This may be the most important article I ever post, because it reveals perfectly how the Establishment works and how the Red Tories and Blue Tories contrive to give a false impression of democracy. It is information I can only give you because of my experience as an insider.
It is a definitive proof of the validity of the Chomskian propaganda model. It needs a fair bit of detail to do this, but please try and read through it because it really is very, very important. After you have finished, if you agree with me about the significance, please repost, (you are free to copy), retweet, add to news aggregators (Reddit etc) and do anything you can to get other people to pay attention.
The government based its decision to execute by drone two British men in Syria on “Legal Opinion” from the Attorney-General for England and Wales, Jeremy Wright, a politician, MP and Cabinet Minister. But Wright’s legal knowledge comes from an undistinguished first degree from Exeter and a short career as a criminal defence barrister in Birmingham. His knowledge of public international law is virtually nil.
I pause briefly to note that there is no pretence of consulting the Scottish legal system. The only legal opinion is from the Attorney General for England and Wales who is also Honorary Advocate General for Northern Ireland.
So Jeremy Wright’s role is as a cypher. He performs a charade. The government employs in the FCO a dozen of the most distinguished public international lawyers in the world. When the Attorney-General’s office needs an Opinion on public international law, they ask the FCO to provide it for him to sign.
The only known occasion when this did not happen was the Iraq War. Then the FCO Legal Advisers – unanimously – advised the Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, that to invade Iraq was illegal. Jack Straw asked the Attorney General to dismiss the FCO chief Legal Adviser, Sir Michael Wood (Goldsmith refused). Blair sent Goldsmith to Washington where the Opinion was written for him to sign by George Bush’s lawyers. [I know this sounds incredible, but it is absolutely true]. Sir Michael Wood’s deputy, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, resigned in protest.
In consequence Blair and Straw decided that, again for the first time ever, the FCO’s chief legal adviser had to be appointed not from within the FCO legal advisers, who had all declared the war on Iraq to be illegal, but from outside. They had to find a distinguished public international lawyer who was prepared to argue that the war on Iraq had been legal. That was a very small field. Blair and Straw thus turned to Benjamin Netanyahu’s favourite lawyer, Daniel Bethlehem.
Daniel Bethlehem had represented Israel before the Mitchell Inquiry into violence against the people of Gaza, arguing that it was all legitimate self-defence. He had also supplied the Government of Israel with a Legal Opinion that the vast Wall they were building in illegally occupied land, surrounding and isolating all the major Palestinian communities and turning them into large prisons, was also legal. Daniel Bethlehem is an extreme Zionist militarist of the most aggressive kind, and close to Mark Regev, Israel’s new Ambassador to the UK.
Daniel Bethlehem had developed, in his work for Israel, an extremist doctrine of the right of States to use pre-emptive self-defence – a doctrine which would not be accepted by the vast majority of public international lawyers. He clinched his appointment by Blair as the FCO chief legal adviser by presenting a memorandum to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in 2004 outlining this doctrine, and thus de facto defending the attack on Iraq and the Bush/Blair doctrine.
A key sentence of Daniel Bethlehem’s memorandum is this
“It must be right that states are able to act in self-defence in circumstances where there is evidence of further imminent attacks by terrorist groups, even if there is no specific evidence of where such an attack will take place or of the precise nature of the attack.”
There is a fundamental flaw in this argument. How can you be certain that an attack in “imminent”, if you are not certain where or what it is? Even if we can wildly imagine a scenario where the government know of an “imminent” attack, but not where or what it is, how could killing someone in Syria stop the attack in the UK? If a team were active, armed and in course of operation in the UK – which is needed for “imminent” – how would killing an individual in Syria prevent them from going through with it? It simply does not add up as a practical scenario.
Interestingly, Daniel Bethlehem does not pretend this is accepted international law, but specifically states that
“The concept of what constitutes an “imminent” armed attack will develop to meet new circumstances and new threats”
Bethlehem is attempting to develop the concept of “imminent” beyond any natural interpretation of the word “imminent”.
Daniel Bethlehem left the FCO in 2011. But he had firmly set the British government doctrine on this issue, while all FCO legal advisers know not to follow it gets you sacked. I can guarantee you that Wright’s Legal Opinion states precisely the same argument that David Bethlehem stated in his 2004 memorandum. Knowing how these things work, I am prepared to wager every penny I own that much of the language is identical.
It was New Labour, the Red Tories, who appointed Daniel Bethlehem, and they appointed him precisely in order to establish this doctrine. It is therefore a stunning illustration of how the system works, that the only response of the official “opposition” to these extrajudicial executions is to demand to see the Legal Opinion, when it comes from the man they themselves appointed. The Red Tories appointed him precisely because they knew what Legal Opinion would be given on this specific subject. They can read it in Hansard.
So it is all a charade.
Jeremy Wright pretends to give a Legal Opinion, actually from FCO legal advisers based on the “Bethlehem Doctrine”. The Labour Party pretends, very unconvincingly, to be an opposition. The Guardian, apparently the leading “opposition” intellectual paper, publishes articles by its staff neo-con propagandists Joshua Rozenberg (married to Melanie Phillips) and Rafael Behr strongly supporting the government’s new powers of extrajudicial execution. In summer 2012 Joshua Rozenberg presented a programme on BBC Radio 4 entitled “Secret courts, drones and international law” which consisted mostly of a fawning interview with … Daniel Bethlehem. The BBC and Sky News give us wall to wall justification of the killings.
So the state, with its neo-con “opposition” and media closely in step with its neo-con government, seamlessly adopts a new power to kill its own subjects based on secret intelligence and secret legal advice, and a very weird definition of “imminent” that even its author admits to be outside current legal understanding.
That is how the state works. I do hope you find that helpful.
This article has been updated to reflect the fact the Daniel Bethlehem is now retired from the FCO.
“I wouldn’t take that to be the truth. Even they must understand that Asad out, means ISIS in Damascus.”
The truth I was elaborating on is that they said it. This is how they think and act.
What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be heard on every radio, read in every newspaper, seen on every television, this message must resound throughout the entire InterLink! I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion. I want every man, woman and child to understand how close we are to chaos. I WANT EVERYONE TO REMEMBER WHY THEY NEED US!
-Adam Sutler-
Laguerre : “One day we found the apartment raided, and nothing taken. Much the same sort of thing.”
Maybe nothing was taken – but it’s worrying that something might have been left. Bugs, incriminating evidence of some sort – drugs, “hot” weapons, bullets, marked money, a memory-stick with vile contents, some top secret documents. All of which could be “found” at some point and lead to charges which are very hard to beat off.
Fred:
Are you saying that the UK can legally kill anybody in any war zone in the world?
The law of the USA’s British satellite naturally has to conform to US policy. Good work having a pliant nonentity like Wright take dictation! That’s so much more pleasant than hanging big shots like Lord Goldsmith out the White House window upside down.
The Bethlehem Endlösung has a specific place in CIA murder pretexts. The US government’s first try at justifying drone murder was to redefine the word ‘and’ and read ICCPR article 2(1) to mean that it doesn’t apply if you’re abroad, or if anybody else has jurisdiction. The US got laughed out of the room. Even that cringing worm Harold Koh disowned them. The US then tried another angle, arguing that the lex specialis of humanitarian law overrides the human right to life. That one flopped because the “laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law” explicitly protect your rights, and the prosecute-or-extradite regime of conventional law is required to be consistent with internationally recognized human rights. So redefining imminent is something of a last-ditch defense. They dusted off the old chestnut they used to explain aggression in Iraq. CIA drone murderers plan to argue the facts while withholding the evidence as state secrets.
The importance of a united NATO-Pact front goes far beyond drone murder. It’s needed to fend off universal-jurisdiction legal exposure for a number of touchy murders soon to hit the fan. One pulls the thread of an armed US government attack on the civilian population. Another, tempting oppo for campaign season, threatens CIA sources [of drug funds] and methods.
Glenn, good point. It’s not just about taking. Everybody today should be aware that their house might be bugged, somebody might have planted something incriminating, and as you say it might be difficult to fend off. However Craig is doing the right thing in being open against those who are secretive.
Perhaps if Dr. David Kelly had told the world, rather than a journalist, that there were no weapons and no 45 minute capability on a blog like this he might at least have made his next trip to Iraq. Dr Kelly did his doctorate at my alma mater. University of Birmingham. Daniel Bethlehem worked as a defence lawyer in Birmingham for a short while.
One brings credit to the city. Which one?
Excellent post, Craig.
One small contention – The Propaganda Model is not ‘Chomskian’. As NC concedes, it is largely the work of Ed Herman!
It makes me very angry and upset, and I don’t have kids. God knows how people can allow these nutters to continue. Most teach children not to be racist don’t they?
Fascism is not good for the future of society, I expect. And people think developed nations like ours are immune from chaos like in Syria, they where really no different to us. We have all these extremist minorities that will come to the fore should we be significantly destabilised.
Like in Greece, it doesn’t take much for the egg to hatch. So casual readers, you best notice where your standing. And decide what you want for your children’s future. And if you can’t guarantee a place among them? Well they clearly don’t give 2 fucks about our security. National security is a technical term meaning them, their security. They are not even considering us.
This is the democracy we live in. It is an elected dictatorship. Drone killings whenever. And when nearly 450,000 people ask the UK to take their fair share of refugees we get a disdainful response like this.
“Hi John Goss,
You recently signed a petition on the UK Government and Parliament Petitions website to: Accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee migrants in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105991
The Petitions Committee considered today whether to schedule a debate on this petition.
Because the House of Commons has already had several opportunities to debate this issue, the Committee decided that the time was not right for another debate on the same issue.
The House of Commons has had the following opportunities to consider the issue raised in this petition:
– The Prime Minister made a statement on Monday 7 September and was questioned by MPs about it:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2015/september/statement-on-syria-refugees-and-counter-terrorism-7-september-2015/
– On Tuesday 8 September there was an emergency debate on the refugee crisis in Europe:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2015/september/emergency-debate-the-refugee-crisis-in-europe/
– A further debate on this subject is expected tomorrow (Wednesday 9 September).
This petition has been listed on the House of Commons order paper as being relevant to the debates on this issue.
You can watch House of Commons debates live at:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Commons
You can follow the House of Commons on Twitter: @HouseofCommons
Click this link to view the petition “Accept more asylum seekers and increase support for refugee migrants in the UK.”:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105991
Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament”
Media have constructed an idea in the minds of our populations that the idea of attacking the West is immanent within Islamicism.
Ever present.
Ever present danger.
Every moment.
Of every waking day.
Danger lurks, waiting its moment.
The Immanent therefore becomes continually imminent.
Thank God for PoMo lawyers.
Pre-traumatic stress disorder:
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/pre-traumatic-stress-disorder-pre-traumatic-stress-disorder.html
Chill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McgoNkHUPFw
John, Thanks for that petition link, been ages since I logged onto my email, and I just saw 38 degrees has a local petition going for my town also.
Sigh, better late then never.
https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/253?zip=
Thought it was Msc from Brum and PhD from Oxford but no matter.
The muddy footprints led to and from the door yet inside the mat cleaned off the mud??
I understand the property is “permanently manned by a conierge” (be careful what info you make public in future) and CCTV in operation.
Was the visitor log checked against the CCTV?
Best to have hidden PIR activated cameras fitted in the flat linked directly with a outside server for recording purposes and prime some booby traps before next trip to ASDA.
Craig,
Very sorry to hear of your woes…great blog posts will certainly attract the dirty bastards.
Zersetsen/Gang Stalking/Targeted Individual/MK-Ultra aint a nice experience at all…
Been there,had that…like many others out there it seems in the last 15 years its a massively growing phehomenon..no touch torture and the like…your innocence is an irrelevance to them.
Be strong,be very strong and you have my best wishes too.
Tony,
Ffs sake mate…look at what Craig’s posted ya eejit.
Its very real and very common these days.
I think its YOU that needs to put the spliff or glass down.
Jonathan Cook highlights Craig’s Post;
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2015-09-10/the-ways-israeli-war-crimes-buy-good-will/#sthash.NVxyOEiO.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/mxsEkWjZNr
Right. Just checked up on lenins tomb, good to see someone else confirms my feeling about the significance of the ISISTANT acceptance of refugees by the public. The opposite of the elite agenda. I read a lot of negative stuff on the state in an isolated heavenly propagandised football supporting kinda town (called malice)..Bad case of the blues. Must focus and keep moral up. Well done folks, and it’s not the ‘winning’ that matters is it…
Hi Macky, good to see others picking up on this. I really hate the thought my posts are read by others though.
Dear causal readers, post stuff……. or not, lol. I wouldn’t if I knew better…It’s heavy stuff.
late Night all.
From SMH:
“US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart for the second time in four days to express concern over reports of Russian military activities in Syria, warning that it could fan more violence.”
I really am curious as to how John Kerry could possibly say those words with a straight face. Chutzpah is one thing, but I’m not sure what this is. Denial, psychopathy, black humour, or delusional thinking? I’ve no idea.
9 September 2015
The following appeared today on the the House of Commons Order of Business:
3. INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT
The Prime Minister
That Sir Alan Duncan, Mr Dominic Grieve, Mr George Howarth, Fiona Mactaggart, Angus Robertson, Mr Keith Simpson and Ms Gisela Stuart be appointed to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament under Section 1 of the Justice and Security Act 2013.
http://isc.independent.gov.uk/
‘Gillian Merron, Board chief executive, said: “It’s right and proper that we all come together to welcome Mr Netanyahu. It’s important all the people of Israel know the support they have here. The Board represents the Jewish community which extends a very warm welcome to the Israeli Prime Minister. We want to say that loud and clear.
“They would do better to recognise that this is the only Prime Minister of the only democratic country in the region and he has an absolute right to be here to represent the views of his country. I have no expectation that a demonstration of this nature will do anything to detract from the true purpose of the visit.”‘
Seven arrests as hundreds protest against Netanyahu visit
September 9, 2015
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/144548/seven-arrests-hundreds-protest-against-netanyahu-visit
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/newspaper/world-news/analysis-isiss-success-due-to-lessons-learnt-from-al-qaida/
When the US left Iraq, it thought that the majority of Al-Qa’ida’s leaders were killed and defeated. Little did it assume that by killing their leadership the group’s most capable leader would emerge. Now known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he would be a ruthless calculator and institution builder. His first act as leader was to comprehensively assess the strength and weaknesses of al-Qa’ida and build on it. He renamed the group ISIS.
Considering that IS is a USUKIS project, I wonder whether Shimon Elliot took Mr Bethlehem’s legal advice.
The Syrian drone-slain were working for USUKIS (CIA/Queen/Cunt) intelligence so we can usefully remember the Henry Kissinger principle: “Some people seem to confuse covert operations with social work”
As some one commented recently, all good patsies get to die more than once.
The Muslim News is a freebie from Mossad’s Muslim Brotherhood. I wouldn’t wrap my fish and chips in it, but it does show where we, sitting on a planet whizzing round the sun, in a country which is a partner to the world-hegemonising US, are at the moment.
A principle UK Muslim newspaper eulogises the leader of Islamic State to an audience which a few pages back The Muslim News described as vulnerable to extremism.
The purpose of words is not for legality, it is for propaganda. Cameron is a troll.
And trolls get the treatment here on CM’s blog.
The idea that our former ambassador who regularly attended 10 Downing Street through the corridors of power, now gets the muddy boot treatment like a Conan Doyle Victorian thriller is comic as well as sinister.
Don’t forget he laughs loudest who gets the last laugh. USUKIS are desperate in Syria that their pathetic plan to colonise the Middle East with toxi-proxies has failed completely to convince the Muslims.
Memo to Cameron: Must try harder.
There is an Arab saying which roughly translates to: “if you befriend a tribe for forty days, you becomes one of them”. I am afraid befriending the Frankenstein state had not only coloured the judgement of British governments post Ted Heath, but made them complicit in its crimes.
There is no doubt in my mind that the extra-judicial killing now adopted on casuistic sick logic, is only the ominous first step on the road of ravaging the Magna Carta.
Something need to be done urgently to free the mainstream media, particularly the BBC, from the clutches of the subjugated establishment.
Craig.
Just sent you my comments, they seem to have disappeared into the wide blue yonder????.
Craig, another try.
I would have thought an aware man such as yourself would be aware of your tail/s by now. It is what they do when we are on their radar.
Muddy boots, over the back fence? Have the flat swept.
The “click” on my phone does not kick in for a few seconds after I have been connected, which gives me a chance to hear it if I don’t speak right away.
Imminent, looking for snow when none is falling!.
When my local Conservative Councillor’s wife and daughter walk past with their dogs, I think I will walk close behind on my way to the shops, just to put an extra shilling on my insurance policy. ( what is that buzzing sound above me?).
Take an independent witness with you when you go out, if you can. They don’t like that, I find.
They are few and the poor are many. If they go to far, the poor may “swarm” all over them.
_______________________________________
Maynon2013.
I have said for years now,” we get to vote, then they do as they please with us”.
Krishnamurti is right.
Thank you for that, well done.
Ishmael
“To the casual reader, most people are past responding to habba,”
_____________________
They certainly are – having tried it a few times without being able to refute my points or shout me down. But as I’ve said before, that says more about the robustness of their arguments and their inabilty to defend them than it does about me.
And now get back to some substance (about the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission if you like) and stop focussing on me, you’ll feel a lot better.
Craig and everyone else who is having a hard time of it.
“Feel the Fear and do it anyway”. By Susan Jeffers.
Craig,
Another bit I forgot to put in,
http://www.who owns the world.com
David Cameron to block probe into secret “kill list” of British jihadis
9 September 2015
David Cameron will not allow MPs to investigate Britain’s secret military strikes against British nationals in Syria as they are “current operations
‘The PM said MPs on the powerful Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) will be barred from looking at Britain’s “current operations” in Iraq and Syria.
“I’m not going to contract out our counter-terrorism policy to someone else,” he told the Commons.
It is now known RAF killer drones have been circling Syria for months, seeking key ISIS targets deemed a threat to Britain on a ‘shoot to kill’ basis.’
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-cameron-block-probe-secret-6413246
Very imperial. He believes he is above the law.
On Medialens
Cook: The ways Israeli war crimes buy good will
Posted by The Editors on September 10, 2015, 5:58 am
I recently interviewed Jeff Halper about his excellent new book, War Against the People, which examines the way Israel has crafted an indispensable role for itself doing what Halper calls “niche-filling” in the “war on terror”.
Put in the simplest terms, Halper’s argument is that Israel develops, refines and tests things – weapons, missile interception systems, surveillance, crowd control, biometric data collection, new interpretations of international law – using the Palestinians as guinea pigs. The occupied territories are test beds, demonstrating how well such “innovations” work in the field. That knowledge and experience can then be sold on to other international players, including, of course, the biggest: the United States.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2015-09-10/the-ways-israeli-war-crimes-buy-good-will/
~~~
Within the piece –
‘Put in the simplest terms, Halper’s argument is that Israel develops, refines and tests things – weapons, missile interception systems, surveillance, crowd control, biometric data collection, new interpretations of international law – using the Palestinians as guinea pigs.
The occupied territories are test beds, demonstrating how well such “innovations” work in the field. That knowledge and experience can then be sold on to other international players, including, of course, the biggest: the United States.
Craig Murray, a former British ambassador (one who went rogue, from the British government’s point of view) has a very interesting post about the latest efforts of David Cameron’s government to justify the extra-judicial murder of two Britons in Syria over the summer by claiming that such actions accord with international law. The US began doing similar things in the Middle East to its citizens, also using drones, a few years earlier.
Israel, of course, led the way decades ago on this kind of murder from the skies, before most people had heard of drones. Israel refers to these murders as “targeted assassinations”, and has spent the intervening period trying to persuade the world that they are legal in international law.’
Mary
Yes I particularly like the following as Jonathan Cook is in a position to confirm the truth of what I wrote about Daniel Bethlehem in Israel:
So what did they do? They brought in an outside expert. They turned to Daniel Bethlehem, a lawyer beloved of Israeli prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the Israeli army. He had spent many years advising the Israeli military as it tried to develop new legal principles that justify states using massive firepower that kills chiefly civilians. That nonchalance you see from Israeli officials every time Israel murders hundreds of children in Gaza relies on the legal sophistry provided by rent-an-excuse lawyers like Bethlehem.
Israel and its enablers have tried to create a loophole in international law, arguing that an “imminent” threat exists – whether from a country like Iraq or two blokes with guns in Syria – and justifies self-defence even if the country has no weapons that pose a credible threat or the people killed aren’t involved in an attack on the aggressor state, imminent or not.
This is exactly the kind of tough, thankless work Israel has been doing that, in our age of permanent “war on terror”, is highly marketable. States buy weapons systems and they pay people like Bethlehem big bucks to put their names to bits of paper spouting nonsense about international law.
– See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2015-09-10/the-ways-israeli-war-crimes-buy-good-will/#sthash.QgC3QI7G.dpuf