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3,629 thoughts on “Amnesty International Conference on Torture”

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  • Resident Dissident

    For those really concerned about fascism from the knowledgeable Mr Snyder. Perhaps our resident experts might wish to offer their views as to why Putin has changed his stance on the Molotov Ribbentrop pact – which will be a big issue for many Russians.

    “Today, the positive emphasis on a war of aggression goes well with tendencies in the Russian media, where defiant declarations of Russian anti-fascism are increasingly submerged in rhetoric that may seem rather fascist. Jews are blamed for the Holocaust on national television; an intellectual close to the Kremlin praises Hitler as a statesman; Russian Nazis march on May Day; Nuremberg-style rallies where torches are carried in swastika formations are presented as anti-fascist; and a campaign against homosexuals is presented as a defense of true European civilization. In its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has called upon the members of local and European far right groups to support its actions and spread Moscow’s version of events.

    http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/nov/10/putin-nostalgia-stalin-hitler/

  • Resident Dissident

    Russia has an even bigger problem with fascism sympathisers than Ukraine.

    I agree – but what is the leader doing about it – allowing Zhironovsky free rein and getting pally with Le Pen, Griffin and Jobbik are peculiar ways of fighting fascism in my book.

    http://imrussia.org/en/russia-and-the-world/645-putins-far-right-friends-in-europe

    When you have seen, as I have, thugs in Nazi uniform prancing around the Tretyakov gallery then you know there is a real problem which is not being addressed.

  • Giyane

    Mary:
    “Does the mention of a ‘truth and reconciliation element’ in the inquiry imply that certain criminals will escape justice?”

    If ‘ truth and reconciliation ‘ means the same as Blair’s efforts in Northern Ireland, and now in Gaza, it means that victims of state sponsored violence will be forced to accept the official version of events in exchange for minimal reparations. i.e. total whitewash and smokescreen giving the establishment a clean slate and the victims an unbearable burden of state denial.

  • RobG

    Right, from another ancient, knackered computer, which hopefully won’t crash just as I was posting a reply to Mark Golding.

    It was strange, because I was saying to Mark that he didn’t touch on Mussolini’s famous definition of fascism.

    And all the tech companies are in bed with the NSA, et al. Microsoft have been right from the start. Apple joined in the fun in about 2010. All these operating systems have back doors that allow the security services unfettered access to our personal data. Likewise with the phone companies, etc. This also applies to bank records, medical records, in fact anything in the digital realm. It’s a STASI wet dream.

    This data collection is all done entirely illegally and is against a number of international conventions.

    The breathtaking thing is that the public barely raises a whimper about it.

    And of course there’s no shortage of trolls to tell us that everything is perfectly normal and there’s nothing to worry about (think about that).

    I see the police state stuff in much the same way as the Fukushima disaster: it’s all right there in front of us, like a meteorite speeding towards Earth, or a grand piano falling from the sky, but people would rather not see it/confront it.

  • Tony M

    [cm-org.uk – This is merely an attack upon Resident Dissident. You’re on pre-mod until you come up with something about politics rather than an individual]

    I see Resident Evil is up to his usual hatemongering antics. Young people in Russia scare him, as they intended to do, much as the punks of the mid-70s Britain plundered and adopted the imagery of Nazism to spook the establishment and hollow-eyed subservient older generation; the Sex Pistols album with swastikas over HM the Queen’s eyes. He mistakes the ephemeral, the symbols, the flags, boots and shaven or exquisitely coiffed and fussed over hair, the once shocking, daring, unique but become stereotyped outfits, mocking the idea of the work-ethic and of short-haired, work-booted conformity, for the far more insidious for hidden in a variety of guises, usually besuited, actual fascism with isn’t found amongst street kids but amidst the temples of power and wealth and with firm roots amongst the aspirant classes, the various strata of the middle-classes, who Thatcher and acolytes cultivated and feather-bedded to form the coming generations of fascists who would take the neo-conservative/liberal idea, the new-fascism, to new heights of inhumanity and accursedness.

    Resident Evil is all for war, death and destruction, as long as he or his own is not compelled to fight. Which oligarch who looted Russia does he serve, or are the British state so foolhardy so malicious as to seek short-term gain in bankrolling this poisonous shills, drains on the taxpayer, laughing like drains as they spew their uncontainable malice. He hates fascism he says, but supports it, excuses it unfailingly, for what are the governments of the UK, the United States or of Israel, all which he staunchly defends: all of them, each of them worst case scenarios of rampant fascism triumphant and unopposed from Tories, to New Labour, Republican or Democrat or Likud? There is found the real Fascism.

  • Mike

    RD @ 8.40pm

    Strange bedfellows indeed. Perhaps a case of my enemy’s enemy. I suppose the best you can say about Jobbik etc is that they don’t, so far as I know, use death-squads to terrorise civilian populations.

    Right-wing death squads…now where have we seen that M.O. before?

    I guess that’t the whole thing about multipolarity. The west sups with the devil, and I’m under no illusions that Russia does exactly the same. At least Russia doesn’t attempt to assimilate sovereign states by destroying them.

  • Don't wait for mushroom clouds - Britain out of NATO

    The more signatures on the petition calling for Britain to leave NATO, the more press coverage.

    The more press coverage, the greater the number of people who might possibly wake up to the very real possibility that if the US helps the fascist government in Kiev in the war against the Russians, there really could be mushroom clouds over Britain in the near future.

  • Tony M

    [cm-org.uk – Awaiting moderation means the comment can’t be seen by the public.

    Your comment consisted entirely thoughts you attributed to another commenter. The only thing special about Resident Dissident was that your comment was aimed at him.

    If you comment directly about Russian youths and their style of dress, that will be approved. If you put it in terms of what you say another commenter thinks, that will not.

    OK?]

  • RobG

    Don’t wait for mushroom clouds – Britain out of NATO
    22 Feb, 2015 – 10:42 pm

    Well, I’m glad that the nuclear threat is being realised again.

    Both the US and Russia both still have thousands of thermo-nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert (although I’m sure the trolls will tell us that it is all perfectly safe and normal).

    From the Scottish perspective, let’s take the Glasgow region, which has a minimum of six Russian thermo-nuclear weapons targetted at it (probably closer to ten). These missiles are all in the megaton range. You will have about four minutes – just about enough time to gulp down a large glass of whisky – before the world ends forever. Believe me, you won’t want to survive.

    So can someone explain to me why the neo-con psychos are baiting the Russian bear?

  • Mary

    Channel 4 Dispatches tomorrow night.

    Politicians for Hire
    Dispatches investigates the behaviour of politicians in Westminster

    ~~

    Years back Komodo and I were detailing Straw’s links to the commodity firm ED&F Man. They have a sugar refinery in Ukraine. How very topical. Any connections to the Chocolate King Poreschenko chaps?

    ‘Last year Sir Malcolm registered earnings of £69,610 — more than £1,600 an hour — from his work outside of Parliament, while Mr Straw earned £112,777 from his outside business activities.

    **Analysis by this newspaper of MPs’ overall earnings showed they made more than £7.4 million from outside work in the past year.

    The Chinese “company” wanted to form an advisory board. Undercover reporters met Sir Malcolm at the fictional firm’s Mayfair office in January. Sir Malcolm, who served as foreign secretary under Sir John Major, described the access he could offer.’

    ~~~~~~~

    **
    The MPs who topped up their salaries with £1,600-an-hour second jobs

    As an investigation by The Telegraph exposes a new ‘cash for access’ scandal, we look at how much in outside earnings MPs registered last year
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/investigations/11428075/The-MPs-who-topped-up-their-salaries-with-1600-an-hour-second-jobs.html
    9:48PM GMT 22 Feb 2015

  • Tony M

    [cm-org.uk – Here’s what Craig says on such matters:

    http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/01/todays-independence-rally/comment-page-1/#comment-506364

    “I do wish comments would address the topic of the thread and not impute the motives of others”.

    He’s said it repeatedly. I’m not calling him at this time of night. Do you really want to be banned instead?]

    .
    .

    I am formally protesting the moderation policy here, unless Craig Murray himself is responsible to tonight’s moderation I request that the matter of my numerous deleted posts are forwarded to him, along with samples of the moderator’s commentary added to them.

    I never chose to make this an issue, but fully intend to now. Escalate this or ban me.

  • Peacewisher

    @RobG: Have you read “Stark”?

    The neocons are probably believers in the rapture. They will be the chosen few and be expecting to ascend to paradise. They may be rescued, but taken to that Nazi base in the Antarctic… probably the best place to survive a nuclear winter… until the back up batteries run out.

    Well… have you got a better explanation?

  • Peacewisher

    @Mary. It was featured on the TV news, but right at the end, like aob. Rifkind’s crime sounded worse because he is currently chair of the intelligence subcommittee (!) No mention of Straw’s role in helping to craft Blair’s great war, of course.

  • Macky

    Resident Dissident; “your sympathy for poor children always a saccharin front which soon dissolves when the slobbering Dauphin was creating 3m Syrian refugees”

    Presumably you are referring to Assad, so can you explain why & how he would create three million refugees in his own country ?

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    “The more signatures on the petition calling for Britain to leave NATO, the more press coverage.”
    ________________

    In that case I must ascertain to whom that silly petition is being addressed so that I can send the addressee an email urging that Britain remains a member of NATO and strongly recommending that the petition be ignored on the grounds that it is totally non-representative of British public opinion.

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