It emerges from the USA that 9,000 documents proving direct involvement of the White House in cases of brutal torture are being withheld from the Senate Committee by the Obama administration. This should surprise nobody, as Obama has done everything in his power to protect George W Bush and the many in the administration, diplomatic service and CIA involved in the whole secret web of torture and murder. The entire programme was on a scale and of an order of brutality much greater than anything that has been yet understood by the public. All of those foreign nationals rendered to Uzbekistan, for example, were killed during or following torture and buried in the desert.
It seems that Obama and the Republicans are combining to make sure that the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the subject – which by all accounts will be damning enough – is never going to be made public in any way that reveals anything not already known. The Republicans – and Fox News – have already united behind the extraordinary assertion that the CIA were entitled to spy on the Committee’s activity on its computers, because the physical computers had been provided by the CIA.
At least there is some traction for outrage in the United States. In the UK, Downing Street dismissed the Gibson Inquiry as soon as it became clear that Gibson was not prepared to be a patsy like Lord Hutton. I had some small part to play in that. Gibson had instructed the Foreign Office that, in preparing my own evidence, I had to be given access to any document I had been able to see while I was Ambassador. This caused huge alarm in the Foreign Office and security services as I knew precisely where the incriminating documents lie and how to find them in a way an outsider never could. Gibson’s insistence on my behalf put the wind up Downing Street and Cameron and Clegg decided to cancel the inquiry. Similarly Downing Street is postponing the report of the Chilcot Inquiry until Chilcot – who is by no means as “difficult” as Gibson – produces a sufficiently anodyne report. Even Chilcot’s ultra-Establishment panel of pro-war enthusiasts is having some difficulty with the demands on their intellectual integrity. In particular, Cameron is still refusing to let the Chilcot Committee see, let alone publish, the memos between Tony Blair and George Bush which make it absolutely clear the invasion was agreed long before has been admitted, and also cast some light on its true motives. Cameron’s withholding of the invasion docs is a precise parallel to Obama’s withholding of the torture docs. The complete media, political and public silence on this in the UK is terrifying in its implications.
Goodnight all. Let’s hope that the revelation of these emails make them pull the plot (if plot there is). I certainly think the riots last night had more to do with the new ruling fascists than the good people. Everybody who has not seen it should watch this ten minute video to see who the good people are dealing with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWkfpGCAAuw
Gresh. What kind of imbecile uses linkedin? Linkedin is poor sad bastards on the make, getting hacked. This is why the Russians kick American ass. The crisis is over. Russia has the situation under firm control. Except for the USG’s Ukrainian pawns, of course, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/06/looting-ukraine-begun/
Why has it taken a week for this to be said?
Malaysia plane systems ‘disabled’ Flight MH370 systems were deliberately disabled and the investigation is now focusing on passengers and crew, says Malaysian PM Najib Razak.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26591056
Gresh’s photo here.
http://flb.ru/info/57390.html
John Goss
14 Mar, 2014 – 6:13 pm
“I am convinced that decisions are arrived at outside of court.”
I think your right John; the security services; the home secretary and a hand-picked judge perhaps.
With all our precious nibbling on private life with surveillance, they can’t supply 8×10 glossies of the event in question?
Is it possible this event was designed to take our eye off the Ukrainian football?
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.Be thankful that plane gone missing this week didn’t have British Airways plastered on it’s fuselage!! Weakness leads to big problems!! Right Mr. Putin!
Some news, relevant to Theresa May’s department, not reported in any UK MSM outlet that I can find.
“London Denies Entry Visa to Cuban Anti-terrorist fighter Rene Gonzalez”
“On March 3, and few hours before Gonzalez was scheduled to take a flight to London, the British government dropped his visa application…”
“At least 20 witnesses and lawyers, including the US legal team, relatives of the Cuban Five, victims of terrorist actions against Cuba and international law experts are already traveling to London to participate in the event.”
http://www.cubanews.ain.cu/cuban-5/882-london-denies-entry-visa-to-cuban-anti-terrorist-fighter-rene-gonzalez
Why the media silence?
The crucial revelation about “direct White House involvement” will turn out to be that White House figureheads capered on the sidelines like cheerleaders, posing for the cameras and shaking their pom-poms for fun and games they had no role in commanding or devising. The president is involved, through a blanket authorization, solely to assume legal exposure for criminal conduct of the unelected command structure.
In the analogous case of US government murder of some random tall chap alleged to be Osama bin Laden, Panetta himself admits “a time period of almost twenty to twenty-five minutes where we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on.” No helmet cams for the CINC.
http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/08/17/raidbinladen/4/
As Russ Baker sums it up, “President Obama did not know exactly what was going on. He did not decide that bin Laden should be shot. And he did not decide to dump his body in the ocean. The CIA and its Special Ops allies made all the decisions… What we’re looking at, folks, is the reality of democracy in America: A permanent entrenched covert establishment that marches to its own drummer or to drummers unknown. It’s exactly the kind of thing that never gets reported.”
Thanks AlcAnon
That’s a genuine State Department header to a gmail account all right.
However it wasn’t sent from the Embassy in Ukraine, the server google received it from is in Washington DC. The other trace information is all internal servers on the east coast and mid west judging by the time zones.
I think front-rank politicians just say stuff. Craig and others like him can easily dismiss their arguments, by making intelligent rebuffs, and providing examples from their own experience, but politicians will just continue to say stuff. I work on the assumption that the ‘stuff’ they come out with has been scripted, and is judged to be part of a strategy, and this strategy has been focus-group tested, and everything has been done very ‘professionally’ (unprofessionally, really, given what their job actually is). But what they actually say is most often total baloney. This being the case, it is perfectly possible for an entirely stupid and ignorant person to come out with these soundbites and be credited, in some circles, with far more intelligence than they actually posess. Blair comes to mind, as usual.
I’m sure the right-wing press will be lauding her comments. You know the drill. May is ‘speaking to the common man’, or the ‘aspirational class’. May is focusing – laserlike! – on an SNP weakness. May is framing the debate. May has been reading the political works of Blah and Blah. Me? I just think she is following orders from head office, saying stuff, and holding the line. And Tory Head office is full of numbskulls, of that there is no doubt.
I find it, also, odd that the right seem to be against independence. It’s not really a left-right issue, strictly speaking. I personally am not entirely convinced by the SNP. I don’t think an independent Scotland will somehow become Cuba – or even Norway. And I’m not sure how ‘left’ a country can actually be under the auspices of the EU. But the right have lined up against the idea, which makes me suspicious. I guess some powerful people stand to lose money, this tends to be the reason for many things, I find as I get older.
There has been talk of this semi=conductor connection to the 777. It’s been back and forth….4 on a pending patent, three of which were on the plane, then they weren’t on the plane, but people from the company, were on the plane.
http://greatgameindia.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/malaysian-airlines-mh370-mystery-hidden-in-plain-sight/
“One of the scenarios offered is that of a possible use of Electronic Warfare.
20 passengers on-board the flight were experts in this technology.
They belonged to a Austin, Texas-based company Freescale Semiconductors.
The 20 Freescale employees, among 239 people on flight MH370, were mostly engineers and other experts working to make the company’s chip facilities in Tianjin, China, and Kuala Lumpur more efficient, said Mitch Haws, vice president, global communications and investor relations.
“These were people with a lot of experience and technical background and they were very important people,” Haws said. “It’s definitely a loss for the company.”
Another one from the same site. It’s new to me however looks very promising.
MH370 Mystery – Suspicious Cargo & Death of 2 Ex-Navy Seals aboard MV Maersk Alabama
http://greatgameindia.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/mh370-mystery-suspicious-cargo-death-of-2-ex-navy-seals-aboard-mv-maersk-alabama/
Upon GRU “assests” confirming that this “highly suspicious” cargo was aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on 8 March, this report notes, Moscow notified China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) of their concerns and received “assurances” that “all measures” would be taken as to ascertain what was being kept so hidden when this aircraft entered into their airspace.
However, this report says, and as yet for still unknown reasons, the MSS was preparing to divert Flight 370 from its scheduled destination of Beijing to Haikou Meilan International Airport (HAK) located in Hainan Province (aka Hainan Island).
Prior to entering the People Liberation Army (PLA) protected zones of the South China Sea known as the Spratly Islands, this report continues, Flight 370 “significantly deviated” from its flight course and was tracked by VKO satellites and radar flying into the Indian Ocean region and completing its nearly 3,447 kilometer (2,142 miles) flight to Diego Garcia.
Critical to note about Flight 370’s flight deviation, GRU experts in this report say, was that it occurred during the same time period that all of the Spratly Island mobile phone communications operated by China Mobile were being jammed.