Vessels have the right of freedom of navigation through straits, on “innocent passage” under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. As it sounds, that amounts to a right to pass straight through on normal business. Territorial waters do not affect innocent passage. The coastal state has the right to establish sea lanes for maritime safety purposes.
So whether the Marshall Islands flagged Maersk Tigris was in Iranian territorial waters is not relevant to its right to pass through. If, as Iranian sources have indicated, it really was impounded for commercial debt, then that would have to be in territorial waters. But for that the crew could not be detained, and the debt would have to be immediately stated and the ship released if paid. Iran is not acting as though this really is for debt.
The Maersk Tigris is however a good example of why the shipping industry is an absolute disgrace. It is flagged in a country with which neither the vessel nor its owners have any connection. It is owned by Maersk, leased to a renting company in Berlin, and then rented back by Maersk. The purpose of the flagging arrangements is to avoid proper safety, crew qualification, wage and trade union regulations which go with a genuine state flag. The leasing is an international tax fiddle. For reasons nothing to do with Iran or the US, I have no sympathy with the owners or insurers.
I rather expect the Iranians are lying about the commercial debt. Iran and the US are playing a pointless, massively expensive hawkish game in the Gulf. At least the Iranians have the excuse that they live there.
Just as Iran should not have stopped the passage of the Maersk Tigris, so the US Navy had no right at all recently to threaten Iranian cargo ships which may or may not have been on the way to Yemen. Even if those ships had entered Yemeni waters, the US would only have had the right to intervene if asked to do so by the government of Yemen. While that government is a Saudi and US puppet, they are not keen for all their people to know that. Giving permission for invisible blasts from the sky is much more deniable than for huge warships.
I was sorry for the two American hostages who were killdied in a drone strike, but sickened that given all the hundreds of innocent women and children he has murdered in drone strikes, Obama finally got all sackcloth and ashes over two American men.
I was sorry for the two American hostages who were killdied in a drone strike, but sickened that given all the hundreds of innocent women and children he has murdered in drone strikes, Obama finally got all sackcloth and ashes over two American men.
UAV’s or drones are progressively used for surveillance or might be used to kill you. A reasonably effective method of capturing and control of Unmanned Aircraft Capture is GPS Spoofing. This paper explains and demonstrates a portable GPS civilian spoofer.
A suitable C++ program for the spoofing control module and receiver correlator is available to folk who would like to build this system. Cost is around £700 for a complete system.
https://radionavlab.ae.utexas.edu/images/stories/files/papers/ion2008r01_for_distributionW.pdf
Excellent argument, if only we could track Dolphin class subs.
Thanks for that link Mary, both Norwich North belles are rather dim, Chloe has given up on her pre election slogan of ‘Norwich in 90’, referring to the rail debacle she claims to want to solve, 90 minutes to London, a wishful dream.
Ms Asato no doubt will be a BAP candidate in future, she wants power so much it hurts, a dangerous adage to her vogue red outfit and North London attitude. I hope enough people vote green to deny either of them, don’t care really, its all irrelevant, unfair and disproportional, the madness of the last week of campaigning.
The behaviour shown by the BBC, whether its foreign political; reporting over Ukraine, the election, the SNP, or even the snippet of the Maersk Tigris, I’m sure that we have yet to receive all the relevant info on this incident.
The differing parties assembled in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain and the Arab Emirates makes the Hormuz straight a flare point par excellence for a false/real flag conflagration.
But this will not stop me building a motorcycle shed.
It just sounds like a Saudi place….ffs. Reminder: Arabic is the language spoken across North Africa and the Middle East.
Sharm Yanbu (Saudi Arabia):
http://www.haveyoubeenhere.co.uk/assets/images/me1.jpg
Sheikh (sic) Youssuf al-Ahmad (Saudi, somewhat insane):
http://www.instablogs.com/saudi-sheikh-wants-to-demolish-holy-mosque-in-mecca-to-separate-sexes.html
“Factcheck: Shell commissions Vice style video on how gas can stop climate change – if you are ok with up to 6 degrees warming”
http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2015/04/29/factcheck-shell-commissions-vice-style-video-on-how-gas-can-stop-climate-change-if-you-are-ok-with-6-degrees-warming/
Right on Nevermind. Thanks for the info.
‘Private Eye Magazine @PrivateEyeNews
· Apr 28
Passionate Cameron captures national mood: http://tmblr.co/ZWLhCs1jXYcNG
– Eye 1391′
Mark Golding at 10.21 am
I only wish I had the maths. 🙂
Is there any chance of building a system that sends the drones back to whence they came to destroy the control centre? That would be useful.
Dame Helen Ghosh, chair of the NT (Clandon Park House gutted by fire) is well used to dealing with conflagrations. She goes right back to Thatcher so she has dealt with all of the characters who control things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Ghosh
Not a very friendly summary of her past record here but she got this one right – ‘Dame Helen referred to the political team around Cameron as a ‘clique network’ and an ‘Old Etonian clique”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2286825/Will-Lady-Calamity-wreck-National-Trust.html.
“It just sounds like a Saudi place….ffs. Reminder: Arabic is the language spoken across North Africa and the Middle East.”
LOL Ba’al!
Our sit-in, self acclaimed, Poet-in-Residence with rather limited comprehension skills now wants to move cities around countries based on his auditory skills?!
JohnG certainly doesn’t need any help in being pushed to make an ass of himself in public, does he? I claim him to be our very own PC Plod 😉 Here’s what Wikipedia says of him:
“He always pretends to know the problem, but can never quite figure it out.[” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Plod
The cap fits???
It’s called ‘laughing in our faces’. What next? Nobel Peace Prize for BLiar, Obomber style?
Gordon Brown receives Honorary degree at University of Glasgow
Posted by The Editors on April 30, 2015, 9:22 am
How sad to see my alma mater grant an honorary degree to a war criminal: the man who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, funded the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. This war of aggression was the “supreme international crime” that led to the deaths of one million deaths in Iraq, said Physicians for Social Responsibility in their recent report, “Body Count”. Shame on the University of Glasgow authorities who took the decision to “honour” this man.
http://www.psr.org/news-events/press-releases/doctors-group-releases-startling-analysis.html
DC
Link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1036741319678916.1073741865.160556770630713&type=1
Responses
◦Yes, deep shame on them…
Re: Yes, deep shame on them…
Re: Yes, deep shame on them…
Degree in Prudent Bullion Management, was it? Or in Applied Genocide, perhaps? NOM…
A thoroughly reactionary, career politician who has served power all his life, disgusting (nm)…
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1430382164.html
the man who, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, funded the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Actually, I think you’ll find, we funded it. What I didn’t realise was how much it costs the university to give someone an honorary doc –
http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2010/10/31/23404/
– or why. Hire of robe + nibbles and wine afterwards + small cut to resident nebbie for tapping you on the head with the uni’s bunnet….thousands?
Okay, Toytown Idiot, when I think of Sheikhs I think of the Sheikh of Araby and Saudi Arabian Sheikhs, and Sheikhs coming from the Sheikhdoms which according to Wikipedia, are located mostly in the Arab Peninsula (that’s the bit shaded in green on this map.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikhdom
Now in Toytown I suppose all the Sheikhs are from Egypt. Hmm. Your knowledge of geography is no better than your knowledge of iambic pentameter. And you ask Ba’al to laugh with you. 🙂 Don’t try and embarrass the old dragon.
John Spencer-Davis@ 11.30 pm on 29 April – delighted to have that link about Edward Hyams, the admirable translator of Gabriel Chevalier’s Clochemerle-Babylon. He has an amazing variety of other publications. I’ll now read “Killing No Murder”.
the You Could Not Make It Up department scores a goal!
Milibands’ Thunderbirds/International Rescue , Ukraine, CIA, KGB in one paragraph!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3062089/Aid-organisation-run-David-Miliband-forced-Ukraine-accused-spying-pro-Russian-rebels.html
almost as unlikely a story as the GCHQ bake-a-cake sale for charity , oh – that’s real too!
http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/GCHQ-welcomes-TV-star-Richard-Hammond-handover/story-26400982-detail/story.html
I think at least one of these stories is carefully timed sabre-rattling aimed at the UK election, but the message is beyond me. . .
Interesting to see the newspaper the Sun,in Scotland switch allegiance to the SNP,after months of scorn and derision directed towards the SNP.
Canny Murdoch realises that Labour in Scotland are effectively finished for now,and that to keep sales up of his pathetic rag,north of the border,he must for now jump from the unionist ship to the nationalist ship.
Of course the English version of the Sun newspaper,can continue its unionist and anti-SNP propaganda, knowing its Scottish versions future will probably remain safe.
Ian Orr
30/04/2015 12:57pm
You are very welcome. I will he very interested to know what you make of it. I think it is a virtue of the writing that it’s very difficult to get any sense of Hyams’s politics, except that he is obviously anti-authoritarian.
The book is full of gems, such as an examination of the history of advocacy of what he calls “tyrannicide” – the right of a people to execute an unjust ruler – which has a very respectable pedigree. He makes it abundantly clear that he does not exclude western democracies from the right of the people to commit tyrannicide. He looks at the great tradition of refusal to extradite people for political reasons and how it is enshrined in law.
Here’s the dedication:
“Dedicated to the memory of the twenty million war dead who, since the author’s birth, have sacrificed their lives for the score of leaders who might, at the cost of their own, have saved them.”
Kind regards,
John
What a sad and pathetci figure Jim Murphy cuts,here he’s dancing doing the hokey kokey to be precise,whilst journalist shout at him over the possibility of the SNP sweeping the board in Scotland.
Mr Murphy is either oblivious to the fact,or the more realistic among us will know like Murphy,he’s given up altogether.
Watch and listen as Jim the jester,dances around the funeral pyre, of London Labour in Scotland.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=irYsOvfgzQE
Unfortunately for Jim they’ll be no magical return, such as that of Er.
RoS, thanks for the entertainment. With dancing like that James Murphy deserves to lose his seat. I so hope the opinion polls are right. A resounding result, like winning all north of the border seats, will be great for England and those of us who are heartily sick of the main parties here. Can’t wait for a week today, or I guess a week tomorrow for all the results.
Top US academic Paul Krugman, say UK austerity cuts have damaged the British economy.
Research he claims has shown that austerity cuts hinder prolonged growth,and points out that every country since 2010 that’s introduced strict austerity measures,has seen its economy suffer.
Krugman was also critical of Labour’s role in enforcing austerity,claiming tbe opposition party,had been incredibly willing to go along with swinging cuts to public spending.
Yes John I quite agree,why shouldn’t there be some sort of trade hub between Scotland and the north of England,afterall the northern counties are just as far away from the blackole of London as Scotland is.
A counter balance is needed to draw trade and business away from the all engulfing south east.
So no doubts about supporting a party backed by Murdoch then?
No? Not a flicker? You just gonna brush that over and carry on parroting the same old party mantras.
That’s the way to do it, chaps! Greek transport utilities, already heavily in deficit, are evidently taking a leaf out of the book of UK unions in the late 1970s:
“Public transport unions organize industrial action on Labor Day
Early morning services on the Athens metro, electric railway Kifissia-Piraeus ISAP and tram will be disrupted on Friday, Labor Day, due to a stoppage announced by their unions. Services will resume at 9 a.m.
Trainose, the company operating the national and suburban (Proastiakos) rail network, has also announced that its staff was going on strike in observance of May 1.
Ferry boats were also expected to join Friday’s industrial action after the PNO union of ferry workers declared it a strike day.”
David Coburn Ukip’s only politician in Scotland has been banned from Wikipedia,after editi g an article about himself 69 times.
Coburn,consistently deleted accusations he could never remember including calling a SNP minister a terrorist.
Coburn put the blame of editing Wikipedia on silly wee Cybernats.
An off the record briefing by the LibDems have said that they’ve given up on winning the seat in Gordon,and they expect Alex Salmond to take it.
They also told the Guardian newspaper that,they thought Charles Kennedy would also lose his seat.
A hefty price for getting into bed with the Tories.
Some very interesting stuff on the general election and what govt. might emerge on Brian Barder’s blog.
I recommend a reading to all on here who are seriously interested in UK politics (as opposed to those who are only on here on a dick swinging mission).
To be recalled that Craig sees Brian as a good egg. I agree.
FT: Berwick stands between Lib Dems and Commons oblivion (subscription required). Article cites poll where Tory candidate has 36% and LibDem 30%. 17% apparently undecided.
Interesting paragraph:
Plus this commenter’s letter:
Higher public spending – thanks to the Barnett formula.
So no doubts about supporting a party backed by Murdoch then?
No? Not a flicker? You just gonna brush that over and carry on parroting the same old party mantras.
That would seem to be the realistic, if unpleasant option, yes. What are you going to do? Set up a national media outlet which reaches, what, 60% of the population, daily, by yourself? Or simply let the antis have the PR upper hand without a cheep? I mean, much as we’d all like to see governments elected by sober rational people fairly presented with all the arguments and permitted to make a considered judgement which would be fairly implemented by the party of their choice, we live in whatis termed , for want of a more apposite description, the real world.
The available choices aren’t Manichean, between good and evil. The only political choice we ever have is between a bad compromise and a slightly less bad compromise. (include truly terrible non-compromise if you are a fan of armed insurrection)
Baal
“What are you going to do?”
Not support Murdoch backed, pro-NATO politicians?
Not support Murdoch backed, pro-NATO politicians?
Fine by me. Got anyone who isn’t (by your definition) in mind who’s in a position to do anything tangible for this election? Never mind if only. Where’s your plan?
Oh, and bearing in mind that Russia’s just announced its intention to get some more Tu160s – strategic nuclear bombers – I wouldn’t be too dismissive of NATO just yet. But then I’m not the kind that wants to take on 2 Para armed with what I can find in the kitchen, either, wimp that I am.
http://rt.com/news/254313-russia-blackjack-bomber-tu160/
You can’t fault the source.