My old boss Mark Lyall Grant, UK Ambassador to the United Nations, is a deeply unpleasant man. But he was quite right to dismiss Russia’s legal pretext for invading Ukraine on the basis of an invitation letter from ex-President Yanukovich.
The problem is Mark Lyall Grant is the last person in world to have moral authority to do this, as he was directly involved in drafting an invitation letter from ex-President Kabbah of Sierra Leone inviting Britain to invade Sierra Leone, which Britain then did. Mark Lyall Grant said at the UN yesterday about Yanukovich that: “We are talking about a former leader who abandoned his office, his capital and his country, whose corrupt governance brought his country to the brink of economic ruin”. Exactly the same things could have been said about Kabbah, whose government had been massively corrupt – and was again when restored, and who issued his invitation to invade from a five star hotel in London after living in exile in Guinea.
The unspeakable horrors of the Sierra Leonean civil war have led to a lazy mainstream media accepting Sierra Leone as the “good” invasion. But the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone were not a spontaneous outbreak of human evil, they were caused by the massive corruption of ruling coastal elites in both Sierra Leone and neighbouring Liberia, compared to the appalling poverty and lack of basic services and education for those in the hinterland. It is one of the ironies of history that the elites were the descendants of slaves returned with the very best of intentions by the US and UK, educated and given much charitable provision, who controlled the state and then set to exploiting the hinterland tribes ruthlessly from the “hut wars” of the 1880’s on. The eruption of massive scale diamond mining from the 1960’s on escalated levels of corruption, warlordism and violence and almost continual military rule. Laudable attempts to foster democracy did nothing to lessen corruption. The dreadful atrocities of the RUF and Kamajors were a result of the tribal eruption that ensued.
What the British invasion did was simply to put the old corrupt elite safely back in place, and make the minerals secure for western interests. Even more valuable than the diamonds is Sierra Leone’s rutile mine, the world’s single most profitable mine. Following the British invasion guess who suddenly became a director of that mine? Valerie Amos, who was one of the ministers who authorized the invasion, and is now at the UN in charge of pushing for war in Syria.
I always opposed the doctrine of “liberal intervention” and still do. But those who invented “the right to protect” were stupid enough to believe that they would forever be the only military power strong enough to seize assets in other countries. For the historian, the “right to protect” and “liberal intervention” are precisely the same as excuses given for imperial grabs throughout the millennia.
Invading another territory is wrong when the British do it, and it is wrong when the Russians do it. It is quite simply untrue that ethnic Russians were under threat in the Ukraine. International law always recognizes and deals with the government actually in power in the country. If ousted leaders are accepted as having in the right to call in freeing invasion to restore them, the world would be in a state of perpetual war.
Plainly Russian actions are illegal. They do have an agreed right to station forces in Crimea. It is impossible to tell at the moment if the agreed numbers have been exceeded, but the Russian production of Yanukovich’s letter would certainly appear to indicate that. But Russian actions in blocking roads and blockading Ukrainian military bases on Ukrainian soil are plainly illegal.
Russia is behaving as what it is, an imperialist thug. The British and the United States indeed lack any moral authority to make such a statement. But I do not suffer from that handicap, and nor do you.
PS The story of my Sierra Leone involvement is in my book The Catholic Orangemen of Togo. This is available for free download in a number of places around the web, including here.
How long will it be before the BBC etc. mention the tape I wonder?
That audio, which I have just listened to is damning, because it is between two supporters of the “new” government, which, I cannot see surviving, not only because of the allegations that the sniper was from the protestors but that according to Catherine Ashton they are not being open about investigating the snipers.
AlcAnon/Squonk 5 Mar, 2014 – 2:03 pm
Probably not too soon. Still it will go viral on the net so there is not much they can do to hide it.
“I know that the other governments are no better, and so does Craig. But you can’t let one criminal off just because some other criminal did something else.”
You can’t prosecute one criminal while not prosecuting them all.
That is the very basics of law, that it applies to all equally, that no one should be above it.
Put Bush and Blair in the dock for the invasion of Iraq, a real invasion that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and counting. Then you can talk about putting Putin in the dock for the pretend invasion that has taken the lives of none.
Yeah, yeah. Fair cop on the Falklands. I bet I know which way you swung though. 😛
John
Currently it’s being retweeted all over twitter. Although no major “Western” news agency has yet mentioned it at all.
Thanks for the invite, but no thanks.
I doubt that I could even enter the UK, given my unanswered complaints about MI5, MI6, and GCHQ, and if I did, I would have even stronger doubts about getting out alive.
You have never indicated in particular anything thuggish about British spooks, only implied that Putin’s thugs did their apparent dirty work, making Putin much less of a thug.
From the tape (RT transcript) –
‘Paet also recalled his conversation with a doctor who treated those shot by snipers in Kiev. She said that both protesters and police were shot at by the same people.
“And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides,” the Estonian FM stressed.
Ashton reacted to the information by saying: “Well, yeah…that’s, that’s terrible.”’
Olga Bogolomets? Oh, that Olga Bogolomets. No irons in the fire there, then.
http://bogomolets.com/en
She is alleged on her Wiki page to have encouraged her students to join the protests – though the link given contains no reference to her by name.
Squonk, they will have no option. I wonder what the NSA think about it? They’ve been tapping phones for years. Have they released anything yet?
The new government of thugs according to the audio comprise of people with a dirty past. I’m taking sides now, and have to accept that Craig has misjudged the new government.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ji-Magazine/116217188517404
“Claim: Ukraine’s government is illegitimate or not representative.
Response: The new government was approved by the Rada with 371 votes, an overwhelming majority of Ukraine’s parliament, with the support of all political parties except the Communists. Even Yanukovych’s Party of Regions (POR) voted in favor of the new government just days after he disappeared. While POR is not represented in the current government, this is a political decision and does not indicate lack of support for the policies of the government. In fact, almost all legislation passed by parliament since Yanukovych’s departure has enjoyed majority support from POR.”
Lots more verifiable info there.
BTW, as everyone concerned was probably using Kalashnikovs – how the hell would anyone tell who killed who? A medic in the street isn’t going to be digging the bullets out to check the groove pattern, either…
Both sides have more than their share of dirty pasts, John. I wouldn’t take sides at all.
Agencia EFE (Madrid) Just tweeted it in Spanish to half a million followers. That’s the first
Link http://www.efe.com/efe/noticias/espana/mundo/filtran-una-conversacion-ashton-que-siembra-dudas-sobre-francotiradores-kiev/1/4/2256851
Readers here may be interested in Prof Francis Boyles take of the events in Ukraine (if already linked to my apologies – I can’t read everything). I have quoted him on the Wikispooks dedicated Ukraine page – The part headed “A more disturbing ‘reality’ possibility”
Oops, forgot a bit. That ‘more disturbing possibility’ concerns the big picture – ie the wood not the trees – that are the subject of my ‘stuck-in-the-groove’ complaints about Craig and the well-meaning but hopelessly confused elements of the western political establishment that refuse to see the elephant too.
Ba’al Zevul (Nuke The Daily Mail) 5 Mar, 2014 – 2:25 pm
I know. But I’ve been trying to keep an open mind that the protestors may be right since Yanukovich is a thug. The audio states that too.
It is going viral at a rate of knots! Anything on the BBC yet? I don’t hear anything. It’s a classic upstaging of the Paris farce. I wonder if the Russian foreign minister played Hague and Kerry the audio.
Call confirmed as genuine http://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/eesti/urmas-paeti-konet-el-valisteenistuse-juhi-ashtoniga-kuulati-pealt.d?id=68176199
AlcAnon
If the tape is authentic – and it may well be a propaganda fake – the Estonian is recounting something they have been told, and Ashton is saying “Gosh”. Ashton has no information on it. If the tape is genuine, it does not follow that what the Estonian is saying is true – it probably does follow that the Estonian was told it, but that doesn’t make it true.
What I get from the RT fragment is that Bogolomets is saying everyone was shooting at everyone – no surprises there – and that this is being spun by RT. Whether genuine or not, whether complete or not, whether ‘leaked’ or intercepted by Estonia’s former owners, it still appears to have been released by Russia. The cynical mind instantly asks ‘why?’ The cynical mind does not have to ponder long to answer that.
John Goss, 2:22 pm;
You must have missed this from Craig:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/03/the-fashion-for-hypocrisy/#comment-443918
Craig,
I’m aware it is not proof of anything other than the conversation occurred (which has now been confirmed as genuine by Estonian government) . However the reaction of Ashton to the news, sounded to me as if she already knew it and wished her Estonian colleague would shut-up. That’s just how it sounded in my amateur opinion.
Anyway people can listen and make up their own minds. I don’t know what happened.
Daily Telegraph has now mentioned it online. Says they got “No Comment” when the question was put to Ashton. No mention at all yet on BBC of course.
Trowbridge,
Are you really saying that as others in power have committed false flag bombings it is impossible for Putin to do so?
Just had a moment to listen to the audio -FSB bugging technology has improved. Good audio quality. The Estonians really need to disconnect that Soviet-era wiring running across the border. But really, is it so surprising that some of the motley crew of wannabe – oligarchs who retired Yanukovich aren’t above murder in the streets? Ashton (who is canny enough to understand about insecure lines) doesn’t sound surprised, and neither would I.
So the dichotomy becomes a trichotomy.
1. All the Russians, even quite nice ones
2. Evil Ukrainians
3. Nice Ukrainians.
Who gets to form the next government? Place bets now.
Trowbridge H. Ford, 2:13 pm
I’ve supported Craig in his campaign to expose torture and rendition, much of it in collusion with British agents and authorities, for years.
I was thinking of the “series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999”; so far as I know, British secret services were not implicated in that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings
Of course not, though Russia has always been far behind when it comes to ‘false flag’ operations, going all the way back to the JFK plot – what Moscow learned about, and hoped to see carried out at Castro’s and West Berlin’s expense.
Back then, the USSR counted on power, stealth, and murder on ocasion to achieve its goals.
It even knew about the ‘false flag’ operation to kill Palme at its expense, but took the necessary counter measures, thanks to Putin’s spies, to prevent it from being punished by it, or blamed for it.
Since the Soviet fall, Moscow has been much more involved in ‘false flag’ operations. The most important one was the sinking of the Estonia, it seems, where Moscow wanted to stop Anglo-American stealing of its best military and intelligence technology, and make it look like some kind of accident.
Believe it is why Sweden is still more anti-Russian than the rest of the West.
Oh, Clark, missed your post while I was writing my previous one.
When it comes to exposing rendition and torture of British terror suspects, still see no mention of GMP Chief Constable Mike Todd who was responsible for investigating it, lied to repeatedly about what was going on, and died mysteriously on Snowdonia when the whole cover up started unravelling.
And certainly don’t believe that Moscow was behind all those bombings which put the Winter Games in jeopardy. Sounds more like CIA and the Mossad – what Putin had to go to the greatest lengths to defuse.
Orangeman sold out on Amazon and £50+ for a used copy. I was thinking of ordering one as I read through a large part of it on line and in Foyles, and wanted to re-read what CM said re someone towards the end.
Does Putin’s washing his hands of responsibility for his “local defence volunteers” unmarked army actually set a very dangerous precedent.
Does it legitimise Gladio, private armies and other raggle taggle non-state or quasi-state forces?
I expect to see wider use of unmarked pseudo free acting soldiers.
Clark 5 Mar, 2014 – 1:42 pm
“Phil (and please tell your friend in Kiev)…It’s not the people I’m suspicious of; it’s the leadership.”
Clark, I shall not be passing on your message. Do you imagine the people in Kiev need you to tell them that they should be suspicious of the new leadership?
Are you joking? I just cannot believe you are serious.
Finally a mention by the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26445666
Still no mention on BBC tv news yet.