame Helen will be in company with Clooney, recently advocating Shillary for President. Nice.”
The old guilt by association ploy – what has the wonderful Helen Mirren done to upset you?
Ben
Passport to Pimlico was far better – the Mouse that roared was just a poor derivative – and you need sunglasses for the colour film.
“Well, well. They, Nazi scientists and the CIA, were all in it together.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio
Sofia 8:15 pm:
I preferred Habbabkuk’s Passchendaele analogy.
A Node to Res Dis 7:58 pm:
“He’s a good cop/bad cop all on his own.”
Whereas you, my friend, are no cop.
‘Well spotted Flaming June or is it Foul February? How long did you keep that pretence going for? Rather more than the couple of hours I managed is my guess.’
You are as pathetic as the troll who made my life such a misery and who necessitated the name change in an attempt to avoid the hurt. Someone who shall be nameless was triumphant in disclosing my pseudonym.
‘Habbabkuk, Mr Barroso did not point to any FACTS. If you disagree please point out these “facts”.’
Well the fact is the EU is a union of several countries and every country which wants to join has to meet certain criteria. The other countries in the union have the right to ensure a country meets this criteria before it joins.
It was always going to be so and it wasn’t right for Alex Salmond to be telling the Scots it would be any different.
Youth Contract Scheme – a ‘hatchery’ for sex performers?
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-government-pays-sex-clubs-employ-teenage-girls-1436637