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
Pinky
Mootu bi gaithicum, die in your plastic rage.
” No matter how hard you try, troll hair sticks up straight out of the cavity in which humans have brains. ”
More birdshit. What good is your praying 5 a day when your head is filled with thiss hit? Your mouth too>.
Another prick; poor Craig, he deserves better than this collective.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/15/paris-attacks-car-found-with-kalashnikovs-as-gunmans-relatives-questioned
I quote from above :
”12 French aircraft including 10 Fighters jets dropped a total of 20 bombs on Jihadi training camps and munitions dumps in the city of Raqqa ”
………………………………………………..
So after months of bombing and shared intelligence the French have suddenly discovered ‘ training camps ‘ and ‘ munitions dumps ‘ which no western nation or the US was aware of but miraculously had avoided any previous bombing or targeting before ???
National grief , the greatest anaesthetic to squash any awkward questioning , any doubts , the inquisitive mind .
My Mum Grew up in France after The First World War- and in Theory I should also talk French as if I was a Peasant Boy who Grew Up in France..
But I was Born in Oldham
And I did Try To Speak French in France when I was 15…But You Couldn’t understand My Oldham Accent..and I Was Really Embarrassed
They said to me in Perfect English Can You Please Tell Me What You Want??
Tout ce que je voulais avait une bouteille de l’eau
Antoine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHLqaSZPe98&app=desktop
General Wesley Clark : ” Our friends and allies funded ISIS to destroy Hezbollah ” .
Now that the paranoia surrounding the Paris massacre has truly taken hold, Isis will sbrely be plamed for bombing dow the Metrojet airliner, no matter what the facts are.
Those damned terrorists!
This https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQuceU3x2Ww&feature=youtu.be is for all those here who dont as yet know who is really behind ISIS. And to understand why the synagogue of satan is so after his ass, in the vain hope that it will also get another Herod to kill this latter day Son of Man.
My Wife and I never found the languages differences much of a problem – She knew a bit of German..I Knew a bit of French & Latin – which is kind of Italian…
And so when we almost like teenagers and we sort of kind of gone and went hitch hiking in Morocco when everyone told us we were Mad..Marrakech with 30+ years ago and 10+ years ago
So we eventually found ourselves in The Middle of The Depths of India – No one spoke more than 3 words of English..We just asked the Tuk Tuk Guy to see the Local Temples…and so he took my wife and I to meet his entire family (no english)…they made Indian Carpets Traditionally – Hand Machines…about 3KM away…
So I guess my wife and I passed the test (no english)…come on…and I had no idea Tuk-Tuk’s could ho so fast and so far in 45 minutes…
they placed garlands of flowers over my wife and my heads and they invited us into the depths of the most holy place..sowe took our shoes off…there were 10,000 people there – we were the Only White People There – and They Treated Us As If we Gods..The Children Followed Us Around.(All Exceedingly Well Dressed – Beautiful Old Indian Gold – in This Very Remote Indian Village)
And The Women Passed Their Babies to Us To Be Blessed…
My Wife Is That Nice…
Tony
Rose
Thank You
That one Took Minutes……This one Took Hours –
Quietly Quivering
Glistening Grass and Woven Webs
feel the Quitude
Giyane: “Even if the paris attacks are not false-flag in the strict sense of being carried out by paid Western servicemen, they are false-flag in terms of the fact that USUKIS etc created the Al Qaida and Islamic State perversions of Islam for their own colonial purposes knowing the blow-back would come, which they also use for their own propaganda purposes to discredit Islam.”
But “false flag” has a very specific meaning – our own forces attacking our own people, and then claiming someone else did it (presumably the “flag” the operation was sporting during the attack).
This is clearly “blowback”, as more informed Yanks like to call the inevitable consequences of their military adventurism. Please don’t be an apologist for these “false flag” knee-jerk explanations by attempting to blur the definition.
What is our ‘own people’, when one side is the many party mutual suicide pact that is NATO plus Israel and the Saudi pederasty. I don’t know why you’re (Glenn) clinging to an absurdly narrow and exclusive definition of ‘false-flag’. It is simply not relevant who actually pulls the trigger, they’re mere tools, call them ISIS if you like, they alone as individuals, misguided, stupid, used individuals, not whole countries or racial groups were responsible, countries, are not, cannot be criminal, the people controlling them can be and usually are. Prison, segregation from society, for all who played any knowing guilty part in the attacks is the penalty, not bombing complete innocents with no possible connection.
Asking cui bono? The answer: not just Dutch wholesale florists, but the pack of racist scum wishing to devour Syria and prepared to go to ANY lengths to swing it and somehow evade justice afterwards, as has become the norm. There is one thing that law, national, international should and must mediate above all and that is that faulty human state called revenge, now more than ever ill-considered actions must face prospect of swift account. I’d really like to know what Assad must have done to get the elbow from the global elite, I expect it’s something decent and principled, thus shocking to them, nothing is more likely to raise the ire of committed psychopaths than a good example.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/16/isis-attack-on-paris-may-be-an-act-of-war-but-retaliation-might-not-be-lawful
Worth a read. The Guardian is having doubts.
More astonishing still is the Reuters photograph of the so called militant Islamist fighter using a mobile phone to film his fellow fighters taking part in a military parade along the streets in Syria’s northern Raqqa province in 2014.
Why does he look like a US college dropout on weed!? Why does the Guardian use that photograph to support this story?
http://themindunleashed.org/2015/11/the-art-of-fighting-without-fighting.html
And this is also worth a quick look:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/15/terrorists-isis
Thoughtful feedback and constructive comment on this would be welcome from habba and anon.
Care to engage in some of the issues, you two?
Cameron has said that ‘personally’ he would like to see the UK bombing Syria. I am sure he would.
The war mongers are pushing to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Washington treaty – an attack on one member in an attack on the rest and retaliation follows.
Article 5 of the Washington Treaty:
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.
http://www.nato.int/terrorism/five.htm
Attention is elsewhere and Gideon flogs off more of the country’s silver. Remember that it was the taxpayers who bailed out Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley.
Cerberus said it was committed to being a good steward of the assets it had acquired, but lawyers warned the sale could affect borrowers, who are only now being informed of the change in ownership.
Northern Rock mortgages worth £13bn sold to US private equity firm
‘”Changes must be expected as a result of the change in ownership,” said Stephen Rosen of Collyer Bristow. “In Scotland, for example, we have found that Cerberus is tougher in enforcing breaches in covenants.”
Taking its name from the mythical multi-headed dog that guarded Hades and prevented the dead from leaving, the New York-based group was founded by Stephen Feinberg and other former employees of Drexel Burnham Lambert, a junk bond specialist that collapsed into bankruptcy in 1990.’
Nice people and well named.
Northern Rock mortgages are latest gamble for US private equity firm Cerberus
Cerberus, which paid £13bn for UK government’s loans portfolio, is betting on recovery in European property markets
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/13/cerberus-us-private-equity-group-northern-rock-mortgages
Look at who Cameron was meeting and talking to pre Indyref.
‘According to the record, he met Nick Robinson, the BBC’s then political editor, as well as Rona Fairhead from the BBC Trust for a “general discussion”.
On the same day, Mr Cameron had talks with Gordon Smart of the Sun’s Scottish edition.
He also had a “round-table” with Scottish business owners Castle Precision Engineers, Star Equestrian, Jack Perry, MacTaggart, Scott & Co. Ltd, Maxxium UK, Ian Bankier, the Celtic Chairman, and Malcolm Group.
Then later, the PM had another general discussion with the CBI as well as CBI Scotland, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, the Weir Group PLC, Standard Life, M Computer Technologies, ScottishPower and GPW.
Three days later, Mr Cameron had another “general discussion” with Mr Robinson, Martin Ivens of the Sunday Times and the Economist.’
A telling list of names and interests.
Whitehall reveals PM’s private talks days ahead of independence referendum
15 November 2015
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14033117.Whitehall_reveals_PM_s_private_talks_days_ahead_of_independence_referendum/?ref=mr&lp=2
When challenged by this insane violence, we should not take freedom for granted and these testing moments shall remind us all, that we must contribute to work for a better, open, free society.
Our requirements are security, openness and freedom.
Watching TF1 this morning, where a French minister explained more on the Raqqa sorties, he twisted himself into knots to avoid spluttering the Putin word . . . really unreality TV
RobG
“It seems certain that this coming week Cameron will put forward a motion for war”
______________________
Beware false prophets!
Remember Lysias with his prophecy that Lord Janner would soon meet with an “unfortunate accident”. That was prophesied in April.
RobG
“We live in a police state, Mary.”
_____________________
Get it straight, you old lush.
Since you live in France and Mary in leafy Surrey, the use of “we” would seem to indicate that you believe both France and the UK are police states.
In that case, you should have used the plural : “police states”.
Or are you perhaps using the royal “we”?
Resident Dissident to RobG:
“I would have thought the target was pretty clear even in your addled state – I wonder if you have expressed you views on recent events to the locals or is solidarity something that you are incapable of?”
___________________
I hadn’t thought of that! 🙂
I should imagine that the rustics down in Rob’s corner of France have pretty robust views on ISIS and the recent outrages in Paris. The thought of Monsieur Rob, le rosbif, having to sit there in the local boozer listening to those robust views and not daring to express his own is hilarious.
I bet he keeps his “wisdom” for this blog and keeps his real views VERY quiet down there.
powerful image here, with a skeletal Blair in the forefront, of the nest of Ouroboros that we find ourselves in:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/nov/15/martin-rowson-on-the-world-after-the-paris-attacks-cartoon#img-1
Alcyone
“Ben are you sex-starved or something? Is that why Habby was guessing what he was?
Aren’t you a bit old and long-in-the-tooth to be ‘Dude-ing’ around. Grow up!”
___________________
It wasn’t a guess.
fredi now to avoid confusion
Hezbollah soldier confronts ISIS militants: ‘You are working for Israel’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vatRjnaSHkI
Glenn_Uk
” “false flag” has a very specific meaning – our own forces attacking our own people, and then claiming someone else did it”
It doesn’t normally mean what you say. It normally means that our secret services have used a credible agent to involve third parties to participate unknowingly or knowingly in terrorism. 7/7 participants may have thought they were doing an exercise.
I’ve not heard of any incident where our own servicemen have participated in the deed.
Strange that the rabbi says this when her father has spent so much of his life supporting the Zionists and their continuing cruel occupation of another people’s land.
‘On Tuesday, 343 British academics pledged to boycott Israel. They say they will refuse invitations to Israeli universities and academic events organised by Israel. In the words of their statement to the Guardian, they will not “do business” with Israel’s university system, which they say is complicit in the occupation of the West Bank. The signatories say they are doing this because they are “deeply disturbed” by the occupation.
Well, so am I. I’m a rabbi who spent many years living in Jerusalem; I chaired the Rabbis for Human Rights group and recognise the occupation for what it is. This internationally illegal situation is morally wrong and harmful to Israel’s democratic character.’
Perhaps she has seen the light!
An academic boycott of Israel will backfire
It will play into the hands of the Right-wing Fortress Zionism mentality – and cement the unjust status quo http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11958633/An-academic-boycott-of-Israel-will-backfire.html
UK investing, sensibly, in more intelligence staff
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Paris-attacks-Cheltenham-GCHQ-spies-recruited/story-28182991-detail/story.html
http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk/Paris-Attacks-Hundreds-staff-GCHQ-announced-Prime/story-28182825-detail/story.html
but as someone commented below the Gloucestershire Echo story
which is correct, THE RESPONSE TO TERRORIST THREAT IS INCREASED FRONT LINE POLICING, not snooping on everything; the fact that even David Cameron (Constituency MP) is concerned about his PM’s closing of front-line police stations should be ringing alarms . . .
not just the alarms of Projet Peur – subverted, reproduced below
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11546206
(NZ is paralysed with fear from its forty jihadists, so needs to snoop on the world)
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/11/16/20/48/paris-copycat-attack-possible-asio-chief
(there is no-guarantee the Belgian/French terrorists won’t strike any moment in Sydney)
there is no evidence either, they admit – but they have 10x more potential problems than NZ
but finally, did the FBI create a terrorist here? – long story, well researched, still being appealed
http://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolasmedinamora/did-the-fbi-transform-this-teenager-into-a-terrorist
There is an interesting account of a well dressed white professional looking killer getting out of newish black Mercedes car and shooting at people in one of the Paris cafes. He was accompanied by one other.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1447666447.html
The article itself.
Paris attack witness says black Mercedes pulled up and shooters fired rifles from the hip
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paris-attack-witness-says-black-6834503
Lots of questions there but of course we will never know the truth.
????
Surrey is now leafless. Is the senior troll not aware that it is Autumn in the UK now.
The output from the trolls is increasingly repetitive, boring, puerile and just plain stupid esp overnight and this morning.
As you were saying YKMN
Police force could lose 22,000 jobs under new spending cuts
Major reduction in funding could see number of police officers in England and Wales fall to 40-year low
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/31/police-force-new-spending-cuts-22000-jobs
‘An estimated 17,000 officer posts were eliminated in the last round of cuts under the Conservative-led coalition government between 2010-15.
The estimate is not the only one circulating among senior officers. An alternative projection suggests the level of officer losses could be higher at 30,000 in the next five years across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.’