Dear President Ahtisaari,
I had the pleasure of meeting you on a number of occasions over the years, including when I was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, and I recall your genuine concern for democracy and human rights in a region where they are sadly neglected.
Like a great many people in Scotland I was shocked that CMI is employing Jim Murphy. Of course, in a democracy there are always losers as well as winners in elections, and both are genuine and valid participants in public life. It is not the fact that CMI employs a politician who has been so recently, comprehensively and humiliatingly rejected by his national electorate that will do any damage to CMI. In a sense I think it does you credit.
What shocks many people here is that Mr Murphy is by any standards a dedicated warmonger. He was a major and important proponent of the invasion of Iraq, and is the strongest of supporters of the massive increase of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, in breach of the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Mr Murphy is a member of the Henry Jackson Society, which as you know is a body which exists to promote United States neo-conservative foreign policy in its most aggressive sense, and openly and actively supports and condones extraordinary rendition and the use of torture by the CIA. It has supported every single military action by the USA since its formation, and defends United States exceptionalism in international law, including US non-membership of the International Criminal Court.
Mr Murphy’s belief set is therefore fundamentally at odds with the stated aims of CMI. Indeed, his employment by you can only lead to the suspicion that CMI’s stated objectives are not its real objectives, and that like Mr Murphy and the Henry Jackson Society your overriding goal in the regions where you operate is to promote the interests of the United States.
As you are funded by charitable donations and by governments, I think some explanation of your employment of Mr Murphy is in order, particularly when you have employed him as a conflict resolution expert in the Caucasus and Central Asia when he has no relevant experience of conflict resolution at all, virtually none of the Caucasus, and absolutely none of Central Asia.
I was the Head of the UK Delegation that negotiated the Sierra Leone Peace Treaty, and certainly under no circumstances would I let Jim Murphy anywhere near that kind of negotiation.
With All Best Wishes,
Amb (rtd.) Craig Murray
Scotland doesn’t get £66 Billion back.Those are the (doctored) Westminster accounts which gives Scotland a % of the £90Billion Westminster borrows and spends in the rest of the UK. Not spent in Scotland.
Scotland gets back £50Billion back. £30Billion Block Grant. £16Billion (UK) Gov pensions/benefits, £4Billion Defence (attack). £4Billion repayments on money Scotland doesn’t borrow or spend.
Where does Scotland spend another £12Billion? What on?
Westminster has been secretly and illegally taking the equivalent of £Billions from Scotland. Wedtminster has been spending Trillions on illegal wars, banking fraud and tax evasion.
Scotland can’t tax ‘loss leading’ drink, cut Trident/illegal wars or develop Oil on the West because of Faslane. Scotland be £10Billion+ Independent.
Well said
Monteverdi @5;52
Meanwhile More from the Brilliant Global Reasearch
By – the great Writer – Felicity Arbuthnot
In what has been dubbed “an apology,” Blair recently took to CNN in an interview with his pal Fareed Zakaria to (sort of) explain himself.
It was no apology but a weasel-worded damage-limitation exercise as more and more revelations of his disregard for law and “to hell with public opinion” attitude surface.
The fault was that “the intelligence we received was wrong,” there were “mistakes in planning” and a failure to understand “what would happen once you removed the regime,” said Blair.
Statements entirely untrue. It is now known he plotted with George W Bush in April 2002, a year before the onslaught, to invade, come what may.
He also found it “hard to apologise for removing Saddam.”
Blair brushed off the mention of a war crimes trial and made it clear that he would have trashed Syria as he did Iraq, had he the chance. Despite being a barrister by training, legality is clearly inconsequential to Blair.
Now no less than Britain’s former director of public prosecutions (2003-8) Sir Ken Macdonald has weighed in against Blair. That he held the post for five years during the Blair regime — Blair resigned in 2007 — makes his onslaught interesting. Ironically Macdonald has his legal practice at London’s Matrix Chambers, which he founded with Blair’s barrister wife Cherie, who continues to practice from there.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/tony-blairs-criminality-is-plain-for-all-to-see/5488072
Mary … Storm Chasin Time 🙂
Off topic but I thought I would just recommend Gerard Russell’s 2014 book (now in paperback) Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, which looks at current day Mandaean, Yazidi, Zoroastarian, Druze, Samaritan, Copt and Kalasha communities.
It comes with a forward by Rory Stewart, who notes that in the Muslim world there was a tolerance for pre-Muslim religions, whilst in Western Christianity we managed to eradicate pre-Christian and rival religions.
Further, since 2003 (and as an obvious consequence of our further meddling)the Muslim world in the Middle East has in part become less tolerant to those non-Muslim communities. Yet still some people think its legitimate and even good to meddle.
I rather doubt that Craig reads down this far in the comments section, but if he does there is a reference to Bokhara Burnes in the chapter on the Kalasha.
If only we had more diplomats and politicians like Craig, Gerrard Russell and Rory Stewart (although they may not all be pleased to be grouped together and in so grouping I suppose I ought to add that Craig is less ideal diplomat and more ideal politician, not because it was wrong for him to whistle blow, but because I don’t suppose one can remain a diplomat after public disclosures unless the whistle was welcomed and endorsed by the employing government or its successor (maybe Mr Corbyn; maybe not*). I do appreciate that the whistle was initially internal, which would obviously have been appropriate).
Anyway the book is worth £9.99 and a few reading hours.
* I wonder if Putin will say that he would never dream of using this giant nuclear torpedo (if it gets built) or any of his nukes.
Brain I suspect that when Chilcot is released the Murdoch press might be able to locate a suitable scapegoat and perhaps one it might have been kinder to if it had not been for certain alleged marital matters….we shall see.
That last post of mine should have been addressed to Brian not Brain!
Rory Stewart makes the observation that “Foreign services and policy makers now want ‘management competency’ – slick and articulate plans, not nuance, deep knowledge and complexity”.
So watch out for shallow but slick and articulate plans on Syria.
A suggestion for Jeremy next week at PMQs. LOL
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1447327541.html
~~~~
Tonight QT BBC1 22.35
Sajid Javid Business Sec CFoI ‘I would choose to settle in Israel’*
Lucy Powell Lab MP Shadow Education
Ukip deputy leader Paul Nuttall MEP,
writer and campaigner Paris Lees **
managing editor of The Sun Stig Abell.
* http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/94117/muslim-tory-mp-after-britain-israel-best
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Lees
“Scotland doesn’t get £66 Billion back.Those are the (doctored) Westminster accounts which gives Scotland a % of the £90Billion Westminster borrows and spends in the rest of the UK. Not spent in Scotland.”
Those are the Scottish government’s own figures published on the Scottish government web site.
If we can’t trust them who can we trust?
Fwl cheers.
i meant get back to you with a link couple of days late but check this great site out – Re NGO’s –
Syria’s White Helmets: War By Way of Deception ~ ‘Moderate Executioners’
https://thewallwillfall.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/white-helmets-war-by-way-of-deception-part-ii-if-it-looks-like-an-executioner/#comments
P.s, I hear the bbC have distorted the IDF hospital execution… Blood Boils
“Hundred mile an hour winds aren’t uncommon in these parts, the people of South Uist can handle it even without trees just the same as we can. Only thing different about this storm is it has a name, apart from that it’s just the same as all the other storms we get several of every year.”
————-
Well Fred, why do you put up with it, according to you the councils bad, the weathers bad, the police service is bad, the NHS in Scotland is bad and the Scottish government is bad, and nationalist are all Nazi’s and Brown Shirts.
Don’t take this the wrong way Fred, but wouldn’t you feel a lot better, back in England, where none of the above would apply.
“Scottish activist, Andy Murray (No not the tennis player) travelled to Israel on a parliamentary fact finding mission, he was detained at passport control in Tel Aviv on Monday.”
They just let “Dr” Monahan in.
Here’s hoping they don’t let him out.
Thanks, I will read the Wallwillfall. I started to read to see what she has to say about the White Hats, but was distracted by the story about the arrest of the Saudi Prince whose jet was packed full of Coke and Captagon, which I had previously seen in the Times about two weeks ago and in the same edition the Times had also run a story about French intelligence allegedly springing drug smugglers in Equitorial New Guinea….what is going on?
I was wondering How democratic Democratic the UK is..
Then I remembered a million people on the the streets of London, saying they Knew it was all lies on Iraq’s WMDs.. And No to the Illegal war.
Democracy sure worked there, now Didn’t it – From my post above –
It was no apology but a weasel-worded damage-limitation exercise as more and more revelations of his disregard for law and “to hell with public opinion” attitude surface
Then i Remembered Cameron’s war crimes Too, in Libya, Where Devastation is a Monumental understatement.. Same in Yemen, and to hell with public opinion…he went Against Parliament, and went into Syria – devastation, Now we have Flotsam Babies.
The Democracy of the USA..
One would think that in a democracy innocent people would be safe from their so called Protectors
http://killedbypolice.net/
Yes its a Good site fwl..Lots in there..
Hibernating weather, and i gotta go out into it…Better Dash
Brian, the more you think about private armies, private security, private intelligence the more you note how the trend to private services in these areas parallels the roll out of privacy rights more generally.
It also parallels increased public scrutiny of public / official security and intelligence.
To some extent security and intelligence can’t operate under too much scrutiny and there more oversight there is then the more likely that the real game will move elsewhere out of sight.
So that is a bit of a catch 22 for which I do not have an answer save that participants have to have true inner values if they operate in the dark. If they don’t have an inner real value system then it is difficult to bestow trust. Given that society today has pretty much lost its road map I suspect that the road map in the services might be superficial and career oriented. How to change that? I don’t know. Was it ever different? When there were more obvious values were they just a form of window dressing or were they more likely to be sincerely held by a greater percentage than today? I can see how freemasonry would at one time have offered a meaningful path for power holders to come face to face with death, their mortality and life’s difficult questions. Unfortunately, it has been discredited by scandal.
Ultimately each man has to listen to his own conscience.
They are the UK Gov. figures which are used for GERS. The share of the rest of the UK debts lobbed on to the Scottish accounts. Plus £4Billion paid on debt no borrowed or spent in Scotland.
Exactly what does Scotland spend £12Billion in the rest of the UK on?
https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/settlement-reached-case-professor-fired-uncivil-tweets
Good news for Professor Steven Salaita’s case against the University of Illinois vindicating his right to criticise the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014 .
Scotland certainly can’t trust Westminster corrupt criminals. Westminster secrecy and lies. Trillions on illegal wars, banking fraud and tax evasion. Embezzling public funds for their associates. £1.3Trillion debt.
FWL: the (correspondence) privacy & other related human rights were designed post the horrors of the First World War and the Second World War. The idea was to prevent a repeat conflagration , to generate a stable, profitable & developing society. Iron & steel production communities of the allies & axis were interconnected, social reforms were undertaken and a new joint market development was tried.
These rights are being (since the 1980s at least,) continually undermined, diluted, attacked, overlooked and ignored, deliberately.
There •is• no effective current scrutiny of the public intelligence services, but you are right that they look at things differently. They are actually in a state of constant HOT war with their enemies, unfortunately they are quite wide at ascribing ‘enemy’ status to those who observe what they do, perhaps protest and try to improve the democratic scrutiny, as well as the traditional ‘opposing’ nation-state spooks/enemies. GCHQ themselves describe that they have a light oversight regime compared to other world spooks.
The independent here describes some “spy & ex-military” antics of GCHQ attacking a member of the Broon dynasty, it might not be GCHQ exactly, but it could certainly be them, due their lack of real oversight.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/dead-peoples-identities-stolen-for-fake-twitter-accounts-used-to-smear-human-rights-journalist-a6730811.html
Ultimately, if the agencies could sometimes remember that although •they• are at war, quite a lot of world citizens aren’t; it’s not a matter of individual conscience as some management chain in Cheltenham or MK or Thamesbank deliberately targeted social media with dead-people’s identities. That’s not script-kiddies, that’s on the slope to genocide in the UK.
“Don’t take this the wrong way Fred, but wouldn’t you feel a lot better, back in England, where none of the above would apply.”
But then I might end up with you as a neighbour.
Seriously though. It’s not me always critical of Britain and Westminster, like the majority of Scots I like the union. Don’t you think it’s you that might be happier elsewhere where you don’t have to put up with royalty and Westminster and all those other things you don’t like.
“They are the UK Gov. figures which are used for GERS.”
No, they are the Office for National Statistics figures which are used. If the Scottish government didn’t think they were accurate why did they accept them and publish them on their web site?
Millions of people had to leave Scotland because of Westminster economic policies. There is a 40 million diaspora. Families were split up. Westminster economic depopulated Scotland.
UK Gov claimed they could not collect separate figures. That is why the Scottish Gov has to publish and use them. At least the SNP publish them. The Unionists didn’t. The Scottish Gov dispute many of the figures, along with award winning economists and Professors. Unionst Professors have disputed the figures and admitted there were mistakes.
Exactly what does Scotland spend £12Billion on in the rest of the UK?
For Rob G
https://twitter.com/eu_commission/status/664763385268019202
Rag, Tag and Bobtail. 600 of them under the chairmanship of the man in search of a brain, Chris Grayling.
http://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/privy-council/privy-council-members/privy-counsellors/
“Millions of people had to leave Scotland because of Westminster economic policies. There is a 40 million diaspora. Families were split up. Westminster economic depopulated Scotland. ”
The population of Scotland has been increasing since 1500.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_Scotland#Population_totals_for_Scotland_1600.E2.80.932011
“UK Gov claimed they could not collect separate figures.”
But they are separate figures, compiled by the Office for National Statistics for the Scottish government.
“Exactly what does Scotland spend £12Billion on in the rest of the UK?”
I haven’t said they do.
This story, in a slightly different form, was a big splash this morning on the Independent’s web site…
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sinjar-offensive-kurdish-troops-launch-operation-to-take-back-key-iraqi-city-and-split-isis-in-two-a6731386.html
The original splash now seems to have completely disapeared, and the above link is buried in the news pages. Likewise with the Guardian, BBC and other usual suspects, including the NYT…
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/world/middleeast/isis-iraq-syria.html
Although this latest US-led action is purportedly taking place in Iraq, there is no mention in the western news pieces of the massive bombing campaign that Russia is carrying out in neighbouring Syria, and the danger of US and Russian forces coming into direct conflict.
Some total .C.R.A.P. from the Mail to end the day.
How to survive a nuclear fallout: Experts reveal the basics of living in a world riddled with radiation and the simple way to tell if you’ve been exposed
In Fallout 4, the only surviving members of the human race are in vaults
American Chemical Society tests challenges of living in such a shelter
Video explains how to produce power, water, and food in a real fallout
Separate research reveals the simple trick to tell if you’re in the radiation zone and where to flee to if you don’t have a nuclear bunker
12 November 2015 |
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3315359/How-survive-nuclear-fallout-Experts-reveal-basics-living-world-riddled-radiation-simple-way-tell-ve-exposed.html
Mary there has always been a very robust plan to help we the people to face any nuclear exchanges. Here you can learn about the survival techniques , they are ever so simple, in fact child’s play.
Hang on ta yar boots Brian, ‘A big Gal’ is coming your way. Its going to push as lot of water up the river at high tide. take care.
Mary, I don’t know if you caught this piece in today’s Guardian…
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/12/beattyville-kentucky-and-americas-poorest-towns
… and the amazing thing is that most of these impoverished folks still vote Republican.
Human existence has always been totally crazy, but for reasons I still do not understand I remain optimistic. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion always does it for me (and I speak as someone who’s not religious)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf4UNJqv_-A
The human story, ay…