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
“It’s compulsory to carry some form of ID in France, what else is a foreigner going to carry?”
While it’s comforting to think that terrorists are such law-abiding citizens at heart I can’t help thinking that if they were about to blow themselves up they might just leave their papers at home and hang the consequences!
Res Dis
Yes, I’m keeping an open mind. It sounds like you’ve made yours up already.
The Media is now airing images of landmarks – SF City Hall , One World Trade Center, London Eye, CN Tower Canada, Sky Tower NZ – all lit in French colours.
That all seems indicative of a mighty fast and coordinated effort.
Their was a high level meeting of NATO generals in Lille France, recently.
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_123474.htm
Habbabkuk 1:24pm
Re, “Keeping an open mind” – Yes, I’ve noticed.
For “Keeping an open mind”, read “I really want to say it was a false flag, but I’ll just embarrass myself, so for the time being I’m keeping an open mind”.
Unsurprisingly, the keeper of the open mind never veers towards the obvious explanation, namely that the terrorists did it, so “keeping an open mind” is nothing more than a holding period while that person works out which conspiracy theory they are going to advance.
Following up last night’s DGSE lead, the Guardian linked me to this September confirmation that the DGSE (French MI6 more-or-less) had forewarning of at least a component of yesterdays horrors.
http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/justice/un-attentat-contre-une-salle-de-spectacle-en-france-a-t-il-ete-dejoue_1717040.html
that’s “Has an attack against a theatre in France been foiled?” asked by the weekly L’express on 18/09/2015 à 09:05
the Guardian article today has this couple of paragraphs of sense
could Team Habba inform me of exactly when the UK services are going to be overhauled for efficiency – rather than just stealing more packets? German is stepping up to the mark, France obviously will.
Habba, you’re 100% completely right on the HUMINT.
“King of Welsh Noir” is now “Keeping an open mind” as well.
There hasn’t been a single conspiracy theory he hasn’t believed in thus far, so I think it’s fair to say which way his “open mind” is going to swing.
It’s just that he’ll look like a tit for saying it right now.
Nice to see all the designated statist asskissers pre-emptively ridiculing anybody who might advert to the forensically documented NATO plan and policy of armed attacks on domestic civilian populations as a means of introducing additional repressive capacity. Lookit Habbakuk popping his rhoids with that fey whinnying laugh of Lord Alfred Douglas condescension.
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Operation_Gladio
Nerves. We like it.
” While it’s comforting to think that terrorists are such law-abiding citizens at heart I can’t help thinking that if they were about to blow themselves up they might just leave their papers at home and hang the consequences! ”
They want people to know who did this besides an arrest on the way to the target might ruin the whole sick scheme.
Mary
“If the trolls on here really cared about the victims, they should be seeking the truth as the rest of us are attempting to do.”
__________________
As pale-blue Fred might say – in fact did say – “is thos guy for real”?
YOU and the other ORIGINAL TROLLS are “seeking the truth” ??
LOL³.
Anon1
I think you have made the definitive statement on “KingOfWelshNoir”. Well done!
“an arrest on the way to the target might ruin the whole sick scheme”
That’s true. When you’re on your way to wreak havoc armed with rifles and explosives and wearing an suicide vest, the last thing you need is to be arrested for not carrying your ID.
Habba, 1789, and all that.
MJ
“While it’s comforting to think that terrorists are such law-abiding citizens at heart I can’t help thinking that if they were about to blow themselves up they might just leave their papers at home and hang the consequences!”
By the same token, a terrorist about to blow himself up might not care that he is still carrying ID. And were he stopped and searched at some time prior to carrying out the attack, he wouldn’t want to draw attention to himself and warrant questioning by not having his papers on him.
Don’t let it stop you believing though.
Lemmings going over the cliff. Everyone, or nearly everyone, posting sentimentalities about unity with color overlays of France on everything they can get their hands on to show how much they care. Peppered, of course, with permanent racial profilers seeking to ply their war trade against any showing some perspective on the issue. When Western self-awareness emerges, then a sigh of relief as the pain from banging our noggins on a brick wall subsides and those bricks stop egging us on.
“It’s compulsory to carry some form of ID in France, what else is a foreigner going to carry? Being a lightweight bit of card and paper or plastic it’s more likely to be blown clear with little damage than something more substantial.”
———————-
There seems to be a common thread regarding passports, for instance when all around was burning and collapsing during 9/11, a supposed terrorists passport floated gently down to the street for police to find.
Next we had the supposed Charlie Hebdo terrorists, or (patsies more like) Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said Kouachi, leave their passports in the getaway car for the police to find, very convenient indeed.
Now we have another situation where the perpetrators/patsies have taken their passports into action with them.
I see no real point in carrying a passport, when you’re also carrying a AK47, and a suicide belt, unless you want to be identified at a later date, which would make it far easier to assign blame to.
Mary
“Ms Kuennsberg is not around. Has w/e off presumably.”
__________________
Have you been converted to Thatcherism, Mary – don’t you believe in people having the weekend off?
I wish you’d take the weekend off. In fact, it’d improve this blog and its reputation no end if you took every day of the week off.
MJ, brilliant put-down!
RepublicofScotland
“There seems to be a common thread regarding passports, for instance when all around was burning and collapsing during 9/11, a supposed terrorists passport floated gently down to the street for police to find.”
___________________
I think this is the first time you’ve come out as a 9/11 Troofer on here, isn’t it?
Not surprising, I suppose, from someone posing as this blog’s Number 1 Scottish nationalist while not being Scottish nor even living in Scotland.
**************
(Cue our Transatlantic Friend…..)
There is a terrible surrealism in the football game continuing while all this was happening close by. An explosion was audible at the stadium. People there obviously will not have realised, really, what was happening – probably just as well, since one can imagine what would’ve happened if there had been a panicked stampede in/out of a football stadium – hundreds more would have died. Perhaps that is what the terrorists were trying to engineer.
“In this episode we discuss branding and promoting terror organization brands. Specifically, we discuss how the deep-state and its partner, the media, go about designing, creating, branding and marketing self-created terror organization brands. Even more specifically, we look into two deep-state-created terror organization brands: Al Qaeda & ISIS. With vivid examples we illustrate the re-branding of the Al Qaeda Terror Corporation into the ISIS Terror Corporation. We provide comparison between the 2002-2003 Al Qaeda media marketing archives and the 2013-2015 ISIS media marketing coverage, and establish the uncanny sameness between the two brands.”
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2015/08/17/probable-cause-with-sibel-edmonds-how-gladio-morphed-its-al-qaeda-brand-into-isis-a-step-by-step-illustration/
“Perhaps that is what the terrorists were trying to engineer.”
I doubt there was much actual engineering. The only large venue was the concert. The other targets were small and the whole thing seemed to be desperate as to timing. I think they decided the death of Crapper John had to be answered.
Mary wrote:
“If the trolls on here really cared about the victims, they should be seeking the truth as the rest of us are attempting to do.”
__________________
Made me laugh too, Habbabkuk, not least for the virtue signalling but also for the rather obscene and perverse suggestion that it is “seeking the truth” that motivates her and her fellow trolls.
Interesting snippets of info beginning to appear.
One witness who was in the road front of the Bataclan concert hall before the attack and saw at least one of the assassins told BMFTV that he wasn’t hooded: ‘I saw a guy, quite small, white, European looking.
Some reported hearing at least two of the terrorists at the Bataclan Theatre speaking perfect French.
Journalist Julien Pierce told CNN that the gunmen did not shout slogans as they massacred their victims.
He said: ‘They didn’t say anything. Not Allah akhbar or something like this. They said nothing. They just shot.
You would think that, to assign blame perfectly on the Muslim community, that the assassins handlers would’ve reminded them firmly to shout Allah akhbar.
I know you have a fondness for the surreal, Suhayl.
It was suggested earlier that Mary might be on the ISIS payroll. Could you pen something on her sitting there alone in her Surrey mansion dressed in black, running a propaganda cell for ISIS?
RoS; They don’t need proxies. They have the U of ISIS and plenty of free-ride scholarships to make any Clean-Skin a true believer. A PHD in Sociopathy is the matriculation pathway. I believe they have online classes but many prefer the Campus in Syria/Iraq.
“There is a terrible surrealism in the football game continuing while all this was happening close by. An explosion was audible at the stadium. People there obviously will not have realised, really, what was happening – probably just as well, since one can imagine what would’ve happened if there had been a panicked stampede in/out of a football stadium – hundreds more would have died. Perhaps that is what the terrorists were trying to engineer.”
They knew what was happening, they had mobile phones, they knew as much as we did.
Bunny La Roche and his/her mate become even more puerile. Silly even.
I was wearing black yesterday as it happens. My friend of 30 years’ standing who had MND diagnosed two years died a horrible lingering death a fortnight ago and her funeral took place yesterday.
RoS As you were saying on passports and the miraculous discovery of same.
Links within
Magic Passports Redux: Syrian Passport Allegedly Discovered on Suicide Bomber
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/11/14/magic-passports-redux-syrian-passport-allegedly-discovered-on-suicide-bomber/
Mary; I’ve been reading a lot about turmeric. Fresh is best but hard to find and if you want to grow, the rhizome is slow. Cuttings, not seeds. I don’t think the hype on this is overblown. Total cancer killer.
Here is Gilad Atzmon
Yesterday morning, the news was broadcast of extensive ‘heroic’ allied drone attacks in Iraq and Syria in support of the battle for Sinjar. We also learned about the assassination of Jihadi John. We were told some revenge might be on the way. As promised, last night Paris was bathing in blood.
Welcome to World War III – a global conflict with unlimited battlefronts. We, as people of the world, are all caught in the middle in this disaster. We see that our universe is crumbling, we want peace, yet we don’t even know who the enemy is.
For some of us, this recent escalation is not a surprising development. We have been writing about it for years. We have been scrutinising the disastrous impact of the matrix of Ziocon immoral interventionist lobbies that have been relentlessly advocating more and more conflicts. The CRIF in Paris, CFI in London and AIPAC in Washington all push for escalation of the battle against Arabs and Muslims in accordance with the Israeli plan for a new Middle East.
We are forced to accept the fact that extremist Muslims are very upset and they can hit hard and in a very short time. Russia saw one of its planes falling out of the sky, killing more than two hundred innocent holiday makers. Paris has again suffered. We must ask, is it necessary? Do we have to live in fear from now on? Is peace an option?
The terror is a message that we have to understand. What is its message? ‘Leave us alone’ is what these homicidal terrorists are trying to tell us. Is that too complicated for the Western subject to take in? ‘Live and let others be,’ is what this is about. The pragmatic implication is obvious. The West must immediately stop serving Israeli and global Zionist interests. We must cease all operations in Arabia and the Mid East. For that to happen, and for a chance for peace, opposition to global Zionism and Israeli lobbying is imperative.
Here is some practical advice; next time Bernard Henri Levy, David Aaronovitch or Alan Dershowitz attempt to sell a new conflict-pack in the name of ‘human rights,’ we should politely advise them that we have learned our lesson – no more wars for Zion. Then, peace may prevail.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2015/1/1/a-battle-with-no-front