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
Russian plane crash in Sinai a terrorist attack – Russian Security Service
https://www.rt.com/news/322393-russian-plane-crash-terrorist-attack/
The way the synagogue of satan (eg this blog) is after the truth sayers like Putin and Corbyn, I can understand how it was they got Herod to string up the Son of Man. Now we have the social media where the aaroniwitches and kuennsbergs are in full flow but how was it back then? Did they make pretzels showing the Christ in boiling excrement as the Talmud says? More importantly what should we do about these devils now?
Hollande said that the terrorist attacks were “orchestrated from abroad”. But so too have been the attacks on Syria by NATO over the last four and a half years. The dropping of Western imperialist bombs under the umbrella of a war based on the responsibility to protect doctrine, is far more deadly and destructive than the collateral damage caused by a handful of psychopathic killers and sadists under the euphemism, “terrorism”.
The intended aim of the latter was to cause a lasting sense of disorientation and fear among the masses while the purpose of the former is the destabilization of a country as the precursor to the eventual domination of an entire region by a Western elite.
The leaders of the great imperial powers whose whirlwind of destruction throughout the middle east has resulted in the debris blowing back into the symbolic and literal foundations of Parisian culture have, in so doing, struck at the heart of enlightened modernity and bohemian excess.
http://cultureandpolitics.org/2015/11/17/paris-the-lost-city/
Fedup
“French foreign minister calling that place a shitty strip of land is not a loon, much as you would like to portray him to be”
___________________
It wasn’t the French Foreign Minister, it was the the then French Ambassador to the UN.
You fool.
Roepublicofscotland
“Meanwhile the round ups in France and Belgium have begun, any dissident can now be arrested and if need be linked to Friday’s terrible event via Syria or elsewhere.”
___________________
Don’t panic, ROSy. Of the five guys taken into custody in Brussels the other day three have already been released.
BTW, I find it interesting that you call people suspected of terrorism “dissidents”……
RD I take ‘orders’ from nobody. You.
And the troll sock puppet ‘Why Be Ordinary’ can stay out of it with his/her sly digs. We can see where he/she is coming from. I am seeking approval? Really? Are you right in the head? Reveal your real name too.
That should have been ‘You?’
Yet another title for John Pilger’s article on Counterpunch.
‘November 17, 2015
From Pol Pot to ISIS: the Blood Never Dried
Following the ISIS outrages in Beirut and Paris, John Pilger updates this prescient essay on the root causes of terrorism and what we can do about it.’
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/11/17/from-pol-pot-to-isis-the-blood-never-dried/
Accompanied by a nice photo of Blair and Kissinger sharing some joke.
Prizes for the best caption.
http://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/dropzone/2015/11/hkblair.png
Anon1
“Mary 4:50 pm
Sounds like the same thing you post every day rehashed.”
____________________
That seems accurate. Have you noticed, for example, that it is always “2 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage”?
One would also need to look very carefully at Mary’s source: it is obviously a propaganda outfit – which is fair enough – but the question is how can we be sure that much of what it says is not just made up (sonce it is uncheckable).
“Of course I condemn those responsible for the attacks in Paris. It remains to be seen who was responsible.”
_________________
Who cares?
And, as I’ve suggested before, stick to what you know about: 500BC Athens, the USS Ronald Reagan and paedophilia in the UK.
To be precise: who cares about your condemnation? You don’t mean it anyway (as your second sentence makes clear).
Mary
Thank you for bringing this to our attention:
“France, in addition to Israel, is the only country to criminalise peaceful BDS appeals not to buy Israeli goods under the machination of combating antisemitism.
Under pressure from the French Government, in turn pressured by the French Israel lobby, CRIF and Israel, the French Supreme Court (Court of Cassation),on 20th October 2015, absurdly and shamefully ruled that the non-violent action of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is “inciting hate or discrimination’ leading to the conviction of 12 French activists.”
It shows that BDS has to take the rough with the smooth, eh?
BDS can hand it out, but can it take it?
It’s gotta learn to roll with the punches.
RobG
“Resident Dissident, anyone who swallows hook, line and sinker the bullshit peddled by governments and the media are at best total egits, or at worst are suffering from dementia.”
_______________
Do drop the faux-Irish bits, there’s a good chap – no need to keep using “egits” or “eejits” so frequently.
You’re not Irish – just an English lush living in Poitou-Charentes.
BTW – have you informed your French drinking mates in your local of your views on the Paris atrocities yet? Did you get a sympathetic hearing?
Mary
“Gideon is off to GCHQ today – ‘Osborne to seek £1.9bn cybersecurity budget to tackle Isis threats’ (IB Times) and Theresa promises – ‘UK security to be intensified’ (BBC).
Anyone else thinking our liberties are going out of the window and that we are being screwed down?”
________________
Not I, for sure.
Quite a few Belgian and French imams, interviewed, have gone on record to say that radicalisation occurs not in the mosques but, essentially, starts on the internet.
Against that background anyone (genuinely) opposed to terrorism can only welcome the Home Secretary’s vow to step up the fight against radicalisation through the internet. Of particular interest is her intention to ensure that such internet activity will be…. disrupted.
I am not going to repeat what you have already read or heard. I am not going to say that what happened in Paris on Friday night was unprecedented horror, for it was not. I am not going to say that the world stands with France, for it is a hollow phrase. Nor am I going to applaud François Hollande’s pledge of “pitiless” vengeance, for I do not believe it. I am, instead, going to tell you that this is exactly how civilisations fall.
Thoughtful contribution by Jemand, there. The comparison had occurred to me too. Rome got too big and too corrupt to sustain itself against the constant pressure on its unpoliceable borders. It became more interested in entrepreneurship than national survival.
Bye bye, Europe.
Furrball diaorrhea from the troll. did you have a curry last night?
Why be Ordinary
“Being flamed by you and others counts to her as approval (on the “enemy’s enemy principle). Have you noticed how worried she gets when certain people don’t post for some time?”
_____________________
That is certainly true when I am unable to post for more than a couple of days!
Fully agree, also, with the first part of your post (which I’m not reproducing).
Ba’al , don’t you think Hollande knows all that history tripe? He is M. Culture. A despicable disgraceful 2 faced destroyer of Libya and Syria like Cameron and Obama. They crawl up to power on the agenda of Israel – do you think France’s future survival is written on the wailing wall?
Giyane
If you are really the result of a private education and three years at Oxford (you have claimed both) then help this country. 🙂
then God help this country
Why be ordinary, why join the troll in stalking Mary with your psychobabble? Truthseekers are going directly against the flow of the morons who vote for dead pigs neo-cons like Cameron and Hollande. A little bit if approval from fellow minded contributors is one of the raison d’etres of Craig’s presence here.
We are whizzing round space, perched on a piece of Ethernet pooh crust like dung flies while madmen and women in power strip countries of their governments and infrastructure.
Every so often I am reminded that Kissinger is still alive, and marvel and the longevity of bastards. You know, I used to joke that rich, powerful people had the ‘special’ doctors and the ‘secret’ treatments not available to anyone else. Doesn’t seem quite so much of a joke now, maybe that’s why they all love private healthcare.
I note that consent has been succesfully manufactured, and it’s chocks away in Syria. I haven’t quite gleaned who we are fighting yet, but imagine we’ll get told at some point; maybe it changes by the week.
Giyane
If you are really the result of a private education and three years at Oxford (you have claimed both) then God help this country. 🙂
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What was your college and what did you read?
How to close one’s heart:
Effective today, I am directing the Texas
Health & Human Services Commission’s
Refugee Settlement Program to not participate
in the resettlement of any Syrian refugees
in the State of Texas.
Greg Abbott
Governor
https://www.rt.com/usa/322355-governors-resist-syrian-refugees/
Ba’al , don’t you think Hollande knows all that history tripe? He is M. Culture. A despicable disgraceful 2 faced destroyer of Libya and Syria like Cameron and Obama. They crawl up to power on the agenda of Israel – do you think France’s future survival is written on the wailing wall?
That wasn’t the point of my post, or of Jemand’s which provoked/induced/inspired it.
Here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/11/open-letter-to-president-ahtisaari-re-jim-murphy/comment-page-5/#comment-561537
You may care to test the hypothesis against this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_ancient_Rome
…particularly the 5th century.
‘Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven other former and current government officials are at risk of arrest if they set foot in Spain, after a Spanish judge effectively issued an arrest warrant for the group, it has been reported.
According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, Spanish national court judge Jose de la Mata ordered the police and civil guard to notify him if Mr Netanyahu and the six other individuals enter the country, as their actions could see a case against them regarding the Freedom Flotilla attack of 2010 reopened.’
Spain ‘issues arrest warrant’ for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over 2010 Gaza flotilla attack
‘We consider it to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it cancelled’
37 minutes ago|
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-issues-arrest-warrant-for-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-over-2010-gaza-flotilla-a6736436.html
Warning. Large image of ‘Bibi’ (what a silly name for a criminal) when you open the link.
53Kshares
In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property
IOP headlines for 13 November 2015:
Israeli Army attacks on West Bank villagers kill 2 people
Israeli Navy opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats
Gaza: Beit Lahiya under Israeli Army fire – 7 wounded
Israeli Army position opens fire on Gaza farms
Israeli Army terror raid:3 homes destroyed, 3 occupied and 9 people injured
Night home invasions:3 homes destroyed – 3 occupied by soldiers
West Bank: 26 wounded (including 4 youngsters) in 1 Israeli Army attack
Israeli Army forces Palestinian harvesters off their olive groves
Occupation settler mob assaults Palestinian olive harvesters
Israeli soldiers terrorise 14-year-old olive harvester
Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 2 refugee camps and 6 towns and villages
12 attacks (3 Israeli ceasefire violations)
15 raids including home invasions
3 dead – 82 injured
3 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage
5 taken prisoner – 24 detained –
110 restrictions of movement
Read more: ALL the detail
http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2962&Itemid=44
If anyone’s wondering why the gigglers are out in force – this may be it:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-issues-arrest-warrant-for-israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-over-2010-gaza-flotilla-a6736436.html
Showed up on a Turkish site (Yeni Şafak) yesterday: the Indie’s attribution to the Latin America Herald Tribune is questionable, but a short version appears there, and the story seems to be mainstream now.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=12395&ArticleId=2399976
Mind you, all Bibi has to do is get Cherie Blair on the case and, like Rwandan thug Karenzi Karake, this year, he’ll be home free.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3192523/British-court-frees-Rwanda-s-spy-chief-Karenzi-Karake-rejecting-extradition-Spain-face-genocide-charges-Cherie-Blair-described-hero-people.html