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
Thank you Nevermind.. STORM Chasin Comes First…. And My Partner In Crime is oor Listeningwater Who Yir Wumin Knows And Met
Thanks RobG and Fedup. That was just 6 years after the end of a war that killed millions and millions yet they still wanted more killing.
We were told to go under the stairs or the kitchen table! Our attention was later diverted by the death of the king followed by the coronation of Her Maj.
~~
Here are the cowardly Israeli thugs scuttling around in the corridor of a Palestinian hospital where they carried out their assassination and abduction.
Note the wheelchair carrying out a huddled figure, the poor victim Azzam now tortured and dead presumably. False beards worn too. Note the threats to the staff out of sight of the camera until the end of the video. How absolutely vile and disgusting. Not even a hospital is inviolate.
http://www.imemc.org/article/73827
‘The assassination in the Hebron Hospital was carried out by 21 undercover Israeli soldiers, who invaded the hospital at dawn, Thursday, and infiltrated the room of Azzam Shalalda, who was previously seriously wounded by Israeli fire, and receiving treatment in the Surgery Ward.
The soldiers shot and killed his cousin, Abdullah, with a live round in his head, one in the chest and three in his arms, and kidnapped Azzam despite his serious health condition.
His death brings the number of Palestinians, killed by Israeli fire since October 1, to 83, 65 in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and one in the Negev, and 18 in the Gaza Strip, including a mother and her child, while more than 8500 have been injured.’
Let the Zionist supporting trolls on here (but not last night?) try to defend this latest atrocity.
Top billing. BBC radio and TV, Sky News and print media
Just in. Pentagon press release.
Guardian
‘US air strike targets Mohammed Emwazi – Isis terrorist known as ‘Jihadi John’
Pentagon says strike near Raqqa in Syria was aimed at British terrorist believed responsible for beheadings in gruesome Islamic State propaganda videos.’
BBC
”Jihadi John’: US air strike targets Islamic State militant in Syria
US forces have carried out an air strike targeting the Islamic State group militant known as “Jihadi John”, the Pentagon has said.’
Sky News
”Jihadi John’ Targeted In US Air Strike
An airstrike targeting the British IS militant known as “Jihadi John”, has been carried out in Syria. Mohammed Emwazi was believed to have been in a vehicle near Raqqa when he was targeted by a US drone.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said it was not clear whether Emwazi had been killed in the strike.’
Drilling in, you see they don’t really know if he was killed. What nonsense.
Rob G
Didn’t http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/index_de.htm Open for you?
Your 2014 link is out of date. There is no definitive information about TTIP because it does not exist yet, it is still being written. I assume that you gave gave the Commission your views in the ISDS consultation?
Blair in Ha’aretz
After All This Time Working Toward Peace, I’m Still an Optimist
Peace is still in the interests of both peoples, still supported by both peoples, still wished for by both peoples. But a new approach is required.
Tony Blair Nov 12, 2015 5:44 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/peace/1.685418
No words.
A fair amount is available on the proposed scope and effects of TTIP, though. Much of it is pretty opaque, but informative if you have the time. This addresses (on behalf of the EU) some of the concerns already raised by public sources;
http://www.epicenternetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IBL_Focus_250-Mannheimer-TTIP-EN.pdf
…and it is possible to argue strongly against some of the reassurances here: the energy section in particular.
Some of the final form is beginning to take shape*:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6059_en.htm
TTIP will undoubtedly add to the numbers of well-paid bureaucrats and lawyers already riding the EU gravy train, but that is perhaps a side issue. What is more important is that we have already ceded the powers to make this kind of legislation to the EU and there is nothing we can do about that other than leave the EU. Even if we do, given our
lackey statusSpecial Relationship wrt the USA, we will inevitably change our own local laws to endorse the concessions made by TTIP to rampant globalism.*Dated yesterday – trust that’s up-to-date enough/
Fuji-san
“Well said
Monteverdi @5;52
Meanwhile More from the Brilliant Global Reasearch..”
_____________________
the pretentiously named “globalresearch” is about as brilliant as your spelling of it, Brian.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BTW, didn’t Mother Mary say – but recently – that people shouldn’t run around on here praising one other?
Mary (on civil defence)
“Thanks RobG and Fedup. That was just 6 years after the end of a war that killed millions and millions yet they still wanted more killing.
We were told to go under the stairs or the kitchen table! Our attention was later diverted by the death of the king followed by the coronation of Her Maj.”
_______________________
Dialogue in 1952, after the introduction of civil defence measures in the evnt of nuclear war:
DARK, MYSTERIOUS FORCES: Well, Your Majesty, we need a diversionary gesture. You’re going to die of lung cancer anyway, would you mind awfully doing so next week?
KING GEORGE VI (for it is he): Anything for my country! OK.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mary, you are the silliest of old geese
(Cue : another list of “atrocities” from that strange New Zealand site of yours….?)
RobG
“I love winding-up the spooks!”
which, in translation, reads as follows: I’m pissed again.
What does Scotland spend £12Billion (the so called defict as a % of the rest of the UK expenditure) on. Please list.
Totl taxes raised in Scotland £54Billion. Total taxes raise in the UK £466Billion. Take £54Billion from £466Billion = £412Billion. Divide by 11 (the rest of the UK 11/12 pop) = £39Billion (pro rata) Borrows and spends another £90Billion.
Scotland gets £50Billion back. £16Billion (UK) Pension/benefits, £30Billion block grant + £4Billion (attack) Defence. £4Billion debt repayments on money Scotland doesn’t borrow or spend. Scotland gets £12Billion lobbed on it’s account for £12Billion spent in the rest of the UK.
What is the £12Billion (so called deficit) spent on In the rest of the UK. Westminster has been secretly and illegally taken the equivalent of £Billions from Scotland. Thatcher (‘this must be kept sectet’) and the McCrone Report.
Westminster has spent £Billions/trillions on illegally on illegal wars, tax evasion and banking fraud.
The population in Scotland in 1707 was 1/4 of the UK pop. It is now 1/12. It has only increased since Devolution in 2000.
Here is Deek Jackson of The FKN News with an ISIS update – swearing and rude words included, so adjust your volume or wear headphones depending on your surroundings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIhEFhQLhus
“Totl taxes raised in Scotland £54Billion. Total taxes raise in the UK £466Billion. Take £54Billion from £466Billion = £412Billion. Divide by 11 (the rest of the UK 11/12 pop) = £39Billion (pro rata) Borrows and spends another £90Billion. ”
I’ve shown you that is wrong already using the Scottish government’s own figures published on the Scottish government’s web site. Repeating it over and over Won’t make it true.
Boris Johnson, that lovable rogue, has been batting for Britain in Israel. OK, he may have got the wrong end of the good egg by upsetting some negligible Palestinians (they told him to bugger off, but it was in Palestinian, not Latin), but incredible quantities of the only thing that matters will be flowing to his wealthy City chums, not least from arms deals.
http://www.cufi.org.uk/news/boris-johnsons-hugely-successful-trip-brings-britain-and-israel-closer-together/
Please read that in conjunction with this:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/palestinian-shot-dead-in-israeli-undercover-raid-on-west-bank-hospital
Expect trolls.
Wow, snowden scores – but in the wrong? goal
Silvio -quite entertaining but a more carefully and argued and ‘evidenced’, and more polite version is found on Juan Coles website. The essential points however are not much different. In one case it is a ‘conspired at’ fuck -up of monumental proportions. In the other, it is just corruption to a degree that is tantamount to a conspiracy, although I suspect the greed,corruption and stupidity of some of these players in the US military system could not be contrived. In other words there is no way to distinguish the two interpretations although i am inclined to think that venal behaviour and stupidity trumps (most) scheming.
Juan Cole
Ode to ‘Jihadi John’ – seen in the bloggersphere:
What is this “BELIEVED´´ in every American breaking news every time and why depend on News from SYRIAN OBSERVATORY?Aren´t there any more real journalists who can write a story based on facts? Believed…..It´s like Jesus walked on water´´…NO PROVE OF IT HAPPENING BUT BELIEVE!If i am not mistaken this Emwazi fellow was on the run from ISIS!Check news “JIHADI JOHN ON THE RUN´´ in July.Only thing is these News was never put on MSM in July when it happened…Jihadi john was irrelevant to ISIS and if you check the website “BEST GORE´´ on ISIS executions you will understand that the 1000s of others that replaced him are even more brutal that´s why he hasn´t been in the ISIS videos for close to 10 months…This is just propaganda “One official said the jihadist, Mohammed Emwazi, was thought to be hit as he left a building in Raqqa, Syria, and entered a vehicle. The official called it a “flawless” and “clean hit” with no collateral damage and that Emwazi basically “evaporated.”….Because this guys body will never be found America doesn´t have to prove anything and they take credit for a “NO NEWS´´….We are just supposed to believe like we believed WMDs in Iraq…..the sheeple are not screaming “USA USA USA´´ coz they are not taught to think….they are programmed to accept….R.I.P JOURNALISM!
Mark Golding in any movie plot the villain cannot be killed in the first act, then there would be no movie, will there?
Jihadi Johan and his mate al Baghdadi (means from Baghdad, how many people live in that city?) are the villains who are impervious to the most fandabidozi weapons and shit, as the commentators are telling; “there is hope that …..”
These villains have nine lives, as in cats, they can get killed multiple times but they will have lives remaining, evidently they have found the cheat code for getting reincarnated and injected back into the game of isis the war movie!
Fact that it all is not contrived, can be seen that even Jeremy Kyle had a program about isis this morning, leaving his usual pulpit for thumping the benefit cheats and single parents.
So ode to the cheat code and the many lives of those whom are busy playing cowboys and injuns 21st century style, and their producers sitting there and getting paid to feed we the people this utter shite as “current events” is more on topic mate!
Deepgreenpuddock, 12.41pm …. it is just corruption to a degree that is tantamount to a conspiracy, although I suspect the greed,corruption and stupidity of some of these players in the US military system could not be contrived.
I’ve read the piece you linked to. I see plenty evidence of conspiracy and corruption but none of stupidity. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria are reduced to chaos while US defense contractors become fabulously rich – all perfectly to plan.
Jihadi John is probably diverting attention from Israel’s attack on pro-Assad elements in Damascus –
http://www.westernjournalism.com/israel-strikes-hezbollah-in-syria-as-islamic-state-suicide-bombers-attack-the-shiite-group-in-lebanon/
Never underestimate the power of Israel to make a bad situation worse. Never underestimate the attraction of a press handout to a churnalist.
Jon Stewart, at the time host of the The Daily Show on the USA’s Comedy Channel, shows in this short segment how just because you couldn’t have been more wrong and utterly clueless in your predictions about the outcome of the neocon inspired Iraq war, in itself that’s no impediment to being invited back as a commentator on mainstream US TV new shows to explain what needs be done to rein in ISIS and end the ongoing mayhem and violence in “Mess O’Potamia.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqzzWr32srk
[Mod: Caught in spamfilter, timestamp updated]
——-
random picture of American radomes in Blubberhouses in the Guardian letters page
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/12/edward-snowden-and-the-unanswered-question-about-us-bases
random picture of UK nuke sub in the North Devon Journal about spying for Poland, or not
http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/Judges-cut-sentence-man-tried-sell-nuclear/story-28162788-detail/story.html
random picture of a Frenchman who feels spied-upon
http://www.thelocal.fr/20151112/hollande-demands-all-info-on-german-spying
random picture of Libya, in a weird story about a 10 million dollar bribe to release Yousif Saqir Wilayatim who isn’t a spy!
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-national-arrested-tripoli-suspicion-spying-664818590
and what do the Beeb know about spies?
win a free book : http://www.nudge-book.com/blog/2015/11/spy-games-by-adam-brookes/
Cameron ‘It was the right thing to do’ of the latest extrajudicial killing by the Koalition, that is if it really happened. No arrest. No trial. Those would have been the ‘right things’ to do.
Today’s fairy story is a diversion from the favourable propaganda for President Assad here.
Government Forces Halt 2-Year ISIS Siege of Key Airbase in Northern Syria
by Syria Solidarity Movement / November 11th, 2015
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/government-forces-halt-2-year-isis-siege-of-key-airbase-in-northern-syria/
ISIS. An American creation just as Al Qaeda was.
America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/5402881
Deepgreenpuddock
“Silvio -quite entertaining but a more carefully and argued and ‘evidenced’, and more polite version is found on Juan Coles website. The essential points however are not much different. In one case it is a ‘conspired at’ fuck -up of monumental proportions. In the other, it is just corruption to a degree that is tantamount to a conspiracy, although I suspect the greed,corruption and stupidity of some of these players in the US military system could not be contrived.”
________________
Is not this precisely the sort of thing our Transatlantic Friend “Lysias” should be posting about (rather than about paedophilia in Britain or ancient Athens)?
After all, he was a US Navy officer and also served in the Pentagon, so he must have considerable expertise on this particular issue?
Let’s be hearing from you, “Lysias”! 🙂
Don’t give a flying fcku about Jihadi Johns last minute, but those refugees keep coming and all those who loved to support Greece in its financial peril, have turned away from the wave s of human misery that is landing on its southern shores.
Camerons thinks he can get anywhere with his little list of demands, lots of false bluster at the CBI, but Modi’s visit, in close succession to dear great leader Xis last words of ‘stay in the EU’, again makes it clear that Britain is India’s bridge into the EU.
Rather than bluster along with fence splinters up his backside, how about shutting up about it and instead open the borders to some compassionate Syrian/Afghan entries.
I know we have problems with building enough houses for our middle class offspring and too much housebuilding must not destroy the const6ant upward trend of prices and rents, BUT, if you want to get somewhere, be humble, atone, be part of the struggle to help people in need, maybe later on ears will open to other issues.
Stubborn insistence does not go down well in the EU, but if one wants to bust the EU open, this Government has got the recipe for it, Merkel will loose the next election without any cooperation from other states, letting in the right wing, who will soon put an end to free trade, travel, open borders and such like. Expect those refugees currently being firebombed to want to leave, and they will get transit visas.
“America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group
http://www.globalresearch.ca/america-created-al-qaeda-and-the-isis-terror-group/5402881”
___________________
And who created “globalresearch”….?
Nevermind
“Rather than bluster along with fence splinters up his backside, how about shutting up about it and instead open the borders to some compassionate Syrian/Afghan entries.”
___________________
And were the UK govt to do so, would you and Mary follow Craig’s noble example and offer temporary house space to one or more of those entries (exact number to depend on your possibilities)?
I am asking because I wish to know whether commenters like you and Mary are prepared to do something practical and concrete or whether you are merely doughty internet warriors in the fight against injustice, etc…..
Result NFU 1 Bees 0
The NFU version
Courts decide on neonicotinoids legal challenge
12 Nov 2015
The NFU is pleased that the High Court has cut short Friends of the Earth’s legal challenge to the Government’s neonicotinoid authorisations today.
The environmental campaign group attempted to bring a legal challenge against the Government’s decision to grant the NFU’s emergency authorisations for two neonicotinoid-based plant protection products. The Court concluded today that the challenge is “unarguable on all the grounds.”
NFU Vice President Guy Smith said: “I’m extremely pleased with today’s outcome. The NFU has played an active role in this case, and we have been working hard to ensure that our members’ interests have been represented to the Court.
“The emergency authorisation mechanism is crucial for Member States to have. The NFU has been urging governments at an EU and domestic level to look to sound science as a basis for restrictions on plant protection products as part of the Healthy Harvest campaign.
“Throughout the application process and in our representations in this case the NFU has sought to approach what can be a highly charged issue in a sober, balanced manner that looks after the interests of growers while respecting the needs of the wildlife that uses farm crops as habitat.”
NFU combinable crops board chairman Mike Hambly said: “The NFU has fought for many months for its members who are struggling to establish oilseed rape crops in areas of high cabbage stem flea beetle pressure. Since restrictions on neonicotinoid use were put in place in December 2013, the damage caused by this pest has been a widespread problem. The seed treatment provides an efficient and targeted solution.”
/..
http://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news/courts-decide-on-neonicotinoids-legal-challenge/
::::
The Friends of the Earth position
Why are we taking the Government to court?
28 October 2015
This week we’ll be in the baroque surrounding of the Royal Courts of Justice for the first time in our legal challenge to the Government’s decision, back in July.
It allowed seeds treated with two neonicotinoid pesticides – currently banned by the EU – to be planted in parts of England this autumn.
Over half a million people have signed petitions against the decision by Secretary of State Liz Truss, so it has already been found guilty in the court of public opinion.
Follow the rules
To non-lawyers (like me) understanding the difference between a Government decision being wrong for the environment and flying in the face of the scientific evidence (as this one is), and actually being unlawful, is difficult.
A decision can be unwise and irresponsible but perfectly lawful. In this case we believe it is both wrong and unlawful.
At the core of our legal case is our belief that the Government has not followed the rules set out by European law for granting an emergency authorisation of a pesticide.
This requires that it should be in response to an emergency, that it should be limited and controlled and that it couldn’t have been dealt with by any other reasonable means.
We also believe that the Government’s action goes against a European Directive which obliges it to pursue a practice known as Integrated Pest Management – prioritising non-chemical ways to control pests and minimising the use of pesticides at every opportunity.
/..
https://www.foe.co.uk/blog/why-are-we-taking-government-court
Not only the working poor hit for six by tax credit cuts and those having to use food banks but the elderly in need of support and still living in their homes are affected by the cuts. What a cruel crowd in No 10.
‘Dismay’ as meals on wheels ‘axed for 46,000 older people’ in last three years
13.11.15
More than 46,000 elderly people have had their “meals on wheels” service axed in the past three years, according to the Malnutrition Task Force.
Analysis of official data for England shows the number of people receiving meals has fallen from 75,885 in 2010/2011 to 29,605 in 2013/14.
Spending on meals on wheels for people aged 65 and over has fallen 47%, from £42.1 million in 2010/11 to £22.3 million in 2013/14.
/..
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/dismay-as-meals-on-wheels-axed-for-46000-older-people-in-last-three-years-34196533.html
“O how I detest the trumpery set, Who, to stir men’s passion heated, Of patriotism make a show, With all its ulcers fetid.”
This from an article by a German ex pat returning after two years of incivility ion the US, only to be confronted by angry mob politics of desperation.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/editorial-on-anti-refugee-sentiment-in-germany-a-1062442.html
At any one time this country has close to 600.000 empty homes and speculative housing, so how about decreeing an emergency and getting on with some compassion by housing a few hundred thousands?, not that you understand this word, Habbabbly.
If you bomb Afghans, Libyans, Iraqis and Syrians you surely must expect that some of the civilians would like to continue with their life’s somewhere civil, raise their children in peace and getting on with work and life. You also have to expect that some bare a grudge against you for bombing their houses and prospects in life.
the first line above is from ‘a winters tale’ by Heinrich Heine, a fairly long Germanic tome.
Here is the rest of it
http://www.heinrich-heine.net/winter/wintereng1.htm