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

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  • Kempe

    Through all of Mr Goss’s bluster about “unelected fascist coup governments” you’d be tempted to forget that Ukraine held an election last year and that only about 1.5% of the seats were won by far right parties. I suppose it’s all part of Russian propaganda to make Putin’s invasion-by-proxy look like some sort of liberation.

    If Russia isn’t backing the rebels then where are they getting all their weapons, ammunition, training and intelligence from?

  • Mary

    References to Ukraine in yesterday’s Hansard. Defence Questions. At the end of the page commencing

    Yvonne Fovargue:
    Will the Secretary of State assure the House that Britain is playing a key role in Ukraine and that we have not been relegated to a mere junior partner in negotiations?

    Michael Fallon:
    We have been playing the leading role politically in ensuring that Russia is subject to a proper degree of sanction for the actions it has been taking, and we will continue to press the case for further sanctions if Russia’s aggression is not halted. We are playing a key role politically and diplomatically in trying to bring the conflict to an end.

    T2.[907708]

    The usual stuff.
    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/todays-commons-debates/read/unknown/7/

  • Clark

    Mary, 2:27 am; thanks. The existing sanctions don’t hit Russian Big Money – but since when did the servants of Big Money start hitting Big Money? Resident Dissident made a good suggestion on that matter. He shouldn’t be called a supporter of fascists because he doesn’t advocate sending arms to the Kiev forces. But he should do more to acknowledge the sinister right-wing forces in Kiev; merely saying “Russia has worse” is a cop-out.

  • Simple

    If what Jesus refers to as the “synagogue of satan” is after Putins a88, then I am with him, SIMPLE and without any anti-semanticism.

  • Cameron, Obama's butler

    This is what’s ahead for Scotland. The people must go over the regime’s head to the world, and the regime will respond with harassment grounded in municipal law to repress the peremptory norm of self-determination.

    It’s gratifying that the US right has caught on to the real purpose of international law: protecting humans from the overreaching power of states. US conservatives used to be fooled by Bircher propaganda describing a tyrannical “New World Order.” That statist canard cleverly induced the poor saps to rely on their worthless revoked constitution instead of binding US commitments and obligations. Now US separatist movements are making proper use of international standards. In time they will dismember the USA, which is long overdue for a USSR-type implosion.

  • Mary

    Straw did not declare an interest as unpaid advisor to a Blackburn company on whose behalf he lobbied Francis Maude. A government contract worth £75m. Straw is going on their board when he slinks off from the HoC. There is talk that a peerage has been lined up for him. I hope not.

    Jack Straw to take job for firm he lobbied for in Commons
    Jack Straw privately lobbied Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, on behalf of Senator International, which later offered him a position on its advisory board http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/investigations/11430777/Jack-Straw-to-take-job-for-firm-he-lobbied-for-in-Commons.html

    It would be good to have Craig’s take on this latest. There are 20 entries on this link – https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=straw

  • Mochyn69

    @Resident Dissident & Habbabkuk

    Ah yes .. so the Katyn/Khatyn confusion lives on.

    For those who don’t know – check out Wikipedia and the related sources.

    Can’t copy and paste the link now for some reason.

  • Mochyn69

    Check out Wikipedia – Khatyn Massacre.

    If you don’t know about this, it will give you great insight into the tragic events of the 20th century in Eastern Europe, as well as Soviet propaganda, all of which contributes to an understanding of the complection of Soviet/Russian/Ukrainian history.

  • Mary

    A government contract worth £75m followed.

    This is the company. http://www.senator.co.uk/

    The man of straw has a nose for the money.

    £5,076,000 Cash
    £38,437,000 Net Worth
    £34,254,000 Assets
    £19,728,000 Liabilities

    Read more at: http://companycheck.co.uk/company/01323955/SENATOR-INTERNATIONAL-LIMITED/company-summary

    7 November 2011
    Lancashire Telegraph

    FIRMS looking to move into the Ribble Valley should have more room to manoeuvre after a major business park extension was backed by council bosses.

    Planning officers at Ribble Valley Council have given the green light to extend the Manor Court rural business centre near Ribchester.

    The premises, in the grounds of Salesbury Hall Farm, are owned by the Mustoe family and were opened by former Blackburn Rovers manager, Sam Allardyce.

    Colin Mustoe is the chairman of the family furniture firm Senator International, a major employer in Hyndburn with a 1,000 strong workforce at its Altham Business park premises.

    /..
    http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/ribble_valley/ribchester/9348375.Ribble_Valley_business_centre_set_for_expansion/

  • Mochyn69

    @Mary

    Jack Straw and K9 Rifkind rumbled in one go! O happy day!!

    Now, let’s get Blair and Bush!!!

  • Mary

    Palestinians:Written question – HL4610Q
    Asked by Baroness Tonge on: 02 February 2015
    Department for International Development

    HL4610

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many children with life altering injuries from the recent conflict are receiving rehabilitation outside Gaza; how many are still within Gaza; and what rehabilitation facilities exist in Gaza following the bombing of Al Wafah hospital.

    Answered by: Baroness Northover on: 16 February 2015

    The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported 1,114 children with injuries leading to physical disabilities as a result of the Gaza conflict. Of these, 140 children were able to receive treatment outside of Gaza, while the remaining 974 have received treatment in Gaza. There are two rehabilitation facilities currently operating in Gaza; the Al Amal Centre and the Palestinian Red Crescent Centre.

  • Mark Golding

    Obama and his handlers are not interested in securing oil in the Middle-East, America is haunted and preoccupied with countering alliances. It will try to achieve this AIM by causing chaos using a dispatcher of destruction called ISIS – the US GRIM REAPER…

    As tensions between the US and Russia have increased in the last year, so too has the polarization of public opinion. While the western corporate media has reverted to its formerly antagonistic, Cold War era attitude toward Russia – predictably radicalizing much of western public opinion, infusing the discourse with a decidedly Russophobic bias – it has increasingly been left to those on the political margins to deconstruct the false narrative, expose the Empire’s agenda, and defend the right of sovereign nations to act independent of western diktats.

    And it is here, on the political margins, where many are willing to speak out against the US agenda in Ukraine and beyond, where the real fight for hearts and minds is taking place. The political mainstream will simply go along with the narratives presented to it by the Empire’s compliant media, thus ensuring its continued impotence and irrelevance to policy. However, a loud chorus of critics, dissidents, and anti-imperialist voices is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore.

    http://stopimperialism.org/

  • John Goss

    Clark I re-read Craig’s analysis of May last year and much of it is sound. Like him I hoped it would not escalate following the Odessa massacre. But of course that was the purpose of the massacre to ensure that it did escalate.

    “The difference between the Russian and British Empires, on the one hand, and the American Empire on the other, was that the Russians and British did not commit genocide of the existing populations.”

    The Zulus might disagree that the British did not commit genocide (I won’t mention Iraq because Craig wrote in an more historical context) but now Ukraine has joined, not the old British and Russian approach to imperialism, but the American one, therein lies the major drawback. Kiev’s problem is that all the resources, including trained human-resources are located in the Donbas region. The Donbas region wants to be part of Russia. It has had a referendum to be part of Russia which was overwhelmingly carried in favour. If it had another one tomorrow, in a week, month, year, it would still be overwhelmingly in favour.

    Putin, despite Craig’s mistrust, and your own, has done everything not to interfere and everything to broker peace, even repeating the message yesterday. Poroshenko said yesterday that Crimea was still considered part of Ukraine and “our man in Ukraine” would do everything in his power to take it back. (He should go back to poisoning people with chocolate.)

    Merkel and Hollande can see the problem of kow-towing to the Yanks because their economies have been hit badly by the sanctions aimed at crippling Russia. All the people Yatsenyuk, Poroshenko, Klitschko, Parubiy, Timoshenko, Yarosh and other thugs the US has installed should be removed from office. They are unelected because they came to power in a coup.

    The reason Kiev has been fought off is because the engineers are in the east. Not because Putin has been supplying them with arms. They can repair things which break. The whole industrial base is there. There is no time to train the poor people Poroshenko wants to send to die (any male from 16 to 60) so no wonder they are draft-dodging. Eastern Ukraine is lost. And Eastern Ukraine is fighting for a cause whereas Kiev has raw recruits and conscripts whose heart is not in it.

    This could escalate, and if Russia is, as the US wants, dragged into it a world conflict could grow out of this civil war. Kiev should have honoured the referendum. But what do you expect from a government that came to power through force?

  • fred

    “Someone help me with international law, but if it was a revolution then I think it has legitimacy.”

    It’s nothing to do with international law, international law is contract law if no international treaty has been broken then no law has been broken. The legitimate government of a country is the government other countries chooses to recognise.

  • John Goss

    “The legitimate government of a country is the government other countries chooses to recognise.”

    It is not strictly true. It is just that international law is unenforceable. That’s what’s wrong with the United Nations and international law. International law can only work if Nation States adhere to it. The UN has no teeth. Governments (moral or not) are able to override international law and ignore what it says. But it is still there and it is still law.

    I do not agree with the US comandeering of the Chagos islands, kicking off the islanders and gassing the animals, but there is nothing I can do about it. Other countries still recognise this evil regime. I do not consider this a legitimate act.

  • Simple

    Latest from the geopolitical grapevine, melikowski to wear special lead underwear at the podium for the address to the joint session of Congress, his israeli handlers fear he may be on the receiving end of the same CIA underfloor “beam” that gave Chavez prostrate cancer, whilst at his famous “sulpher” address at the UN podium. Spielberg to shy away from providing the Hollywood nuclear bomb hologram prop for the speech too, after Obola public warning.

  • Mark Golding

    “Now I’m really worried.” chimes ‘Res Diss’ who might just contemplate the US three year program into the next presidency of boundless powers and endless wars: This is the likely outcome if Barack Obama is granted the kind of military authorization he wants from Congress. This time around the target and enemy is the Islamic State or ISIS. Is it fair to say that America and the IS live off of each other?

    Talking recently to a old friend who offered me a job in the 70’s at the Woomera Test Range in Australia and who is now a high ranking Naval Officer. He admitted to me that in the last 24 months America had calculated the possibility of causing chaos in Russia using Ukraine as the spark plug. The war strategists at work in the Whitehall bunker and the Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood have reviewed a plan to neutralize a retaliatory strike from Russia using the US Navy’s Aegis-based missile defense system. A SECRET proposal is active that will, if agreed, witness this defence system fitted to a number of British/European warships designated to NATO.

  • Clark

    John Goss, 10:13 am; thanks, that was well argued. Please engage Resident Dissident’s arguments this way rather than letting the argument deteriorate. I know it’s hard when faced with “perhaps so-and-so would like to such-and-such with his friends in the Kremlin” etc., but escalation / deterioration is deadly to understanding.

    You wrote:

    The Donbas region wants to be part of Russia. It has had a referendum to be part of Russia which was overwhelmingly carried in favour. If it had another one tomorrow, in a week, month, year, it would still be overwhelmingly in favour.

    which seems to contradict Craig’s assertion:

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/05/world-domination/

    None of the remaining provinces would opt to join Russia given the choice. There is no shortage of existing and historic opinion poll evidence on that. Crimea was the only province with an ethnic Russian majority. The Eastern provinces have Russian speaking majorities, but most are ethnic Ukrainian.

    So I ask, to what extent can we trust the results of that referendum? And I thought the referendum was for independence from the Kiev government, rather than for becoming part of Russia. Craig adds detail and background:

    As almost always with colonies, the minority ethnic Russian populations in the East of Ukraine are more concentrated in urban areas. Hence it has been possible in regional capitals to mobilise gangs of disaffected and unemployed Russian young men (in view of Ukraine’s basket case economy there are plenty), and with a slight stiffening of Russian forces take control of town centres. There is a significant minority, and possibly a majority in town centres, willing to support. It is, I think, extremely important to understand that the thugs on both sides are very unpleasant. I have the particular experience of relations with a lot of Uzbeks, and the incidence of racial attacks by Russian nationalist thugs within Russia itself is absolutely horrifying and almost completely unreported

    So I wonder, had Russia successfully increased the proportion of Russian supporters in the Donbas military?

    Other anomalies occur to me:

    Fighting has been ongoing for some time now; military hardware can be repaired, as you say, but missiles and ammunition need to be replenished. Where are they coming from, on each side?

    Resident Dissident and Kempe argue for the legitimacy of the Kiev government on the basis of election results. This needs to be argued. You can’t call the government illegitimate if has subsequently been supported by elections.

    John, you wrote:

    “Putin, despite Craig’s mistrust, and your own, has done everything not to interfere and everything to broker peace”

    I’ll agree that Putin has said much in public to appear to be a peacemaker, but I think you should distrust this because such a U-turn seems incredibly unrealistic, and contradicts the overall context. Again, from Craig’s article:

    “in Russia to call or campaign for the separation of any part of the state is a crime punishable by up to 22 years’ imprisonment. There are over 7,000 people from the Caucasus imprisoned under that law.”

    By cooperation and assuming good faith among ourselves on these comment threads, we may be able to form a coherent policy with which to lobby our own governments, such as to do the most good in Ukraine.

  • Macky

    Clark; “That seems untrue.” (iro the US engineering the Coup)

    So all the years & $5 billion worth of investment in CIA fronted NGO’s tasked with spreading sedition, with the aim of installing a pro-western regime, is a urban myth despite all the incriminating evidence ?! All those leaked phone calls & egging on visits of support from US politicians, mere fakes & holograms !

    http://www.sott.net/article/292846-US-hand-in-Ukraine-coup-impossible-to-deny

    Clark; “ There was much popular support for a change of government, which is consistent with the history of Ukraine; we saw thousands of supporters at Euromaiden, and we have personal testimony from Phil’s friends. This could be discussed, but if all you’ll do is call RD a fascist…”

    In fact the opposite in true; there has always been small periodic demonstrations at the systemic corruption that Ukraine has always been plagued with, normally these end relatively peacefully after a few days; however this time, it was payback time for Russia’s role in protecting Syria, so certain people ensure that hundreds of Nationalists Neo-Nazis were coached in everyday, mostly from Lviv, to escalate the situation; the authorities were aware of this, which is why you see the passive Police taking a terrible pounding from armed & extremely aggressive rioters, as they were under orders to avoid bloodshed. Despite a few days of such treatment, the police hadn’t been ordered or provoked into violence, so the planners of the Coup, resorted to using snipers, targeting both demonstrators & police, which had the desire effect of all hell breaking loose, with the tragic & evitable consequences that Ukraine is now suffering.

    Clark; ““Well, what’s the difference between coup d’etat and revolution?”

    Is that really a serious question ? Try using a dictionary !

    In any conflict, the disproportionality among the casualties, tends to reflect who the aggressor is; more than 5,000 Easterner Ukrainians have been killed, for refusing to submit to an illegal junta; atrocities & war crimes have & are been committed in order to subdue the Donbas area, not forgetting that horrific Odessa Massacre, which is rightly now being called a Crime against Humanity, yet the West is not only condoning & supporting all this, but is seeking to cast Russia as the villain, whereas it Russia that has been the only one seeking to resolve the conflict & deescalate the fighting, from proposing peace negotiations, to refusing to grant recognition to the Separatists, to refusing to be drawn into the fighting, despite deliberate provocations.

    http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1424648741.html

    All leading Left Commentators Chomsky, Pinter etc,, etc; even unsavory Right people like Kissinger & Marine LePen, recognize the truth of the situation, and those that don’t are either are in denial or are charlatans.

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