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
My contentious demean Fedup more of a ‘tale’ than an ode and the BBC (Radio 4) use 20 minutes of air-time to debate and reinforce the ‘excellent work of the security services’ in gathering the intelligence needed to target these terrorists.
This ‘work’ amounts to utter bollocks in my book as revealed by the British advocacy group ‘Cage’ who disclosed an exchange of emails it says it had with Mohammed Emwazi, describing the interrogation by MI5 [déjà vu Mohammad Sidique Khan -London underground bombing].
Why do the so called ‘intelligence’ services think the British public is so obtuse? – Fking contempt and disrespect on their part and I say that to their face.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31647271
@Habba 14:28
You are arguing, weakly, against accepted facts here habanero.
Remember Zbiginiew Brezinski’s various 1998 interviews ( admittedly encrypted in French language originally )
Available here : http://www.counterpunch.org/1998/01/15/how-jimmy-carter-and-i-started-the-mujahideen/
Jihadi John – such a waste: from aspiring young martyr to perspiring squashed tomato. I mean yeah the guy was no angel, but if he’d really applied himself he could have joined the Tory party instead and ended up being the minister responsible for implementing its welfare and NHS policies one day. Never mind, at least his mates won’t have trouble finding something black to wear to the funeral.
I had a good chuckle when, the media went into a propaganda frenzy, over the supposed death of a Western asset. Namely Jihadi John, whose farcical staged executions, fooled no one, well no one who thinks for themselves.
Like several other aware commentors in here, I’m wondering what else is going on in the background, that the Western coalition had to announce the possible death of the best British actor, (and even he may be Irish) in the Middle East, since Peter OToole’s portrayal of Lawrence of Arabia.
Infact when it came to acting Jihadi John could’ve given Omar Sharif, a run for his money, only the waving of his two inch knife, in which he pretended to lop heads off, will stop him winning a Acadamy Oscar this year.
I’m sure Jihadi John will have a successor someone along the lines of Tommy the Terrorist, and it goes without saying TT as he will no doubt be nicknamed by the media will be a terrible ogre.
There was a wonderful comment this morning on the main Guardian piece about Jihadi John:
“And that children, was the end of Big Bad Jihadi John. Hush now. Sweet dreams little ones.”
http://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/63283600
This against the backdrop of the recent purge of BTL commentators, and the fact that BTL is now infested with Daily Mail-type comments and government trolls.
By the way, any news on our host? I believe Craig said that he was suffering from fever when he got back from Ghana.
This is a fairly mild account of how IS blows up people without due process:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sick-isis-executioners-force-prisoners-6226987
The same paper, not really regretting the, er, execution of Jihadi John without due process:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/jihadi-john-live-updates-isis-6823006
Approved message: *We* know where *they* live and will righteously kill *them*.
Message received by most of the Arab Middle East: *We*’re just as bad as *They* are.
Score one for the salafists, in other words.
The founder of Global Research is Professor Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, Ottawa University.
‘Chossudovsky is the son of a Russian Jewish émigré, the career United Nations diplomat and academic Evgeny Chossudovsky, and an Irish Protestant, Rachel Sullivan.
Chossudovsky joined the University of Ottawa in 1968.[3] He was a visiting professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile during the 1970–1973 government of Salvador Allende. It was the effects of General Augusto Pinochet’s post-coup policies which sparked his interest in what he termed “economic repression”.[3] Among other measures, Pinochet’s government quadrupled the price of bread, and Chossudovsky set out to examine the social effects, concluding that the government was engaging in more than just conventional political repression. He subsequently examined similar economic policies in a wide range of countries, often those associated with International Monetary Fund and/or World Bank programs. One of Chossudovsky’s policy conclusions was that tax havens, in a world of increasingly mobile capital, had facilitated the “criminalization” of the global economy through movements of large amounts of drug money and other illegal finance: “This critical drain of billions of dollars in capital flight dramatically reduces state tax revenues, paralyses social programs, drives up budget deficits and spurs the accumulation of large public debts.”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Chossudovsky
Michel’s obituary for his father which I came across some years back and found both very moving and interesting.
‘Throughout his UN career and until his death, Evgeny Chossudovsky expressed his firm support for the Palestinian cause. He supported the Centre for Research on Globalization from the outset. Global Research will continue in his footsteps to support the causes of social justice and World peace. (Michel Chossudovsky)
The Irish Times
January 28, 2006
OBITUARY
Dr Evgeny Chossudovsky, who has died aged 91, was a Russian Jewish émigré who had a distinguished career with the United Nations following the second World War. In Dublin, in the late 1970s, he continued another role as a prestigious writer on international relations.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/evgeny-chossudovsky-writer-with-a-distinguished-un-career/1955
A life lived in troubled times. Note his PhD at Edinburgh and his work in this country.
Does the troll who persists in belittling Global Research possess any similar biographical details to Prof Chossudovsky’s?
Sad to hear of his passing Mary….
“Does the troll who persists in belittling Global Research possess any similar biographical details to Prof Chossudovsky’s?”
Even the tone of it’s missives don’t belong to it. No originality can be detected from a clone.
YouKnowMyName
“@Habba 14:28
You are arguing, weakly, against accepted facts here habanero.”
_____________________
Are you referring to my post at 14h48 ?
If so: Am I arguing there? I thought I was merely asking a question about “global research”……
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense!”
_______________________
Well, you were honest enough to admit that that interview dates from 1998 – before 9/11 and various other events. Therefore I’m not sure that you can use it as a kind of counter-argument to my argument (which I have said was a question and not an argument).
++++++++++++++++++++
If you require further caning, feel free to come back. 🙂
“Score one for the salafists, in other words…”
If they got him precisely, kudos. I’m no pacifist and I certainly don’t think psychopaths need excuses for their blood lust. No jihadi is going to relent based on the purist ethics the West can muster. Sometimes you have to tent a house to get all the pests.
Sort of reminds me of J Robert Oppenheimer’s
words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” (chapter 11, verse 32). when he witnessed the first device test.
Ben the Weed Smoker, on the subject of Prof Eugene Chossudovsky:
“Sad to hear of his passing Mary….”
_____________________
A somewhat belated expression of sadness, Ben – Chossudovsky père died in 2006.
Perhaps you were too far gone to read Mary’s post carefully?
Hah! The clone wars fought with a popgun…lol
Mary
“Does the troll who persists in belittling Global Research possess any similar biographical details to Prof Chossudovsky’s?”
_________________
Is that a reference to me or to Ba’al, who has also said something nasty about “global research” lately?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having said that, the answer is no. My father was not a Russian emigré Jew, there is nothing Irish on my mother’s side, and I do not have a PhD from Edinburgh University.
Being naturally modest, I shall – unlike my Transatlantic Friend (he of the un-named Oxford college and the Kindle) – say no more 🙂
***********************
PS – pls can we have an update on the latest Israeli atrocities from the open-air concentration camp called Palestine? Thx.
Once again the troll refuses to reveal anything positive about himself.
If he is indeed a plurality of persons, this reluctance is easy to understand. How otherwise avoid contradictions over time?
Similarly, the refusal to admit having read any particular books.
But he did complain once — on a weekend — about my having cited a passage in Spanish, and demand a translation.
Only a few days later, on a weekday, to spot my failure to properly understand an article in Spanish.
I guess the Spanish linguists are not on duty on weekends.
The ticks they display don’t even qualify as subtle ‘tells’ on a poker player. It’s more like a shit-eating grin.
Habba@ 17:01 or thereabouts, bit drunk here as usual
Glad to see you agree with the Brzezinski 1998 quote
Next, you mentioned 2001, lets have some AFPAK context then:
That’s starting to overlap US funding of Islamic terrorists with some rather well known blowback
We can go back further , to a couple of years after the Soviet Xmas day invasion, and you get this sort of ‘USAID’ related occurrence
!
The busted flush (now appearing here solo) asked for this.
IOP – 10 November 2015
Friday, 13 November 2015
While the Occupation is business as usual for Israel, there should be no business with Israel
In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property
IOP headlines for 10 November 2015:
Israeli Navy opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats
Israeli Army shoots and wounds 4 boys (aged 12 to 13) – 1 critically)
Israeli soldiers seize and strip-search 3 Palestinian children
Israeli settler assaults and hospitalises 17-year-old Palestinian youth
Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in refugee camp and 9 towns and villages
4 attacks (1 Israeli ceasefire violation)
23 raids including home invasions
1 beaten – 2 dead – 22 injured
2 abducted (aged 16 and 17)
4 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage
24 taken prisoner – 16 detained – 116 restrictions of movement
Full details as usual below these headlines.
http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2956&Itemid=44
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-home-mk-calls-for-imprisoning-families-of-terrorists/
Lo Zuccone 5.20pm
” Can we please have an update of the latest Israeli atrocities from the open air concentration camp called Palestine ? ” .
……………………………………………………………………
Funny you should mention concentration camps today . From above :
‘Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev on Friday proposed incarcerating family members of Palestinian terrorists in internment camps and feeding them rations of just bread and water as a means of deterring future terrorists . Yogev , a former Colonel in the IDF told Army Radio in a Friday morning interview that the government should construct a detention facility like that in the Negev Desert for holding illegal immigrants and use it to imprison the families of convicted Palestinian terrorists . ” It would be understood by every son that he doesn’t want this to happen to his father , mother , sisters and brothers ” . Yogev went on ” I have no doubt that this could be a very big deterrent ” .
Perhaps Lo Zuccone with his extensive knowledge of the region could advise on the following :
a] How long timewise would it take to extend the Jerusalem Light Railway into the Negev ?
b] Does Israel possess such things as railway cattle trucks in enough quantity to make this plan feasible ?
What’s this stage management all about?
Dual appearance of CameraOn and Tinpot Dictator Modi. Worthy of Goebbels and Nuremberg.
Is it because Modi is anti Muslim?
Modi visit: Indian PM addresses crowds at Wembley Stadium
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34806511
Here London Labour in Scotland, boasts that 1000’s of tax jobs will be lost unless Scotland remains in the UK, the Labour branch office say Scotland must say in the UK or tax jobs will be lost.
Fast forward a year and the media in Scotland are now reporting that HMRC are to cut 1000’s of tax jobs in Scotland.
The Labour branch office manager in Scotland Kezia Dugdale is strangely quiet on the job losses, it’s only Trident jobs they shout about.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/still-better-together/
The Scottish Parliament have drafted a tough new ‘England Bill’ and sent it U-KOK HQ’s last known position.
The Scottish Government – England (Disciplinary Measures and Curfew) Bill, Edinburgh, 13th November 2015
[gratuitous flummery deleted]
this Bill amends the Pests and Damned Nuisances Act (2014) as follows
insert after “anywhere in the aforesaid Engerland or England (see map) regulates all”
‘Electricity, water, heating, Morris Dancing, WMD, cars, television, mobile telecommunications, shopping, lager, kites, cookery shows on TV, bunting, any form of sport, after 6pm’ in addition to all existing prohibitions therein for as long as said England’s government remains delinquent and far estranged from reality.
In Westminster itself the Speaker, whilst trussed and dangling by his feet from the rafters, deployed trained zoo-keepers, using narcotic tipped harpoons to restore order, with the Shadow Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, amongst those out cold and not expected to wake again until at least next weekend. The several mysterious puddles discovered lately in the House of Lords chamber were found to have resulted from the involuntary leakage of members’ deliberations, leading peers have vowed to stop it.
Thank you for that Mary..and to Echo Ben, Sad to hear of his passing
He created one of the Best Sites out there.
John Hilley is good too –
As Israel continues its murderous purges across the West Bank and Jerusalem, alongside its brutal siege of Gaza, there’s no shortage of zealots defending such wickedness. Just consider Hillary Clinton’s latest right-wing pledge of support, and rant against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, for one.
http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/
And Mondoweiss
“Forty years ago the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379 which declared “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” At the UN on November 11, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and Secretary of State John Kerry forcefully condemned the resolution on its anniversary. In his 2,500-word statement, Kerry mentioned Palestinians just once, Power did not mention Palestinians at all.”
Does raise the question of who wrote the statements of Kerry and Power.
Why is it that so many athletes, police officers and journalists seem unable to enunciate beyond the word, “devastating” in relation to:
1) Losing a match, 5 goals to 1.
2) A ‘plane crash killing 250 people.
3) The media statement of a family of a murdered child.
4) The global institutions running sport being found to be systemically corrupt.
5) An asteroid destroying the Earth.
I suppose it’s an alternative to, “We are gutted” (as the fish said to the fisherman).
I remember going for a job interview with HMRC, at Gilmour St in Paisley, mid-80s, almost the entire interview consisted of questioning on ‘the history’ of Glasgow Rangers FC and particularly the then recent appointment of Graeme Souness as player-manager, about which I was less than knowledgeable. It fair left me puzzled, it was then and still seems to have been a surreal experience.
Perhaps the point was to determine whether you knew more about the Rangers or Celtic?
Well, this won’t have as much immediate effect as the Russian nuclear torpedoes, but it may be another sign that the U.S. is falling behind militarily. Chinese Scientists Unveil New Stealth Material Breakthrough:
When the primary purpose of your military budget is not to increase military effectiveness, but to give big sums of money to profiteers, that eventually has an effect on your military effectiveness.
Weird, however, that the Chinese allowed this news to be published. (For the Russians to reveal their nuclear torpedoes makes a lot more sense, as it can have an immediate effect on the behavior of other powers.)